The Canadian government says Pope Francis’ apology to Indigenous peoples for abuses they suffered in the country’s church-run residential schools did not go far enough.
The official government reaction came as Francis arrived in Quebec City for meetings with prime minister Justin Trudeau and governor general Mary Simon at her Quebec residence, the hilltop Citadelle fortress, on the second leg of Francis’ week-long visit to Canada.
The government’s criticisms echo those of survivors and concern Francis’ omission of any reference to the sexual abuse suffered by Indigenous children in the schools, as well as his refusal to name the Catholic Church as an institution bearing any responsibility.
Francis has said he is on a “penitential pilgrimage” to atone for the church’s role in the residential school system, in which generations of Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their homes and forced to attend church-run, government-funded boarding schools to assimilate them into Christian, Canadian society.
The Canadian government has said physical and sexual abuse were rampant at the schools, with students beaten for speaking their native languages.
Francis on Monday apologised for the “evil” of church personnel who worked in the schools and the “catastrophic” effect of the school system on Indigenous families. In a speech before government authorities on Wednesday, Francis apologised anew and blasted the school system as “deplorable”.
He asked forgiveness “for the wrongs done by so many Christians to Indigenous peoples” as well as “local Catholic institutions”.
But Francis also noted that the school system was “promoted by the governmental authorities at the time” as part of a policy of assimilation and enfranchisement, in which “local Catholic institutions had a part”.
Indigenous peoples have long demanded that the pope assume responsibility not just for abuses committed by individual Catholic priests and religious orders, but for the Catholic Church’s institutional support of the assimilation policy and the papacy’s 15th century religious justification for European colonial expansion to spread Christianity.
More than 150,000 native children in Canada were taken from their homes from the 19th century until the 1970s and placed in the schools in an effort to isolate them from the influence of their families and culture.
Mr Trudeau, a Catholic whose father, Pierre Trudeau, was prime minister while the last residential schools were in operation, insisted that the Catholic Church as an institution bore blame and needed to do more to atone.
Speaking before Francis, he noted that Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015 had called for a papal apology to be delivered on Canadian soil, but that Francis’ visit “would not have been possible without the courage and perseverance” of survivors of First Nations, Inuit and Metis who travelled to the Vatican last spring to press their case for an apology.
“Apologies for the role that the Roman Catholic Church, as an institution, played in the mistreatment on the spiritual, cultural, emotional, physical and sexual abuse that Indigenous children suffered in residential schools run by the church,” Mr Trudeau said.
The Canadian government has apologised for its role in the school legacy. Former prime minister Stephen Harper issued a formal apology over the residential schools in parliament in 2008, calling them a sad chapter in Canadian history and saying the policy of forced assimilation caused great harm.
As part of a settlement of a lawsuit involving the government, churches and the approximately 90,000 surviving students, Canada paid reparations that amounted to billions of dollars being transferred to Indigenous communities.
The Catholic Church, for its part, has paid over 50 million US dollars (£41 million) and intends to add 30 million dollars more over the next five years.
Mr Trudeau implied that much more needed to be done by the church, and that while Francis’ visit had “an enormous impact” on survivors, it was but a first step.
Aside from the content of his speech, Mr Trudeau’s remarks broke customary protocol for papal trips. According to diplomatic protocol, only Ms Simon was supposed to address the pope in her capacity as the representative head of state.
But the Vatican said Mr Trudeau’s office requested the prime minister be allowed to offer some introductory remarks, a request that arrived in the days before Francis left Rome but after the pope’s itinerary had been finalised and printed.
A senior Canadian government official said Mr Trudeau typically delivers remarks during visits by foreign leaders and that it was important for him to address Canadians during Francis’ visit “particularly given the importance of the matter”.
Before Francis arrived in Quebec City, Crown-indigenous relations minister Marc Miller said the “gaps” in Francis’ apology could not be ignored.
Echoing criticism from some school survivors, Mr Miller noted that Francis did not mention sexual abuse in his list of abuses endured by Indigenous children in the schools.
Francis on Monday listed instead physical, verbal, psychological and spiritual abuse. In addition, Mr Miller noted that Francis spoke of “evil” committed by individual Christians “but not the Catholic Church as an institution”.
