On Friday, Pope Francis issued a historic apology to Indigenous Peoples for the “deplorable” crimes they endured in Catholic-run residential schools in Canada, and said he hoped to visit the country in late July to personally apologize to survivors of the church’s misdirected missionary zeal.
During an encounter with hundreds of Metis, Inuit, and First Nations people who had traveled to Rome seeking a papal apology and a commitment from the Catholic Church to repair the damage, Francis pleaded forgiveness. The first pope from the Americas said he intended to visit Canada around July 26, the Feast of St. Anna.
From the 19th century through the 1970s, more than 150,000 native children in Canada were compelled to attend state-funded Christian schools in an attempt to isolate them from the influence of their homes and cultures. The goal was to convert them to Christianity and absorb them into mainstream society, which past Canadian administrations thought was superior.
Physical and sexual abuse was common in Canadian schools, with pupils being beaten for speaking their native languages, according to the Canadian authorities. Indigenous elders have pointed to the heritage of abuse and separation from family as a major cause of the current epidemic of alcohol and drug addiction on Canadian reservations.