Pope Francis is in Québec on Wednesday on the second leg of his apology tour to indigenous peoples of Canada for the “evil committed by so many Christians” during the residential boarding school era.
According to reports, the Pontiff first met privately with Governor General Mary Simon, an Inuk woman and the first ever indigenous person to hold the role.
Afterwards, the pope had a 10-minute private conversation with Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau.
Afterwards, Trudeau, Simon, and Pope Francis all gave addresses to more than 50 indigenous residential school survivors, elders, knowledge keepers and Canadian dignitaries.
“I acknowledge and applaud what has been achieved, what Indigenous communities have achieved with this week’s visit.
“It is indigenous peoples who worked to pave a way for an apology on indigenous lands in Canada. We must remember that it is because of their courage and resilience that we are here today,” Governor-General Mary Simon said to the crowd.
Simon referenced the Pope’s own words from his visit to the Sacred Heart church in Edmonton on Monday.
“There, you said that reconciliation is a grace that must be sought. To that, I would also add that reconciliation is a grace that must be earned through continuous hard work and understanding,” she said.
Pope Francis, seated at the front of the room beside Simon, delivered an apology once again to the indigenous communities in Canada.
“I express my deep shame and sorrow and, together with the bishops of this country, I renew my request for forgiveness for the wrongs done by so many Christians to the indigenous peoples.”
He said that the Holy See and the local Catholic communities “are concretely committed to promoting indigenous cultures in specific and appropriate spiritual ways that include attention to their cultural traditions, customs, languages, and educational processes in the spirit of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.”
According to reports, more than 150,000 native children in Canada were forced to attend government-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 Christianise and assimilate them into mainstream society, which previous Canadian governments considered superior.
Ottawa 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 now in Canadian reservations.
The discoveries of hundreds of potential burial sites at former schools in the past year drew international attention to the schools in Canada and their counterparts in the US.
The revelations prompted Pope Francis to comply with the Truth Commission’s call for an apology on Canadian soil; Catholic religious orders operated 66 of the country’s 139 residential schools. (NAN)
