Canadian Bishops to Follow Pope's Example with Indigenous

UCANews ^ | 10/5/22 | Michael Swan

[marshmallow]

Archbishop Smith pointed to the sacrifice Pope Francis made to fulfill the promise of being in Canada despite health issues

Canada's bishops wound up their first in-person meetings in three years with discussion of concrete steps toward reconciliation with Indigenous Canadians.

At the end of four days of plenary meetings of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops in Cornwall, Ontario, Edmonton Archbishop Richard Smith told a news conference that the bishops are following the example of Pope Francis and the priority he placed on meeting with Indigenous people.

"I don't think it overstates it to say it was a pivotal moment in the history of this country," Archbishop Smith said Sept. 29, referring to pope's July pilgrimage across Canada. "This was an historic moment, hopefully a moment of healing and moving things forward on this journey."

Archbishop Smith pointed to the sacrifice Pope Francis made to be in Canada despite his health issues, to fulfill the promise he made in March to visit Indigenous people on their land for the feast of St. Ann.

"We could see -- being close to the pope -- that he was in continual pain. But he wanted to be here, and before he ever spoke a word, his presence was the message," Archbishop Smith said.

The pope's presence translates into a mandate for Canada's bishops, said Calgary Bishop William McGrattan.

"The apology in words was important. But he (Pope Francis) also stressed to us that we needed to support that by concrete actions," Bishop McGrattan said.

Among those concrete steps are a series of planned pastoral letters to the First Nations, Inuit and Métis people. Archbishop Smith emphasized that the proposed letters will emerge out of extensive consultations with Indigenous leaders, but he would not commit to a timeline on when the letters might be......