POPE SORRY FOR CHURCH’S ATROCITIES
EDMONTON: Pope Francis has apologised for the “evil” inflicted on the indigenous peoples of Canada on the first day of a visit focused on addressing decades of abuse at Catholic-run schools.
The plea for forgiveness from the leader of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics was met with applause by a crowd of First Nations, Metis and Inuit people in Maskwacis, in western Alberta province – some of whom were taken from their families as children in what has been branded a “cultural genocide”.
“I am sorry,” said the 85year-old pontiff, who remained seated as he delivered his address at the site of one of the largest of Canada’s residential schools, where indigenous children were sent as part of a policy of forced assimilation.
“I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the indigenous peoples,” said the Pope, citing “cultural destruction” and the “physical, verbal, psychological and spiritual abuse” of children.
Francis spoke of his “deep sense of pain and remorse” as he formally acknowledged that “many members of the Church” had co-operated in the abusive system.
As he spoke, the emotion was palpable in Maskwacis, an indigenous community south of provincial capital Edmonton. Several hundred people, many in traditional clothing, were in attendance, along with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mary Simon, Canada’s first indigenous governor-general.
Many lowered their eyes, wiped away tears or hugged neighbours, and indigenous leaders afterwards placed a traditional feathered headdress on the Pope.
Volunteers had earlier distributed small paper bags for the “collection of tears”.
“The First Nation believes that if you cry, you cry love, you catch the tears on a piece of paper and put it back in this bag,” explained Andre Carrier of the Manitoba Metis Federation. The bags are then burned with a special prayer “to return the tears of love to the creator”, he said.