Pope Benedict ‘sought to heal the wounds of our past’

Pope Benedict XVI is being remembered in Canada as a man who sought to “heal the wounds of our past.” 

Archbishop Raymond Poisson, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the late Pope was the first to meet victims of abuse by members of the clergy.

“He publicly acknowledged the scourge of abuse by these clergy, apologized for it, and strengthened Church processes to respond to allegations, including facilitating the prosecution or suspension from the clerical state those found responsible for abuse,” Bishop Poisson said in a statement following Benedict’s death Dec. 31.

He also noted that years before Pope Francis’ papal trip to Canada this past summer, the late Pope had met with and expressed sorrow to Chief Phil Fontaine and a delegation from the Assembly of First Nations for past wrongs done in the name of the Church.

“Pope Benedict XVI also invited a Canadian delegation, made up of representatives of Indigenous communities, as well as Catholic dioceses and religious communities across Canada, to a private meeting in April 2009 to discuss their experience of residential schools. During this meeting, the Pope listened to their stories and expressed his regret and sadness for the sorrow suffered by many Indigenous people in the residential school system.”

Benedict was Pope in June 2008 when reconciliation efforts between the Church and Canada’s Indigenous peoples gained momentum. Prime Minister Stephen Harper offered an apology on behalf of the Government of Canada to Aboriginal peoples in Canada for the abuse, suffering, and generational and cultural dislocation that resulted from assimilative, government-sanctioned residential schools. 

The apology specifically addressed the government’s assimilative practices, the forced removal of children from their families, the abuse many of the children suffered, and the social consequences of the policies.

In October 2008 the Assembly of First Nations made a plea for reconciliation with the Catholic Church while speaking to the plenary assembly of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. Assembly of First Nations Chief Phil Fontaine said he hoped the Church could use its influence and experience to help lift Native people out of poverty, acknowledging that in the past Aboriginals and the Church had accomplished much good together, despite the legacy of hurt at Indian Residential Schools.

“I believe the Catholic Church has a significant role to play in helping us pave the way to something absolutely better,” he said, adding Indigenous people did not need the Catholic Church for its money, but for its influence, experience, and commitment.

“You understand us as well as anyone in this country,” he said, noting the Church knows “what is important to us and where we want to take our communities.”

There are too many people, he said, “who don’t believe in us, who see us as a relic of the past, who believe we have to be transformed” in order to be significant to Canada.

“We know that you don’t believe that,” he said. “I stand here committed to working with you in rebuilding the historic relationship that brought so much good to so many people,” he said. 

Archbishop James Weisgerber of Winnipeg, President of the CCCB, said he looked forward to working with the Aboriginal peoples in creating “a new community where everyone is respected.” He noted the importance of the upcoming Truth and Reconciliation Commission that would be starting its work soon. 

In December 2008, three Indigenous leaders received the Benemerenti medal of honour from Cardinal Marc Ouellet of Quebec on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI: Vancouver’s Shirley Leon, who had spent decades helping Canada’s Indigenous people reconcile their desire to celebrate their spiritual heritage with their practice of the Catholic faith; Indigenous anthropologist Nicole O’Bomsawin of Quebec; and Judge Graydon Nicholas of New Brunswick, the first Indigenous lieutenant governor in that province. All three were among the first members named by the CCCB to its Council for Reconciliation, Solidarity, and Communion with Aboriginal Peoples launched a decade earlier.

Leon played a consultative role with the bishops on how First Nations peoples and the Church could build bridges of reconciliation in the aftermath of the acknowledgement of abuses at Church-run residential schools.

Vancouver Coadjutor Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB, spoke of Leon’s “distinguished ministry” on behalf of Native people in the archdiocese and in Canada. A former member of the Canadian Bishops’ Aboriginal Council for Reconciliation and a long-time member and chairwoman of the Archdiocesan First Nations Council, Leon was “respected as a bridge-builder between cultures and has worked tirelessly and, even more important, prayerfully, for reconciliation among all parties because of what has happened in our sometimes-painful past,” said Archbishop Miller.

The honours were announced at a Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops meeting that focussed on building relations between the Catholic Church and Canada’s Indigenous communities.

Archbishop James Weisgerber, president of the CCCB, said during the CCCB meeting that one of the major aspects of the history of the evangelization of Canada was the Church’s partnership with Aboriginal people.

“As part of the story of the Paschal Mystery, it too is a history marked by both glory and tears, deeds of generosity and betrayal, the dawning of new light and continuing shadows of darkness. Most of all, it is part of the constant reminder, in the words of St. Paul, that we are to be ambassadors for Christ and witnesses of reconciliation,” he noted. 

On April 29, 2009, Canadian First Nations leaders met at the Vatican with Pope Benedict XVI, who expressed his regret and shame for abuses at Indian Residential Schools.

Present were Assembly of First Nations Chief Fontaine, four other Indigenous leaders from across Canada, and five former missionaries who worked in residential schools.

Afterward, Fontaine, a former student at an Indian residential school, told a news conference, “We wanted to hear him say that he understands and that he is sorry and that he feels our suffering, and we heard that very clearly.” 

He said group members “heard what we came for” and were “very happy” with the response of Pope Benedict.

Chief Edward John of the Tlazten First Nations in Northern B.C. said he hoped the apology would help “many people move forward.”

“We heard the prime minister’s apology a year ago in June. And today, to listen to the Holy Father explain his profound sorrow and sadness and to express that there was no room for this sort of abuse to take place in the residential schools, that is an emotional barrier that now has been lifted for many people,” he said.

In 2009 the Archdiocese of Vancouver launched its new First Nations Ministry Office to implement the archbishop’s First Nations pastoral vision and mandate, to establish and oversee implementation of a strategic plan for First Nations ministry, and to develop processes that promote healing.

The new co-ordinator was Rennie Nahanee, a parishioner at St. Paul’s Parish in North Vancouver, a member of the Squamish Nation, and Vancouver Aboriginal liaison to the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.

 At a celebration in May 2009 to mark the 125th anniversary of St. Paul’s Indian Catholic Church, the oldest surviving Catholic church in the Vancouver Archdiocese, Archbishop Miller echoed the remarks of Pope Benedict XVI by expressing sorrow for the suffering of Aboriginal children and their families.

“It is necessary for me, as Archbishop of Vancouver,” he said, “to acknowledge, regret, and repent for ways in which some members of the Church have failed to respect the cultural differences among us. These failures often led to traumatic events which continue to affect the lives of people.”

The archbishop said from today’s perspective “we are all very conscious of the tragic limitations of the residential schools, especially the harm that was all too often done to family life, community values, and cultural heritage.”

The anniversary celebration, he said, is “a time to make new and sustained efforts to collaborate as members of the one body of Christ, in order to ensure that every person, Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike, receive the respect, the acceptance, and the dignity that belongs to every child of God.”

One of the highlights of Benedict XVI’s papacy, Poisson said, occurred on Oct. 21, 2012, when he canonized North America’s first Indigenous saint, St. Kateri Tekakwitha.

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