An apology without reparations is just lip service Francis.
⚠️ Content Warning 👇🏽
This post discusses a lot of fucked up topics, most notably white supremacy and the Doctrine of Discovery. It also recaps residential “schools”.
If you’re Indigenous we caution you when reading this, because it’ll likely be triggering.
If you are part of the Black community, or a person of colour, or someone that has been systemically persecuted against or ancestrally colonized, we also invite you to exercise selfcare if you choose to read this post.
If you are white and/or Christian we invite you to push past your discomfort to read and share this post.
👉🏽 We also want to take a moment here to say that our criticism here is of the Catholic Church as an institution and not individuals who are Christians.
What Happened
On Monday, thirty-two Indigenous delegates began their six-day-long visit to the Vatican to meet with Pope Francis and seek atonement for the atrocities perpetrated against Indigenous people in Canada at the hands of the Catholic Church. Among the delegates are elders, community leaders, survivors of the residential school system, and youth from Métis, First Nations and Inuit communities
A primary aim of the visit, for the Indigenous delegates at least, is to receive an official apology from the Pope for the church's wrongdoing.
The Catholic Church was responsible for around 60 percent of residential schools in Canada, as well as being ingrained in the colonization of the country and genocide of Indigenous people on their own land.
CONTEXT: RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS:
Less than a year ago, we experienced a collective reckoning with what Indigenous communities have been saying for decades: that under the ‘care’ of residential 'school' staff, Indigenous children were subject to violence, abuse, and absolute inhumane treatment that often resulted in death. The proof? We are still recovering the bodies of children—some as young as three years old —in unmarked graves at these schools.
These 'schools' were operated and staffed by Churches, and funded by the Federal Government of Canada.
The landmark Truth and Reconciliation Report, released in 2015, called Residential Schools "a systematic, government-sponsored attempt to destroy Aboriginal cultures and languages and to assimilate Aboriginal peoples so that they no longer existed as distinct peoples".
FAST FACTS ON RESIDENTIAL “SCHOOLS”
From 1863 to 1996 over 150 000 children were forcibly removed from their families and placed in these ‘boarding schools’. That is seven generations of Indigenous people over course of 150 years. Many children never returned home, and those who did suffer from unimaginable trauma.
The explicit intent was to separate these children from their families and cultures, in an effort to quote: "kill the Indian in the child."
In 1920, the Indian Act made attendance at Indian Residential Schools compulsory for Treaty-status children between the ages of 7 and 15.
The schools were often underfunded and overcrowded. The quality of education was substandard. Children were severely mistreated, degraded, experimented on and abused.
The odds of a student dying at these schools were 1 in, 25, which is greater than the 1 in 26 odds of a Canadian soldier dying in WWII.
Meanwhile, 1 in 5 students suffered from physical and sexual abuse.
Doctrine of Discovery
Ever wonder how European explorers could 'discover' a land that already had people living on it? Let us introduce you to the xenophobic legislation issued by the Church in the 1400s called the Doctrine of Discovery.
The Doctrine of Discovery essentially allowed Europeans to claim land for their monarchs, as long as it was not inhabited by Christians (on the logic that if you weren't Christian, you weren't really human).
The Doctrine of Discovery was used to justify genocides against Indigenous peoples. It's also the foundation of the Indian Act, reserve system, residential schools, and so much more.
To date, neither the Catholic Church nor the Canadian Government has renounced the doctrine, which is fucked because if you aren't renouncing it, you're still in agreement with it.
Your Place or Mine? Why didn’t the Pope come to Canada?
Imagine committing mass genocide, land theft and killing and abusing thousands of children for thousands of years and then making those impacted by that trauma come to you and plead their case in hopes of an apology. If the Catholic Church is to prove penitence, they should have at least met Indigenous people on their ancestral land here in Canada. Not to mention the intergenerational trauma that can be triggered by meeting inside Catholic institutions.
Having the 32 delegates (whose travel expenses were covered by the Pope) travel to the Vatican allows the Church to control the situation- we imagine the delegates were vetted and carefully chosen.
Had the Pope come to Canada like promised, he could have actually seen the results of the Doctrine Discovery and met with more than just 32 people. He could have visited the sites of former residential 'schools' and reserves. He could have tried to pour himself a glass of water on a reserve that still doesn't have access to clean water. Instead, the Pope gets all his comforts and maintains his control.
Saying sorry isn’t enough
An apology might be sufficient when you step on someone's toe by accident. When you systemically and intentionally plan to step on someone's toe to dismember them, a simple sorry isn't going to cut it.
Let's not forget that residential "schools" and the Doctrine of Discovery weren't an accident. They were systemic, intentional and completely evil on purpose. God didn't come to the Pope in the 1400s and say if you aren't Christian, you aren't human; the greed of the men at the Vatican did.
To just issue an apology would mean that even now, in 2022, the Church still does not view Indigenous people as humans. So no, an apology will not be enough.
Especially since after the Truth and Reconciliation report came out, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked the Pope for an apology, but the Church issued a letter saying the Pope would not deliver one. If the Pope does issue an apology, it is crucial to remember that it came after the public pressure from recovering thousands of bodies in unmarked graves behind the very institutions the Church ran in Canada. Any apology issued at this point is about the Church's sense of self-preservation, so it must be paired with reparations.
What we want to see
Assembly of First Nations Chief RoseAnne Archibald called on the Pope to pair an apology with reparations, investment in residential 'school' survivor healing, and returning church-owned land.
We want to see the Pope renounce the Doctrine of Discovery. We want to see the employee records of the Church who committed these disgusting and evil acts against children held accountable. We want to see financial reparations for Indigenous communities.
It isn't unheard of. Churches involved in the residential school system in Canada have long since apologized. In 2006, the Protestant Church, which led around a third of the residential schools in Canada, apologized and paid reparations to survivors under a class action settlement.
So Now What?
An apology without meaningful action only benefits the person in the wrong.
Don't apologize to save face, Francis; apologize like you mean it by pairing it with reparations, employment records, renouncing the Doctrine of Discovery, returning land and artifacts, and putting your considerable resources into the Indigenous communities Turtle Island.
We're hoping Pope Francis does better, but tbh we aren't holding our breath. Whatever statement the Pope issues will be with self-preservation of the Church in mind. To apologize and mean it would set a precedent for not only Indigenous communities of Turtle Island but for those of us in countries of colour that Europeans colonized—the global majority.
The Catholic Church can't Hail Mary themselves out of this one. You have the power and privilege to make a difference, and we pray that God gives you the courage to do so Francis.
Originally published on March 30, 2022
