Pope Francis's Homily at Commonwealth Stadium - A Review of the Apostolic Journey up until the Holy Mass in Edmonton

On most summer field days, the world places its attention on Commonwealth Stadium for CFL games where the Edmonton Elks battle it out on the gridiron against the likes of other football giants like the Winnipeg Blue Bombers or their Fierce Albertan Rivals, the Calgaray Stampeders. 

 

But, on 26 July 2022, the largest stadium in Canada featured a Mass said by Pope Francis instead.

 

Over 50,000 people attended this historic Mass with many indigenous people included.

 

The importance for the addition of indigenous people is due to the fact that this Apostolic Journey of His Holiness to Canada comes at the backdrop of the reports coming out last year about the Catholic Church's role at the Residence Schools for Indigenous Canadians. Now of course, one must remember that many of these stories have been sensationalized and completely made up, but nonetheless, Pope Francis has come to ask forgiveness for the roles certain Catholics played in this "poor treatment", such as in the suppression and depletion of indigenous languages and cultures at the residential schools in a process of assimilation. 

 

Pope Francis arrived at Edmonton International Airport on 24 July and spoke with the media there.

 

On 25 July, Pope Francis went to a majority Cree-town south of Edmonton to speak to First Nations, Inuit, and Métis people. Here, Pope Francis asked forgiveness for the "many members of the Church and of religious communities [who] cooperated, not least through their indifference, in projects of cultural destruction and forced assimilation promoted by the governments of that time, which culminated in the system of residential schools." 

 

He further stated: "[O]ur Christian faith tells us is that this was a disastrous error, incompatible with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is painful to think of how the firm soil of values, language and culture that made up the authentic identity of your peoples was eroded, and that you have continued to pay the price of this. In the face of this deplorable evil, the Church kneels before God and implores his forgiveness for the sins of her children." 

 

But, he also admitted that "Christian charity was not absent, and there were many outstanding instances of devotion and care for children." 

 

Pope Francis would conclude with a common theme found in his speech later: "I trust and pray that Christians and civil society in this land may grow in the ability to accept and respect the identity and the experience of the indigenous peoples." 

 

This same day, Pope Francis would visit Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples in Edmonton which since 27 October 1991, has been considered the national parish for the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis people, similar to a national parish for Italians, Croatians, or French people found throughout the world. 

 

Here, Pope Francis praised the Sacred Heart Parish saying he was happy "to see that in this parish[...]people of different communities of the First Nations, the Métis and the Inuit come together with nonindigenous people from the local area and many of our immigrant brothers and sisters". 

 

He continued with: "This place is a house for all, open and inclusive, just as the Church should be, for it is the family of the children of God, where hospitality and welcome, typical values of the indigenous culture, are essential. A home where everyone should feel welcome, regardless of past experiences and personal life stories." 

 

Pope Francis continued by stating how: "[W]e must not forget that in the Church too, the wheat is mixed with weeds. And precisely because of those weeds, I wanted to make this penitential pilgrimage, which I began this morning by recalling the wrong done to the indigenous peoples by many Christians and by asking with sorrow for forgiveness.  It pains me to think that Catholics contributed to policies of assimilation and enfranchisement that inculcated a sense of inferiority, robbing communities and individuals of their cultural and spiritual identity, severing their roots and fostering prejudicial and discriminatory attitudes; and that this was also done in the name of an educational system that was supposedly Christian."

 

Pope Francis continued on how he seeks Reconciliation through uniting with people as one, by connecting to the Christ inside them. He quoted Saint Pope John Paul II in his "Liturgy of the Word with the Native Peoples of Canada" when he stated "Christ animates the very center of all culture. Thus, not only is Christianity relevant to the Indian people, but Christ, in the members of his Body, is himself Indian”. 

 

He stated how he understands and cannot imagine how difficult it must be for the Indigenous peoples that have this pain, to forgive, to reconcile, but that to reconcile, one must go through Christ: "Reconciliation is not merely the result of our own efforts; it is a gift that flows from the crucified Lord, a peace that radiates from the heart of Jesus, a grace that must be sought". 

 

Pope Francis ended with a theme he would also display at Commonwealth Stadium, which is that God invites people to believe in Him through free will, not through forced conversion or coercion. 

 

This led to Pope Francis's main event in Canada which was the Holy Mass at Commonwealth Stadium where he gave his homily. 

 

At this Mass commemorating Saint Joachim and Saint Anne, Pope Francis focused on the importance of grandparents and thus of respecting and loving one's roots, while also seeking to continue this tradition of growing more fruits. In this sense, Pope Francis united Canada by declaring the importance of loving and respecting Canada's history and all its peoples, embracing its good, while also seeking to establish a better future.

 

The first part focused on the need to love our grandparents and parents and to preserve the good they have taught us like our living Faith. This is an inheritance centered on the love of and fidelity to God. We need to love and respect our grandparents, remember them, cherish them. We did not come into the world asking for our previous history which we share with them. Rather, we came into this world yearning for the love they shared with us. We are meant to preserve this love, this Faith, and pass it down to our new generation, as parents and grandparents. "We must ask ourselves which society we want to live in?" In our love, we must not use this to restrict others' conscience but use our love to guide them on their journey like Mary used her love for Jesus, to allow Him to go on His journey with her love as a guide.

 

The second part focused on how we must remember that in loving our history, our parents and grandparents, in respecting them and following their good ways, their unconditional love for us, that we must remember to keep growing this tree of life. This tree of life is created once we create areas to remember them by, keep tokens of their memory like their Rosary beads or Bibles, and simply keep their good traditions alive by respecting their memory, by keeping our history, by knowing about them, this creates our family tree. In growing this family tree, we must remember that it starts off with the “life-giving sap” the water that comes from God Almighty and travels to the roots, and from the roots, to the branches, and from the branches to the leaves, and from the leaves to the flowers, and then to the fruit of the tree. “This authentic tradition is expressed in this vertical dimension: from bottom up.” We must not corrupt this by either going roots to fruits or horizontal by going forwards and then backwards. This backwards culture creates a “refuge of self-centeredness and pigeonholes us to the present, trapping us with the mentality that says, “We’ve always done it this way”.” Pope Francis alluded to the Gospel, in Matthew 13: 16-17, when “Jesus tells the disciples that they are blessed because they can see and hear what so many prophets and righteous people could only hope for”. Pope Francis continued how many people believed in the coming of the Messiah and prepared for the Messiah, and many had announced His arrival. And now that the Messiah has arrived, “those who can see and hear him are called to welcome him and proclaim his presence in our midst”. In other words, like the disciples, we must respect the traditions and ancestors before us in believing in the traditions of God, of raising a family, of unconditional love, and we must respect these traditions, but at the same time, we must be prepared to keep growing the tree, to allow the water to reach the fruits, such as the disciples did by accepting Jesus. Had they not, they would have been those who stayed self-centered. Therefore, embracing a bigger tree is not bad, as long as one keeps the most important ingredients, Faith. 

 

The third and final part focused on how we must not be called to only preserve the ashes, rather, we are called to rekindle the fire our grandparents' lit. We are called to grow the living Faith, the tradition we have received. Our grandparents gave us this to give us a future. We are not called to mere traditionalism, which is the preservation of the faith that is the dead faith of the living, rather we are called to preserve the living Faith of the dead which is tradition. We are called not to be critics of the system, or to be closed and “backwards looking”, rather we are called to transform it, “to be artisans of a new history, weavers of hope, builders of the future, peacemakers”. We also must not care about how we often define success, such as income or career choice or how others perceive us. Rather, we should look to see if we are passing that unconditional love to others. The question we must ask are these instead: “Am I ushering into history a new and renewed love that was not there before? Am I proclaiming the Gospel in my neighborhood? Am I freely serving others, the way those who preceded me did for me? What am I doing for our Church, our city, our society?” Pope Francis continued with this really good quote: “Sustained by those who are our roots, now it is our turn to bear fruit. We are the branches that must blossom and spread new seeds of history. I have a unique and irreplaceable role in history, but what mark will I leave behind me? What am I passing on to those who will come after me? What am I giving of myself?” We must honor our grandparents, and not fall into the trap of casting them aside because “they no longer useful”. We must work for a future where we do not merely judge people by what they can produce, where we do not become indifferent to the needs of our elders, where we never repeat the violence and marginalization of our indigenous brothers and sisters again. “That future is possible if, with God’s help, we do not sever the bond that joins us with those who have gone before us, and if we foster dialogue with those who will come after us. Young and old, grandparents and grandchildren, all together. Let us move forward together, and together, let us dream.” 

 

Pope Francis's journey continued later yesterday as he visited Lac Ste. Anne Pilgrimage north of Edmonton where he continued the theme of connecting Catholic theology with the traditions of the First Nations people. And today, he will arrive at Québec International Airport, and have many important meetings with both Canadian Government officials such as the Governor General and Prime Minister, and Indigenous representatives. On 28 July, he will lead Holy Mass and Vespers.

 

On 29 July, he will then make a visit to Iqaluit, the capital city of the Nunavut Territory, after some earlier functions in Québec City. Pope Francis will return to Rome on 30 July from Iqaluit International Airport.