TRC Calls to Action: #58

Reconciliation
Church Apologies and Reconciliation

58. We call upon the Pope to issue an apology to Survivors, their families, and communities for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in the spiritual, cultural, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis children in Catholic-run residential schools. We call for that apology to be similar to the 2010 apology issued to Irish victims of abuse and to occur within one year of the issuing of this Report and to be delivered by the Pope in Canada.

I was somewhat surprised to learn that the current Pope refuses to issue such an apology, although many forces in Canada, including the Prime Minister, have been trying to get him to come to Canada so he can apologize in person.

I can't guess at why the Pope wouldn't make such a simple but meaningful gesture, but I know what I've heard from a lot of people regarding the harmful legacy of colonization: "It's not my fault, so what's it got to do with me?" So in this post I'd like to address the difference between blame and responsibility. 

Whereas the focus on blame is to find fault, the focus of responsibility is accountability. We as 3rd, 4th, 5th generation Canadians are certainly not to blame for what our ancestors did; we do, however, benefit from the systems put in place by our ancestors, systems which were harmful to others. Therefore, as people in this position of privilege, we are responsible for making amends.

In the Pope's case, he and others involved in the Catholic Church today are not to blame for Residential Schools; they weren't there at that time, so technically they couldn't have done anything wrong. However, the Catholic Church was directly involved in this catastrophic time for Indigenous people and their culture. Therefore, they most certainly have a responsibility to make amends. By refusing to apologize, as a simple step toward reconciliation, the Pope is essentially saying the Catholic Church did nothing wrong.

And considering the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops has already issued a statement rejecting the concepts used to justify the colonization of Indigenous people and their lands, I see no reason why the Catholic Church itself can not issue an apology for its involvement in such things.

It's as simple as this: refusing to take responsibility for harm done is no better than doing harm in the first place.