Tansi Nîtôtemtik,
Today, we continue our assessment of the TRC Calls to Action regarding Church apologies and reconciliation with Calls #58 and #59. These Calls state:
58. We call upon the Pope to issue an apology to Survivors, their families, and communities for the Roman Catholic Church's role in the spiritual, cultural, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis children in Catholic-run residential schools. We call for that apology to be similar to the 2010 apology issued to Irish victims of abuse and to occur within one year of the issuing of this Report and to be delivered by the Pope in Canada.
59. We call upon church parties to the Settlement Agreement to develop ongoing education strategies to ensure that their respective congregations learn about their church's role in colonization, the history and legacy of residential schools, and why apologies to former residential school students, their families, and communities were necessary.
Call 58
Out of the church parties to the Settlement Agreement, the Catholic Church is the only party that has not issued an apology to Survivors. In May 2017, Prime Minister Trudeau formally asked Pope Francis to deliver an apology to Survivors for the Catholic Church’s role in the abuse of Indigenous children in Catholic-run residential schools.[1] The response came in a letter from the President of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, Lionel Gendron. Bishop Gendron wrote that, after careful consideration, the pope could not personally respond to the request for an apology.[2] He also shared that the pope “has encouraged the Bishops to continue to engage in an intensive pastoral work of reconciliation, healing and solidarity with the Indigenous Peoples and to collaborate in concrete projects aimed at improving the condition of the First Peoples.”[3] The letter did not indicate why the pope concluded that he could not issue an apology to Survivors.
(Image: Prime Minister Trudeau meets Pope Francis at the Vatican, L’Osservatore Romano/Pool Photo/AP)
The federal government has pledged to continue working on Call #58 in order to obtain a papal apology.[4] Unfortunately, the Catholic Church receives a failing grade on this Call for not delivering a formal apology.
Call 59
Each of the church parties to the Settlement Agreement have committed to ongoing education activities within their respective congregations and institutions.[5]
The Catholic Church has implemented Indigenous education initiatives within their Catholic school curriculums.[6] This includes the development of a searchable database of curriculum resources for Indigenous Education.[7] The scope of the curriculum will include information about the relationship between the Catholic church and Indigenous people, including how residential schools were “disastrous for Indigenous Peoples.”[8] In Alberta, this new curriculum will reach more than 160,000 students.[9]
The United Church of Canada established a Justice and Reconciliation Fund in 2000 to support projects to assist the church in responding to the harm caused by their part in the residential school system. This differs from the “Healing Fund” that “supports healing initiatives for survivors of the residential school system and its ongoing intergenerational impacts.”[10] The United Church’s Steering Committee on Residential Schools has also created a website called “The Children Remembered” to educate their congregation and the public about the Church’s role in colonialism and residential schools.[11] The website acknowledges that “the residential school system brought harm and cultural dislocation to children by removing them from their families and communities.”[12] While no violence is depicted in the images on the site, the photographs depict Indigenous children participating in colonial activities and wearing European-style clothing. They are upsetting to view, partly because we know what’s happening behind the scenes, but also because of the overt erasure of Indigenous culture. The “School Histories” section of the website describes the experiences of Survivors at each of the church-run schools, which is gut-wrenching to read, but stays genuine to the purpose of truth-telling and education.
Finally, the Presbyterian Church of Canada has developed a “Healing and Reconciliation Seed Fund” to offer grants to support reconciliation initiatives between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.[13] The projects funded include sharing experiences of children in Presbyterian-run residential schools and issues facing Indigenous communities.[14]
Given that the church parties have made progress on developing ongoing education strategies to teach their congregations about their residential school legacy, we issue the parties a “C” for Call 59.
Until Next Week,
Team ReconciliAction
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[1] Government of Canada, “Church apologies and reconciliation”, online: https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1524504325663/1557513116819.
[2] Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, “Letter of the CCB President to the Indigenous Peoples of Canada”, online: https://crc-canada.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Letter_to_Indigenous_Peoples_-_27_March_2018_-_en.pdf.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Government of Canada, “Church apologies and reconciliation”, online: https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1524504325663/1557513116819.
[5] The Anglican Church of Canada, “Response of the Churches to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada” (2 June 2015), online: http://www.anglican.ca/tr/response-of-the-churches-to-the-truth-and-reconciliation-commission-of-canada/
[6] Institute for Catholic Education, “Walking Forward Together: A Call to Action for the Catholic Church and Catholic Schools” (Summer 2019), online (pdf): A Catholic Perspective https://iceont.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/MG_Cont_Issue_4_Walking-Forward-Together_FINAL.pdf.
[7] Ibid at 5.
[8] Ibid at 6.
[9] Robson Fletcher, “Why does Alberta still have a separate Catholic school system? Here’s a 2-minute explanation” CBC News (21 April 2018), online: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/why-alberta-saskatchewan-ontario-have-separate-catholic-schools-1.4614462
[10] United Church of Canada, “Healing Fund”, online: https://united-church.ca/community-faith/being-community/indigenous-ministries/healing-fund.
[11] United Church of Canada, “The Children Remembered: Residential School Archives Project”, online: http://thechildrenremembered.ca/.
[12] Ibid.
[13] The Presbyterian Church of Canada, “Healing and Reconciliation Seed Fund”, online: https://presbyterian.ca/healing/healing-reconciliation-seed-fund/.
[14] Ibid.
