Why a 400-year relationship between Mi'kmaq and Catholic Church is under pressure

The close relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and the Mi'kmaq in what is now Atlantic Canada — an alliance that dates back more than 400 years — is being sorely tested after recent discoveries of unmarked graves at former residential school sites.

Some have turned away from the church, but others have maintained their faith.

"It's just sad that what happened in residential schools should never have happened," said Jeff Ward, general manager of the Membertou Heritage Park in Membertou First Nation, near Sydney, N.S.

"Those that hid behind religion, they have to answer to the Creator. They have to stand before God.

"My mom is a survivor. I'm a son of a survivor, so she told me the stories, and she's still with us today and she shares those stories with our family and it's very hard."

Starting Monday, Inuit, Métis and First Nations representatives from across Canada will be in Rome to ask Pope Francis for an apology for the intergenerational trauma created by the Roman Catholic Church's residential schools.

The Mi'kmaq started welcoming Catholic missionaries in the 1500s and formalized their connection with the church in 1610 with the baptism of Grand Chief Membertou.

Today, almost every First Nation in the Atlantic region has only one church and it is almost always Catholic.

Grand Chief Membertou allied his people with the 17th-century missionaries partly because it seemed like a pragmatic political move, said Ward.

Ward greets visitors to the heritage park with the Mi'kmaq Welcome Song, which has deep meaning, he said.

"When I sing that song, I think of Grand Chief Membertou," Ward said.

"Our motto today is 'Welcoming the world' and sometimes I believe it's not by accident. I believe the spirits work through us today and we continue that same teaching, that same vision, that Grand Chief Membertou had."

The Mi'kmaq readily accepted the Catholic faith, Ward said, because the cross had already been an important spiritual symbol in their culture for 1,000 years before Jesus Christ.

For them, it has long represented the four directions and the balance between physical, spiritual, emotional and mental well-being.