(The following reflection by Archbishop Emeritus Sylvain Lavoie OMI is reproduced from SSVP Canada News, Jun 23, 2021)
The discovery of 215 children found buried at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in unmarked graves on the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation community is surely impacting all of us. We have probably all felt some or all of the emotions of shock, disbelief, dismay, anger, shame, sorrow and profound grief. And we have all have questions, many unanswered questions that need to be asked in the coming days and weeks: when did this happen, how did this happen, how could this have been allowed to happen, who could have allowed this to happen? This shared history of residential schools profoundly impacts residential school survivors, and indeed all Canadians, and certainly us as a Society.
Probably many of us have received messages or comments from others – family, friends, acquaintances, fellow workers, expressing some of the above reactions. A friend who was a former chief, politician and businessman, called me to express his frustration, indignation and anger. He had international connections, stressed that the impact of this was huge, and that it was placing the church, as well as the Oblates, in a very dark, negative light with especially the media. One person even questioned her involvement with a program that is being hosted by our Star of the North retreat Centre, precisely because it is an Oblate centre. Another former parishioner wrote to say she was questioning the church now.
What makes something that is already bad perhaps even worse, is the fact that one of our venerable bishops, Vital Grandin, is quoted saying something that is as racist as even the first prime minister seems to have been – that Indigenous children need to be taken away from their families and civilized until there is “nothing Indian left in them except their blood.” And I read in the Delmas history book, my home parish, how Fr. Delmas worked to convince the Indigenous to trust the government’s offer for basically the forced take-over of their land and wanted a favour to establish a French Catholic colony there.
So, what are we to make of all this, and how should we respond, as a Catholic society dedicated to serving the poor and marginalized, when this ugly reality reveals the poverty, mistakes and weakness of the Church, and threatens to marginalize us?
Psychologists offer us three options when danger or threat is on the horizon, as this development surely is – fight, flight or freeze. We can react by being defensive and fight back, as some are urging us to do (“Why is no one defending Bishop Grandin?” is a question posed to us already). We can try to flee into defensiveness, justifying and rationalizing. Or we can simply sit and do nothing, trying to ignore all the painful revelations and comments, hoping it will all pass.
None of these responses, tempting as they are, will help in any way. Our best response is to be humble, honest, open and transparent, and see this as a moment of purification and humiliation for the Church, and for us all. We need to remember that God turns everything to the good for those who love God, and trust that in all of this darkness and pain, God will draw some good, even if it is a more humble, compassionate and faithful body of believers.
We need to be patient, and meet the challenge of doing three things exceptionally well – face the reality, accept the reality, and deal with the reality. We need to face the truth of what has happened, and what will continue to surface as surely more such scenarios will be discovered. We need to accept that members of our faith community, and in my case, religious community of the Oblates, somehow, in whatever historical context they were in, allowed this to happen.
Then we need to move towards what Jesus teaches us in the gospel of Matthew – forgive the perpetrators of this awful reality, and apologize for the fact that it was done by whomever was responsible. Above all, we need to listen from the heart to the pain that especially the Indigenous peoples are feeling, as this will trigger past memories of abuse, racism, discrimination, neglect, indignity, and humiliation for many.
One lady who attended a Catholic day school, not a boarding school, sent me an email sharing her anger at the treatment she received from one sister in particular as a Métis student, how the Métis all sat at the back of the class, how she was not allowed to go to the bathroom during class, then was teased for being smelly all day. She vividly shared the impact that abuse had on her, but also how she had managed to work her way through that intense pain to a place where she now experienced some serenity. What she needed to heal that inner wound, newly scraped open, was to be heard and affirmed. And that we can all do.
We need to let this development not just play itself out, but spur us on to even greater levels of compassion, understanding, and awareness as we continue to serve the poor. Let us resolve to work together with all levels of our church leadership to finally be more open, humble and honest about our mistakes in the past, and change any attitudes of not really caring in the present. May we all work together to heal this dark history, encourage the bishops to unite around the call for a papal apology, and be willing to provide funds to help the process of truth-telling, instead of giving it to lawyers to mitigate litigation.
And above all, let us pray for greater compassion and understanding for all of us – Indigenous and non-Indigenous, that this dark night of the soul will lead us all to a place of greater wellness as a church, a society and a country.
Archbishop Emeritus Sylvain Lavoie OMI
National Spiritual Advisor
