It marks the fourth day of his visit to Canada, which he calls a pilgrimage of healing, reconciliation and hope. After meeting with Governor General Mary Simon and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, he gave a public address at the Acropolis, the fortress that overlooks the plains and the St. Lawrence River and borders the Old City. In it, he expressed feelings of “deep shame and sorrow,” as he did two days earlier to school survivors in Maskwacis, Alta., and repeated a plea for forgiveness “for the harm that so many Christians have done to indigenous peoples.” “I am thinking above all of the policies of assimilation and entitlement, which also includes the residential school system, which has harmed many Indigenous families by undermining their language, culture and worldview,” he said. “In that deplorable system, promoted by the government authorities of the time, which separated many children from their families, various local Catholic institutions also played a part.”
The ceremony was delayed
The papal plane landed just before 3 p.m. ET. A small party of Quebec and indigenous leaders, as well as residential school survivors, greeted him before he was taken in a motorcade to the Citadelle, where a welcome ceremony was held. A charter flight carrying guests and media leaving Edmonton’s airport was delayed, delaying the official ceremony by an hour. Pope Francis welcomes Raymond Gros-Louis of the Huron-Wendat Nation, right, at the Citadelle in Quebec City on Wednesday. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press) In speeches at the Citadelle, both Simon and Trudeau reflected on the week’s events. “You recognized the abuses experienced in residential schools that resulted in the cultural destruction, loss of life and ongoing trauma experienced by indigenous peoples in every region of this country,” Trudeau said. “As His Holiness said, asking for forgiveness is not the end of the matter, it is a starting point, a first step.” Simon said it was our “collective duty” to remember what happened in residential schools, “to tell the stories of the survivors and those who never returned home, and to support and care for those who did. “Support in terms of mental health resources. Helping families discover the true fate of those who never returned home. And caring for Indigenous people who need time and space to process what this visit means to them and what they should are the next steps.”
UNDRIP support
In his address, the Pope said local Catholic communities are committed to promoting indigenous cultures, customs, languages and educational processes “in the spirit” of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Pope Francis, Governor General Mary Simon, left, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, right, arrive at the Citadelle in Quebec City on Wednesday. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press) In its 94 calls to action, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission called on all ecclesiastical parties to the residential school arrangement “to formally adopt and comply with the principles, norms and standards of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as framework for reconciliation’, including ‘respect for the right of indigenous peoples to self-determination in spiritual matters’. In a nod to the Haudenosaunee principle of seven generations, which teaches that decisions made today should affect the next seven generations, the Pope said: “We must be able to see, as the indigenous wisdom tradition teaches, seven generations ahead and not our immediate convenience, in the next election, or the support of this or that lobby,” he said. He also emphasized the importance of protecting the environment, the family, multiculturalism and accepting Ukrainian and Afghan immigrants. “Indigenous peoples have a lot to teach us about family care and protection,” he said. “May the wrongs suffered by indigenous peoples serve as a warning to us today, lest concern for the family and its rights be neglected for the sake of greater productivity and individual interests.”
