Residential Schools, the Vatican, and 60 Minutes

This past Sunday evening the investigative journalism show 60 Minutes did a piece on the terrible legacy of Canada's Residential Schools. These were more accurately institutions of indoctrination and cultural genocide with an element of forced child labour. We now realize that many children died at these schools, often without benefit of proper burials and often without acknowledgement of the deaths to their own families. The host Anderson Cooper spent time with some of the survivors who spoke with emotion and dignity about their own experiences and the intergenerational trauma of the abuse which took place, almost always perpetrated by those in religious authority. 

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/canada-residential-schools-unmarked-graves-indigenous-children-60-minutes-video-2022-02-06/

Last week we also heard that the meeting between Pope Francis and Canadian Indigneous representatives at the Vatican in Rome has been rescheduled for  the end of March and into April. This meeting was originally planned for last December to discuss the Roman Catholic Church’s role in the Canadian “residential schools” system but Omicron got in the way. The plan is to have 25 to 30 Indigenous elders, residential school survivors and youth, meet with Pope Francis. First Nations, Metis and Inuit are to have separate meetings with him before a sitting with all three together.

The world is paying attention to what is unfolding in Canada as more and more Indigenous communites are searching for evidence of the deaths of children. The conversation is happening in the United States and Australia about residential schools as well. We can pray that the representatives are heard in the Rome meetings and for truth and reconcilation.

At the conclusion of the 60 Minutes episode Leona Wolf, one of the women interviewed, walks through the derelict school singing "Hail Mary full of grace" which she modifies with her own dance and words in Cree. It is a powerful reclamation of her Indigenous heritage. She says she's made peace with the Virgin Mary and with herself. 

                                                              Leona Wolf and Anderson Cooper