Open Letter to the Pope

Following is a letter composed with my assistance and sent by Bernice Daigneault to the pope in response to his refusal to apologize for the legacy of abuse in residential schools.  

AN OPEN LETTER TO “THE POPE”

March 30, 2018

Jorge Mario Bergoglio
aka Pope Francis
00120 Via del Pelegrino
Citta del Vaticano

Dear Mr. Jorge Mario Bergoglio (aka Pope Francis):

I am writing to express my outrage at your refusal to issue an apology for the Catholic church’s prominent role in the atrocious legacy of violence and abuse suffered by indigenous peoples attending residential schools in Canada. 

There are so many reasons why this infuriates me.  First of all, I am a residential school survivor of the Ile a La Crosse residential school (1962-64).   While there, I endured not only cultural, personal and physical abuse at the hands of the nuns but also sexual violence of the worst sort by a priest who would quote scripture as he was performing his mortifying acts.  None of the students of the Ile a La Crosse residential school have received any compensation from the Government of Canada because they claim the school was run by the Catholic church without support from the Government.  Although this is not entirely true, there were other schools like this which the Catholic church set up and ran with very little if any oversight from the government of Canada.  My point is that this puts the onus of responsibility directly upon the church to take responsibility for these abuses and be held accountable for them. 

Secondly, it is a shameful disgrace that the Catholic church has been so reluctant to participate in and contribute towards compensation efforts by the Canadian government and other churches to residential school survivors who are recognized.  It is even difficult if not impossible to take the Catholic church to court because, as a church, you have avoided status as a legal entity that can be held accountable in court just like any other corporate body in Canada.  So not only is the Catholic church avoiding taking responsibility for the genocidal nature of residential schools but now you as the patriarchal head of the Catholic church are refusing to apologize.  This is truly outrageous. 

Thirdly, you and other church officials keep on saying that dealing with the legacy of abuse in residential schools requires an individual or local/regional response.  Really!  I have seen lots of individual residential school survivors come forward over the last 25 years to talk about their victimization but not once have I seen a priest or a nun come forward to take responsibility for the “sins” they have committed as the perpetrators of this abuse.  You can’t have reconciliation if the individuals involved in violating indigenous people will not acknowledge they did wrong and are not held accountable for it.  Just like your refusal to apologize, this is avoidance and denial.  The absence of any such confession on the part of individuals within the Catholic church shows how deceitful it is to promote, as the Catholic bishops letter states, individual encounters and pastoral initiatives.  How are indigenous peoples supposed to trust or engage in pastoral initiatives when it was the very “pastors” who abused them!

Fourthly, a factor everyone keeps avoiding, is that when a social ill is perpetuated because of systemic or institutional realities, it is incumbent upon the head of that institution to not only apologize but to promote the radical transformation of that institution.  For example, racism in Canada and elsewhere will not be eliminated only by encouraging a change of heart and attitudes in individuals; it must be accompanied by a fundamental re-formation (or conversion, if you wish) of corporations and institutions in Canadian society.  Based on your statements about poverty, environment and capitalism, I believe you know this to be necessary.  But you need to apply this to your church as well.  The legacy of abuse in residential schools in Canada cannot be explained by a “few bad apples” in your church.  This atrocity is symptomatic of systemic factors such as church doctrine, liturgical issues and a patriarchal and hierarchal structure – the patrimony of the Roman Catholic church.  A true and meaningful apology has to be accompanied by institutional transformation. 

Fifthly, I believe it is the height of hypocrisy to advocate reconciliation, healing and solidarity with indigenous peoples and yet refuse to apologize for the atrocities committed by the Catholic church.  Without an apology, words such as reconciliation, healing and solidarity become mere masquerades to hide the real agenda of assimilation, new forms of colonialism and accommodation of indigenous peoples within the same basic institutional framework of the Catholic church.  This is not only hypocritical, it is deceitful.  Reconciliation and healing requires an acknowledgement of responsibility and a radical and fundamental change on the part of the individual or corporate entity that caused the conflict, injury or harm inflicted.  I believe you Christians call it “repentance”.  Without an apology, I am left wondering, like the Leonard Cohen song lyrics say, what repentance means. It makes your whole “Christian” message an empty shell. 

 Sixthly, the refusal to apologize clearly indicates the ongoing obstinacy of the Catholic church in truly understanding indigenous spirituality.  Our traditional spirituality comes from the land, the water, all of creation.  Having lived so close to creation for thousands of years, it is evident to us that Creator exists and that Creator has invisible attributes such as great power and a divine nature.  Even your scriptures recognize this (check out Romans 1:19-20).  My question is why have all of the Christian churches who set up missions in our settlements never recognized this?  You are so consumed with converting us into your intractable doctrines through whatever means possible that you are blinded to seeing true spirituality in traditions that are different than your own.  This raises the question of authenticity of your own spirituality.

Finally, I began this letter by using your real name, Jorge Mario Bergoglio.  I did this not out of disrespect but to speak to the real human being that you are and to speak on equal footing which, according to my tradition, we are.  One of the practices of residential schools and the Catholic church was to “christen” newly born indigenous children with so-called “Christian” names.  My first given name was Iskwewsis and later, when my nature became evident, I was named Asiskikootewanapiskosis, or Aski for short.  Giving us different names, such as Bernice or Mary or whatever, as a so-called sacrament of the church is part of the process of colonialism and church procedure.  If we are ever going to communicate and understand each other, we must start from who we really are, human to human, not from institutionally appointed designations. 

Sincerely,

Asiskikootewanapiskosis (aka Bernice Daigneault)