Vance Badawey file photo
Badawey – a Member of Canada’s Metis Community and Liberal Government’s Parliamentary Seeretary to Indigenous Services –Paid Own Way to Historic Event
Did the Pope’s July 25th Apology Go Far Enough?
A Brief News Commentary by Doug Draper
Posted July 26th 2022 on Niagara At Large
Niagara Centre Liberal MP Vance Badawey was among the many thousands gathered near a mass grave for a former residential school in the outskirts of Edmonton, Alberta this past July 25th when Pope Francis issued his much-anticipated apology for the Catholic Church’s role in those infamous schools.
Vance Badawey, right, with two other members of Canada’s Indigenous community at gathering in Alberta this July 25th for Pope’s historic apology for his church’s role in residential schools. Photo courtesy of Niagara Centre constituency office
Like so many others, Badawey, who is also a member of Canada’s Metis community, no doubt found an apology that has been a long time coming heartfelt on the Pope’s part and moving.
Other than that, I will not make the mistake of putting any words in Badawey’s mouth or anyone else’s in the Indigenous community except to say, fromwhat has been reported, that feelings were mixed.
Pope Francis delivering aplogy.
There are those who argue that the Pope has so far not gone far enough on this five-day to Canada to focus on the role of the Catholic Church, as an institution, in the atrocities that occurred at residential schools- preferring instead to “the evils committed by many Christians.”
At least some are also expressing disappointment that the Pope has so far not made any reference to the term “cultural genocide” to define what went on in those schools or make any reference to the Vatican’s 500-year-old “Doctrine of Discovery” that justified committing such atrocities because Indigenous peoples are ‘non-human’ in the eyes of the doctrine.
There is a call among at least some in the Indigenous community and its supporters for the Pope to completely revoke this medieval doctrine.
There are also those who want the Pope to agree to urge the Canadian government to bring charges against those who are still alive and were responsible for committing atrocities in these residential schools which continued to exist right up to the 1990s. One Indigenous journalist said this July 25th, and I paraphrase-“We continue to seek justice against those, however old, who committed crimes against Jewish people during the Second World War. Why not seek justice against these people?’
What do you think?
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Doug Draper, Niagara At Large
For a full transcript of Pope Francis’ Apology, click on this CTV News link – https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/read-the-full-text-of-pope-francis-speech-and-apology-1.6001384
For a related NAL post, click on – https://niagaraatlarge.com/2021/12/04/niagara-centre-mp-vance-badawey-appointed-parliamentary-secretary-to-indigenous-services/
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