Pope apologizes  for violence to indiginous people in Catholic schools in Canada

Pope Francis offered his apologies on Friday, April 1″ for the violence carried out for decades in Catholic boarding schools for indigenous people in Canada and expressed his desire to travel to the country at the end of July.

“I ask God for forgiveness” and “I join my brother Canadian bishops in apologizing,” the Supreme Pontiff declared during an audience at the Vatican before delegations from the Métis, Inuit, and the original peoples of Canada.

Through the voices of indigenous people “I have received, with great sadness in my heart, the stories of suffering, deprivation, discriminatory treatment and various forms of abuse suffered by several of you, especially in boarding schools”, declared the Argentine pontiff.

“I would like to be with you this year” for the Santa Ana celebration on July 26, he added.

The apologies were welcomed by the indigenous delegations as “an essential piece of the puzzle” on the road to reconciliation.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called them an “important milestone” and “a step forward in acknowledging the truth about our past and correcting historical wrongs, although there is still work to be done.”

The delegations, made up of 32 representatives of native peoples and Canadian bishops, recounted to the pope the testimonies of survivors of mistreatment in boarding schools run by the Catholic and Anglican churches.

Visibly marked by the testimonies, the Pope expressed his “shame” and his “sorrow” for the role of some Catholics, “especially those with educational responsibilities”, in “the abuses they suffered, and for the lack of respect towards their identity, their culture and even their spiritual values”.