On the first day of a visit to address decades of abuse at Catholic-run residential schools, Pope Francis apologized for the “harm” done to Canada’s Indigenous peoples.
A group of First Nations, Metis, and Inuit people in Maskwacis, western Alberta province, who some of whom were taken from their families as youngsters in what has been dubbed a “cultural genocide,” applauded in response to the leader of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics’ call for forgiveness.
“I am sorry,” said the 85-year-old pontiff, who remained seated as he delivered his address at one of the largest of Canada’s infamous residential schools, where Indigenous children were sent as part of a policy of forced assimilation.
“I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous peoples,” said the pope, citing “cultural destruction” and the “physical, verbal, psychological and spiritual abuse” of children over the course of decades.
Francis recognized publicly that “many members of the Church” had participated in the oppressive system while expressing his “deep sense of sadness and remorse.”
The passion in Maskwacis, an Indigenous village south of the provincial capital Edmonton, where the Ermineskin residential school operated until it was shut down in 1975, was audible as he talked.
Along with Mary Simon, the first Indigenous governor-general of Canada, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, several hundred people, many of them dressed in traditional attire, were there.
Indigenous leaders later adorned the pope with a traditional feathered headdress after many people closed their eyes, wiped away their tears, or leaned on and hugged their neighbors.
Volunteers had earlier distributed little paper bags for the “gathering of tears,” and counselors were standing by to offer assistance to anyone who might require it.
