The Pope’s Apology: How Did It Go?

For the last two weeks, Canadian media have been full of the Pope’s apology visit to our Indigenous population. Which is as it should be. Considering how many decades their plight has occurred completely off the radar of the majority of Canadians, this hardly makes up the difference, but it’s a good start. I thought I knew something about their situation, but I learned some new angles this week, and I hope other Canadians did as well.

How Did It Go?

Even before the Pope spoke one word, we were reminded that everybody would take this speech from their own point of view. In that respect, it went pretty much as scripted: some were happy, some disappointed.

Emotional Effect

Recognition and apology are crucial for those suffering emotional trauma, and in that respect the pope’s words and obvious sympathy were very effective. He did not mince his words when he acknowledged the cruelty the Indigenous people suffered. Many of those interviewed expressed satisfaction that the suffering they felt was validated.

Practical Content

This is longer term, and didn’t go so well, of course. Nobody expected this apology to be the end of the line in any way. The Pope referred to a plan that needs to be laid out clearly and acted on. Things like:

1. Return of documentation, which will both validate the claims and help gather evidence.
2. Return of artifacts (This has emotional value as well).
3. Doctrine of Discovery. I had not realized that this doctrine was codified in papal bulls of the day. This means there is something the church can do about it: cancel the bulls and proclamations. The Pope dealt with this problem generally, but that was not his reason for coming to Canada. This makes it an ideal target for future action.

What Else Happened

My personal note was that much of the Pope’s apology was of a broader scope than just the Catholic church. This factor is a two-edged sword. Some will say he was trying to spread the blame around. Others will note that, as the representative of the largest religious organization in the world, he was in a position to apologize on behalf of the wider Christian community, an action which was also meaningful.

I also noted that much of his logic was aimed specifically at the Roman Catholic congregation in the Indigenous community. This seemed fair game as well, because his church can play a fuller role in reconciliation if it maintains the loyalty and eases the pain of its own members.

What Will Never Happen

Note that the Pope apologized personally and on behalf of Christians, but NOT on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church. To his denomination, the Church is God, and God doesn’t make mistakes. Which I hope residential school survivors will take as evidence of the immense collective ego driving that church, and nothing to do with them.

I notice also that the structure of the church allows the “Church of Rome,” where all the money goes, to duck responsibility for all problems, and the individual national, provincial, and parish groups must pay their own debts. In other words, orders flow down from Rome and money flows back to Rome, and responsibility goes out the window.

This politispeak is something similar to big corporations ducking the payment of their debts because “That comes from another budget.”

The Last Word: Genocide

Some were upset the Pope didn’t give his verdict until he was on the plane home. I thought it appropriate to wait until the evidence was all in, and he had time to think. Then he made the right call.

The Bottom Line

The general response I noted was that the apology opened the issue to the whole of the Canadian public and laid solid emotional groundwork for the action that now needs to come.

Now we have to keep the ball rolling.