Canadian archbishops cool toward request for papal visit and apology to Native Americans

June 11, 2015

A Canadian archbishop has drawn criticism for saying that the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission was “reaching for the moon” with its request that Pope Francis visit Canada within the next year to deliver a personal apology for the law that required Native Americans to send their children to Church-run residential schools.

Archbishop Terence Prendergast of Ottawa explained that papal trips involve considerable advance planning. He said that “something less than his coming to Canada within a year might have had a much better sense of achieving their goal.” Archbishop James Weisgerber of Winnipeg, the former president of the Canadian bishops’ conference, had a different perspective on the request from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He recalled that during his visit to Canada in 2007, Pope Benedict met with Native American leaders and expressed his sorrow for the residential-schools program, which was abandoned in 1948. If the commission wanted a papal apology, Archbishop Weisgerber said, “Pope Benedict did precisely that.”

 

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Further information:

• Call for another papal apology raising eyebrows (CCN)
• Canadian commission calls for papal visit, apology to Native Americans (CWN, 6/3)