NDP wants Pope to apologize for church’s role in residential schools

Church must address role in residential schools: MP

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OTTAWA — The NDP will ask each member of Parliament to declare whether the Pope ought to formally apologize for the Catholic Church’s role in residential schools, though Winnipeg’s archbishop suggests Rome can’t atone for the sins of its entities.

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This article was published 18/04/2018 (2170 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — The NDP will ask each member of Parliament to declare whether the Pope ought to formally apologize for the Catholic Church’s role in residential schools, though Winnipeg’s archbishop suggests Rome can’t atone for the sins of its entities.

On Wednesday, the NDP called for unanimous consent in the Commons to suggest the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) to invite Pope Francis to apologize for the church’s role in residential schools, which were largely run by Christian institutions.

“I think the bishops have let us down, dramatically,” NDP MP Charlie Angus said.

(AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
The federal NDP called for the Commons to suggest the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops invite Pope Francis, above, to apologize for the church’s role in residential schools in Canada.
(AP Photo/Andrew Medichini) The federal NDP called for the Commons to suggest the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops invite Pope Francis, above, to apologize for the church’s role in residential schools in Canada.

The motion comes from one of the 94 recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) on residential schools. It failed after some Conservatives raised concerns about religious freedom.

Moments earlier, Winnipeg Archbishop Richard Gagnon spoke on behalf of fellow bishops to reporters in Ottawa, saying the Pope was interested in having “a significant encounter with Indigenous people in Canada,” but he’d have to decide whether that includes an apology.

“What the Pope says to Indigenous people is something that he will determine according to what he thinks is best, pastorally speaking.”

The CCCB had issued a letter to MPs and senators about “misunderstandings and factual errors” in media reporting. The letter said the church’s decentralized structure meant roughly 50 Catholic entities involved in residential schools ought to decide how to engage in reconciliation.

“The misconception that exists in some people’s minds (is) that the church has never apologized, and there are examples of apologies, all the way, from all those entities,” Gagnon said Wednesday.

Gagnon and his fellow bishops were evasive when asked whether the Pope was concerned with travelling to Canada, or the timeline suggested by the TRC (to respond within a year, which has already passed) or a financial liability. Government officials have admitted a loophole in contracts they drafted allowed the Catholic Church to pay just $3.7 million of a separate $25 million it had pledged to fundraise for healing programs for residential-school victims.

Manitoba Sen. Murray Sinclair, who chaired the TRC, told reporters the church seemed to be using “corporate charades” to offload financial liability.

“They were following the directions of the church when they did what they did. And now, for the church to hide behind its legal creations… is a shame,” Sinclair said, saying current bishops are responsible for ongoing impediments to survivors’ ability to heal.

The NDP motion Wednesday would have required all MPs in the Commons to consent, but some Conservatives disagreed, including Alberta MP Garnett Genius, who yelled “absolutely not.” He told reporters afterward it would be “unprecedented” for Parliament to be “dictating” how to apologize.

Genius would not say whether his personal belief is the Pope should apologize. The Liberals, NDP, Greens, and recent Bloc Québécois MPs unanimously supported the motion.

Angus said Parliament and the churches are “the two defendants” in the “crime” of residential schools, and so it’s appropriate for one to ask the other to follow them in apologizing.

“This is a moral call to do the right thing,” he said.

The NDP has pledged to call a standing vote, in which MPs will have to rise and stand for or against the motion.

Angus, who was raised Catholic, said the bishops’ remarks don’t jive with a Good Friday message he heard at mass.

“We have to take accountability for the wrongs that we do; that’s how we make the world whole.”

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca

 

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