The Pope's apology isn't the first from a church. Here's how others have handled reconciliation
As Pope undertakes historic ‘penitential pilgrimage,’ he has examples to look to from other churches
On Monday, Pope Francis began what he described as a six-day "penitential pilgrimage" in Canada with an extended apology for the "evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous peoples."
While the Catholic Church is the latest Christian denomination to formally apologize for its role in residential schools, it is far from the only church to have played a role in the abuse, colonization and cultural erasure of Indigenous people.
Around the world and across Canada, Christian congregations are wrestling with how to move beyond an apology — to make their churches, in the words of Francis at Monday night's prayer service in Edmonton, a "living body of reconciliation."
"Where do we stand? Are we part of an ongoing colonialistic group, or is this something from our past we need to understand?" asked Archbishop Murray Chatlain of the northern Manitoba diocese of Keewatin-Le Pas, which is more than 80 per cent Indigenous.
"There is a small part of the Catholic Church that has been working on reconciliation for many, many years," he said. "Now … this is an issue for the whole church."
As the Catholic Church moves forward from the apology, it may take some inspiration from churches around the world that are moving down a similar path.
Sweden: Making an apology meaningful
Last November, the Church of Sweden made its own historic apology for crimes committed against the Indigenous Sámi people of Arctic Europe.
In their apology, the Lutheran Church of Sweden acknowledged that over the course of more than 400 years, it destroyed Sámi sacred sites, suppressed Sámi language and culture, and desecrated graves to contribute to racist scientific studies. It also operated a colonial school system that segregated Sámi families and subjected them to abuse.
The apology was the result of more than 30 years of planning, research and advocacy by Sámi people and their allies within the Lutheran Church. It was preceded by the release of more than 1,100 pages of academic research into the role of the church in Sámi history, and led by a council of Sámi community leaders.
But leaders still stressed the apology must be understood by the rest of the church to be only the beginning of a much longer process that needed to include the return of land and artifacts and the payment of reparations for past crimes.
"An apology is something you give," Ingrid Inga, then chair of the church's internal Sámi Council, said at the service. "In some time … the [Sámi people may] take this apology and forgive the church. But this is not the right time for that."
Balancing identities
Like the Catholic Church in Canada, which counts roughly half a million Indigenous members, the national churches of Sweden, Finland and Norway have large Indigenous memberships who object to the idea that their identity as Indigenous people is somehow at odds with their Christian faith.
Sweden even saw the emergence of an Indigenous Christian revival movement in the 19th century that worked to reconcile Christianity with the Sámi worldview. After various shifts and schisms over the years, it has become one of the more conservative wings of the church.
That has left faith leaders in a delicate situation. They must remain respectful of more conservative Indigenous members who still view traditional ceremonies as incompatible with Christianity, while allowing space for a new generation to lead their revival as a form of Christian expression.
Catholic leaders acknowledge the same tension within their own faith.
"Early catechists were … encouraged to stamp out our own way of … relating to and communicating with God, the Universe, and Mother Earth," the Tzeltal Maya theologian Pedro (jPetul) Gutiérrez Jiménez said in a 2016 conference speech.
"When we began to develop an Indian theology program, the elders found it difficult to pick back up what had been rejected. They felt as if they were trying to eat something they had vomited."
In Canada, where priests were still declaring Indigenous spirituality "pagan" and incompatible with Christianity just a generation ago, Chatlain said a shift is still underway.
"One of the challenges is that the elders have been taught, and some of them hold very hard, that [traditional Indigenous] practices should not be in the Catholic church," he said.
However, in the past year, with the discovery of unmarked graves at residential school sites and the Pope's recognition that the church erred in the past, Chatlain said that attitude is changing, with even members who are more conservative seeing a place for Indigenous ceremony in the church.
"There is generally a broad openness now."
Mexico: Supporting Indigenous faith
Faith leaders stress that openness requires willingness on the part of clergy and lay people alike. And it's newer in Canada than elsewhere in the Catholic world.
In 1887, at the same time as Catholic orders were forcibly assimilating Indigenous children in Canadian residential schools, Pope Leo XIII formally recognized a uniquely Indigenous vision of Mary in Guadalupe, Mexico.
Today, the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe is the most-visited Catholic shrine in the world, commemorating the visitation of a Nahuatl-speaking Virgin Mary to an Indigenous Chichimec peasant.
"Catholicism … is by nature very expansive," said Kristin Norget, an anthropologist at McGill University who studies Indigenous Catholic movements in Mexico. "It allows for the possibility of local adaptation."
In Oaxaca, Mexico, progressive, anti-colonial and Indigenous-led movements emerged from the Catholic Church and revived Indigenous communities, Norget said, "using Catholicism to awaken in people the whole of who they are."
Finding parallels
That tradition continues today.
Gutiérrez Jiménez, for example, draws on Mayan codecs, calendars, traditional stories and songs in producing an Indigenous Catholic theology that he calls "a voice of protest … against the churches that seek to preserve a colonizing evangelization."
At various points in its history, Norget stresses, the Catholic hierarchy has objected to these movements, adopting an inconsistent attitude toward expressions of Indigenous faith.
"The church is seen as a corporation, and [the Pope] runs the show, and so his ideology is the team ideology," Norget said, noting, though, that the church is far less homogenous than that. "It is not a tightly run ship."
In Canada, some Catholic Indigenous leaders have been working for decades to push the church to destigmatize Indigenous spirituality and incorporate traditional practices into Christian worship.
When Sister Eva Solomon was growing up in the Ojibwe community of Henvey Inlet in Ontario, she was told that traditional dances and ceremonies weren't for Catholics. But that didn't make her question her Catholic faith.
Instead, she said, "it made me start questioning right away why it couldn't be that we could have our own traditions in the church."
As a nun with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Sault Ste. Marie, Solomon has worked with priests since the 1970s to explore parallels between baptisms and traditional naming ceremonies, blessings and smudges, and other traditional practices.
"That was the beginning of the church beginning to accept some of our traditions," she said.
Gradually, these traditions, like using sweetgrass in place of incense, have grown more common in Indigenous Catholic communities in Canada.
"I think I've had sweetgrass used in a Catholic mass for about 30 years," Chatlain said. "It was more in small pockets. Now, it's pretty accepted in most of our parishes."
Canada: Breaking down colonial borders
As the Catholic Church under Pope Francis seeks to deepen these reforms, it is taking lessons from the Anglican Church of Canada, which is undergoing its own lengthy reformation process.
Just before his visit to Canada, Pope Francis met with Anglican primate Archbishop Linda Nicholls to learn about the church's approach.
In February, the Anglican Church ushered in one of its most significant reforms in decades in the form of new "foundational documents," which established an independent, self-governed Indigenous congregation within the broader church called the Sacred Circle.
The new structure allows Indigenous faith leaders to collaborate across boundaries without the permission of bishops, breaking down historic colonial structures of authority.
"That used to bother us, that we needed to seek approval," Donna Bomberry, the co-chair of the group that developed the documents, told the Anglican Journal. "We see these individuals as our relatives."
Faith leaders say that kind of local empowerment is essential if churches are to respect the wide variety of Indigenous traditions in Canada.
After so many years of their faith being demonized, Donald Bolen, the Catholic Archbishop of Regina, thinks it's equally important that the church supports the revival of Indigenous spirituality outside the church as well.
"It's about one spiritual tradition encountering another, and how to engage in dialogue and build relations," he said.
"I think there is a lot of room for us to learn how to become an ally, and I think the Pope will encourage us in that direction."
Taking time
Perhaps the clearest lesson Catholics can take from these examples is that reconciliation is a multi-generational effort.
The first church in Canada to apologize for its role in colonization was the United Church. Rather than accepting that apology, made in 1986, the elders simply acknowledged they had received it, saying they hoped it wasn't merely symbolic.
"That was a huge gift and challenge to the church," Rev. Carmen Lansdowne, the church's moderator, told CBC.
Lansdowne, who is a member of the Heiltsuk (Haíɫzaqv) Nation, became the United Church's first female Indigenous spiritual leader this week.
"There are divisions or mixed feelings, and rightly so, within the Indigenous community about Christianity," she said. "At the same time … the Christian story has been one that has been hopeful for some Indigenous people."
For Solomon, the nun, recognizing those mixed feelings is part of the pathway to truth. The Pope's apology is "a great blessing," she said, but there is still a long way to go.
"What happens in colonization is that you are given a lie by the colonizers, so the first step to regain your tradition is to recognize the lie that we were told," Solomon said. "Then, you go through a period of anger, and it's very great anger.
"And then, you have to find the truth for yourself."
A national Indian Residential School Crisis Line has been set up to provide support for residential school survivors and others affected. People can access emotional and crisis referral services by calling the 24-hour national crisis line: 1-866-925-4419.
Support is also available for anyone affected by their experience at Indian or federal day schools. Individuals can access immediate mental health counselling and crisis intervention services at the Hope for Wellness helpline by calling 1-855-242-3310 or online at www.hopeforwellness.ca.
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With files from David P. Ball