On Friday, Pope Francis slammed Catholic missionaries who support “oppressive and unjust policies” against Indigenous peoples and vowed to seek truth and redress, ending his Canadian pilgrimage when meeting with Indigenous delegations and a visit to the Inuit territory of Nunavut, in the far north of the country.

François received the victims of residential schools in Eastern Canada at the residence of the Archbishop of Quebec to reiterate his apologies for the abuses suffered in these establishments. From the late 19th century to the 1970s, more than 150,000 indigenous children were forcibly removed from their homes and sent to boarding schools run by the Catholic Church in order to separate them from their culture and assimilate them into Christian society. Canadian.

The Canadian government has said physical and sexual abuse is rampant in schools. Francis on Thursday apologized for the harm caused by clergy sexual abuse of young and vulnerable people. He expressed an irreversible commitment that this will never happen again.

The pope hopes his tour of Canada asking for forgiveness will help the Catholic Church reconcile with indigenous peoples and has promised to follow the path of reparations as an atonement for past wrongs. His offers of apology have been met with mixed responses: some victims have welcomed them, while others say there is still more to be done to right past wrongs and achieve justice.

Francis addressed the delegations in Quebec with a penitential spirit, to express his pain for “the harm that many Catholics have caused them, by supporting oppressive and unjust policies.”

Francisco, who on this trip was forced to use a wheelchair due to knee ligament pain, said: “I have come as a pilgrim, with my limited physical possibilities, to take new steps forward with you. and for you. ; so that the search for truth may continue, so that progress may be made in promoting paths of healing and reconciliation, so that hope may continue to be sown in future generations of natives and non-natives who wish to live together fraternally, in harmony”.

A few hours later, Francis will deliver this message to Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut, a vast territory above the Arctic Circle. Its population of approximately 40,000 is predominantly Inuit.

There, he plans to meet residential school survivors at an elementary school in Iqualit, and then speak with Inuit youth and elders on the final act of the trip.