The first step of “penitential pilgrimage” of Pope Francis in Canada, Monday, July 25, will have taken place in a cemetery. Arrived the day before in Edmonton (Alberta, west) to ask forgiveness for the ill-treatment inflicted, from 1831 to 1996, in 139 residential schools run by Christian missionaries, to some 150,000 children taken from their Aboriginal families for the purpose of “killing the Indian in them”, the head of the Catholic Church gathered in a cemetery located south of the city, on the territory of the four nations of Maskwacis. Canadian authorities now estimate that more than 6,000 First Nations, Inuit or Métis children paid for their internment with their lives. Bodies are regularly discovered around the old settlements. Many other former residents died prematurely.
At Maskwacis was one of the largest of these boarding schools, that of Ermineskin. A stone’s throw from the monument erected on its site, the Pope, in a wheelchair escorted by four First Nations chiefs, met with some 2,000 representatives of the Aboriginal peoples of Canada. They have long demanded an apology from the Catholic Church, which administered 60% of these establishments. In the first speech of his stay, in the presence of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, he asked them no less than seven times ” sorry “ for “the devastating experiences that took place in residential schools”.
In these establishments, children were cut off from their families, their language and their culture. They were often forced to work and subjected to living and hygienic conditions which gave rise to epidemics. Many of them have suffered mistreatment and abuse, including sexual abuse. The other Christian denominations apologized in the 1990s for having contributed to this system. The Canadian government as well. The Catholic Church had refused. Until in the spring, Pope Francis received indigenous representatives in Rome and began a presentation of apologies. The visit to Canada is the continuation of this process.
“Pain, Outrage and Shame”
The head of the Catholic Church gave them a very personal speech, talking about “pain, indignation and shame” who have accompanied him since the spring.
“I ask forgiveness for the way in which, unfortunately, many Christians supported the colonizing mentality of the powers that oppressed the indigenous peoples. I am distressed. I ask forgiveness, in particular, for the way in which many members of the Church and religious communities cooperated, even through indifference, with these projects of cultural destruction and forced assimilation of the governments of the time, which resulted in the residential school system. (…) This was a devastating error, incompatible with the gospel of Jesus Christ. (…) I would like to repeat it with shame and clarity: I humbly ask forgiveness for the evil committed by many Christians against the indigenous peoples. »
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