Papal apology mandatory for reconciliation, B.C. chief says

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This article was published 30/03/2022 (1675 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ROME — It’s nearly 9,000 kilometres from the Vatican to Kamloops, B.C., but for Rosanne Casimir, Kúkpi7 (chief) of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc in that interior B.C. community, the two are strongly linked.

“Many believe we wouldn’t be here (in Rome) without the discovery of the graves,” she said of the First Nations, Inuit and Métis meeting with Pope Francis.

For Casimir, as it was for many others on the trip, last year’s discovery of unmarked graves at the former Kamloops residential school represented a turning point in Indigenous relations with the Roman Catholic Church.

It helped create the conditions for the historic meeting with the Pope, she said, adding she came to Rome with a “deliberate message from my people to have the Pope acknowledge the harm” done by the residential schools.

That admission, and an apology in Canada, will be the first step towards reconciliation with the Church, she said.

“A lot of other things also need to take place,” she said, adding there would be followup with the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops when the meetings are over.

She said moving forward will require acts of contrition so “wrongs can be made right for our people.”

Members of her community differ on their willingness to pursue reconciliation with the Church, she said.

“Some are ready, some aren’t,” she said, adding an apology from the Pope — in Canada — is mandatory for her. She would like him to do it in Kamloops, what some call “ground zero” for the current level of awareness about the abuses of residential schools.

Although she acknowledged not everyone in her community supported her trip to meet the Pope, she feels good about the visit, believing it will make a difference for the community.

“It can start the healing,” she said.

Before she left for Rome, Casimir participated in a ceremony with elders and other community members to prepare herself mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

“I felt supported as we sang and prayed together,” she said. “It was the good medicine I needed.”

John Longhurst is in Rome this week to cover the papal visit by Indigenous people for the Free Press. See coverage of the visit at www.winnipegfreepress.com/papalvisit

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