Doreen Bernard and her mother, Nancy Lutz, attended the Shubenacadie Indian Residential School. But if you ask the two about the Pope’s visit, mother and daughter disagree.
“I felt disappointed that more wasn’t said,” said Doreen Bernard, who attended the apology in Maskwatzis and also saw the pope at the Citadel of Quebec.
Bernard wanted to hear Pope Francis repeal the Doctrine of Discovery, a centuries-old church edict used to justify the colonization of indigenous lands.
“I felt that his apology was very scripted and probably done by Vatican lawyers and there were certainly words that he couldn’t say,” she said.
“I was waiting for him to go off script and speak from the heart, although there were times when he did and of course one of those times was on the plane when he was leaving when he said what happened here to the indigenous peoples was genocide .
Lutz, a practicing Catholic, was less critical of the pope’s words.
“I thought he did well for where he was standing and for the people he was talking to,” she said.
Lutz believes that the pope said what he was told to say, but when he was alone and there wasn’t much of an audience around him, he spoke from his heart.
“He is listening. He sees us,” Lutz said.
Both Bernard and Lutz are grateful that the pope came to Canada, but Bernard wishes the school survivors had more opportunity to interact with him.
She believes reconciliation is a word that is “tossed around” and wants to see action, such as releasing Vatican study records and returning them to Canada – records she believes could help resolve issues without answer for children who never returned home from boarding schools.
For Bernard, the Pope’s visit also gave hope.
“People are perhaps even more willing to come forward for healing and to speak out now that the pope has acknowledged that this is genocide,” she said. “Perhaps those who have always been afraid to speak will speak.”
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If you are a former survivor of a school disaster or have been affected by the school system and need help, you can contact Indian Schools’ 24-hour crisis line: 1-866-925-4419
Additional mental health support and resources for Indigenous people are available here.
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