Exploring Theme: "Indigenous Responses to Pope's Apology"

Nunatsiaq News managing editor Corey Larocque looks back on Pope Francis’ visit to Iqaluit This article is one in a series in which Nunatsiaq News journalists reflect on a story from 2022 that they loved to tell. Nunatsiaq News: I’ve always been a sucker for big historical events — glued to the TV for royal...

“The most important day of an apology is the day after, and the year after. We all need to be looking at what the Pope does then.” Cindy Blackstock, Executive Director, First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada NationTalk: With those wise words, Dr. Blackstock this week crystalized the essence of Pope Francis’s...

NationTalk: IQALUIT, July 27, 2022 – Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada’s President Sharpe and board members understand that the intergenerational trauma caused by the Roman Catholic church has impacted Inuit women, families, and communities.  To support former students and address Intergenerational impacts on families, aftercare is critical. Providing mental health support is essential, and our...

Indian Country Today (ICT) – Canadian Press: WASHINGTON – The “penitential pilgrimage” by Pope Francis to heal the relationship between Indigenous Peoples in Canada and the Catholic Church has been resonating in the United States, a country coming to terms with its own troubled history of residential schools.  In U.S., too, faint praise for papal...

CBC: The former Manitoba senator who chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada says there’s a “deep hole” in the apology issued by Pope Francis Monday for the role Catholics played in Canada’s residential school system. Murray Sinclair says the historic apology, although meaningful to many residential school survivors and their families, fell short of Call to Action...

CBC: Although AFN National Chief RoseAnne Archibald appreciated the personal nature of Pope Francis’ apology she also felt that the apology fell short on a number of fronts: Failure to rescind the Doctrine of Discovery that was the primary instrument of colonization for the stealing of Indigenous land and genocide of Indigenous people. This doctrine...

Inuvialuit Regional Corporation (IRC) has respectfully declined an invitation to participate in the Papal visit to Iqaluit on July 29, 2022, as it remains unclear if a formal apology will be made or not. The Roman Catholic Church operated three (3) residential schools in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region (ISR). Inuvialuit continue to bear the burden...