Indigenous leaders have no 'guarantee' Pope will apologize for residential schools: Bellegarde

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Bellegarde said today that while there are no "guarantees," he and other Indigenous leaders are hoping Pope Francis agrees to come to Canada to issue a public apology for the Roman Catholic Church's role in Canada's residential schools after they meet with him at the Vatican in December.

"The meeting has been confirmed at the Vatican so we are going to take that meeting and then ... at that time take the opportunity to invite his Holiness back to Canada at some point in the future," said Bellegarde thisafternoon.

"There are no guarantees of any kind of apology or anything going forward.There is no guarantee that he'll even come back to Canada, but we have to make the attemptand we have to seize the opportunity."

First Nations, Mtis and Inuit leaders will meet with the Pope separately between December 17 and 20, culminating in a final papal audience on Dec. 20 with the entire Indigenous delegation.

The trip was supposedto have happened already, but the pandemic delayed those plans.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he hopes this visit with the Pope will lead to a public apology.

"I really hope that this time it will lead towardthe Pope coming on to Canadian soil and apologizing directly for the responsibility that the Catholic Church shares in this part of our history," Trudeau told reporters Wednesday.

Trudeau is asked about Indigenous leaders' plans to meet the Pope and ask for an apology.

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke with the CBC's Hannah Thibedeau on Wednesday in Ottawa.

"I think the Catholic Church is in the midst of serious reflections on how it needs to move forward, how it needs to respond to not just Indigenous people who have questions and reflections, but for Indigenous Catholics and indeed non-Indigenous Catholics across the country, like me, who are wondering and hoping that our Church is going to step up and recognize its role, its responsibility and continued need to do more."

In an interview with CBC News Wednesday, Winnipeg Archbishop Richard Gagnon suggested bishops in Canada could make a decision on whether to invite the Pope to Canada at the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishop's (CCCB) annual meeting this September.

Gagnon, who serves aspresident of the CCCB, told CBC News Tuesday that Pope Francisis open to delivering an apology in Canada at an "opportune time."

He said the Pope is expected to take a path similar totheone that led to hisformal apology in Bolivia in2015.

In Bolivia, Pope Francisapologized for sins and crimes committed by the church against Indigenous peoples during the colonial-era conquest of the Americas.

Bellegarde noted that the Roman Catholic Church remains the only institution that has not yet made a formal apology for its role in operatingmore than half of all residential schools in Canadaonthe federal government's behalf.

Some Catholic entities in Canada have apologized, but the Vatican has not.

Pope Benedict XVIexpressed "sorrow" to a delegation from Canada's Assembly of First Nations in 2009over the abuse and"deplorable" treatment that residential school studentssuffered.

"[The Roman Catholic Church] made apologies to the Irish people, they made apologies to the Indigenous people in Bolivia. And so, I think the spirit will move in the appropriate way and the appropriate time when things happen here in Canada," said Bellegarde.

In advance of the December meetings, Bellegarde urged the Vatican to start sharing anydata or documents the Catholic Church has on residential schools especially information related totheunmarked graves that have been discovered at several former residential schools in recent weeks.

Gagnon said the Pope can't instruct Catholic entities to hand over records.

Bellegarde spoke to reporters just hours after aFirst Nation in B.C.'s South Interior said it had discovered182 unmarked grave sitesnear the location of a former residential school.

The discovery adds to a growing list of hundreds ofunmarked graves reported at former residential schools in Canada.