In his first public remarks in Canada on Monday, Pope Francis expressed “sorrow, indignation and shame” for the actions of many members of the Catholic Church who operated most of the residential schools in the country.
The schools, funded by the government, were part of a programme to assimilate indigenous children by separating them from family, language and culture. Pope Francis, speaking in the grounds of Ermineskin former residential school in Maskwacis (Cree for “bear hills”), near Edmonton, Alberta, on the first stop of his “penitential pilgrimage”, called this a “disastrous error” and asked forgiveness “for the evil committed by so many Christians” against Indigenous people.
His apology, he said, was just a “first step” and a “serious investigation” of abuses at the schools must follow. Francis also lamented the “colonising mentality” behind the system and “catastrophic” effects it had on generations of Indigenous people.
Before making his remarks, the Pope met privately with leaders at the local church and led a silent prayer at the Ermineskin Cree Nation Cemetery, where there are marked – and probably unmarked graves – of residential school students.
The Pope said he travelled to Canada, landing in the western province on Sunday at the start of a 24-30 July pilgrimage, with a small pair of moccasins given him by an Indigenous delegation in the Vatican in April this year, with whom he made the undertaking to come to Canada in person.
The moccasins, which the Pope was asked to return, are intended as a symbol for the children who attended residential schools and never came home.
The prime minister, Justin Trudeau, the governor general, Mary Simon, the Assembly of First Nations national chief, RoseAnne Archibald, and a number of federal lawmakers were also in attendance with nearly 2,000 First Nations survivors at Ermineskin’s Powwow Arbour – a space for First Nations community gatherings and celebrations.
An anguished rendering of Canada’s national anthem in Cree by an Indigenous woman with tears streaming down her face marked one of several emotional moments on Monday. After the Pope spoke, Chief Wilton Littlechild placed a feather headdress on the Pope’s head as the crowd cheered.
Phil Fontaine, a residential school survivor and former Assembly of First Nations national chief, who was at the event, described the Pope’s apology as “a special moment for survivors”.
The school has largely been torn down and five teepees now stand at the site, representing the four nations in the area – Ermineskin, Samson, Louis Bull and Montana nations - with the fifth serving as a symbol of the entrance to where the school once stood.
Ahead of the pope’s remarks, a banner bearing the names of more than 4,000 children who died in the residential school system was unfurled on the arbour grounds.
In 2008, the federal government formally apologised for establishing and running the schools, paying billions of Canadian dollars in compensation to survivors.
In Edmonton, the Pope was to take part in an open-air mass at Commonwealth Stadium to mark the feast of St Anne on Tuesday. He was then to travel to Lac Ste Anne, Quebec, for the annual pilgrimage there, and on to Quebec City, celebrating mass on 28 July at Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupre, one of the oldest pilgrimage sites in North America 35kms north of Quebec City.
The close association of the Pope’s pilgrimage with St Anne, with visits to two major shrines associated with the mother of Mary, is not coincidental. In Indigenous North American cultures, the figure of the grandmother is deeply revered, none more so than the grandmother of Jesus for Indigenous Catholics. Pope Francis learned much about the Lac St Anne pilgrimage from Indigenous and First Nation visitors to the Vatican in April. Across Canada, he will be praying for healing and reconciliation under the protection of St Anne.
On the final day of his visit, Friday 29 July, the Pope was set to have an early meeting with fellow members of the Jesuit order at the archbishop’s residence, then another meeting there with a delegation of Indigenous peoples, before leaving on the long flight to Iqaluit. Home to 7,500 people, Iqaluit is the capital – and only city – of Nunavut province, Canada’s northernmost and most sparsely populated territory. Francis was to meet there with students of the former residential schools. He is scheduled to land back in Rome on 30 July.
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