POPE APOLOGISES TO INDIGENOUS FOR “DEPLORABLE” ABUSES THEY SUFFERED IN CANADA

Fri 01 April 2022:

“I ask for God’s forgiveness for the deplorable conduct of these members of the Catholic Church,” Pope Francis said when he met with Indigenous delegations at the Vatican. He also said it caused him “pain and shame”.

Pope Francis apologised to Indigenous people for abuse committed at church-run residential schools in Canada. The 85-year old said “I hope” to travel to Canada for the country’s St Anne’s Feast Day on July 26.

Several investigations into previous residential schools are underway across Canada following the discovery of huge unmarked graves, with authorities believing that over 4,000 children are still missing.

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.

“For the deplorable conduct of those members of the Catholic Church, I ask forgiveness of the Lord,” Francis said. “And I want to tell you from my heart, that I am greatly pained. And I unite myself with the Canadian bishops in apologizing.”

From the late 1800s through the 1990s, about 150,000 First Nations, Metis, and Inuit children were enrolled in 139 residential schools across Canada as part of a government policy of forced assimilation.

They were separated from their families, language, and culture for months or years, and many were physically and sexually mistreated by headmasters and teachers.

“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.

Francis denounced “ideological colonisation,” to which “so many children have been victims,” on Friday.

He termed the “unresolved traumas that have become intergenerational traumas” as “chilling.”

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.

Last year, archeologists detected what they said could be 200 unmarked graves at a former school in Kamloops, British Columbia. Weeks later, a further 751 unmarked graves were detected across from the former Marieval residential school on the Cowessess reserve in Saskatchewan.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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