THUNDER BAY – Pope Francis has officially apologized to Canada’s Indigenous peoples for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in the residential school system.
Pope Francis on Friday met with Canadian Indigenous leaders at the Vatican and said he felt indignity and shame for the church’s acceptance and role in the abuse suffered by Aboriginal children, who ripped from their homes and forced to attend residential schools, where they were often abused physically and sexually and had their culture and heritage taken away.
About 150,000 Indigenous children attended residential schools in Canada.
“Listening to your voices, I was able to enter into and be deeply grieved by the stories of the suffering, hardship, discrimination and various forms of abuse that some of you experienced, particularly in the residential schools,” Francis said.
“It is chilling to think of determined efforts to instill a sense of inferiority, to rob people of their cultural identity, to sever their roots, and to consider all the personal and social effects that this continues to entail: unresolved traumas that have become inter-generational traumas.”
Indigenous Leaders from Canada’s First Nations, Metis and Inuit communities, along with survivors of the residential school system, earlier this week met with Vatican officials and asked for an official papal apology.
Francis said he feels sorrow and shame that Catholics, especially those entrusted with education responsibilities, had a role in the abuse and lack of respect shown to Canada’s Indigenous peoples during the lengthy residential school era, which lasted from the 1880s into the 1990s.
About 70 per cent of the schools were operated by the Catholic Church and the era has been called a cultural genocide by the National Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
“For the deplorable conduct of those members of the Catholic Church, I ask for God's forgiveness and I want to say to you with all my heart: I am very sorry. And I join my brothers, the Canadian bishops, in asking your pardon. Clearly, the content of the faith cannot be transmitted in a way contrary to the faith itself: Jesus taught us to welcome, love, serve and not judge; it is a frightening thing when, precisely in the name of the faith, counter-witness is rendered to the Gospel,” the Pope said.
Pope Francis did thank those Catholics who, in the name of faith and with respect, taught the Gospel to Canada’s Indigenous peoples, adding there needs to re-establish the covenant between grandparents and grandchildren, the elderly and the young, which he called a prerequisite for the growth of unity in the human family.
Pope Francis said he’s hopeful going forward that a path in faith can be shared together and urged bishops and the Catholic community to continued taking steps toward the transparent search for truth and to foster healing and reconciliation. The Pope reiterated he planned to visit Canada’s Indigenous peoples in their own communities, joking he won’t come in the winter, and closed by saying, “Until we meet again.”
