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Dene national chief heading to Vatican in search of apology from Pope

Dene National Chief Norman Yakeleya has accepted an invitation to meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican as part of an Assembly of First Nations delegation in late December.
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Dene National Chief Norman Yakeleya will join an Assembly of First Nations delegation heading to the Vatican in Rome in late December. The delegates will be seeking a formal apology from Pope Francis for the residential school era. Photo courtesy o the Dene Nation

Dene National Chief Norman Yakeleya has accepted an invitation to meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican as part of an Assembly of First Nations delegation in late December.

Yakeleya, whose role includes overseeing the portfolio of residential schools in Canada for the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), held a news conference on Oct. 14 stating that His Holiness recently asked AFN representatives to travel to Rome.

During the trip, the delegation will seek a formal apology for Indigenous suffering under Canadian residential schools, operated by the Roman Catholic Church.

Yakeleya said it will be up to the Pope if he wants to issue the apology, as requested.

Should that take place, Yakeleya equated its significance to the 2008 apology by then-prime minister Stephen Harper, who made the gesture to Indigenous leaders in Parliament.

“As a former residential school survivor, this step of receiving an invitation from the Pope in (the Catholic church’s) role in administering the residential schools in Canada (and) in the NWT is overwhelming,” said the Dene national chief. “As a former residential school survivor, never had I ever thought that it (would) come this far to have his Holiness invite former residential school survivors to Rome.”

The invitation comes six years after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission issued its 94 Calls to Action, which the AFN fully supported in a follow-up resolution, Yakeleya said.

Number 58 of the Calls to Action demands an apology from the Pope “to survivors, their families and communities for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in the spiritual, cultural, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis children in Catholic-run residential schools.”

Yakeleya said the longer-term hope is to have Francis visit Canada.

“We want the Pope to come to Canada and to make the apologies to the residential schools survivors, and that is part of what we are asking as a delegation,” he said.

NNSL Media was unable to confirm a specific date as to when the invitation was issued or when exactly Yakeleya will actually be leaving.

He added that he wants that moment in late December to be meaningful.

”I would want to say that what happened to me and my family, the Roman Catholic Church did wrong,” he said when asked what he would say to the Pope, if given the opportunity.

He added that he would be “asking for (the Pope’s) apology to my mother, my grandmothers, grandfathers, (and) the way they treated us, the way they harmed us and that we were children of God.”

An apology would signify the church’s commitment to wanting to walk on a path of healing and recognizing and respecting Indigenous people, he added.

The AFN has been working closely with the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) to ensure that the Vatican meeting takes place.

On Sept. 24, the CCCB offered an official apology for its role, declaring its “profound remorse.”

CCCB is also supposed to foot the travel bill for the AFN delegation.

Yakeleya has been open about the negative impacts that came from his experience while attending Grollier Hall residential school in Inuvik during his youth. He said an apology from the leader of the Roman Catholic Church will be significant for him and for Indigenous people across the North and Canada.