The Diocese of St. Paul is distancing itself from statements made by a St. Paul priest addressing residential schools and reconciliation.
"I have a problem with the Truth and Reconciliation process. I have no problem with the truth, nor with reconciliation; but somehow when the two terms come together, something goes missing. I think we need to hear the whole truth. Half-truths are not adequate," begins a letter written by Father Gerard Gauthier posted to the parish's Facebook page Friday afternoon and also sent to the St. Paul Journal as a letter to the editor (see the Oct. 30 edition of the St. Paul Journal for the complete letter to the editor).
He subsequently removed the letter from social media after it was suggested to him that the purpose of the parish Facebook page was to "disseminate information, not opinion." However, by that time the contents had been copied and shared by other Facebook users drawing strong reactions.
In his letter, Gauthier addresses residential schools and suggests that not all residential school experiences were negative.
“I do not deny any of the horrific things that happened in the residential schools. The people who shared their stories, I don’t doubt they're honest and I don’t even question the authenticity of those accounts," Gauthier told the St. Paul Journal Monday morning when questioned why he chose to write the letter.
"I almost think maybe people don’t understand what reconciliation is, but when you have two opposing views, how do we come to a common view? Like in the gospel, there’s the parable of the weeds and the wheat and it’s not all bad. The bad was bad but there is some good. We have to kind of meet half way, and reconciliation looks at the full picture and let everybody’s voice be heard," Gauthier said in explaining his reasoning for writing the letter.
"One comment that I’d made in it was there’s people who have told me the residential school experience was 'good for me, I learned a lot, I grew as a person, I got educated.' The response to that is 'they’re liars.' We certainly heard the negative stories of the residential schools but were the people allowed to hear the positive stories?" said Gauthier.
Deacon Ryan Sales, Chancellor for the Diocese of St. Paul, contacted the Journal on behalf of Bishop Paul Terrio to state the letter does not represent the position of the St. Paul Cathedral Parish or the Diocese of St. Paul.
“As the Diocese of St. Paul, we want to be clear that the comments that were made were made by an individual, who is a member of the clergy . . . however he made those comments personally,” he said.
“The diocese of St. Paul remains committed to working with our indigenous brothers and sisters."
Viper Nayawatatic, 25, is a student at the University of Blue Quills. He was part of the St. Paul Cathedral Parish Facebook group until being removed from the group following his response to the letter. Before being removed, he took screenshots of the original post and shared them on his own Facebook account.
“Before I posted, he had a lot of people following him, saying that he’s speaking the truth, that he’s doing such a good job by speaking the truth. And no one was seeing the other side, of the person that went to the residential school. What I got from it was he was trying to say it was OK to have been abused, for a person to have been to a residential school,” said Nayawatatic.
Nayawatatic stands by his decision to share a copy of the letter, because he thinks it’s important to speak up and address what happened.
“I just couldn’t believe that a pastor would write something like this to justify residential schools. This is a leader of St. Paul’s cathedral church. This is a person who has the will and the ability to speak over a crowd and say what he wants to say and have them believing it,” said Nayawatatic.
He said he still believes reconciliation between the indigenous and non-indigenous communities is possible. Moving forward, he said he wants an apology from Fr. Gauthier, and he hopes for an end to stereotypes and prejudice.
“We have to work with each other. Maybe this priest doesn’t know all the facts. I don’t know all the facts. You don’t know all the facts. But we can work together,” said Nayawatatic.
In another Facebook post Monday afternoon, Gauthier wrote he has respect for the First Nations peoples and acknowledged the tragedy and impact of the residential schools.
"I did not mean any offence to the First Nations peoples and apologize for any hurt caused by my letter.
I have learned from this experience and wish to move forward, co-operating in the reconciliation process. I humbly ask for your pardon," wrote Gauthier.
St. Paul Mayor Maureen Miller said she believes the communities are working towards understanding each other.
“I think it’s important for our communities to understand the truth. That’s how relationships get broken, and how relationships get built,” said Miller.
She said she can’t speak for each individual in the community, but the town is very focused on creating and re-establishing the relationship with the First Nations in the region.
Florence Large is an indigenous Catholic. She is married to a residential schools survivor and has known Gauthier for more than 25 years. She said she was shocked he had the views he expressed in the letter.
"This has impacted me greatly, his statement. I was just appalled that he would make that comparison of having to work hard on the farm," said Large.
She said she thinks the statements Gauthier made were out of ignorance and that she hopes all the priests in the diocese will sit down in the circle with the elders and hear the stories and learn about the experiences.
Attempts to reach Saddle Lake Chief Eddie Makokis were unsuccessful on Monday, as he was in a council meeting. Whitefish Lake Chief Tom Houle could not comment, as he was yet unaware of the letter.
With files from Clare Gauvreau, Janice Huser and Meredith Kerr
