One year after the bodies of over 200 children were discovered in a mass grave at a former Catholic school, Pope Francis started a historic journey to Canada on Sunday, July 24, to express his regret to Indigenous peoples for the crimes committed by missionaries at residential schools.
One of the most important steps in the Catholic Church's efforts to make peace with Native people and aid their recovery from decades of trauma is the visit.
Following the discovery of nearly 200 dead in a mass grave at a former Catholic school, Pope Francis travels to Canada to express his regret to Indigenous tribes for past acts of physical and sexual abuse.
The Pope, who came in a wheelchair, kissed the hand of a residential school survivor as he was welcomed by Indigenous leaders, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Mary Simon, an Inuk who is Canada's first Indigenous governor general, at the Edmonton, Alberta, airport.
The state-funded Christian schools that existed from the 19th century to the 1970s were notorious for their prevalence of physical and sexual abuse, the Canadian government has acknowledged.
In an effort to separate them from the impact of their homes, Native languages, and cultures and assimilate them into Canada's Christian society, some 150,000 Indigenous children were kidnapped from their families and made to attend.
As they fight for access to church records to find out what happened to the children who never came home from the residential schools, indigenous groups are pushing for more than just words.
Additionally, they demand monetary compensation, justice for the perpetrators, and the return of Native American items housed in the Vatican Museums.
Elder Alma Desjarlais of the Frog Lake First Nations, a survivor of residential schools, was introduced to Francis and received a kiss on the hand.
Grand Chief George Arcand Jr. of the Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations greeted the pope and remarked, "Right now, many of our people are dubious and they are upset."
The pope's apology, he nonetheless acknowledged, "may begin our journey of healing.. and transform the way things have been for our people for many, many years."
One of the most well-known Indigenous leaders in the nation, RoseAnne Archibald, National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, revealed that several members of her family attended residential schools, including a sister who passed away at one in Ontario. It is "an institution of absorption and genocide," as she put it.
"I was just so filled with emotion" on her travel to Alberta, she recalled, and "there were different points on the plane where I really had to stop myself from breaking into a deep sob." I came to the realisation that I am one of many intergenerational trauma survivors.
Francis met with representatives from the First Nations, Metis, and Inuit during meetings at the Vatican in the spring. His week-long trip will take him to Edmonton, Quebec City, and finally Iqaluit, Nunavut, in the far north.
Following those sessions, a historic apology for the "deplorable" atrocities carried out by some Catholic missionaries in residential schools was issued on April.
In 2008, Stephen Harper, who was prime minister at the time, officially apologised for the residential schools.
Canada made compensation totaling billions of dollars in transfers to Indigenous communities as part of a litigation settlement including the government, churches, and over 90,000 remaining pupils.
The Canadian Catholic Church reports that nearly $50 million has been contributed by its dioceses and religious orders in cash and in-kind, and it expects to donate another $30 million over the following five years.
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