Canada: Pope Francis rejects sole guilt of the Church

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Canada's Prime Minister Trudeau, Pope Francis

Photo: John Locher/AP

The head of the Catholic Church spoke on Wednesday evening (local time) in Québec about the boarding school system, which has harmed many indigenous families and endangered their language, culture and worldview.

"For this I express my shame and pain and, together with the bishops of this country, I repeat my plea for forgiveness."

At the same time, Francis rejected the Church's sole guilt.

“Some local Catholic institutions were involved in this deplorable system promoted by the government agencies of the time (…),” the 85-year-old explained.

His message: The Canadian state was also responsible.

From the 1880s, the facilities housed indigenous children who had been snatched from their families in order to force them to adapt to Western culture in the schools.

There, for example, they were not allowed to speak their language and were not allowed to wear indigenous clothing.

A government program, supported by the church, mandated that Aboriginal children be assimilated into mainstream Canadian society.

The institutes were rife with hunger and disease, and the staff violently abused the children and sexually abused them.

Some estimate that as many as 6,000 children never returned home and perished in this ruthless system.

Beginning in the late 1960s, the state withdrew control of the boarding schools from the Church.

The last one closed in 1996.

Francis also criticized the unequal distribution of wealth.

"It is a scandal that the wealth created by economic development does not benefit all sections of society," said the Pope.

Many people turned to the church for help.

»Even in a developed and progressive country like Canada, which pays much attention to social welfare, there are not a few homeless people.«

more on the subject

• Pope Francis in Canada: "I ask forgiveness for evil"

• Pope's visit to Canada: "Nothing can erase the pain suffered"

• Children were torn from families and abused: Pope Francis asks Canada's indigenous people for forgiveness

• Find on former boarding school grounds in Canada: Apparently dozens more graves of indigenous children discovered

In his own words, Francis found it “sad” that the indigenous people often have a high level of poverty, which is associated with a low level of schooling and difficult access to housing and health care.

The Pope had traveled to Canada to meet a request from the indigenous people there and to ask for forgiveness.

They wanted the pope to apologize for decades of abuse at church-run boarding schools.

For the evils committed by Christians against the indigenous peoples, "I express my shame and pain and, together with the bishops of this country, I reiterate my plea for forgiveness," Francis said.

jul/dpa