Ask for forgiveness
Pope Francis speaks of “genocide” against indigenous people after his trip to Canada
Pope Francis
© AFP
After his trip to Canada, Pope Francis described the treatment of indigenous people in the country’s Catholic boarding schools as “genocide”. He had asked for forgiveness for this injustice, “which was a genocide,” said Francis on Saturday night on the plane back to Rome. In front of reporters he spoke of “kidnapped” children and the forced changes of “an entire culture” in Canada.
The word “genocide” didn’t occur to him in Canada, but it is a clearly defined term – and what he just described “is very much genocide,” said Francis. During his six-day trip, the Church leader had repeatedly asked the country’s indigenous people for forgiveness for the suffering they had been subjected to for decades.
Between the late 1800s and the 1990s, the Canadian government sent some 150,000 Indigenous children to boarding schools, most of which were run by the Catholic Church. They were cut off from their families, their language and their culture. Many of them were physically and sexually abused.
Officially, more than 4,000 children died as a result of malnutrition, disease and neglect, and it is estimated that more than 6,000 may have died. A national commission of inquiry spoke of a “cultural genocide”. The discovery of 1,300 anonymous graves last year had triggered a shock wave.
The pope described his trip to Canada, which began last Sunday, as a “pilgrimage of penance.” During his visits to various indigenous communities, he deplored “cultural destruction” and “physical, verbal, psychological and spiritual abuse”. His apologies had been long awaited.
Many indigenous people welcomed the words of the Pope, who spoke of “emotional liberation”. However, indigenous representatives also repeatedly complained that they had expected more from the 85-year-old head of the church. Some demanded, for example, the return of indigenous art objects that have been kept in the Vatican for decades, or access to the archives of the boarding schools.
For Kilikvak Kabloona, chairman of the Nunavut Tunngavik organization, which represents the Inuit in the northern territory of Nunavut, “the Pope’s apology was not complete”. He did not directly address the “sexual abuse” that many indigenous people have suffered.