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LAKE STE. Pope Francis spoke in 3 First Nations languages at a sacred pilgrimage site hours after his public Mass in Edmonton, described as a missed opportunity not to come with indigenous culture or traditions.
On Tuesday, Francis joined many others at Lac Ste. Anne, northwest of Edmonton, and at a church service, dressed in a red Métis belt around her neck, greeted in nakota, cree and pied-noir.
“Aba-wash-did! Tansi! Oki!”
Many applauded.
It has been vital for indigenous peoples and Catholics for generations. Francis blessed the lake, smiling broadly, and used a classic wooden tool with a brush at the end to give some water to the outstretched hands of the crowd.
The Pope’s liturgy included reflections on the Roman Catholic Church’s beyond and long-term courtship with indigenous peoples, as well as the role of indigenous women in their communities.
“Dear indigenous brothers and sisters, I have come here as a pilgrim to tell you how valuable they are to me and to the Church,” Francis said.
“I the church to be intertwined with you, as tightly woven as the threads of the colored bands that many of you use. “
It was a stark contrast to the mass passed in front of thousands of others at Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium. There, Francis didn’t talk much about the indigenous peoples, cultures or traditions of the event, though he apologized a day earlier for the abuse at a Catholic residence. schools.
“I just don’t know what they thought,” Daryold Corbiere Winkler, an Ottawa priest who is Anishinaabe, said of the Edmonton service.
“For me, this is a missed opportunity for a Mass to celebrate indigenous traditions and cultural practices. They didn’t. They did the opposite. “
Corbiere Winkler said he was positive when the Mass began with indigenous drums and the popemobile guided Francis around the stadium’s soccer field. The Pope blessed and embraced the little ones and young people who were given to him and the cheers resounded in the stands full of thousands of people.
Winkler said his hopes were dashed when the service took a classic turn. He was devastated when the Eucharistic prayer was pronounced in Latin, as the survivors of the residential school were there.
“That’s the language they would have heard at boarding school,” he said. “Many of the survivors, this is the Mass they heard as children. “
Angel Dermit said the uncompromising Mass reminded him of the ceremonies of his formative years at Lower Post Residential School in British Columbia.
“When I heard the service, it’s very different from how I in God and how I in Jesus,” he said.
The Pope his homily, the comments after the Biblical readings, on the importance of grandparents and the elderly.
Towards the end, he prayed for “a long road in which the history of violence and marginalization suffered by our indigenous brothers and sisters will never be repeated. “
There were about 65,000 loose tickets for mass, but many rows of seats were empty, especially on the upper decks. Organizers estimated there were around 50,000 people present. Hats and commemorative clothing of the papal scale in were sold about an advance payment. for between $10 and $45.
During the blessing of the Eucharist, “repeal the doctrine of discovery” – papal documents used in colonization – was shouted.
Rose-Marie Blair-Isberg, a survivor of a residential school in White River First Nation in the Yukon, said she felt the church was “selling its point of view” at Mass.
Edith Didzena holding a photo of her mother, Regina Ethidzine, sitting in the stadium with her children. Listen to the Pope’s apology.
On Monday, on a stopover in the Maskwacis network, south of Edmonton, the pope apologized to residential school survivors and their families for the role Church members played in the cultural destruction and forced assimilation of indigenous peoples.
Patty Crofton, a member of the Sagkeeng First Nation in Manitoba, said she didn’t sleep well after hearing the apology because it brought back complicated memories. He went to day school and his parents went to residential schools.
“I’m on my own healing adventure from all of this,” he said before Mass.
Eila Harper of St. Theresa Point First Nation in Manitoba said she is Catholic and attends Mass every Sunday. He arrived at Lac Ste. Anne about five hours earlier and in the front row to watch Francis bless the lake.
“I was a little moved when I saw it and had an idea about our faith and everything about us,” she said.
“Since he blesses the water, he will heal. “
Francis is scheduled to travel to Quebec City on Wednesday and end his stopover in Iqaluit on Friday.
The Indian Residential Schools Resolution Health Support Program has a hotline for residential school survivors and their loved ones suffering from trauma invoked by withdrawal from beyond abuse. The number is 1-866-925-4419.
This report through The Canadian Press was first published on July 26, 2022.
— With Daniela Germano in Edmonton and Kelly Geraldine Malone in Winnipeg
Brittany Hobson and Bob Weber, The Canadian Press