Several thousand indigenous children died and even more were abused at boarding schools run by the Catholic Church in Canada between 1881 and 1996. Now the Pope is apologizing.
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– I humbly ask for forgiveness for the evils that so many Christians have done to indigenous peoples, Pope Francis told a group from the Canadian indigenous population on Monday, according to New York Times.
He traveled to Canada on Sunday to ask for forgiveness for abuses committed by the Catholic Church against Canadian indigenous people.
– It is important to remember how the assimilation policy, which also contained the boarding school system, was devastating for indigenous people.
–The Catholic Church operated 66 boarding schools on behalf of the Canadian government from the late 1800s to the 1990s, with the aim of assimilating Indigenous children into Christian culture. This meant removing the children’s knowledge of Native American culture and language. The Indian Act of 1876 allowed the establishment of these schools in Canada, and the last schools were closed in 1996.
The Pope is said to have said that he was “deeply sorry” and thanked the indigenous people for making him aware of the abuses that had been committed.
Several thousand died
The trip to Canada was planned after representatives from the indigenous people went to the Vatican to ask for unnexcuse this spring.
I In 2021, the remains were from 215 children found outside the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in Canada. This was one of the largest boarding schools, with over 500 pupils.
A commission set up by the Canadian government, which was supposed to investigate the assimilation made by the Canadian authorities against the indigenous population, concluded in 2015 that several thousand children had died in the schools. The deaths are said to have been caused by disease, malnutrition, accidents, fires and abuse. The head of the commission, Murray Sinclair, estimated that close to 10,000 children never returned home, according to New York Times.
Around 150,000 indigenous children were forced to attend boarding school until the 1970s, writes Reuters.
–“Journey of Abandonment”
The journey is a so-called pilgrimage for forgiveness, where the Pope travels around apologizing. He will visit several indigenous peoples in Canada, in the areas around Alberta, Quebec and Nunavut. On Monday, he began his journey at the Ermineskin Indian Residental School in Alberta, where he gave a speech asking for forgiveness.
Pope Francis will be in Canada until Friday. according to Reuters.
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