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POPE FRANCIS HAS apologised to Indigenous people for abuse committed at church-run residential schools in Canada, and said he hoped to visit the country in July.
“I ask for God’s forgiveness for the deplorable conduct of these members of the Catholic Church,” he said, telling Indigenous delegations at the Vatican it caused him “pain and shame”.
Numerous investigations into the former residential schools are underway across Canada after the discovery of mass unmarked graves, with more than 4,000 children believed to be missing, according to authorities.
Francis said he heard “stories of suffering, deprivation, discriminatory treatment and various forms of abuse” during meetings this week with survivors from the First Nations, Metis and Inuit groups.
“I join the Canadian bishops in asking you for forgiveness,” he said.
The 85-year old said “I hope” to travel to Canada for the country’s St Anne’s Feast Day on 26 July.
‘Words necessary’
“The pope’s words were necessary and I deeply appreciate them,” Cassidy Caron, president of the Metis National Council, told journalists after the meeting.
“I now look forward to his coming to Canada where he can deliver this heartfelt apology directly to our survivors and their families,” she said.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau welcomed Francis’s apology, calling it a “step forward.”
“Today’s apology is a step forward in acknowledging the truth of our past in order to write historical wrongs, but there’s still work to be done,” Trudeau said.
“We look forward to him coming to Canada to deliver that apology in person,” he added.
Francis heard first-hand this week of centuries of abuse committed at the schools, and the delegations had pressed him for an apology for a scandal that rocked the Catholic Church.
Some 150,000 First Nations, Metis and Inuit children were enrolled from the late 1800s to the 1990s in 139 residential schools across Canada, as part of a government policy of forced assimilation.
They spent months or years isolated from their families, language and culture, and many were physically and sexually abused by headmasters and teachers.
Francis slammed the “ideological colonisation” of which “so many children have been victims”.
“Your identity and culture have been wounded, many families have been separated,” he said.
He described as “chilling” the “unresolved traumas that have become intergenerational traumas”.
Thousands are believed to have died of disease, malnutrition or neglect. More than 1,300 unmarked graves have been discovered since May 2021 at the schools.
A truth and reconciliation commission concluded in 2015 the failed government policy amounted to “cultural genocide.”
In January, Canada announced a $31.5 billion agreement to reform its discriminatory child welfare system and compensate Indigenous families who suffered because of it.
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Good start, now have the religious orders pay compensation.
@FiannaFáilness FineGaelness: by liquidating all their assets. All of them!
If the Pope is genuinely sorry he would order dioceses across the world to stop dragging their feet and stonewalling and fighting compensation cases. Very little has changed in the Catholic hierarchy in the last few decades except that they’ve gotten better at P. R.
@Gerry McCaughey: 100% if they cared so much the vaults of gold would be emptied in restitution. Words have no meaning. Action is needed.
@Gerry McCaughey: he isn’t genuinely sorry
@Gerry McCaughey: I could be wrong but I think he has asked for that but is getting stop at ever turn,same here in Ireland with bishop Martin, could be wrong but think they genuinely want change.
Unbelievably corrupt organisation.
Where was the Canadian Government? It abandoned the indigenous people and their rights as a colonial power. The State has much to apologise for as well.
@feargal de cantuin: this article is about the catholic church’s role. The state have apologized and have started reparations. Will possibly never be enough but the Pope had to make an apology on behalf on the festering moral cesspit that was his church in the 20th century and before.
Unreal what happened to the indigenous people. Very like tuam.
What a terrible read. Centuries of abuse the article says and they still want to accept the popes self-invitation to visit and repeat his hollow apologies. They should should be refusing to host him, demanding more financial compensation and questioning in what other territories is the Catholic Church committing similar crimes today?
“I ask for God’s forgiveness for the deplorable conduct of these members of the Catholic Church,” – Gods representative on earth asking God for forgiveness for the actions of hundreds of Gods followers!, ya couldn’t make it up.
No apologies are enough anymore. I know religion is a comfort to many people. The Catholic church is no longer part of that. They are inexcusable.
@Daftbit Jelly: If you go back to the first organised societies, especially to Sumeria 5000 years ago, it’s easy to see how what we think of as religion came about. It wasn’t until about 1700 years ago that the Romans weaponised mono-theism. Religion may be a comfort, the same way that a fix of heroin is to an addict, but look at the destruction both bring with them.
I’m indigenous Canadian, an adoptee from the era of the Sixties Scoop, another method of taking chuldren from their families and stripping them of their language, culture and heritage. Also supported by this church. I also have family members directly impacted by the abuse that went on in the schools. I’m not sure what to make of this apology. It doesn’t give back the silenced languages. It doesn’t revive dead customs and traditions. It doesn’t restore the lost history and knowledge. The apology doesn’t heal the trauma and pain of surviving this abuse. Or the grief for those who didn’t. It does nothing to staunch the epidemic of suicide amongst indigenous youth. For an apology to be sincere, it must involve action. Otherwise its just words. Meaningless words at that.
An apology,makes everything all better
@David Nolan: Nobody said that but even in our country you see people want apology,let’s take responsibility first and then we can take punishment.
@David Nolan: what should he do?
He apologised to people in Ireland as well but the church here still refuses to pay the agreed monies to the state for the redress paid out so apologies like that are meaningless.
have your say