TORRONTO: Pope Francis has said an upcoming visit to Canada will be a “pilgrimage of penance” that he hopes will help to heal wounds left in Indigenous communities by Roman Catholic priests and nuns who ran abusive residential schools that sought to forcibly assimilate children.
During the July 24 to July 30 trip, Francis is set to make good on a promise to apologise to victims on their home territory for the church’s role in the state- sanctioned schools, which aimed to erase Indigenous cultures, ripping about 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Metis children from their homes, and subjecting some to abuse, rape and malnutrition in what a Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission dubbed in 2015 “cultural genocide”.
“Unfortunately, in Canada many Christians, including some members of religious orders, contributed to the policies of cultural assimilation that in the past gravely damaged native populations in various ways,” Francis said at his weekly address to people in St Peter’s Square on Sunday. –Agencie
