In January 18, Pope Francis addressed participants of the World Meeting of Indigenous Youth in Soloy, Panama.
In comments via video, Francis urged his audience to "be grateful for the history of your peoples and courageous in the face of the challenges that surround you, to move forward full of hope in the building of another possible world." The same day, in Washington, D.C., another contingent of Catholic youth made headlines for their interactions with an Omaha elder named Nathan Phillips while he sang and played a drum in front of the Lincoln Memorial. The mostly white students were part of a delegation from Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky, who travelled to Washington to participate in the annual March for Life, an event that coincided with the Indigenous Peoples March that brought Phillips to town.
Since then, the internet has exploded over videos of the incident, with different factions arguing about whether the students' behavior—which included performing a "tomahawk chop"—was racist or misunderstood. Several cycles of media recrimination, mostly written by and for white people, have eclipsed Indigenous perspectives on the incident. Soon after the first video when viral, the Diocese of Covington and the school issued a brief joint statement condemning the students' behavior as "opposed to the Church's teaching on the dignity and respect of the human person." That statement was subsequently removed, and replaced by an open letter from Covington Bishop Roger Foys, apologizing to the students and expressing regret over their unfair treatment. This comes as the diocese still awaits the results of an independent investigation. Regardless of how the diocese ultimately responds to the incident, the students' behavior and the responses (or lack thereof) from Church officials offer a reminder that the Catholic Church in the United States has long lacked adequate resources to address the "dignity and respect" of Indigenous peoples.
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