VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis has issued a historic apology to Canadian indigenous peoples for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in residential schools that sought to erase their cultures and where many children suffered abuse and were buried in unmarked graves.
Francis, in an address to native leaders after meetings with delegates from various indigenous nations, also said he hoped to visit Canada in July.
One of the leaders, who want the pope to make the apology directly to their communities on their native lands in Canada, called his words “historic” and another said they reflected the “entirety” of their message to him.
“For the deplorable behavior of those members of the Catholic Church, I ask forgiveness from God and I would like to tell you from the bottom of my heart that I am very pained,” he said, speaking in Italian.
“I join my brother Canadian bishops in apologizing,” he said. His speech in the Vatican’s frescoed Sala Clementina was preceded by prayers by indigenous leader in native languages asking the “great spirit” to bless all those present.
“The pope’s words today were historic to be sure. They were necessary and I appreciate them deeply,” said Cassidy Caron, president of the Métis National Council and the head of one indigenous delegations.
“I now look forward to the pope’s visit to Canada.”
In the past two centuries, the Church ran Indigenous Residential Schools in Canada with the aim of assimilating the Indigenous children into society. About 150,000 indigenous children were separated from their families and taken to prison-like schools where they were subjected to abuse, rape and malnutrition. Many children died and were buried in unmarked graves.
The stated aim of the schools, which operated between 1831 and 1996, was to assimilate indigenous children. They were run by Christian denominations on behalf of the government, most by the Catholic Church.
“I feel shame – sorrow and shame – for the role that a number of Catholics, particularly those with educational responsibilities, had in all these things that wounded you, in the abuses you suffered and in the lack of respect shown for your identity, your culture and even your spiritual values,” Francis said.
In 2015, the Canadian government-sponsored Truth and Reconciliation Commission investigating the atrocities against natives described the Church’s acts as “cultural genocide.”
Meanwhile, a delegation representing indigenous Canadians during their visit to the Vatican urged Pope Francis to revoke 15th-century papal orders that justify the seizure of their land by colonial powers.
The demand was made during a two-hour private meeting between the members of the Assembly of First Nations and the Pope.
The controversial papal orders, issued way back in 1455 and 1493, approved the forcible seizure of indigenous land in Africa and the Americas and were used in the so-called ‘Doctrine of Discovery’.
The group maintains that there is a direct correlation between the doctrine and the disappearances and deaths of indigenous women in Canada.
“If you look at our history…what happened since they landed on our shores, then basically its genocide,” Gerald Antoine, a senior member of the Assembly of First Nations, was quoted as saying after the meeting. “We need to right the wrong.”