Pope Francis apologized.
On the final day of a week of talks with First Nations, Inuit and Métis delegations, Pope Francis expressed “shame and sorrow for the role that a number of Catholics, particularly those with educational responsibilities, have had in all those things that wounded you, and the abuses you suffered and the lack of respect shown for your identity, your culture and even your spiritual values… And I join my brothers, the Canadian bishops, in asking your pardon.”
Next will come an endless debate in communities right across this country over whether the apology goes far enough for over a century of abuses against First Nations children at Catholic-run residential schools.
Was the apology, however clear and heart-felt, enough? The simple answer has to be that words cannot make up for the horrifying number of little ones who died far from home, and the lives ruined. They cannot make up for the systematic destruction of languages, rich cultures and personal identity. They cannot make up for the tears shed. They cannot make up for genocide.
The residential school system was not something that happened a long time ago to a small number of people. The last residential school closed in the 1990s after over 100 years; more than 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend those schools. There are many survivors alive today who have had to battle the sad legacy of every kind of abuse that can be perpetrated on a small child, and many more children and grandchildren who were raised by very damaged people.
What many of us who are fortunate enough to never have suffered such abuses fail to understand is the importance to a victim of having their pain and suffering acknowledged.
When a crime is committed, the focus of our justice system is on the perpetrator, from the investigation and laying of charges, through to incarceration and eventual rehabilitation. Police interview the victim not to provide the person with sympathy and understanding, but to collect information and build a case that can be successfully used in the courts to secure a conviction.
Apart from the opportunity to make a victim impact statement, the victim’s recovery is largely ignored by the criminal justice system. Victims may hire a lawyer and launch a civil suit, but are generally expected to get whatever help they need on their own or through the health-care system, and get on with their lives.
In essence, a person commits a crime not against another individual, but against the Crown, a system designed to stop the destructive feuds that were rampant when justice was much more personal.
What has been ignored is the reality that to the victim, the crime is very personal. Victims have a desperate need to hear the authorities acknowledge the wrongs they have suffered, to have their suffering validated – especially in the case of residential schools, where the perpetrators were the authorities.
Those who suffered through the residential school system have heard apologies from the Canadian government and some of the religious organizations that ran the schools, but never from the Catholic church that ran 60 per cent of the schools – until now.
Phil Fontaine, former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, may have made the most appropriate statement.
He is quoted as saying survivors will each decide for themselves whether to accept the Pope’s apology.
Most of those who formed part of the delegations, including Fontaine, have stressed that the words must be followed by actions – including long awaited financial compensation, return of Indigenous cultural artifacts, and criminal prosecution of any surviving perpetrators of crimes against children at the schools.
One can only hope the words are the beginning of a new and honest conversation that results in healing, at long last.
A national Indian Residential School Crisis Line has been set up to provide support for former students and those affected. People can access emotional and crisis referral services by calling the 24-hour national crisis line: 1-866-925-4419.
