On Friday, Pope Francis harshly criticized Catholic missionaries who supported ‘oppressive and unjust policies’ against Indigenous peoples and vowed to seek truth and redress, ending his pilgrimage across Canada with a meeting with Indigenous delegations and a visit to Inuit territory in 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 until 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 the Canadian Christian Society.

The Canadian government has said physical and sexual abuse is rampant in schools. Francis apologized on Thursday 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 reconcile the Catholic Church with indigenous peoples and has pledged to follow the path of reparations as an atonement for past wrongs. Their offers of apologies have received mixed responses: some victims have welcomed them, while others say there is still much to be done to right past wrongs and seek justice.

Francis addressed the delegations in Quebec in 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 ligament pain in his knees, said: “I have come as a pilgrim, with my limited physical possibilities, to take new steps forward with you. and for you.; for the search for truth to continue, for progress to be made in promoting paths of healing and reconciliation, for hope to continue to be sown in future generations of indigenous people and ‘allochtones, who wish to live together fraternally, in harmony. .

A few hours later, Francis will take 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, then speak with Inuit youth and elders in the final act of the trip.