Amid ongoing dialogue concerning the historic mistreatment of Indigenous communities at church-run boarding schools, the top of the Jesuits, Arturo Sosa, S.J., visited a Catholic community on a South Dakota reservation last month, where he apologized for the religious order’s involvement in past abuses.
The Jesuits sponsor ministries on the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Lakota Reservations in South Dakota. The mission, which once included a residential school, has existed for the reason that late nineteenth century when Chief Red Cloud invited the religious order to the reservation. Today, the Jesuits sponsor the Red Cloud Indian School, which serves about 600 students, in addition to The Heritage Center and 6 parishes situated on the reservation.
In his talk over with representatives from the Lakota community on Aug. 17, the Jesuit superior general recalled how some Jesuits historically worked with the Lakota community to search out common ground between Catholic and Indigenous spirituality, and he praised efforts to preserve the Lakota language. He also noted changes in recent a long time at the varsity “that flow from a renewed appreciation of the richness of the Lakota culture.”
“After we look back over the road that we have now traveled we see that Jesuits also took some very mistaken turns.”
But Father Sosa also apologized for past abuses to an audience that included Lakota elders who had attended the residential schools.
“After we look back over the road that we have now traveled we see that Jesuits also took some very mistaken turns, especially by accepting the American government’s oppressive educational regulations that took children from their families, from their language and from their culture,” Father Sosa said in a talk over with representatives from the Lakota community.
Between 1819 and 1969, the U.S. government opened greater than 400 residential boarding schools. A whole bunch of hundreds of Native American children were faraway from their homes and placed in these schools in an effort to eradicate Indigenous language and culture. Abuse and mistreatment were common at the faculties, a federal report released earlier this 12 months found. The federal government and spiritual groups, including the Jesuits, ran the faculties.
“On behalf of the Society of Jesus, I apologize for the ways during which St. Francis and Holy Rosary Missions and boarding schools were for a long time complicit within the U.S. government’s reprehensible assimilation policies.”
In May 1993, then-superior general of the Jesuits Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, S.J., visited Pine Ridge and apologized for mistreatment, stating: “I realize that we, as Jesuits, have at times been the source of a few of that pain. For that, we’re deeply sorry.”
In his address, Father Sosa recalled that apology—and added his own.
“On behalf of the Society of Jesus, I apologize for the ways during which St. Francis and Holy Rosary Missions and boarding schools were for a long time complicit within the U.S. government’s reprehensible assimilation policies, attempting to eradicate your culture,” he said.
Father Sosa added, “I ask to your forgiveness for that and for some other abuses that any of you or your ancestors suffered.”
“I appreciated him coming all the best way from the Vatican and acknowledging the role the Jesuits played in disrupting our language and our culture.”
Cecilia Fire Thunder, a former tribal president of the Oglala Sioux tribe, was a residential student on the Jesuit school from 1953 to 1963. She told America that she was struck by Father Sosa’s acknowledgment of the role the Jesuits played within the “disruption of our culture.”
“I actually appreciated his demeanor, his honesty and most significantly, I appreciated him coming all the best way from the Vatican and acknowledging the role the Jesuits played in disrupting our language and our culture,” said Ms. Thunder Fire, who met with Father Sosa together with a small group of boarders.
In his talk, Father Sosa highlighted the work that some Jesuits did in helping to preserve the Lakota language. Ms. Thunder Fire, who teaches the Lakota language and practices traditional Lakota spirituality, said she remembers speaking with Jesuit priests in her own language when she was a student. But she said she recognizes that lots of her contemporaries still take care of trauma and grief related to the varsity.
Indigenous groups throughout North and South America have pressured Catholic leaders to denounce a series of papal bulls dating back to the fifteenth century.
“You can’t undo that,” she said. “But one thing you may do is spend money on the continued efforts to strengthen the immersion programs that teach our language.” Because, she said, “our language clearly defines who we’re.”
Father Sosa said he also met with leaders from the Rosebud and Oglala Sioux tribes, who asked him to deliver a letter about the doctrine of discovery to Pope Francis.
Lately, Indigenous groups throughout North and South America have pressured Catholic leaders to denounce a series of papal bulls dating back to the fifteenth century, known collectively because the “doctrine of discovery.” These papal decrees granted the monarchs of Portugal and Spain the appropriate to colonize non-Christian lands and enslave Indigenous peoples.
Francis has met with Indigenous leaders, including during his recent visit to Canada, where he apologized for abuse carried out at church-run residential boarding schools. During his flight back to Rome, when asked why he did no more forcefully denounce the doctrine of discovery, including the ways it continues to be cited in U.S. and Canadian law, the pope said he didn’t understand the complexities of the difficulty.
During his visit to Pine Ridge, Father Sosa said he would hand deliver the letter to Pope Francis and “also talk with him about what I even have learned during my visit with the Lakota as of late.”
Indigenous groups have pressured Catholic leaders to denounce a series of papal bulls dating back to the fifteenth century that granted the monarchs of Portugal and Spain the appropriate to colonize non-Christian lands.
Maka Black Elk, the chief director of Truth and Healing at Red Cloud Indian School, told America that Father Sosa’s promise to deliver the letters from people living on the reservation to Pope Francis was probably the most moving a part of the visit. He said he hopes that the letters will move Pope Francis to be more forthright in his condemnation of the doctrine of discovery and the present laws that cite the doctrine.
“It might be powerful if Pope Francis were to say to the federal government of Canada and to the federal government of the US, you want to rescind these ideas,” Mr. Black Elk said.
During his four-day visit to Pine Ridge, which got here as a part of an extended tour of the US, Father Sosa met with students, participated in a Lakota-language prayer service and had dinner with the Lakota community. He also presented to the community an apostolic blessing from Pope Francis, which encouraged Lakota Catholics “to live their faith fully while preserving their culture.”
Through meetings with and letters from representatives from the Indigenous community, Father Sosa said he learned of the numerous challenges facing individuals who live to tell the tale the reservation.
“I even have heard a lot about gun violence, about methamphetamine and substance abuse, about poverty and unemployment, about racism, concerning the weakening of political motion and concerning the lack of hope and meaning,” Father Sosa said. “Here and elsewhere we hear of war, forced displacement, populism and polarization.”
Father Sosa also said he was inspired by his meetings with young people.
“But I even have also heard young people speak of their dream of a distinct future, a future built on the gifts of creativity, compassion and courage, a future that rejoices in diversity and interculturality, a future during which everyone enjoys the fullness of life in love and repair,” he said.