On Wednesday, June 15, 2022, an organization called the “National Indian Residential School Circle of Survivors (NIRSCS)” released a recommended apology, reported on by many news services, they want Roman Catholic Pope Francis to make when he visits Canada beginning on July 24..Centrally, it rejects as inadequate the heartfelt apology Pope Francis made on March 31, 2022 to almost 200 indigenous, Métis and Inuit delegates who had traveled to the Vatican to hear him speak of the “sorrow and shame” he felt about the Indian Residential schools (IRS), many run by the Catholic Church. In that apology, the Pope declared:.I also feel shame - sorrow and shame - for the role that a number of Catholics, particularly those with [Indian Residential School] educational responsibilities have had in all these things that wounded you, in the abuses you suffered and in the lack of respect shown for your identity, your culture and even your spiritual values..The NIRSCS apology, on the other hand, damns the whole Roman Catholic Church for both the colonial enterprise and an Indian Residential School system instituted to overcome many of its unintended damaging effects..The apology traces the church’s alleged wrongdoings back to the early policies of conquest, including the 15th century papal bulls — declarations from the Pope — that deemed the lands of the non-Christian inhabitants of the New World, including Canada, available for European exploration and colonization..The full recommended apology, complete with all its exaggerations, distortions, and fabrications, can be found here. Excerpts appear below, followed by my interpretation:.In its implementation of Canada’s assimilation policy, the Catholic Church adopted practices and procedures designed to prohibit First Nation, Métis and Inuit children from speaking their languages, practicing their cultures and learning about their rights by separating them from their families and communities..Most children in the care and control of the Catholic Church Indian Residential Schools endured malnutrition, neglect, trauma and substandard education. Many died under questionable circumstances, many from diseases, especially tuberculosis, which disproportionately infected children at Indian Residential Schools due to negligence by our Catholic Church employees..Many of these children were buried in unmarked graves at the school sites and their parents were not notified of their deaths and never given the opportunity to bring their children home for proper burial. Other children suffered physical abuse, psychological abuse, spiritual abuse and sexual abuse by Catholic Church caregivers and other Indian Residential School employees. When these abusers were exposed, the Catholic Church failed to report them to the proper authorities, and instead, transferred them to other schools..The belief underlying the policy of assimilation was that First Nations, Métis and Inuit cultures and spiritual beliefs were inferior to that of Europeans. This Eurocentric view can be traced to the Papal Bulls of 1455 and 1493, when my predecessors, of those times, denied all sovereignty to non-Christian First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples. In implementing the Papal Bulls, the colonizers seized all property, claimed ownership of “discovered” “new” lands, and enslaved and eliminated all the original owners of the land, which history confirms were First Nations people..The Catholic Church now acknowledges that the consequences of its participation in implementing Canada’s assimilation policy upon First Nations, Métis and Inuit children were profoundly damaging and had a lasting impact on First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples and their communities..The Catholic Church accepts that its role in Canada’s assimilation policy which removed children from their homes in order to separate them from their families and communities with the objective of destroying their languages, traditions and cultures was wrong, and I apologize..In moving towards a better, more productive and respectful relationship, I commit the Catholic Church to support the co-development of processes with First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples for the reparations, restitution, repatriation, and real conciliation and the reconciliation of their respective rights..On behalf of the Catholic Church, I apologize for the role it played in carrying out Canada’s policy of assimilation through its Indian Residential School system..On behalf of the Catholic Church, I extend my profound remorse and sincere apology to each and every survivor, your families and communities. I humbly ask for your forgiveness.”.It is inconceivable that the Pope would recite this apology word-for-word even though it does not differ significantly in tone from other church apologies like the one from the Anglican Church of Canada in 1993. This may have little to do with the fact that it was not the Holy See in Rome but individual semi-autonomous orders of priests and nuns in Canada who chose on their own to operate the country’s Indian Residential Schools on behalf of a federal government that funded and had ultimate jurisdiction over them..Rather, it may be because this apology not only grossly exaggerates the harms caused by these boarding schools but implies that they caused only harm to their students, an assertion contradicted by historical and other evidence in the Truth and Reconciliation reports and elsewhere..As for the individual charges in the proposed apology:.There was no widespread prohibition on the speaking of Indigenous languages at least outside classroom and allied school settings. Today, this same prohibition applies to the use of English in French Immersion programs today in the public school system with no concern expressed about it. As for cultural practices and language use, these continued as usual when children returned home for long summer and other vacations, a practice exaggerated by low and irregular IRS attendance.Widespread malnutrition, neglect, and trauma were not the order of the day at these schools, as the historical and ethnographic evidence clearly shows..The curriculum and instruction methods called a “substandard education” were the same as those in the public school system where many students also graduated or dropped out left with little learning beyond a bare minimum, an outcome that continues to this day among on and off reserve indigenous students..Many students did not “die under questionable circumstances” because careful attendance records were kept about their health and demise..Many students died from diseases, especially tuberculosis, which disproportionately infected children at Indian Residential Schools, but not, “… due to negligence by [their] Catholic Church employees.” Rather, this was because Indigenous children have always had less natural immunity to these diseases than their European counterparts..Relatively few students were buried in cemeteries reserved for IRS students and staff whose wooden crosses soon disintegrated. Instead, most were sent home or to nearby hospitals when they became very ill with contagious diseases. In nearly every case, when children died in hospital or at home, they were buried in cemeteries located on their home reserves. .If they died at school and their parents were alive, they were notified of their demise and, when possible, allowed to bring their children home for a local burial..There is no evidence that children suffered any more abuse — physical, psychological, spiritual, or sexual — in these schools than non-indigenous children in boarding schools, orphanages, or ordinary public schools. Meanwhile, so much abuse and neglect occurred on their home reserves that this necessitated the transfer of children to a boarding school. This same practice continues today as thousands of indigenous children are seized by social welfare authorities rescuing them from dysfunctional and abusive homes on and off reserve..The colonizers certainly did not seize all the property of or enslave and eliminate all the original owners of the land Canada. Had they done so, there would not be over two million indigenous people in Canada today, five to ten times their pre-contact level..Canada’s IRS assimilation policy played little or no role in profoundly damaging indigenous children or having a lasting impact on indigenous peoples and their communities because no more than one-third of aboriginal children attended these schools for an average of 4.5 years..The Catholic Church had no role in removing children from their homes and sending them to these schools if only because most children attended voluntarily based on an application signed by their parents, guardians, or the state (if they were orphaned or abused children)..The Papal Bulls based on what is called the Doctrine of Discovery have no relevance to the IRS or Canadian public policy involving indigenous people..If genuine reconciliation is the intent of these indigenous activists, it must be grounded in verifiable truths. This outrageous apology does not tell the truth..Hymie Rubenstein is editor of The REAL Indian Residential Schools newsletter and a retired professor of anthropology, The University of Manitoba
