Indigenous leaders reflect on late Pope Francis's visit to Quebec City

It was an interaction between the late Pope Francis and an elderly residential school survivor that struck Mandy Gull-Masty the most when she met the pontiff during his visit to Quebec City three years ago. 

Gull-Masty, the former Grand Chief of the Cree Nation of Eeyou Istchee, watched as the elder shared her story of being ripped away from her family at age three, the pope listening attentively.

"She went into that space and she had such a spirit of openness and forgiveness and she was able to be part of a discussion," said Gull-Masty. "I think it really meant a lot to her."

At the time, Gull-Masty was helping co-ordinate the elders who would come face-to-face with the Pope in Quebec City as he visited Canada to apologize to Indigenous people for the Catholic Church's role in residential schools.

Gull-Masty, who was part of a delegation that received an audience with Pope Francis in Rome earlier that year, was one of the first to hear his apology — an apology that was denied by his predecessor, Benedict XVI, when former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations Phil Fontaine made the same trip in 2009.

Gull-Masty says she respected Pope Francis's leadership in 2022.

"There were some people who felt that, you know, this apology did not mean anything to them. There were some that felt that this allowed for them to receive healing," she said.

"All of those reactions are the correct reactions because it is an individual experience and in leadership, you're there to support everybody."

The Grand Chief of the Huron-Wendat Nation in the Quebec City area, Pierre Picard, said the visit by Pope Francis helped kickstart a real process of reconciliation with the Catholic Church.

Members of his nation marched from the former site of the Pointe-Bleue residential school in the Saguenay region to Quebec City, over the course of a week, to hear the Pope.

"Others would prefer that the institution itself apologize. But I think that within the spectrum of the healing process, Pope Francis has definitely established himself as a builder of this relationship," said Picard.

He said there's still work to be done, as he'd like to have, for example, easier access to the archives kept by the Church — something echoed by the Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak.

She was also part of the delegation that went to the Vatican in the spring of 2022.

"They still have our artifacts. We have to bring our artifacts back home to Canada and they have, you know, some of our ceremonial items," she told CBC's The National. "I think that's one step that the Pope had committed to us."

She said she'd been working with the Pope's office on that issue and hopes that work doesn't end with his passing.

"We lost an ally today."

Picard says a lot of Canadian and Quebec political institutions and leaders should learn from Pope Francis in their approach to relations with Indigenous people.

In a statement posted to its website, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops' president, Rev. William T. McGrattan, said Pope Francis's 2022 papal visit reflected "the Church's commitment to continue walking together on the path of truth, justice, healing, reconciliation, and hope."

Gull-Masty says the late Pope Francis did his part. 

"He asked for the [conference] to ensure that they follow up," she said. "And now the ball is really in their court."