Pope, Canadian Cardinals meet amid calls for church to act on residential schools

Pope Francis met with a pair of Canadian Cardinals on Saturday as pressure mounts for the Catholic Church to take action and accept responsibility for the residential school system that targeted Indigenous children for decades.

According to a summary from the Holy See Press Office, both Cardinal Michael Czerny and Cardinal Marc Ouellet shared an audience with the pontiff, however, the topic of what was discussed between them in separate meetings was not revealed.

Past listings show Pope Francis meets weekly with Ouellet, but rarely with Czerny.

The Czech-born Czerny, whose family emigrated to Montreal when he was a child, currently serves as an under-secretary for issues related to refugees and migrants within one of the Holy See departments while the Montreal-born Ouellet is presently the head of the Vatican department that oversees bishops.

The meeting came a day after the United Nations called on Canadian authorities and the Catholic Church to conduct “thorough investigations” into the remains of 215 Indigenous children found last month at the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia.

On Friday, Primer Minister Justin Trudeau expressed his deep disappointment by the church’s position now and over the past couple years and he called on Catholics across the country to reach out to bishops and cardinals on this issue.

Trudeau noted that he personally asked the Pope in 2017 to consider an apology for the institution’s part in the government-sponsored, church-run schools for Indigenous children that operated for more than 120 years.

The national assembly of bishops in Canada issued a statement Friday, distancing the Catholic Church as a whole from the residential school system in Canada, saying that each diocese and religious community is “corporately and legally responsible for its own actions.”

“The Catholic community in Canada has a decentralized structure. Each Diocesan Bishop is autonomous in his diocese and, although relating to the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, is not accountable to it,” the group said in a statement on Friday.

In 2018, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops announced the Pope could not personally apologize for residential schools, even though he has not shied away from recognizing injustices faced by Indigenous people around the world.

A national Indian Residential School Crisis Line is available for anyone affected by residential schools. You can call 1-866-925-4419 24 hours a day to access emotional support and services.