Headline Roundup • July 25th, 2022
Pope Francis Apologizes for 'Evil' Committed Against Indigenous Children in Canada
Canada,Catholic Church,Education,Genocide,Indigenous Peoples,Pope Francis,Racial Violence,Religion And Faith
Summary from the AllSides News Team
Pope Francis on Monday publicly apologized for the Catholic Church's role in the "evil" committed against several generations of indigenous children at Canadian residential schools.
The Pope described his six-day visit to Canada as a "penitential pilgrimage" and expressed regret for the "many Christians who supported the colonizing mentality of the powers that oppressed the indigenous peoples." Between 1881 and 1996, Canada’s government and the Catholic Church separated over 150,000 children from their families and sent them to residential schools. Students were forced to "assimilate" into white Canadian society and were brutally punished if they expressed aspects of their indigenous identities.
A delegation of indigenous peoples with the Assembly of First Nations traveled to the Vatican in April and received an initial apology from the pope. Canada’s Catholic Church has now pledged over $50 million in cash and in-kind contributions to the indigenous groups affected by the "catastrophic" school policies and anticipated an additional $30 million in donations over the next five years.
Coverage from right-rated outlets cast doubt on the validity of the 751 unmarked graves extensively highlighted by media outlets last year, emphasizing how "not one body" was found and that indigenous Canadians were aware of the site's existence "before the media cast light on them." Some left-rated reports highlighted how the Pope's visit "triggered more pain" for the indigenous school survivors and that thousands of more mass graves are "expected" to be found.
Featured Coverage of this Story
Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
Pope Francis apologized to Indigenous peoples on Monday and asked for forgiveness for the “evil committed by so many Christians” against them in Canada’s brutal residential school system.
“I am sorry,” the pope said, while addressing Indigenous elders and residential school survivors at a former residential school site in Maskwacis, Alberta, about 100 kilometres south of Edmonton.
“I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous peoples,” he said in Spanish, his mother tongue. The apology was translated into English and multiple Indigenous languages.
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Vatican Media/Divisione Produzione Fotografica/Handout via Reuters
Pope Francis issued an apology to the indigenous people of Canada on Monday, asking forgiveness for the “evil committed by so many Christians” following international uproar over the treatment of indigenous children at residential Christian schools.
“I am deeply sorry — sorry for the ways in which, regrettably, many Christians supported the colonizing mentality of the powers that oppressed the Indigenous peoples,” Francis said, according to the Washington Post.
Residential schools, which assimilated and Christianized indigenous children, were ran partly by the Catholic Church in the 19th and 20th centuries.
“It is painful to...
VINCENZO PINTO/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
Pope Francis visited the site of a former residential school for indigenous Canadian children on Monday morning and repeatedly apologized for Catholics’ role in government-sponsored “projects of cultural destruction and forced assimilation” that he said had devastated their communities.
“I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the indigenous peoples,” the pope said, one of half a dozen ways in which he expressed sorrow or begged for pardon in the speech, which he delivered to an audience of indigenous leaders, elders and former residential school students as well...
