SASKATOON — The news of Pope Francis visiting the country was welcomed by provincial leaders of the Catholic Church with Bishop Mark Hagemoen saying the Vatican’s move is a first step in achieving healing and reconciliation with the victims and survivors of the abuses in the residential school system.
The Vatican has accepted the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops’ invitation for the 84-year-old pontiff to visit the country, making a “pilgrimage of healing and reconciliation” to repair the strained relations between the Catholic Church and Indigenous Peoples. Details of the visit, like the date, are still being discussed.
Pope Francis is also scheduled to meet a delegation composed of First Nation, Inuit, and Métis representatives from Dec. 17 to 20 in the Vatican as part of the healing and reconciliation process, especially to the survivors of the residential school system. The CCCB helped organize the trip and the meeting.
“I join with others across our diocese and our country who are rejoicing in news that Pope Francis has accepted the invitation of the Catholic bishops of Canada to visit our country on a pilgrimage of healing and reconciliation,” Hagemoen said in a letter to clergy, religious and lay faithful of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon.
Hegemoen said that Catholic and Indigenous leaders in the country have been working together to fulfill what was stated in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action 58, which call on the pope to issue an apology for the “Roman Catholic Church’s role in in the spiritual, cultural, emotional, physical and sexual abuse of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis children in Catholic-run residential schools.”
The apology should be directed to survivors, their families and communities of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis children who went to residential schools. It also states it should be similar on how the church issued the 2010 apology to victims of abuse in Ireland, with the apology taking place a year after the publication of the report and must be delivered by the Pope in Canada.
The Pope has yet to issue a formal apology on the church’s role in the reported abuses and cultural genocide experienced in more than 100 residential schools across the country.
Hagemoen said the scheduled visit of Pope Francis is a gesture of support and healing. “I have heard from many residential school survivors and their communities that a visit from Pope Francis on Canadian soil is an important step for many in the ongoing journey of truth and reconciliation.”
“I am grateful for both the invitation and its acceptance, and I trust that the pastoral presence of the Holy Father will bring support and healing, as well as renewed awareness and zeal for the ongoing journey of truth and reconciliation,” added the 60-year-old pastor of the more than 80,000 Catholics in the city.
“Please join me in praying for all those who attended residential schools, for those who continue to suffer because of the legacy of the schools, for the delegation of Indigenous leaders from Canada that will meet with he Holy Father in Rome this December and for Pope Francis and his planned journey to our land,” ended Hagemoen.
Representatives of the local Diocesan Council for Truth and Reconciliation also welcomed the news on the Pope’s visit saying it shows willingness on the Catholic Church’s pastoral process of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.
“This will help with the healing for some people, and we look forward to Pope Francis’s visit, remembering that it is important to keep praying for him and his health and safe arrival,” said DCTR Elder Gaye Weenie.
““For me, it will be a good thing to have Pope Francis come to Canada. It will help,” said DCTR member and Our Lady of Guadalupe Elder Irene Sharp, who is also a Saskatoon Survivors Circle member.
Sharp added that although she could not speak or represent all residential school survivors, she personally welcomed the news of the Vatican accepting the CCCB’s invitation
Mary Anne Morrison, another DCTR member, says she believes there won’t be any difference as a result of the Pope’s visit, but welcomed the gesture.
“We have had lots of apologies from the Church already. What we really need to work on is internalized racism, so that all Canadians can participate on an equal playing field. Any gesture of reaching out is valuable.”
Pope Francis will become the second pontiff to visit the country after St. John Paul II, who visited Canada three times in 1984, 1987 and the 2002 World Youth Day in Toronto.
