MEETING WITH NATIVE PEOPLES
SAINTE-ANNE DE BEAUPRE
SEPTEMBER 10, 1984
Beloved
Brothers and Sisters,
Thank you with all my heart
for coming from so many regions, even from very far away, to give me this opportunity to meet you as I will meet
your brothers and sisters in
Huronia and in Fort Simpson. You represent the first inhabitants of this vast continent. For centuries
you have made your mark in
North America with your traditions and your civilization. Other waves of settlers came from Europe with their
own culture and their Christian
faith. They took their place beside you. The vastness of this continent allowed you to live
together in a relationship that was not always
easy, but that has also had its rewards. God gave the earth to all humankind. Today you have your own special place
in this country.
Without losing any of your cultural identity, you have understood
that God has sent the Christian message to
you just as he did to others. Today, I
come to greet you, the Native peoples who bring us close to the origins of Canada. I come to celebrate with you our faith
in Jesus Christ. I recall that
beautiful day when Kateri Tekakwitha was beatified in Rome where several of you were present. I have not
forgotten the heartfelt and insistent invitations you made then. But I could
not visit all of your villages and
territories, those of the different Amerindian nations, dispersed throughout
the many regions of Canada, and those of the Inuit whose familiar horizons of snow and ice are
near the north pole. That is why I wanted to meet you
here, in Sainte-Anne de Beaupré, on the very spot where you pitch your tents every year. You come here as pilgrims, to pray
to Saint Anne whom you so lovingly call your grandmother. Your ancestors have often come here to pray since the Hurons made
their first pilgrimage in 1671 and
the Micmacs in 1680. They became part of a great popular movement which has made this one of the most
visited sanctuaries in North America.
On behalf of all pilgrims and in union with
the bishops of this country I would like to thank the Redemptorists and
their collaborators. Thanks to them this
shrine is still flourishing. Attentive to popular devotion they have
known how to leave place for gestures that express fully and facefully [sp] faith, prayer and the
need of reconciliation. It is thanks to them that many Canadian families
still pray to Saint Anne, the mother of Mary.
But we should also give thanks for all those who, out of love for
you, came to propose to your ancestors and
yourselves that you become brothers in Jesus Christ so that you too could share
the gift which they themselves had
received. I am thinking of Jesuits like Fathers Vimont and Vieuxpont who from Fort Saint Anne to Cape Breton brought
the word of the Gospel to the
Micmacs and helped them to believe in Jesus as the Saviour and to venerate
his mother Mary and the mother of Mary, Saint Anne.
This brings to mind many other great religious men and women from
the time of the founders to the present day.
I would particularly like to mention the Oblate Missionaries of Mary
Immaculate. They took charge of the vast region of the Canadian North. They
devoted their lives to the evangelization and the support of many
Amerindian groups by sharing their life, by
becoming the pastors and the bishops of those who believed. They were the first Catholic missionaries to go among
the Inuit and to stay with them to bear witness to Jesus Christ and to
found the Church; the intercession of Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus, patron
of missions, helped to enrich their difficult apostolate.
It must also be said that from the middle of the seventeenth
century, the Amerindian peoples and, in their time, the Inuit, welcomed the
news of Jesus Christ. Today, these
Christians, full-fledged members of the Church, although not of society,
are actively involved - often as couples - in the teaching of catechism to
their brothers and sisters and their children and in leading prayer. They are faithful to the celebration of the Eucharist
and often take on responsibilities in pastoral councils. Yes, I am sorry that
I cannot visit these places myself to encourage the courageous missionaries and
the courageous Christians who have in them the blood and culture of the first
inhabitants of this country.
Over the centuries, dear Amerindian and Inuit
peoples, you have gradually
discovered in your cultures special ways of living your relationship with God and with the world while remaining loyal to
Jesus and to the Gospel. Continue to develop
these moral and spiritual values: an acute sense of the presence of God, love of your family, respect for the
aged, solidarity with your people, sharing, hospitality, respect for nature,
the importance given to silence and prayer, faith in providence. Guard this wisdom preciously. To let it become
impoverished would be to impoverish
the people around you. To live these spiritual values in a new way requires on
your part maturity, interiority, a deepening of the Christian message, a
concern for the dignity of the human being and a pride in being Amerindian and Inuit. This demands the courage to eliminate
every form of enslavement that might
compromise your future.
Your encounter with the Gospel has not only
enriched you, it has enriched
the Church. We are well aware that this has not taken place without its difficulties and, occasionally,
its blunders. However, and you are
experiencing this today, the Gospel does not destroy what is best in you. On the contrary, it enriches as it were
from within the spiritual qualities and gifts that are
distinctive of your cultures (cf. Gaudiurn et Spes, No. 58). In
addition, your Amerindian and Inuit traditions permit the development of new ways of expressing the
message of salvation and they help us
to better understand to what point Jesus is the Savior and how universal his salvation is.
This recognition of your accomplishments
cannot allow us to forget the great challenges your people
face in the present North American context. Like
all other citizens, but more acutely, you fear the impact of economic, social and cultural change on your traditional ways
of life. You are concerned about the
future of your Indian and Inuit identities and about the future of your
children and grandchildren. For all that, you do not reject scientific and technological progress. You perceive the challenges
it represents and you know how to
make the most of it.
With reason, however, you want to control your future, to preserve
your cultural traits, to establish an
educational system where your languages are respected.
The bishops' Synod on "Justice in the World" (1971)
stated that every people should, in mutual cooperation, fashion its own
economic and social development and that
each people should take part in realizing the universal common good as active
and responsible members of human society (cf. Proposal No. 8). It is in this perspective that you
must be the architects of your own future,
freely, and responsibly. May the wisdom of your elders unite with the initiative and courage of your youth to meet this challenge!
Tenacity in safe-guarding your personality is compatible with a
spirit of dialogue and friendly acceptance
among all those who have come to this country in successive waves and who are
called to make up the very diverse group which must populate and settle this area
as vast as a continent.
I know that the relations between Native
people and white people are often
strained and tainted with prejudice. Furthermore, in many places, the Native people are among the poorest and
most marginal members of society. They suffer from the fact that recognition of
their identity and of their ability to
participate in shaping their future is late in coming.
More and more, those who govern this country
have your cultures and your
rights at heart and want to rectify difficult situations. This is already evident, in some pieces of legislation, open of course to
further progress, and in the increased
recognition of your own decision-making power. It is to be hoped that effective
cooperation and dialogue based on good faith and the acceptance of the
other in his or her difference will develop. The Church does not intervene directly in
civil matters, but you know its
concern for you and you know that it tries to inspire all
those who want to live with
the Christian spirit.
As disciples of Jesus Christ, we know that
the Gospel calls us to live as his brothers and sisters. We know that Jesus Christ makes possible reconciliation between peoples, with all its requirements of conversion, justice and social love. If we truly believe that God created us in his image,
we shall be able to accept one another with our differences and despite our
limitations and our sins.
In seeking a good understanding between the
inhabitants of this country, faced with the difficulties of the modern world,
it is necesasry [sp] for you to have complete
confidence in what you can do to help one another and to be renewed. Jesus Christ, in whom we believe, can break the chains
of our personal and collective
selfishness. He gives us the power of his Spirit so that we may triumph over difficulties and realize justice.
Assured of the love God has for you, put
yourselves to the task; recall
without ceasing that the Church of Jesus Christ is your Church. She is the place where the sun of the word
enlightens you, where you find the nourishment and strength to continue on your way. She is like those "hiding places" that your ancestors
constructed all along the route of their travels, so that no one might be caught without provisions. Permit
me to repeat this
description of the Church in some of your own languages; this will be a way to come closer to you and to express to you my
fraternal affection.
The Church is the ASADJIGAN of God for you (Algonquin)
The Church is the SHESHEPETAN of God for you (Montagnais)
The Church is the SHISHITITAGN of God for you (Cree)
The Church is the TESHITITAGAN of God for you (Atikamek)
The Church is the IA-IEN-TA-IEN-TA-KWA of God for you (Mohawk)
The Church is the APATAGAT of God for you
(Micmac)
Now we must say goodbye. In the language of
our Inuit brothers and sisters,
I would like to assure you that you are my friends, all
you who are loved by
God! ILANNAARIVAPSI TAMAPSI NAGLIJAUVUSI JISUSINUT.
I will carry you in my heart and in my
prayers. I will entrust you to Mary and
to Saint Anne so that you may grow in faith and bear witness, in your own way, to Jesus Christ in this
country. In the name of Jesus Christ,
I bless you with all my heart.