Pope Benedict and Principle of Hope

Pope Benedict and Principle of Hope

There was a touching moment of symbolism this past Wednesday. Phil Fontaine, the head of Canada's Assembly of First Nations, held a private meeting at the Vatican with Pope Benedict XVI. Benedict "offered his sympathy and prayerful solidarity" for the years of residential school abuse faced by First Nations, Inuit, and Metis children at the hands of the Roman Catholic Church. In the 19th and 20th centuries, until as late as 1996, nearly 150,000 children endured the indignities of conversion and assimilation, the denigration and denial of Native languages, and even forced removal from their parents. This was all in the name of gaining new adherents to Christianity and supposedly civilizing Canadian Natives. Today we rightly understand that it was those trying to impose their "civilizing mission" on Natives that lacked civility and crushed the dream of authentic cultural dialogue based on mutual recognition.

There was great symbolism in Fontaine walking in to St. Peter's Square, the major site of Roman Catholic religiosity, to meet the Pope. Yet, as in past moments of contrition, the Catholic Church was far behind the other major churches that participated in the sordid history of residential schools. The Anglican Church, Presbyterian Church, and United Church apologized to Natives in 1993, 1994, and 1998 respectively. Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper offered a moving apology on behalf of the government of Canada last year.

Fontaine said he was satisfied with the private meeting with the Pope. He called the Pope's comments on residential schools a "very significant statement." Yet, some Natives must be shaking their heads. What took so long? And more importantly, why was the word "apology" not used by the Pope?

How do we assess the deep "sorrow" rather than "apology" expressed by Pope Benedict to Canada's Natives? Clues to the answer might come from a German philosopher that later emigrated to the United States, Ernst Bloch (1885-1977). He wrote a massive three-volume work, The Principle of Hope. For Bloch, the utopian is central to human history. Bloch laboured under the influence of Hegel and Marx. Even after exploitation and oppression would be banished from our world, there would still be utopian, revolutionary ideological forces. For Bloch, hope is not merely in a Marx, Lenin, or other social justice-based ideologies, but in the everyday, philosophy, poetry, opera, architecture, film, fairytales, fashion, and, yes, football. Well, given the fact that I am football (soccer) crazy, I guess I added that last one on my own!

Hope for Bloch was always present in ordinary life. So there is hope that Benedict met Fontaine and expressed "sorrow" for past Church actions vis-a-vis Canada's Natives. There is hope that he lamented the treatment of young children that did not have the tools to protect themselves and today face the painful memories, shame, and guilt of the horrors of residential schools.

Yet, there is also hope that another generation within the Church will say sorry and apologize. A civilized society, institution, state, or movement will not be afraid to challenge the demons of the past. Bloch also insisted that hope meant openness to the future and the change it will bring. It is high time that the Church walk one more step in the shoes of Native children and their ancestors and apologize for a period of Canadian history that should shame us all as Canadians. The hope is that the Church will walk this higher road. In the process, the Church might increasingly re-animate its ranks that have steadily dwindled since another German philosophical heavyweight declared the death of God in the late 19th century.

Tamir Bar-On