François A “Requested God’s forgiveness” For violence perpetrated in residential schools, where 150,000 children were torn from their families to “kill the Indian in them”.
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A long wait. Friday, April 1, at the end of a week of meetings in Rome with First Nations, Inuit and Métis delegations, Pope Francis presented the apology for the Catholic Church for The violence perpetrated in the Aboriginal residential school system, in force for more than a century in Canada. “I want to tell you with all my heart: I’m really sorry,” said Italian, the Sovereign Pontiff. “I beg for God (…) and I join my Canadian bishop brothers to ask for forgiveness.”
In September 2021, the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Canada had indeed paved the way, recognizing the role and responsibility of Catholic congregations in these Aboriginal residential schools, where, between 1831 and 1996, 150,000 Aboriginal children were Taken their family to “kill the Indian in them”. Deprived of their language, their culture, their families, they were victims of a “cultural genocide”, concluded the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015. Between 4,000 and 6,000 children never returned from these residential schools, when others suffered psychological, physical and sexual abuse.
“I feel shame, pain and dishonor in the face of the role that some Catholics, especially those who had educational responsibilities, played in everything that hurt you, in abuse, lack of respect From your identity and culture you have suffered, “said Francis, after hearing survivors tell him their tragic experience. Evoking the “uprooting drama”, he lasted “ideological colonization” and “the action of assimilation” including “so many children were victims”. “Unfortunately, this colonial attitude is still widespread,” he lamented.
“Behind the conceales, behind the indifference of more than a hundred years, behind the lies, behind the lack of justice, this pope, Pope Francis, decided to go to the end and decided to pronounce Lyrics that First Nations, Inuit and Métis have been waiting for decades, “said the leader of the Inuit delegation, Natan Obed. The President of the Métis National Council, Cassidy Caron, also testified to his “deep emotion” and that of his delegation, explaining that after reading the translation of the speech of the pope and his words of excuse , an “old” had “melted into tears”. “I know how important it was for her,” she added. “Today is the day we expected,” said Chief Gerald Antoine, cacique from the First Nations delegation. “It’s a first historic step, but it’s just a first step. The next is that he apologizes in front of our families on their lands.”
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