Indigenous leaders and residential school survivors say they expect more from Pope Francis when he visits Canada than just an apology. They want action.
Francis said on Sunday that he was making a ‘pilgrimage of penance’ to help heal the wrongs done to indigenous people by Roman Catholic priests and nuns who operated abusive residential schools linked to the deaths of thousands of children. Francis will be the first pope in nearly 20 years to visit Canada.
In what Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission dubbed ‘cultural genocide’ in 2015, more than 150,000 children were removed from their homes, and many of them suffered abuse, rape, and malnutrition.
Following calls for the Pope to deliver a formal apology, the matter came back to light last year after the discovery of the remains of 215 children at a former residential school in British Columbia. Since then, dozens of other defunct residential schools around the nation have also discovered what are believed to be the remains of hundreds more kids.
Post Your Comments