Pope Francis asked forgiveness of Indigenous groups Friday for the ‘deplorable’ residential school abuses the Roman Catholic Church oversaw and the mistreatment of children for over 100 years, adding that he was ashamed at all they were forced to endure.
The pope, who received delegates from all three of Canada’s Indigenous groups, the Métis, Inuit and First Nations, has previously declined to apologize over the Church’s involvement in Canada’s residential school system.
Francis’s apology was paired with a commitment to visit Canada, a promise he made in front of delegates who had come to Rome seeking an apology alongside a vow to repair the damage done.
The pope delivered his address in Italian and it wasn’t immediately clear if the audience understood what he had said, though they stood and applauded after he finished.
The meetings this week in Rome, postponed from December because of the pandemic, are part of the Canadian church and government’s efforts to respond to Indigenous demands for justice and reparations — long-standing demands that gained traction last year after the discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves outside some of the schools.
More than 150,000 native children 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, Christianize and assimilate them into mainstream society, which previous governments considered superior.
The Canadian government has admitted that physical and sexual abuse was rampant, with students beaten for speaking their native languages. That legacy of abuse and isolation has been cited by Indigenous leaders as a root cause of epidemic rates of alcohol and drug addiction on reservations.
Nearly three-quarters of the 130 residential schools were run by Catholic missionary congregations.
Last May the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Nation announced the discovery of some 215 gravesites near Kamloops, British Columbia, found using ground-penetrating radar. It was Canada’s largest Indigenous residential school, and the discovery of the graves was the first of numerous, similar grim sites across the country.
Even before the sites were discovered, Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission specifically called for a papal apology to be delivered on Canadian soil for the church’s role in the “spiritual, cultural, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis children in Catholic-run residential schools.”
