CMEDIA/More than a dozen residential school survivors from First Nations across the country are reportedly holding two days of talks in Winnipeg before meeting with Canadian bishops on Wednesday.
With a plan to press Roman Catholic bishops for input on the Pope’s planned stops in Canada in July, these residential school survivors, want to know the words the pontiff will use in his expected residential school apology on Canadian soil.
They also hope for the signing of a new covenant in the meeting in which the Roman Catholic Church would commit to deeper engagement with First Nations before and after Pope Francis comes to Canada.
“It’s choice time,” said
Ted Quewezance, a survivor from Keeseekoose First Nation in Saskatchewan who is co-chairing the meetings was reported to say that the Catholic Church must make a choice of real conciliation for families and communities.
While trying to revive the Indian Residential School Survivors Society, which he used to head, Quewezance aims to strengthen the voice of survivors ahead of the Pope’s visit.
Pope Francis had apologized to Indigenous delegates for the deplorable conduct of some church members in residential schools initially at the Vatican on April 1.
The Catholic Church is reportedly the first institution the survivors are trying to work with asserting that it won’t be the last.
#Canada; #ResidentialSchoolSurvivors; #PapalApology; #Indigenous
