Canadian parliament passes motion demanding apology from Pope Francis

An earlier draft of the motion was criticised for infringing the religious liberty of the Canadian Church

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In a rare show of unanimity, the House of Commons overwhelmingly supported a motion to call on Pope Francis to apologise on Canadian soil for abuses that occurred at church-run residential schools, reported Catholic Herald.

What happens next, however, remains unclear. The motion is not binding.

The motion received all-party support in a May 1 vote, 269-10.

 Photo  AP

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau already invited Pope Francis to Canada to issue a papal apology as called for in the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission report. Pope Francis has also received invitations from individual bishops.

But in a March 27 letter released by the Canadian bishops’ conference to the indigenous peoples of Canada, Bishop Lionel Gendron, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, said a papal visit was not imminent and the Pope “felt he could not personally respond” to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission request to apologise in Canada.

 

 

A group of female students and a nun pose in a classroom at Cross Lake Indian Residential School in Cross Lake, Man., in a February 1940 archive photo. (Reuters)

An earlier version of the motion had put the onus on Canada’s bishops to bring the Pope to Canada. But after one member objected to the government interference in Church affairs, a new motion was drafted to bypass the bishops and take the matter directly to the Vatican.

Charlie Angus, who introduced the bill, described the earlier debate as “a historic moment for the Parliament of Canada.” He said Parliament created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to examine the evidence, and the commission found “the policies of the government of Canada and the Catholic Church at the time constituted a genocide.”

Students in class at a residential school in Lac La Ronge, Saskatchewan

 

However, the commission report denounced the government, not the Church, for pursuing a policy of “cultural genocide.” It said the government’s aboriginal policy dating back to the 19th Century was intended to assimilate native children into Canadian culture and called the establishment and operation of residential schools one element of that policy. Catholic entities, as agents of the government, operated about 60 per cent of those schools, and many of them were guilty of physical and emotional abuse of children.

 

 

While the wording of the revised motion was softened after consultation with the government, Angus continued to take aim at Canada’s Catholic bishops, whom he has blamed for the Pope not accepting other invitations to apologise in Canada.

“I want to say that I have been appalled by the line I heard from the Canadian bishops,” he said. “They have tried to evade their role in working with us on reconciliation. They have followed a pattern time and time again of defending, covering up, and hiding for each other. It all comes back to liability. It all comes back to money.

“Does anyone think the survivors are here for money?” he asked.

Angus expressed confidence Pope Francis “is capable of understanding the importance of this motion, because he has a vision of reconciliation and justice for all.”

 

Girls at a residential school in British Columbia in the early 20th century (Photo courtesy of Fallen Feather)

An estimated 150,000 indigenous children attended residential schools over a period about 100 years, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission estimated 6,000 of them died.

 

Source

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meets with Pope Francis for a private audience at the Vatican on Monday, May 29, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick