CANADA
Anishinabeck News
May 5, 2018
By Kathleen Imbert
Bishops of Canada advised Pope Francis to not apologize to First Nations. Their letter addressed to “Indigenous Brothers and Sisters” said, “The Catholic Bishops of Canada have been in dialogue with the Pope and the Holy See concerning the legacy of suffering you have experienced. The Holy Father is aware of the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which he takes seriously. As far as Call to Action #58 is concerned, after carefully considering the request and extensive dialogue with the Bishops of Canada, he felt that he could not personally respond”. (Letter from Bishop Legendre, March 28, 2018.)
Popes, on the one hand, and in the past, have apologized for the ‘evils’ of the priests that make up the Catholic Church, the latest being in 2014 by Pope Francis.
“Before God and his people I express my sorrow for the sins and grave crimes of clerical sexual abuse committed against you,” the Pope said. “And I humbly ask forgiveness. I beg your forgiveness, too for the sins of omissions on the part of Church leaders who did not respond adequately to reports of abuse made by family members, as well as by abuse victims themselves.”
In 2013, Francis formed a Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, made up of clergy and laity, which included two sexual abuse survivors of the clergy. One of them, Peter Saunders from England, was asked to take leave after criticizing the Pope on how he publicly gave support to the highly placed clergy. Marie Collins, an Irish survivor, resigned and in a letter to Cardinal Muller, who presides the Doctrine of Faith (a key Vatican department and keeper of good Catholic practices), gives an account of her experience in the commission and her insights on its inertia on the case of sexual abuse. “It appears that for you, the concern that the local bishop might feel disrespected far outweighs any concern about disrespecting the survivor.”
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