Pope Francis apologized on Monday for the suffering the Catholic Church has caused Indigenous children in its residential schools in Canada.
“I apologize, I am deeply sorry,” Francisco said during a speech at the site of the former Ermineskin residential school in the community of Maskwacis in the province of Alberta, flanked by representatives of the three main Aboriginal communities: the Métis (or free), the Inuit of Nunavik and the First Nations.
Francis had apologized to the Vatican for the terrible damage caused, as the Church ran about 60% of the schools in question.
See also: Pope Francis apologizes to Indigenous peoples of Canada for abuses by the Catholic Church
However, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, along with Indigenous members, victims and their families called on the Pope to apologize on Canadian soil, where the atrocities occurred.
Before leaving Rome last Sunday, Francis announced that he was traveling to Canada to meet with indigenous peoples.
“I hope, with the grace of God, that my penitential pilgrimage will contribute to the path of reconciliation already undertaken. Please join me in prayer,” the pope said in a trill.
The Pope’s visit includes stops in the provinces of Edmonton, Alberta, Quebec and the Inuit Nation in Canada’s Far North before returning to Rome.
See also: 93 ‘potential human burial sites’ discovered in Canada near residential school
About 150,000 indigenous children were forced to go to school, sometimes separating them from their families.
The goal of residential schools in Canada was to eliminate Aboriginal culture and replace it with “white” culture. The first of the 139 schools opened in the 1920s and the last closed in the 1990s.
A 2019 investigation called what happened in those schools “genocide,” as Trudeau acknowledged last year, with between 4,300 and 6,000 children dead from sexual, physical and sexual illness and abuse. psychological.
*Translated by Daniel Gallego.
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