Rome meeting with Canadian Indigenous delegation rescheduled for late March

More than two dozen Indigenous delegates, accompanied by a handful of Canadian bishops, are once again on their way to meeting Pope Francis in the last week of March.

The trip to Rome, originally scheduled for Dec. 17 to 20, was derailed by rocketing COVID numbers, which were a particular threat to elderly residential school survivors who will play a central role in three separate meetings with the Pope.

“We look forward to continuing to work with Metis Nation citizens to ensure our stories, especially those of Metis survivors, are shared with @Pontifex,” Metis National Council president Cassidy Caron tweeted out just after the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and its Indigenous partners announced the reconstituted journey to Rome Feb. 1.

“The same delegates who were planning to travel to Rome in December will be travelling at the end of March,” MNC spokesperson Janna van de Sande said in an email.

Assembly of First Nations spokesperson Jamie Monastyrski confirmed to The Catholic Register the AFN will be sending the same slate of 13 delegates who were prepped to go in December.

Before the postponement, a total of 27 Indigenous delegates were scheduled to meet with Pope Francis on three separate days. Each delegation was scheduled for one hour each. The rescheduled trip will finish with a final audience with Pope Francis and all the Indigenous delegates on April 1.

Though the new dates are firm enough to be announced, “the health and safety of all delegates remain our first priority,” said a joint release from the CCCB, AFN, MNC and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami. The organizers will monitor COVID conditions in Canada and Rome, consult with public health officials and travel “only when we feel it is safe to do so.”

“We remain committed to walking toward healing and reconciliation and very much look forward to the opportunity for Indigenous elders, knowledge keepers, residential school survivors and youth to meet with Pope Francis,” said the joint release.

Before the pandemic delay the official delegates were to be accompanied by additional Indigenous people, mental health and spiritual support teams and a number of bishops and CCCB support staff.

CCCB president Bishop Raymond Poisson, vice president Bishop Bill McGrattan, Edmonton Archbishop Richard Smith, Winnipeg Archbishop Richard Gagnon and Regina Archbishop Don Bolen were confirmed members of the CCCB party in December. But the bishops will be there to listen to the Indigenous delegates, not to direct the encounters with the Pope, said Smith before the trip was delayed.

“The essence of this encounter (is) heart speaking to heart,” he said. “The heart of the delegates, speaking from their hearts to the Pope. We all know well the compassionate heart of our Holy Father. It’s with that heart that he will listen, and it’s from that heart that he will respond.”

The Canadian bishops on the trip will be listening along with Pope Francis, said McGrattan.

“Pope Francis and the bishops who will be present will be there to listen and to respond and to make sure that we are committed to this path of reconciliation,” he said.

Delegate meetings with Pope Francis are intended as a first step, leading to a papal visit to Canada. The visit from Pope Francis has been announced but not scheduled and it is unknown when it might take place. It is widely expected that in Canada Pope Francis will issue an apology in the name of the Church for the residential schools, fulfilling the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Call to Action #58.

“Our hope is that this visit and a potential visit from the Pope on our home territories will provide some measure of dignity and respect to the survivors and the intergenerational survivors of the residential schools,” Dene Regional Chief Norman Yakeleya told reporters at a press conference in December to announce the AFN delegation going to Rome. “We seek to hear the words on our lands by the Pope. We seek justice. It is only then that we can begin walking truly on the healing path of reconciliation.”

For Metis delegate Gary Gagnon, the meeting with Pope Francis couldn’t be more important.

“I’m sorry. I get so emotional because my Pope is so important… I really believe. I believe he is a kind, gentle person who would never, never, ever let those children be destroyed, be lost, given away, lost forever,” the Grande Prairie, Alta., elder and residential school survivor said at a Dec. 2 press conference in Edmonton. “And it’s time for the answer now.”