Bishop Joseph Nguyen from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kamloops meeting with Pope Francis (Image Credit: Joseph Nguyen)

By Chad Klassen

RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL DISCOVERY

Kamloops bishop says Pope wants meaningful reconciliation with First Nations, not just to apologize

Jun 18, 2021 | 3:22 PM

KAMLOOPS — In the aftermath of 215 unmarked graves being found at Tk’emlups to Secwepemc, Bishop Joesph Nguyen has been humbled.

Even though he didn’t move to Canada until the mid-1990s, he’s been dedicated — like many Canadians — to learning more about the atrocities of residential schools.

“My approach right now is to be humble and simple by looking back with sorrow and learn and look forward with hope,” Nguyen told CFJC Today. “We look back with sorrow and learn the pain and the suffering of the past, but I don’t like to let the past kill us. I like to move forward.”

Bishop Nguyen, head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kamloops, has met with Tk’emlups Chief Rosanne Casimir about what happened to First Nations children at the Kamloops residential school.

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“To offer my deepest sympathies and also a very profound apology,” he said of the meeting. “Even though I know nothing about the history many years ago, now I am here to serve my diocese. These [First Nations] people live in the diocese of Kamloops, so that’s my own family. I look at the Indigenous community as my own family now.”

Casimir says it’s been a good relationship with Bishop Nguyen since he came to Kamloops in 2016. However, the First Nation is still looking for an apology from the Vatican.

“And that it be meaningful,” Casimir said during a Zoom conference on Wednesday (June 16), reiterating the hope for an apology from Pope Francis. “We’re looking at further discussions and looking at ways to have a more positive dialogue and some steps moving forward.”

Two Sundays ago, Pope Francis addressed the horrific discovery, but did not offer the apology that Tk’emlups and other bands were looking for.

Bishop Nguyen says Pope Francis wants the apology to be personal and during a face-to-face meeting with Indigenous leaders. He adds the Pope wants there to be true reconciliation.

“The apology is not only an apology for the Pope and the church. We’d like to have a long-lasting reconciliation. The Pope would like to listen directly from Indigenous people,” said Bishop Nguyen.

A delegation of First Nations leaders from Canada was supposed to have travelled to the Vatican, but COVID-19 prevented it. Bishop Nguyen says the plan is still to meet, and he hopes in the wake of the 215 bodies found in Kamloops that Casimir and other local leaders will be invited to make the trip.