Letter to the Editor: Pope Francis Sets Example of Admirable Leadership

Recently, Pope Francis traveled to Canada on what he called a “penitential pilgrimage,” visiting places where “projects of cultural destruction and forced assimilation” occurred. 

These were the infamous boarding schools set up by the Christian church in Canada, and widely across the United States, to which were sent thousands of children from Indigenous nations and where many forms of abuse were used to strip them of their culture. Within the past year, mass graves were found located around the sites of these boarding schools.

Some might ask why the pope needed to make this journey. He is elderly, not in the best of health and not personally responsible for atrocities committed within the church many years ago. Yet this is what he has done time and again: take responsibility as the highest representative of the Catholic Church for the misguided and harmful deeds done within its shadow.

This is what one would expect of a spiritual leader – indeed, what one would expect of any mature, fair-minded and sincere human being. Apologizing to the survivors and descendants is just a beginning, but it’s key in breaking down the layers of guilt and pain handed down from generation to generation. It is an acknowledgment, a recognition of the truth and a necessity to bring about healing.

Thank you, Pope Francis, for being a kind of leader we can truly admire and for setting an example we all would do well to follow.

Renny Lea

Fish Creek, Wisconsin