POPE TO VISIT CANADA IN THE WAKE OF OUTRAGE OVER INDIGENOUS SCHOOL ABUSE

Thu 28 October 2021:

Pope Francis has accepted an invitation to visit Canada, where he will be pressed to apologize for the Catholic Church’s role in the establishment of residential schools, where thousands of Indigenous children were forcibly separated from their families, denied their language and culture, and subjected to sexual abuse, violence, and malnutrition.

Canada’s bishops have formally invited the Pope to visit the nation as part of a “process of reconciliation” with Indigenous peoples, the Vatican said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Vatican stated that the trip’s date will be determined at a later date.

In a brief statement, the Vatican said the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) has invited the Pope to make an apostolic journey to Canada “also in the context of the long-standing pastoral process of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.”

The Vatican says Francis has indicated his “willingness” to visit Canada at a date to be determined. Given the time usually required to organize an overseas papal visit, it appeared unlikely such a pilgrimage could happen this year.

After ground-penetrating radar was used to identify more than 200 unmarked graves of children who died at the church-run Kamloops Indian Residential School in western Canada, outrage over abuses at residential schools rose again earlier this year.

Residential schools, which were run by churches from the 1870s until 1996, were rife with physical, mental and sexual abuse, neglect and other forms of violence.

Thousands more unmarked graves were were uncovered in neighboring areas, prompting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to issue a another apology earlier this month.

When he met the pope in 2017, Trudeau asked him to visit Canada to apologise.

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