Wilton Littlechild remembers closing his eyes before Pope Francis led his first mass on the Vatican greater than a decade ago.
He wanted to obviously hear every word.
Because the pope’s voice grew louder, Littlechild, a residential school survivor and former commissioner for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, says he became still and thought: “I used to be listening to one in all our elders.”
Littlechild says it was the primary time he saw the pinnacle of the Catholic Church as an ally of Indigenous people.
“(Francis) was telling a few of us traumatized as adults to hunt to like … that’s how our elders consult with us. We grew up not knowing love. That stuck with me all the way in which until today,” Littlechild, 81, said following the pope’s death Monday.
Littlechild was forced to attend residential schools over 14 years, where he suffered abuse.
He later became an athlete, lawyer, a grand chief of Alberta Treaty 6 and a member of Parliament. He also worked for many years with the United Nations, including on its Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. He was on the UN in Recent York on Monday when he learned in regards to the pope’s death.
Pope Francis adjusts a conventional headdress he was given after his apology to Indigenous people as Chief Wilton Littlechild looks on during a ceremony in Maskwacis, Alta., as a part of his papal visit across Canada on July 25, 2022.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
Littlechild was a part of an Indigenous delegation that travelled in 2022 to fulfill with Francis on the Vatican and ask for an apology for the church’s role in residential schools.
Survivors got half-hour to talk, he said.
Littlechild said he told the pope about how he and his siblings were taken from their home and delivered to a residential school in when he was six.
He told the pontiff that sports saved him. “I said, ‘It gave me a way out of addictions, suicide’, you understand, negative stuff I don’t even wish to take into consideration.”
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He also told the pope that the church operated the very best variety of residential schools in Alberta and plenty of survivors wanted an apology.
As survivors kept telling their stories, the pope told his team to present them more time to talk.
After they left the meeting after three hours, Littlechild said the pope told him, “I’ll see you soon.”
Later within the week, during a final meeting with delegates, Francis said he was sorry.
“It was a group of many stories that culminated in that decision for those three little words to be spoken so that individuals could heal from their trauma, their childhood abuse, their addictions, violence in life,” Littlechild said.
The pope also announced he planned to go to Canada, and he did later within the 12 months, delivering the primary apology on Canadian soil at Maskwacis, Alta., home to 4 reserves, including Ermineskin Cree Nation, where Littlechild is from.
Littlechild said he could have impacted the pope’s decision to decide on his community.
It was a historic day, and Littlechild said that the apology lifted a weight off his heart that he had been carrying as a survivor and after listening to 7,000 stories of abuse while with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
“I used to be hearing my very own personal story of abuse time and again and yet again as commissioner. I didn’t want to do this job,” he said.
“And yet I’m so thankful that I did. That apology gave me a chance to forgive, which I did. And I told him that, ‘I forgave.’”
At Maskwacis, Littlechild also gifted the pope a headdress worn by his grandfather, a former Cree chief. It was a moment seen by people around the globe.
“It was type of controversial for some,” Littlechild added.
Some survivors felt the pope’s apology wasn’t enough and he didn’t deserve the honour. The papacy also had also discouraged anyone from replacing the papal tiara.
But Littlechild said he asked Francis for permission, and the pope gave Littlechild permission to position it on his head.
Littlechild travelled to Iqaluit for the pope’s last stop on the “penitential pilgrimage” in Canada.
It was the last time he spoke to Francis.
“I told him farewell. We talked about hockey.”
On Easter Sunday, the day before Francis died, Littlechild said he watched the pope’s last public appearance on TV, struggling to talk.
Littlechild said he was very sad to listen to of the death but glad Francis has found peace.
He said he has asked the Vatican for permission to attend the pope’s funeral on Saturday.
“To have a friend leave you in this fashion is unhappy, and also you’re at a lack of words.”
Francis restored respectful relationships with Indigenous people, Littlechild said.
“But I’m at all times told that we have now an extended method to go. And, yes, we do,” he said.
“Will the following pope elevate us to that next step?”
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