Omicron’s concerns delay indigenous visit to Pope

They cited how the “uncertainty and potential health risks surrounding international travel” were too great, particularly for the elderly who would have traveled, as well as those living in remote communities.

“Our shared commitment to walk together toward healing and reconciliation remains strong,” his statement read.

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Smith said he would not be replaced by a virtual delegation because it is important to meet face-to-face with Pope Francis to discuss reconciliation.

Metis National Council Chair Cassidy Caron said they remain committed to bringing an indigenous voice to the Vatican. But, he said, “with the Omicron variant rapidly making its way around the world, we are choosing to do our part to prevent its spread and keep our people safe.”

The news that the next trip may have been canceled was made earlier in the day by the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, RoseAnne Archibald, who pointed to fears about the Omicron variant.

“The health and well-being of our delegates, their families and communities is paramount to us and we will not put anyone in danger if we can avoid it,” Archibald said at a virtual chiefs meeting.

Catholic bishops announced in June that national indigenous organizations would send a delegation to meet with Pope Francis in hopes of one day seeing him travel to Canada to offer an apology for the role the Catholic Church played in running the residential school system.

In October, Pope Francis expressed his willingness to come to Canada on an unspecified date.

Smith said it is too early to say whether the pandemic or the delayed indigenous delegation to the Vatican has affected those travel plans.

“We know he wants to come,” Smith said in Edmonton. “But when he might be able to do that, he’s up in the air. We’re taking one step at a time.”

Survivors and their families have long sought a papal apology for abuses against indigenous children forced to attend federally funded, church-run residential schools.

At least 150,000 indigenous children were forced to attend residential schools, where thousands testified to physical and sexual abuse, as well as neglect and malnutrition.

The 2015 final report from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, which investigated what happened in these institutions, listed a papal apology as one of its 94 calls to action, but it has not been fulfilled.

This year a push for the Pope to apologize has resurfaced, given the discovery of what are believed to be hundreds of nameless graves at former residential school sites in British Columbia and Saskatchewan.

Crown and Indian Relations Minister Marc Miller called the postponement disappointing, but said the safety of the participants is the “number one priority.”

He said the opportunity to speak with the Pope will continue to exist.

“Obviously, it is unfortunate because I believe that the Holy Father needs to hear directly from the defenders and that occasion will not present itself until later,” he said.

Miller said the trip was not being organized or directed by the federal government, but Ottawa is providing some support to the delegation, and that will continue.

In his address to AFN bosses on Tuesday, Archibald said they have asked the Catholic Church to make various repairs, including the return of the diocese’s lands and properties to the First Nations in which they are located.

She also believes that the church needs to provide more money for long-term healing initiatives in excess of the $ 30 million that the bishops’ conference promised to raise in early fall.

Archibald says he has also asked the Pope to revoke a 1493 discovery doctrine, which was intended to justify European explorers’ claims to the land, and replace it with a decree that says “indigenous peoples and cultures are valuable, worthy and should be treated with dignity and respect. ”

This Canadian Press report was first published on December 7, 2021.

– With files from Mia Rabson in Ottawa