Images of Pope Francis receiving a feathered headdress from native Canadians, together with other heartwarming scenes and momentous deeds, have made headlines all around the world.
This “pilgrimage of penitence,” which is focused on forging a genuine road of peace with Native American populations, is also an apostolic journey to a nation with a long and rich Catholic heritage.
Pope Francis’ visits to Edmonton’s Sacred Heart church and Lac Ste. Anne physically illustrated the Catholic Church’s close relationship with Canada’s indigenous peoples.
A scene that made me cry
The damage caused by the Catholic Church’s involvement in the residential school system in Canada is still being felt today, and many indigenous Canadians sobbed as Pope Francis apologized publicly for that engagement on July 25 in Maskwacis.
In order to assimilate them into the language and culture of the modern nation being built on their own ancient homelands, children of indigenous peoples were forcibly sent to “Indian residential schools,” Canadian government boarding schools, where they were separated from their families and traditions.
Additionally, Christian organizations, some of them Catholic, were given control of these schools.
There were several schools with awful health conditions. Children were mistreated, and some were even abused, as epidemics spread.
Between 1870 and 1997, at least 150,000 First Nations, Inuit, and Métis children were reportedly kidnapped from their homes and communities and made to attend school, according to government estimates. In the schools, at least 4,120 kids lost their lives.
A total of 94 recommendations were made by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was in operation from 2008 to 2015 and reached the conclusion that thousands of children perished while attending “Indian Residential Schools.”
Four of these were addressed to the Church, and one of them included a request for an apology.
Perhaps the call came right now.
However, Pope Francis is continuing the work that John Paul II and Benedict XVI started in 1987 with what he is currently doing.
Because of the apology’s significant historical background, it is impossible to ignore the outstanding missionary work that has also been done in Canada.
When discussing the work of the missionaries, Pope Francis emphasized this in his homily at Edmonton Stadium.
The Lac Ste. Anne Shrine
At Lac St. Anne, the lake that the Oblates of Mary, who arrived there in the 19th century, consecrated to this saint, there was evidence of missionary activities.
Native Americans revered the lake and regarded it as sacred ground.
It was known as “Wakame” (Lake of God) by the Nakota Sioux and “Lake of the Spirit” by the Cree.
However, Lac Ste. Anne was given to it by Father Jean-Baptiste Thibault, the first missionary to construct a permanent Catholic mission there.
Fathers Jean-Baptiste Thibault and Joseph Bourassa started the mission of Sainte-Anne in 1843.
Later, Father Albert Lacombe joined them and completed his novitiate there between 1855 and 1856 under the supervision of Father René Rémas, who had moved there in 1855.
The Sisters of Charity of Montreal were given ownership of the complex in 1858–1859, and during those key years, from 1857 to 1865, the church was expanded, a convent was erected, and a school was established.
About 800 Métis and Cree Native Americans from the prairies went to school in Lac-la-Biche and learned how to produce lime and construct houses from a missionary.
The Sainte-Anne mission was in risk of closing by 1887. Father Joseph Lestanc, another missionary, had a heavenly vision, nevertheless, and he built a shrine in memory of Jesus’ grandmother.
The shrine was intended to be a location where pilgrims might go and receive spiritual support and guidance.
And he did. It was 1889. Some people experienced physical and spiritual healing during that same year, especially those who came into contact with Lac-Sainte-Anne.
In that year, pilgrimages got underway, drawing mostly indigenous travelers from all around the North West.
Thus, the missionaries followed the customs of the native people.
A symbol of the fusion of cultures that brought the Gospel to Native American populations is the blessing of water, performed with a cross in the Indian manner that points in the direction of the cardinal points.
Each person has a parish.
Pope Francis reaffirmed his “shame” and grief at the harm perpetrated by Catholics during the time of Canada’s residential school system when visiting the Parish of the Sacred Heart in Edmonton on July 25.
Papal Spokesman: “The cardinal points are given a strong cosmic meaning by the native peoples, who view them as dimensions that encompass all reality and point the way to its healing as represented by the so-called “medicine wheel” in addition to serving as geographic landmarks.
This church appropriates the cardinal point symbolism and gives it a Christological interpretation.
Jesus has reconciled the most disparate peoples by embracing the four cardinal points through the four ends of his crucifixion.
Jesus has also brought healing and peace to all things.
He carried out God’s will for all things to be made right on the cross.”
A crucifix is paired with a teepee, a traditional Indian tent, and other traditional components in the Sacred Heart Church today.
Its founding dates back to the influx of numerous migrants into the Canadian West in 1913.
It was initially built in the “French Gothic Revival” architectural style and quickly turned into a second house for immigrants in Edmonton.
Everyone was welcome here.
Over time, numerous immigrants to the West established their own parishes in Edmonton, including the Croatian parish devoted to the Nativity of Mary, the parishes of Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of Guadalupe, and Spain’s Santa Maria Goretti.
Sacred Heart Parish continued to be a place of welcome for all new arrivals and those in need of all faiths, offering food and helpful services.
The parish was rebuilt after a fire in 1966 destroyed the original structures, and it was given a new mission to care for indigenous peoples.
It was named the First Nations, Métis, and Inuit parish on October 27, 1991, by Archbishop Joseph McNeil.
The inside of the church was altered to serve as the parish house for the native peoples.
The walls are decorated with original artwork by Metis and native painters.
The parish also keeps up its tradition of embracing new immigrants.
The freshly migrated Ethiopian Orthodox community is now housed there.
Indigenous Canadian symbols now exist as a live component and expression of the parish’s cultural heritage.
Drums, musical instruments, and Native American languages are frequently used at festivals in Canada.
Some people observed that this was absent from Pope Francis’ liturgical events.
A Moccasin Movement
Pope Francis’ journey to Edmonton in Canada’s modern Catholic life and its rich history at Sacred Heart was against a stirring backdrop.
The parish the Argentinian pope, a son of Italian immigrants, visited reflected the gospel-welcoming and gospel-inculturation culture he frequently talks about.
Pope Francis also demonstrated how the Christian legacy may enrich regional practice and custom rather than obliterate it by visiting the shrine of Lac Ste. Anne: The indigenous people’s unique reverence for their Kokum, or grandmothers, aligns nicely with the devotion of Saint Anne.
Bishop David Motiuk of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Edmonton noted that two of the most significant events of the trip were centered on the idea of the grandmother.
The Pope’s journey has been meticulously planned down to the last detail. Francis added a significant gesture at Maskwacis—the return of a specific pair of moccasins—to this symbolism, which is also highlighted in remarks from today.
Chief Marie-Anne Day Walker-Pelletier of the Okanese First Nation in Saskatchewan presented the moccasins to the pope at the April 1 meeting in the Vatican.
With the stipulation that when he traveled to Canada, he would be required to bring him back. Francis, the pope, did it.
The creation of the moccasins is a component of an initiative to increase public awareness of how child detention affects Indigenous children in Canada.