MASKWACIS, Alberta – Pope Francis issued a profound apology to the indigenous peoples of their homeland in Canada on Monday, responding to the critical need of many survivors in residential schools run by their families. Executive worship has been a gruesome center of abuse, forced assimilation, cultural destruction, and death for more than a century.
“I humbly ask forgiveness for the crime so many Christians have committed against the indigenous peoples,” Francis told a crowd of Indigenous people, some wearing traditional clothes and hats. cap, in Maskwacis, Alberta, site of an old residential school.
The Pope offered his apology in a pow wow circle, a covered ring that encloses an open space used for traditional drumming and dancing circles. Surrounded by t-shirts, campfires and stalls labeled “Supporting Mental Health and Culture”.
Francis, who arrived at the event and was pushed in a wheelchair, added that his remarks were for “every community and indigenous people” and said the feeling of “shame” has lingered since the show. he apologized to indigenous representatives in April at the Vatican.
He said he was “deeply sorry” – a comment that prompted applause and shouts of approval – for the ways in which “many Christians supported the colonial mentality of the powers that be oppressing the people.” native.”
“I’m sorry,” he continued. “In particular, I ask forgiveness for the ways in which many members of the church and religious communities have collaborated, especially through their indifference, in projects that destroy culture. forced assimilation and assimilation promoted by the governments of the time, culminating in the neighborhood school system. “
Those schools separate children from their parents; subjected to physical, sexual and emotional abuse; language removed; and use Christianity as a weapon to disrupt indigenous cultures and communities. Catholic churches run most of the schools for the government with Catholic mandates responsible for running 60 to 70 percent of the roughly 130 schools, where thousands of children have died.
Francis said it was “right to remember” where such injuries occurred, even at the risk of opening up old ones.
“It must be remembered how devastating policies of assimilation and occupation, including the residential school system, have been to the people of these lands,” he said, adding, “I thank you for making me appreciate this.”
He called the abuses, often carried out with missionary zeal, a “catastrophic mistake” that had eroded people, their culture and their values.
Francis also said that “ask for forgiveness is not the end of the matter,” adding that he “fully agrees with the skeptics who want to act. And he said he hopes further investigations and “concrete ways” can be found to help survivors begin the path towards healing and reconciliation.
After delivering his speech in Spanish and having it translated into English, Head of the Nation Wilton Littlechild Ermineskin Cree, who introduced the pope, fitted him with a headdress, the a white feather covered his white robe. The crowd erupted in applause.
As Francis concluded his remarks, many who listened said they were pleased with his apology.
Cam Bird, 42, a student survivor at the Red River reserve in Saskatchewan, said: “It’s real and it’s very good. “He believes us.”
But others still remember what happened after so many generations of devastation and pain.
Barb Morin, 64, from Île-à-la-Crosse, Saskatchewan, said: “I don’t really understand it yet, there are parents who crash in residential schools and people wearing shirts that say ‘Living people’ Survivors in residential schools are never forgotten”. “I’m having a hard time understanding this right now.”
