Canada's Indigenous community received a long-awaited apology from Pope Francis on April 1, ending a week of meetings in Vatican City with nearly 30 Indigenous delegates from across our country.
"I feel shame — sorrow and shame — for the role that a number of Catholics ... have had in all these things that wounded you," said the Pope. "For the deplorable conduct of those members of the Catholic Church, I ask for God's forgiveness, and I want to say to you with all my heart: I am very sorry."
It's a positive first step. So many of Canada's Indigenous peoples have waited decades to hear those words, and see accountability on the part of the Catholic Church for its role in creating and managing 139 residential schools that took more than 150,000 Indigenous children away from their families.
The apology won't erase the physical, emotional, and spiritual abuses they suffered. It won't bring back the more than 30,000 estimated to be buried on former residential school sites. It won't erase these atrocities from Canada's past.
This beginning of sorts must be the first step on a path to so much more.
For some, it's too soon to process what the Pope's apologetic offering truly means.
There is still much healing to take place. And this apology — long overdue — must come with true accountability and actual action if it is to form a key piece of truth and reconciliation.
For many, the truth part is still missing. Church records must be released, to assist in filling in the blanks for so many families still seeking answers, and to force the Church to fully atone for any still-hidden ugly truths that may come to light.
Sharon Morin, a prominent figure in St. Albert's Métis community, in an interview with The Gazette this week, said the Pope should have come to Canada to apologize, and more needs to be done.
"Talk is cheap. It needs action and what we need is reconcili-action," said Morin. "You've got to show that you're sorry."
Indeed. Some have suggested the Catholic Church must also kick in the funds to explore all potential grave sites.
Dr. Judy Iseke, another member of St. Albert's Indigenous community and director of Indigenous education at MacEwan University, told The Gazette this week the Pope must also still commit to the repatriation of "stolen" cultural objects. "Those actions are what might create true healing and he doesn't mention them," Iseke said.
She also said the Pope's apology sidestepped the systemic violence of the Church in colonization. "His apology for members of the Church but not its systemic whole seems still to hide from the truths of this system. It means he has not taken responsibility for this history nor its ongoing colonial actions, holding our ancestral knowledge and relations in vaults in the Vatican museum."
It's clear the Catholic Church has much more to do in addition to offering its words of apology to Canada's Indigenous peoples.
The Pope has said he plans to come to Canada, but a date has not been set. When he does arrive, the world will be watching to see if action will follow his words.
