TORONTO – “Reconciliation is a long journey and today’s meeting with the Pope is only the first step along the path that leads to truth, justice and healing”. These are the first words of Cassidy Caron, president of the National Council of Metis, after the meeting with the Pope, which took place today in the Apostolic Library in Vatican City (in the pic above – credit © Vatican Media).

The first of a series of “face to face”, in these days, between Bergoglio and the natives of Canada, in an attempt to undertake a common path that leads to overcoming the pain of what happened from 1880 to the last decades of the twentieth century in schools Canadian residential establishments, funded by the government and run mostly by Christian organizations, aiming to educate indigenous young people and assimilate them into traditional Canadian society. In those structures abuses took place and the recent findings of mass graves with hundreds of human remains of very young indigenous have reopened old wounds that never healed. Hence the decision of the indigenous communities to meet Pope Francis, to reiterate in person a request made several times in recent months: a request for truth and justice, but also for healing for those wounds and for reconciliation between the two parties. Parties that, today, met in the Vatican for the first time.

Bergoglio first of all received the members of the Métis National Council. A meeting marked by words, stories, memories. Like those of Angie Crerar, 85, who told the Pope about the more than ten years spent with her little sisters in a residential school in the North-West territories in 1947, where “we have lost everything, everything, everything, except the language”. “When we left, it took me over 45 years to get back what I lost.” Angie then told Vatican News that she no longer wants to be crushed by past memories, but wants to look at the present: “Now we are strong. They didn’t break us, we’re still here. We have waited a long time but it looks like they will all be working with us now. For me it is a victory, the victory of our people for all the lost years”. And about the Pontiff, after the meeting, she said she had found “the sweetest, kindest person ever met. His smile, his reactions, his body language, made me feel this man friend ”.

Leaving the Apostolic Palace to the sound of two violins, a symbol of their culture, the natives met the international press outside St. Peter’s Square to tell the details of the morning. Cassidy Caron, the young president of Métis, spoke out for the “incalculable number of people who have left us without their truth ever being heard and their pain recognized. Without ever receiving the humanity and basic healing they deserved. The acknowledgment, the apologies are very late, but it’s never too late to do the right thing” she said.

From her Métis a “difficult but essential job” of listening and understanding the victims and their families was initiated. And what it was collected, it was presented to the Pope today: “He sat and listened, he nodded when our survivors told their stories. I felt pain in his reactions when it came to children. And when we invited him to join us, he replied by repeating, in English, ‘truth, justice, healing, reconciliation’. We take it as a personal commitment”.

Cassidy Caron also reported that she had submitted a request for access to documents kept in the Vatican regarding residential schools: “We continue and will continue to support everything the Métis need to understand the full truth. We will talk about the documents with the Pope in the audience on Friday “. The journey, then, has only just begun. And she said: “It will take commitment and action from many people: Canadians, the government, churches, parishioners, the Canadian Bishops’ Conference, the Catholic Church as a whole and the Pope. Everyone has a role to play in our journey of healing and reconciliation. Today we extended the invitation to the Pope to join us on our journey towards truth, reconciliation, healing and justice. It’s just a step, the journey is long”.

After the one with the Metis, the meeting with the Inuit was foreseen (in the pic below – credit © Vatican Media). “An opportunity to get justice” Natan Obed said before meeting Bergoglio.

On Thursday, the delegates of the First Nations will meet the Pontiff. All three groups of delegates will then meet again with the Pope on Friday, in the Clementine Hall, together with the Canadian Bishops’ Conference. The expectation is that he will undertake to apologize for the role played by the Catholic Church in residential schools on the occasion of a future apostolic trip – already announced, but not yet confirmed – to Canada.