Anger and hope for healing in Kahnawake as Pope's Quebec visit approaches

WARNING: This story contains distressing details.

Deacon Ron Boyer knows Pope Francis's visit to Canada is bringing up difficult emotions for residential school survivors like him, but he hopes they can find a way to open their hearts to what he has to say.

"What he carries, I call it good medicine. I think that's going to reflect onto other people that will listen to him," Boyer said on Friday. "Healing is a two way street."

The deacon at the Saint Francis Xavier Mission is part of the Kahnawake delegation that's heading to Quebec City, where the Pope is expected to ask forgiveness from those who attended residential schools in Quebec and the Maritimes. 

The Catholic Church ran over half of the residential schools in Canada, which included four Catholic-run institutions in Quebec. Cases of both abuse and deaths are linked to residential schools in the province.

The Pope made his first official apology in Canada on Monday afternoon at the site of the former Ermineskin Indian Residential School in Maskwacis, Alta., where thousands of survivors and their families gathered in attendance.

"I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous peoples," Francis said. 

He stopped short of implicating the institution of the Catholic Church in the abuse, however.

Boyer says it was his experience in residential school over the 1940s and 1950s that led him to his life in the church. 

He attended the St. Charles Garnier Indian Residential School in Spanish, Ont., which neighboured a school for girls. At both institutions, children from Quebec and Ontario were called by their assigned number — not their names. 

From a young age, he felt an obligation to stand up for the younger ones, including his brothers, who faced frequent beatings in residential school. 

"I had a lot of difficulty and was punished a lot of times. I always stood up for the underdog," Boyer said, adding that sense of responsibility carried into adulthood — and inspired him to become a leader in the church. 

While an apology from the church was a long time coming, he says it's never too late. 

Josie Martin McGregor is another survivor in Kahnawake, the Kanien'kehá:ka community on the South Shore of Montreal, who attended an institution in Spanish. She wasn't planning on listening to the Pope's message at first, but tuned in on Monday after her friends called.