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Indigenous peoples demanded that the missing children be found.
The Catholic Church in Canada on Friday issued an “unequivocal” apology to Indigenous peoples for abuses at the residential schools for children they ran for more than a century.
“We recognize the suffering experienced in residential schools across Canada,” said a statement from the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.
“We express our deep remorse and unequivocally apologize.”
For years, Indigenous nations and the Government of Canada have asked the Holy See to apologize for the crimes committed inside The dozens of boarding schools where some 150,000 indigenous children were forcibly taken.
Research has shown that hundreds suffered physical and emotional abuse, including sexual abusein these boarding schools. More than 1,200 children’s graves have been discovered on the grounds of these residential schools, but more than 6,000 died.
The institutes, funded by the government and administered by the Catholic Church, operated from the 19th century until the 1990s. Their goal was to educate indigenous children according to the European colonizing model, eliminating their language and traditions from origin.
image sources, APE
The Kamloops school in 1937 had the capacity to accommodate up to 500 children.
What did the bishops say?
The apologies from the bishops of Canada come less than a week after the first celebration of the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation on September 30, declared in honor of missing Aboriginal children and residential school survivors.
In their statement, the bishops acknowledge that Catholic involvement in the boarding school system”leads to the suppression of indigenous languages, culture and spiritualitywithout respecting the rich history, traditions and wisdom of Indigenous peoples”.
“We recognize the serious abuses committed by some members of our Catholic community: physical, psychologicalemotionalEastspiritualEastculturalEast and sexualEast“.
In view of this, they said, “we express our deep remorse and unequivocally apologize.”
A meeting with Pope Francis
The bishops also pledged to raise funds to support indigenous reconciliation initiatives.
And they announced that a delegation of residential school survivors, indigenous leaders and young will meet him pontiff in December at the Vatican.
“We are committed to working with the Holy See and our Indigenous partners on the possibility of a papal pastoral visit to Canada as part of this healing journey.”
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