Pope Francis landed in Canada on Sunday at the start of a week-long “pilgrimage of penance” which will focus on an apology for the abuse of indigenous children at Church-run residential schools. The papal plane touched down in Edmonton yesterday, while the Pope will visit a former residential school and meet with indigenous peoples on Monday, according to Reuters.

The Pontiff’s first stop will be in Alberta, where he will visit the former site of Ermineskin Indian Residential School in Maskwacis, a First Nations community south of Edmonton, a city where the Pope will later attend Mass and visit the Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples, the first national parish for indigenous peoples. Pope Francis is also expected to visit Lac Ste Anne, the site of a major annual pilgrimage in a First Nations and Métis community. Pope Francis will also celebrate Mass in Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupre, a pilgrimage site on the Saint Lawrence River.

After his arrival, the Pope watched a performance before several indigenous leaders greeted and exchanged gifts with him. While Canadian leaders have known about the residential school scandal since the 1900s, the issue became more prominent with the discovery last year of suspected unmarked graves in British Columbia, a province the Pope will not be visiting. Despite the Pope’s apology, many indigenous leaders have called for financial compensation, the return of indigenous artifacts, the release of school records, and the rescinding of a 15th-century papal bull justifying colonial dispossession.

Although undergoing the same process of de-Christianisation as the rest of the western world, just over 38 per cent of Canadians remain Catholics, and there are 73 dioceses spread across the country. Francophone Quebec has traditionally been the centre of Canadian Catholicism. The overwhelming bulk of Canadian Catholics reside in that province alongside Ontario. Current Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, is himself a Catholic.

In 2015, abuses suffered by residential school survivors were highlighted in a landmark report by Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Around 150,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit children were taken from their families during this period and placed in residential schools, most of which were Church-operated. Much mystery continues to surround the indigenous mass graves however, according to Jane Stannus, writing for the Spectator.

According to Ms Stannus, “no excavations were carried out. And none are planned, according to a devastatingly thorough review of the event written by professor of history Jacques Rouillard for the Dorchester Review. He has pointed out that there is no compelling evidence yet that the deaths of indigenous children were covered up by the authorities, or that their remains were not returned home. A single bone and tooth do indeed point to the possibility of a terrible crime. But they do not substantiate an alleged 200 crimes.”

According to Ms Stannus, “the media and government chose to unleash a wave of violence, anti-Catholic sentiment and national shaming that lasted from the beginning of June last year through to the fall of 2021, damaging the reputations of both Canada and the Catholic Church.” There has indeed been a wave of churches being vandalised, burned and desecrated. Meanwhile, the Pope’s visit was partly a response to a demand by Prime Minister Trudeau that the Pope come to Canada to apologise in person.

The Pope, of course – not in the best of health anyway – may feel a particular connection and responsibility for what happened in Canada, given that he is a white Argentine, hailing from a country which also has a history of persecution of indigenous peoples. That said, the Church will need to balance such social justice outreach with the nationalism and conservatism emerging among countries in central and eastern Europe, increasingly the heart of European Catholicism.

Only last weekend, Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, lashed out against the “mixing” of Europeans and non-Europeans, adding that countries where European and non-Europeans mingle were “no longer nations”. Meanwhile, the Church could face charges of hypocrisy given its current seeming inability to fully stand up to Chinese persecution of Catholics. Nevertheless, this week the Vatican will be looking for a moment of reconciliation and healing in Canada. This may be one of the last overseas trips by Pope Francis. He will be hoping it is one which secures his legacy.

(Photo courtesy of Vatican Media)

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