Avoiding an apology

Pope Francis is famous for his compassion, so it is surprising that he has refused to apologize for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in Canada’s residential schools.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked the Pope to consider offering an apology, but last week, his hopes — and those of First Nations, Métis and Inuit people — were dashed. A letter from the president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops said the Pope “felt that he could not personally respond” to the request for an apology.

Many had been optimistic because of the Pope’s record. He has apologized to Irish people who were abused by priests, and in Bolivia, he apologized for the church’s actions against Indigenous Peoples.

In Canada, the federal government, and the United, Anglican and Presbyterian churches have apologized for their part in a system through which 150,000 Indigenous people passed between the 1880s and 1996. The abuse that many suffered in the schools has scarred generations.

Survivors have received financial compensation, but that’s not the same as hearing an apology from an institution with the might and reach of the Catholic Church, with its 1.2 billion members.

The Canadian bishops have argued that only 16 of 70 Canadian dioceses and some religious communities were involved in the schools. Each of those was responsible for its own actions, so the entire church doesn’t have to apologize.

That seems a needlessly legalistic tack. The Roman Catholic Church is not a federation of independent communities. It is a hierachical organization with a single leader and doctrine imposed from the top.

The church and the Pope should reconsider, and provide an apology.