For Pope Francis, apologizing came second to evangelizing
Papal apologies are a very recent phenomenon. The Catholic Church was almost 2,000 years old before popes began even acknowledging the sins that had been committed throughout the centuries in its name. Until then, such transgressions had been largely airbrushed out of papal encyclicals, denied outright or seen as lesser evils perpetrated amid holy efforts to spread the faith.
“The history of the Church is a history of holiness,” John Paul said in Incarnationis Mysterium, a 1998issued in advance of the 2000 Jubilee. “Yet it must be acknowledged that history also records events which constitute a counter-testimony to Christianity … I ask that in this year of mercy the Church, strong in the holiness which she receives from her Lord, should kneel before God and implore forgiveness for the past and present sins of her sons and daughters.
On inspection, many found the Pope’s apology wanting. Others went further, denouncing what they saw as the Pope’s tone deafness in declaring, during hisat the Lac Ste. Anne, Alta. pilgrimage on Tuesday, “how much good was done in this regard by missionaries who, as authentic evangelizers, preserved Indigenous languages and cultures in many parts of the world.” After all, residential schools sought to eradicate those same Indigenous languages and cultures in Canada.
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