“In a loss of words: he says he was a friend

Wilton Litchild Remember to close his eyes before Pope Francis He led his first mass in the Vatican more than a decade ago.

He wanted to hear every word clearly.

When the Pope grew, says Littlechild, one of the survivors of residential schools and former commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee in Canada, says he was still thinking: “I was listening to one of our elders.”

Littlechild says it was the first time that he saw the head of the Catholic Church as an ally of the indigenous people.

“The Pope’s death on Monday’s death” Littleshild, 81, said after the Pope’s death on Monday.

Littlechild He was forced to attend residential schools for 14 years, where he suffered from abuse.

He later became athlete, lawyer, senior president of the Alberta 6 Treaty and a member of Parliament. He also worked for decades with the United Nations, including its declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples. He was at the United Nations in New York on Monday when he learned of the death of the Pope.

Littlechild was part of an indigenous delegation in 2022 to meet Francis in the Vatican and asked for an apology for the church’s role in residential schools.

He said that the survivors gave 30 minutes to speak.

Littlefield said that he told the Pope about how he and his siblings took from their home and were brought to a residential school when he was six years old.

Tell the Pope that sport saved him. I said, “You have given me a way out of addiction and suicide, as you know, negative things I do not want to think about. “

He also told the Pope that the church runs the largest number of residential schools in Alberta and that many survivors want an apology.

While the survivors continued to tell their stories, the Pope told his team to give them more time to speak.

When they left the meeting three hours later, Littlechild said that the Pope told him: “I will see you soon.”

Later in the week, during a final meeting with the delegates, Francis said it was sorry.

“It was a group of many stories that culminated in that call to those three small words that can be spoken so that people can

The Pope also announced that he intends to visit Canada, and he did so later in the year, as he made the first apology for Canadian soil in Maskwacis, Alta, home to four reserves, including Ermineskin Cree Nation, where Littlechild belongs.

Littlechild said he may have affected the Pope’s decision to choose his community.

It was a historic day, and Littlechild said that the apology raised his weight from his heart, which was carried by two sides and after listening to 7000 stories of ill -treatment while with the Truth and Reconciliation Committee.

“I was hearing my personal story about the abuse again and again as a commissioner. I didn’t want to do this job,” he said.

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“However, I am so grateful that I did it. This apology gave me an opportunity to tolerate, which I did. I told him that,” I forgave. “

In MASKWACIS, Littlechild also endowed the Pope Cover Hard Waddoo, a former president. It was a moment when people see all over the world.

“It was somewhat controversial for some,” added Littlechild.

Some survivors felt that the Pope’s apology was not enough and did not deserve this honor. The papacy also inhibited anyone from replacing the papal crown.

But Littlechild said he asked Francis permission, and gave Pope Littlechild then to put him on his head.

Littlechild traveled to Iqaluit to see the last Pope station in the “Casual Hajj” in Canada.

It was the last time he spoke to Francis.

“I told him goodbye. We talked about hockey.”

On Easter on Sunday, a day before the death of Francis, Littlefield said that he had witnessed the last public appearance of the Pope on TV, and he is fighting to speak.

Littlechild said he was very sad to hear the death, but Francis found peace.

He said that he asked the Vatican permission to attend the funeral of the Pope on Saturday.

“That you have a friend who leaves you in this way sad, and you are losing words.”

Littlefield said Francis has regained respected relations with the indigenous population.

He said: “But I always tell me that we have a long way. Yes, we are doing.”

“Does the next Pope raise us to the next step?”

And copied 2025 Canadian press