Canada mission ‘intimidating’ for Nuncio

As lunch companions go, an archbishop who has been serving in the Vatican’s diplomatic service for 40 years is in high demand.

So when Archbishop Ivan Jurkovič joined priests of the Archdiocese of Vancouver for lunch, he was the centre of attention. And so was one topic: Ukraine.

The Slovenian-born papal diplomat’s lengthy career has included assignments in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. When he was appointed Apostolic Nuncio to Canada in 2021, he was serving as the Holy See’s permanent observer at the United Nations in Geneva and the World Trade Organization, as well as its representative to the International Organization for Migration.

He spent 15 years in Russia and Ukraine, but as the Pope’s representative to Canada there is little he can say officially about the conflict. As with any war, there will have to be a negotiated peace, he said.

“It’s a bad, bad situation, and we will need major, major … capacity to find as much as possible a solution that’s going to bring stability to the region.”

As to whether the solution to the conflict might involve a religious solution or intervention, he said “many countries and organizations are working for peace,” but that “it is impossible to predict how it will finally be achieved.”

The diplomacy Jurkovič brings to the subject of the Ukraine-Russia war has served him well in Canada, a country with its own political complexities. After assignments in Ukraine and Russia, as well as Korea and Colombia, a posting in Canada would seem to be a walk in the park. Yet Canada became an intimidating assignment.

“To start again in a big country, a big Church, with many dioceses … for me it was quite a challenge.”

It was also the outset of the Kamloops residential school controversy. Three years later, he can look back on the turmoil he walked into and describe it as a time with many challenges and many consolations.

He knew that Canada was a complex nation, with nearly 60 dioceses as well as more than a dozen eparchies, exarchates and ordinariates. He also had some familiarity with the country’s residential school history. But nothing prepared him for the crisis unfolding as he arrived.

“I was quite shocked to see the flag on half mast and staying that way for many months. You know, for the first time in my life,” he said.

As the nation reeled from allegations of genocide and mass graves, Jurkovič was “shocked by the situation,” he said. “With very forceful but generic accusations blaming the Catholic Church as a whole.”

He tried to process what was going on and the “different interpretations of what happened, what can be documented, what cannot be documented.”

“For me it was, I think, not an easy moment.”

It didn’t get any easier.

“Then, all of a sudden, on the agenda was the visit of the Pope. Again, as a newcomer to have to deal with such an important event as the visit of the Pope, it was another additional challenge.”

But as events unfolded and the papal visit took place, something happened — “All of a sudden I saw that it was for me a very blessed period,” he said.

Encountering blessings after a time of pain is not something Jurkovič is unfamiliar with.

“Typically, when I have different experiences, if the beginning is a little bit harsh and difficult, then the follow-up is usually full of enjoyment, full of satisfaction, and this is what I’m experiencing now less than three years since I arrived.”

Acceptance had led to an Easter experience arising from a Good Friday Cross.

“I think it is giving me a second youth by forcing me to do things that I wouldn’t be ready to do in other places. So, I’m happy,” he said.

As the residential school debate unfolded, however, he was forced to take a cautious and nuanced position.

“In a country like Canada, with (more than) 70 bishops and so many resources, the Apostolic Nuncio has to play a role that is respectful of all these institutions and all this human and intellectual capacity, so I trusted the judgment of the bishops’ conference and their collaborators,” he said.

In fact, he said, “At a certain point, I was also avoiding it.”

“I was trying to stay a little bit away from the public commentaries. But I was following very attentively, especially because, knowing the sensibility of the Holy Father … the Indigenous question for the Holy Father is a major, major, important subject. This is why he opted to come to Canada and say no to some other trips.”

The Archbishop acknowledges that different people can assess the Pope’s visit differently, but from his perspective it was a positive development in the residential school story because it brought people together, starting with Indigenous delegations’ visit to the Vatican.

“There was a construction of goodwill, touching on subjects that were really tough, listening to the people who were bringing first-hand (their stories).”

Suddenly taking on a more passionate tone, the Nuncio addresses Indigenous relations in a historical context. Canada has a long history of “hundreds of years, thousands of years, and we have to live (together),” he said. “This is our part, it’s our history, our nation, our people. We should not now decide, ‘Today we are going to judge, and it’s finished.’ This must continue.”

The key is to “bring more light to everything,” he said. “We shouldn’t be afraid of any discussion,” since today’s new findings will contribute to future understanding.

“If somebody has solid data, please bring it, and let’s add everything together and keep it for the future, and we will certainly make new conclusions and new judgments, and you will have a history of the country that will tell us a distant perspective of many events that are still difficult to judge thoroughly today.”

Jurkovič points out that “Walking Together” was the theme of the Pope’s visit and hopes Canadians will take just such an approach toward “building one country, one society” with harmony and prosperity.

Canada’s bishops also have a role and “a particular freedom” to contribute to the story by listening, correcting and adding context where necessary.

Asked what he sees as the biggest challenge facing Canadian Catholics, without hesitation, he says demography.

“The challenge of Canadian Catholics is the typical challenge of the developed world. It’s linked to many things, and the first and most dramatic thing is the demographic situation.”

He points out that demographic decline is affecting the entire Western world and beyond, including China. Catholics have to continue working “with courage and optimism and enthusiasm” in “our society that is very much changed” to find answers to new challenges.

“Big cultural shifts are going on, but this is a challenge that we have to face today, as it was necessary to face in other times.”