When Linda Daniels and Pope Francis looked into each other’s eyes at the Vatican three years ago, she hoped he would recognize the suffering of Indigenous people who were forced into residential schools as children.
Daniels, a member of Long Plain First Nation in Manitoba, said the pope nodded as they shook hands.
“I looked into his eyes and said in my mind, ‘Feel our hurt; feel my pain,’” she told the Free Press, after Francis died at 88 on Monday. “I feel that he did.”
Former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations Phil Fontaine (centre) and residential school survivor Linda Daniels from the Long Plains First Nation (right), presented a leather stole — a liturgical vestment — to Pope Francis at the Vatican in April, 2022.
Daniels was emotional after learning of the pope’s death. She read an online news report when she happened to wake up at 3 a.m.
“I got up right away. I walked and I walked in my kitchen and living room, and cried,” she said.
After returning to bed, Daniels woke up later in the morning and smudged — a ceremony that involves the burning of one or more sacred medicines.
“I’m so glad that he came (to Canada) and saw the residential school people. He came for us, and all the little babies that passed away and didn’t make it home,” she said.
“I thanked him for coming and honouring those children. When I talked to him in my prayer, I thanked God, too, for putting me on that journey to go and meet him.”
Daniels was part of a delegation of Indigenous people who visited the Vatican in April 2022. Some provided first-hand accounts of how the residential school system harmed children and families.
“I’m so glad that he came (to Canada) and saw the residential school people. He came for us, and all the little babies that passed away and didn’t make it home.”– Residential school Linda Daniels
Daniels and Phil Fontaine, a survivor and former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, presented a leather stole — a liturgical vestment — to Francis. The garment, made by Therese Dettanikkeaze of Northlands Denesuline First Nation in Manitoba, was beaded with orange crosses.
Before the delegation returned to Canada, Francis apologized for the conduct of Roman Catholic Church members who had a role in abuses at church-run residential schools.
The pope apologized again three months later, when he spoke at the site of a former residential school in Maskwacis, Alta. Daniels, who was there, described it as a “powerful” moment.
Residential school survivor Jennifer Wood, who also attended the apology, recalled how silent it was when Francis began to speak.
“The crowd was very solemn, very quiet. You could hear a pin drop,” Wood, who spent part of her childhood in Manitoba after moving from Neyaashiinigmiing First Nation in Ontario, said.
Jennifer Wood recalled the pope’s apology and plea for forgiveness brought tears to survivors, bishops and others in the crowd at the Vatican.
“I think a lot of survivors were holding their breath. Many survivors across Canada had been wanting and waiting for an apology, especially those who were abused physically, psychologically, emotionally.”
The pope’s apology and plea for forgiveness brought tears to survivors, bishops and others in the crowd, Wood recalled.
“I could see elders crying in their seats and their wheelchairs,” she said. “There was a heaviness lifted from their hearts that they were validated at that time, and felt probably valued. The apology probably did more than we will ever know because, as you know, apologies are very personal.”
Francis acknowledged the residential school system “denigrated and suppressed” Indigenous languages and cultures, while children suffered physical, verbal, psychological and spiritual abuse.
The apology probably did more than we will ever know because, as you know, apologies are very personal.”– Residential school survivor Jennifer Wood
He promised a “serious” investigation and to help survivors heal from the traumas they suffered. For some survivors, his apology was hollow or not enough.
Francis didn’t use the word “genocide” during his six-day “penitential pilgrimage” to Canada in July 2022.
While flying back to Rome, he told reporters he agreed the forced removal of Indigenous children from their homes and the attempt to assimilate them was cultural genocide.
Wood said she was grateful for the pontiff’s acknowledgement.
“It’s very important to us to tell the truth, and for others to know the truth about the history of the residential school legacy,” she said.
The federal government estimated more than 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Métis children attended residential schools between the 1830s and 1990s.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission concluded in 2015 that the schools were a systematic, government-sponsored attempt to destroy Indigenous cultures and languages and to assimilate them so they “no longer existed as distinct peoples” as part of a policy of cultural genocide.
Surrounded by Grand Chiefs, Pope Francis read his statement of apology during a visit with Indigenous peoples at Maskwaci, the former Ermineskin Residential School in July 2022, in Maskwacis, Alta.
The commission said the complete number of deaths will likely never be known because many documents were destroyed. The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation said it has documented more than 4,100 children who died at residential schools.
Wood said church records that have been withheld should be returned.
Daniels and Wood said the Catholic Church can do more to support survivors and families affected by intergenerational trauma.
“A lot of elders out there haven’t healed. They need to heal before they pass away,” Daniels said. “There’s so much alcohol and drugs in our reserves because that hurt is still there. The hurt goes on to the next generation.”
The Catholic Church, which avoided paying millions in compensation, could fund healing services or strategies, Wood said.
“Look at homelessness, look at the mental state of our young people, look at the opioid crisis, look at the housing conditions — the substandard housing — look at how we’ve been marginalized, sterilized,” she said.
“Look at all those things, because we all know when you peel that onion, the source and the foundation of people’s hurt and pain is a direct result of the residential school legacy.”
chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca
Chris Kitching
Reporter
Chris Kitching is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He began his newspaper career in 2001, with stops in Winnipeg, Toronto and London, England, along the way. After returning to Winnipeg, he joined the Free Press in 2021, and now covers a little bit of everything for the newspaper. Read more about Chris.
Every piece of reporting Chris produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
