‘He touched my heart:’ residential school survivor on meeting the Pope

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He held her hands three times during their visit.

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“I’ll cherish that forever,” said Marie-Anne Day Walker-Pelletier, former chief of Okanese First Nation and Order of Canada recipient, reflecting on her 2022 meeting with Pope Francis.

Day Walker-Pelletier, a survivor of residential schools, was part of an Indigenous delegation that went to Vatican City to meet with the Pope, seeking an apology for the church’s role in running the schools.

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Pope Francis would offer an apology and made the following statement in regards to the residential school system: “to take away children, to change the culture, their mindset, their traditions — to change a race, an entire culture, yes, I (do) use the word genocide.”

The world’s first Latin American pontiff — renowned for his concerns related to the poor and injustice — passed away on April 21. During his tenure as Pope, he criticized capitalism and offered an apology to the victims of colonization while making the church more responsive to rank-and-file Catholics the world over.

During their meeting, Day Walker-Pelletier spoke to Pope Francis, offering a presentation about the school children who died and the graves that hold them.

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“I had pairs of moccasins made, children’s moccasins for a boy and girl, that were sanctioned by elders to take to him,” said Day Walker-Pelletier. “Those moccasins represented the children that never made it, that never came home.”

During her presentation, Pope Francis walked towards her to pick up the moccasins.

“He touched my heart.”

She asked that he hold on to the moccasins and pray over them until he came to Canada, to return the keepsakes home.

On July 25, 2022, while visiting Maskwacis, Alta., Pope Francis spoke of the moccasins before returning them to Day Walker-Pelletier, describing them as a symbol that “has kept alive my sense of sorrow, indignation and shame.”

“At the same time,” he added, “those moccasins also speak to us of a path to follow, a journey that we desire to make together. We want to walk together, to pray together and to work together, so that the sufferings of the past can lead to a future of justice, healing and reconciliation.”

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The moccasins aren’t in a glass box, inside a museum or anywhere public. They’re with Day Walker-Pelletier, a connection not only to the children but to efforts to right a wrong.

“The apology validated what we’ve been saying for years as survivors,” she said. “He understood the pain.”

Archbishop Donald Bolen was part of the group of bishops that organized that trip to Rome, pushing for the Vatican to apologize for its role in residential schools. Bolen said Pope Francis’ message, what he stood for, resonated with him.

“A lot of my concerns were also his concerns,” said Bolen, who will travel to Vatican City for the Pope’s funeral on Saturday. “His whole pontificate was, in various ways, reaching out to those in need, on the margins, on the peripheries.”

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Bolen remembers speaking with a member of the Indigenous delegation that went to Rome who said “everybody’s got to make their own decision about this apology and what to do with it.” Bolen knows the wounds are deep, but he hopes the message can lead to forward action between the church and Indigenous communities.

“I think he helped move us from a focus on wounds from the past to: How do we walk together today?” said Bolen.

He remembers Pope Francis as dedicated and passionate as he carried out his duties.

But what Bolen hopes for people in Saskatchewan, for Indigenous people in Canada and the world over, is that Pope Francis will be remembered as someone who was honest about the past, honest “about the church’s mistakes.”

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“When you have deep wounds, and those wounds are exacerbated by embedded racism and economic injustice, economic struggles, those wounds don’t heal quickly,” said Bolen.

With the Pope’s passing, Day Walker-Pelletier said she’s felt sadness but knows she’ll continue to carry on his legacy. She knows the apology represented an acknowledgment not only from the church, but to all the people still hurting.

“His legacy was kindness, humility, respect and resilience,” she said. “His legacy will continue to live through us but there’s a lot of work to be done yet.”

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