A Catholic Response to Call to Action 48 of the Truth and Reconciliation

1 A Catholic Response to Call to Action 48 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (On Adopting and Implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples) 1. Introduction: The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada issued 94 Calls to Action almost a year ago. One of these called on all faith groups in Canada to “formally adopt and comply with the principles, norms, and standards of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as a framework for reconciliation.”1 Catholic Bishops, institutes of consecrated life, societies of apostolic life and other Catholic organizations in Canada support this Declaration and believe that its spirit can point a way forward to reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Canada. Further, the Holy See’s office that participates in the United Nations – the Holy See Permanent Observer to the UN – has explicitly endorsed this Declaration on numerous occasions.2,3,4,5 The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was passed by the United Nations General Assembly in 2007. Technically known as a “human rights instrument” rather than a treaty or convention, once passed it is not signed or ratified. Since it is directed to the governments of nation states, the Declaration does not, in the strict sense, refer to churches or faith groups. But this does not mean that churches and faith groups cannot seek to live out its principles. Because churches and faith groups are an integral part of the society for which the government speaks and acts, it is important for us to make our voices heard. The central themes of the Declaration, in fact, resonate strongly with statements already made by the Catholic Church, whether through the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) or the Holy See. These include the rights of Indigenous Peoples to self- determination, self-government, and to their own distinct institutions, the right to their traditional territories, the right to a fair process to adjudicate land claims, the right to their cultural traditions and customs, the right to practise and manifest their spiritual traditions and customs, the right to maintain their languages, the right to their own educational institutions, the right to improvement of their economic and social conditions, the right to guide their own development, and the right to the recognition and enforcement of treaties.6 1 Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future: Summary of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 2015. Call to Action n. 48. 2 Address by Archbishop Celestino Migliore, Holy See Permanent Observer to the UN, New York, May 16, 2007. 3 Address by Archbishop Celestino Migliore, Holy See Permanent Observer to the UN, New York, October 19, 2009. 4 Address by Archbishop Celestino Migliore, Holy See Permanent Observer to the UN, New York, 20 April 2010 5 Address by Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, Holy See Permanent Observer to the UN, Geneva, September 17, 2014. 6 See the attached appendix for a list of some Catholic statements supporting the rights articulated in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. 2 2. Respecting Indigenous Spiritual Practices One of those principles that touches on the life and mission of the Catholic Church is articulated in article 12(1) of the Declaration, which states that “Indigenous people have the right to manifest, practise, develop and teach their spiritual and religious traditions, customs, and ceremonies.” The failure to uphold this right is a theme found throughout the TRC’s Final Report. While the Catholic Church proclaims Jesus Christ, “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14.6), she also has a long, but scarcely known, history of forbidding religious coercion. Unfortunately, this teaching has not always been lived out by some of the Church’s own members, including clergy who had significant influence on the faithful.7 From the beginnings of contact between Europeans and Indigenous peoples there are reports of missionaries who, aided and encouraged by colonial powers, coerced Indigenous people to be baptized and become members of the Catholic Church. This became common enough that, already in 1537, Pope Paul III raised his voice to reject this practice, declaring that the evangelization of Indigenous peoples should only take place “by preaching the word of God and by the example of good and holy living.”8 Thus the Church’s Code of Canon Law has long insisted that an adult was not to be baptized unless the person desired it and knew what was involved.9 As later clearly articulated by the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on Religious Freedom, “it is one of the major tenets of Catholic doctrine that man’s response to God in faith must be free: no one therefore is to be forced to embrace the Christian faith against his own will.”10 That same Council also urged that “in spreading religious faith and in introducing religious practices everyone ought at all times to refrain from any manner of action which might seem to carry a hint of coercion or of a kind of persuasion that would be dishonorable or unworthy.”11 Although many priests, brothers, sisters, and laypeople served in the residential schools with generosity, faithfulness, care, and respect for their students, this was not always the case. The TRC Final Report rightly observes that when Christians, through the residential schools, belittled Indigenous students as “pagans”12 or “demonized, punished, and terrorized them into accepting Christian beliefs,”13this was in fundamental contradiction to the core beliefs of Christianity.14 While Christians have at times failed to live up to the standard to which they are called by God, the glaring failures to respect the identity and freedom of Indigenous children outlined in the TRC Final report are particularly saddening and must never be repeated. 7 For example, in its Apology to the First Nations of Canada (1992), p. 2, the Oblate Conference of Canada recognized its “past dismissal of many of the riches of native religious tradition. We broke some of your peace pipes and we considered some of your sacred practices as pagan and superstitious. We apologize for this blindness and disrespect.” 8 Paul III, Bull Sublimis Deus, June 2, 1537. 9 Codex Iuris Canonici (1917), canon 752 §1. 10 Second Vatican Council, Declaration on Religious Freedom Dignitatis Humanae, 1965. N. 10. 11 Second Vatican Council, Declaration on Religious Freedom Dignitatis Humanae, 1965. N. 4. 12 TRC Final Report, vol. 6, 98. 13 TRC Final Report, vol. 6, 97. 14 TRC Final Report, vol. 6, 98. “That Christians in Canada, in the name of their religion, inflicted serious harms on Aboriginal children, their families, and their communities was in fundamental contradiction to what they purported their core beliefs to be.” 3 In 2012, the Permanent Council of the CCCB issued a Pastoral Letter on Freedom of Conscience and Religion, declaring that: Every individual has the ‘the right to be able to worship God in accordance with the right dictates of his conscience.’ [Saint John XXIII, Pacem in Terris 14]. Other people, as well as civil society, have the corresponding duty to respect the free spiritual development of each person. Besides being free from external coercion, everyone must be able freely to exercise the right to choose, profess, disseminate, and practice his or her own religion in private and in public. This includes the freedom for parents to educate their children in their religious convictions and to choose the schools which provide that formation. Moreover, the state has the obligation to protect this right by means of a legal and administrative framework and to create a suitable environment where it can be enjoyed.15 The Catholic Church does not claim these rights for Christians only, but for all people – including those choosing to follow Indigenous forms of spirituality and religious belief. To do otherwise would run contrary to the Church’s mission. As the Bishops of Canada declared in 2012, “no individual, human community or state should ever forget that the truth never imposes itself by violence but only ‘by the force of its own truth.’ No religion, therefore, can ever be externally imposed but must be adopted by a person ‘only through the process of conviction’.”16 The TRC Final Report points out that when it comes to Christianity, some Indigenous people “believe that Indigenous spirituality and Western religion should coexist on separate but parallel paths,”17 whereas “Aboriginal Christians who also practise Indigenous spirituality seek Indigenous and Christian spiritual and religious coexistence within the churches themselves.”18 In the case of those who hold to Indigenous spirituality apart from Christianity, the Catholic Church approaches them as we would the followers of any other religion: with humility, respect, and the invitation to a sincere dialogue.19 As the CCCB’s Commission for the Evangelization of Peoples wrote in 1999, “As bishops, we respect your ancestral customs and spiritual heritage. We also respect those among you who have found in contemporary expressions of these traditions ways to revere the power of God present in all of Creation. We renew our commitment to the dialogue that has begun between our 15 Permanent Council of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, Pastoral Letter on Freedom of Conscience and Religion (2012), n. 5. 16 Permanent Council of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, Pastoral Letter on Freedom of Conscience and Religion (2012), n. 6. Internal citations are respectively from Dignitatis Humanae, n. 1 and Pope Benedict XVI’s Address to the Roman Curia, December 22, 2005. 17 TRC Final Report, vol.

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