VATICAN CITY
\nPope Francis on Friday made a historic apology to Indigenous Peoples for the \u201cdeplorable\u201d abuses they suffered in Canada\u2019s church-run residential schools and said he hoped to visit Canada in late July to deliver the apology in person to survivors of the Catholic Church\u2019s misguided missionary zeal.
\nFrancis begged forgiveness during an audience with dozens of members of the Metis, Inuit and First Nations communities who came to Rome seeking a papal apology and a commitment for the Catholic Church to repair the damage. The first pope from the Americas said he hoped to visit Canada \u201cin the days\u201d around the Feast of St. Anna, which falls on July 26 and is dedicated to Christ\u2019s grandmother.
\nMore than 150,000 native children in Canada were forced to attend state-funded Christian schools from the 19th century until the 1970s in an effort to isolate them from the influence of their homes and culture. The aim was to Christianize and assimilate them into mainstream society, which previous Canadian governments considered superior.
\nAfter hearing their stories all week, Francis told the Indigenous that the colonial project ripped children from their families, cutting off roots, traditions and culture and provoking inter-generational trauma that is still being felt today. He said it was a \u201ccounter-witness\u201d to the Gospel that the residential school system purported to uphold.
\n\u201cFor the deplorable conduct of those members of the Catholic Church, I ask forgiveness of the Lord,\u201d Francis said. \u201cAnd I want to tell you from my heart, that I am greatly pained. And I unite myself with the Canadian bishops in apologizing.\u201d
\nFrancis said he felt shame of the role that Catholic educators had played in the harm, \u201cin the abuse and disrespect for your identity, your culture and even your spiritual values,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is evident that the contents of the faith cannot be transmitted in a way that is extraneous to the faith itself.\u201d
\n\u201cIt is chilling to think of determined efforts to instill a sense of inferiority, to rob people of their cultural identity, to sever their roots, and to consider all the personal and social effects that this continues to entail: unresolved traumas that have become inter-generational traumas,\u201d he said.
\nThe trip to Rome by the Indigenous was years in the making but gained momentum last year after the discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves outside some of the residential schools in Canada. The three groups of Indigenous met separately with Francis over several hours this week, culminating with Friday\u2019s audience.
\nFrancis spoke in Italian and the Indigenous had English translations to read along. The president of the Metis National Council, Cassidy Caron, said the Metis elder sitting next her burst into tears upon hearing what she said was a long-overdue apology.
\n\u201cThe pope\u2019s words today were historic, to be sure. They were necessary, and I appreciate them deeply,\u201d Caron told reporters in St. Peter\u2019s Square. \u201cAnd I now look forward to the pope\u2019s visit to Canada, where he can offer those sincere words of apology directly to our survivors and their families, whose acceptance and healing ultimately matters most.\u201d
\nCaron presented Francis with a bound book of their people\u2019s stories: Much of what the Indigenous sought to accomplish during their meetings this week was to tell Francis the individual stories of loss and abuse that they suffered.
\nThe Canadian government has admitted that physical and sexual abuse was rampant at the schools, with students beaten for speaking their native languages. That legacy of that abuse and isolation from family has been cited by Indigenous leaders as a root cause of the epidemic rates of alcohol and drug addiction on Canadian reservations.
\nNearly three-quarters of the 130 residential schools were run by Catholic missionary congregations.
\nLast May, the Tk\u2019emlups te Secwepemc Nation announced the discovery of 215 gravesites near Kamloops, British Columbia, that were found using ground-penetrating radar. It was Canada\u2019s largest Indigenous residential school and the discovery of the graves was the first of numerous, similar grim sites across the country.
\nAfter the papal apology, the audience continued on with joyous performances of Indigenous prayers, drum, dance and fiddlers that Francis watched, applauded and at one point gave a thumbs up to. The Indigenous then presented him with gifts, including snow shoes.
\nFrancis\u2019 apology went far beyond what Pope Benedict XVI had offered when an Assembly of First Nations delegation visited in 2009. At the time, Benedict only expressed his \u201csorrow at the anguish caused by the deplorable conduct of some members of the church.\u201d But he did not apologize.
\nThe Argentine pope is no stranger to offering apologies for his own errors and what he himself has termed the \u201ccrimes\u201d of the institutional church. Most significantly, during a 2015 visit to Bolivia, he apologized for the sins, crimes and offenses committed by the church against Indigenous peoples during the colonial-era conquest of the Americas.
\nHe made clear those same colonial crimes occurred far more recently in Canada at the Catholic-run residential schools.
\n\u201cThe chain that has handed down knowledge and lifestyles, in union with the territory, it has been broken up by colonization, which without respect has torn away many of you from the vital environment and tried to conform to another mentality,\u201d Francis said. \u201cSo your identity and culture has been wounded, many families separated, many children have become victims of this homogenization action, supported by the idea that progress occurs through ideological colonization, according to programs studied at the table rather than respecting the lives of peoples.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
VATICAN CITY Pope Francis on Friday made a historic apology to Indigenous Peoples for the \u201cdeplorable\u201d abuses they suffered in Canada\u2019s church-run residential schools and said he hoped to visit Canada in late July to deliver the apology in person to survivors of the Catholic Church\u2019s misguided missionary zeal. Francis begged forgiveness during an audience […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252579,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-252564","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n