Pope Francis said on Wednesday August 2 that he received as a "
slap
in the face " the testimonies of indigenous victims of violence in boarding schools run by the Church, during his trip to Canada last week.
The pontiff returned on Saturday from a six-day trip where he met with First Nations, Métis and Inuit representatives, to whom he asked forgiveness for what he called the "
evil
" committed in these residential schools, set up by the governments of the time but mostly administered by the Catholic Church.
"A painful moment"
“
I assure you that in these meetings, especially the last one, I received the pain of these people like a slap in the face
,” Francis said during the weekly general audience at the Vatican.
Hearing "
old people who have lost children, who don't know where they are
" was "
a painful moment
", he said.
Read alsoIn Canada, the apologies of Pope Francis are not enough for the natives
Francis concluded his Canadian trip on Friday in Iqaluit, capital of the vast territory of Nunavut in the Arctic archipelago, where he again asked for forgiveness for the violence in the 139 boarding schools where around 150,000 indigenous children were sent from the end of the 19th century in the 1990s. Many children were victims of violence there and at least 6,000 died there of disease, malnutrition or neglect in what François called “
genocide
” after his trip.