Pope Francis apologized for unimaginable abuse in hands of Catholic priests done for more than decades in Canada at local residential schools.
“For the reprehensible behavior of members of the Catholic Church, I ask God for forgiveness,” the pope said, after a week of talks with various delegations who expressed their displeasure. theirs with the Pope. “And I want to tell you from my heart, that I am in great pain. And I unite myself with the bishops of Canada in apologizing.”
The meetings come after 215 unmarked graves containing the remains of children were discovered in the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc Nation residential schools in British Columbia. The school was run by the Catholic Church for decades and efforts and was finally closed in 1978, after families reported Catholic clergy and educators there had a stampede policy. turn off the indigenous culture and replace it with Catholicism.
The pope has expressed grief on behalf of the Catholic Church’s significant problem with pedophile priests eating meat, but he rarely went as far as Friday when he called priests “reprehensible” and He said he was both ashamed and outraged by the abuses.
The pope later doubled down on his promise to visit Canada, at an audience in Rome attended by dozens of members of the Metis, Inuit and First Nations communities, who later demonstrated perform for the Pope. Delegations had hoped to arrive in 2020, but the pandemic has scuppered plans.
In the 19th century, more than 150,000 children were taken from their homes and forced into residential schools to be indoctrinated into Christianity, a practice that dates back to the 1970s. Many were abused. sexual and physical abuse, often for speaking their mother tongue, and the dead are buried in school grounds, often without telling their parents about the death, according to Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, confirming dated 2015, before the graves were found. , that the Catholic Church had carried out “cultural genocide.”
“I beg God’s forgiveness, and I want to tell you with all my heart, I’m so sorry,” Francis said in Italian – without a translator for those in attendance. At the end, the audience stood and applauded.
