Canadian Indigenous leaders to meet pope over school abuse

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Canadian Indigenous leaders to meet pope over school abuse

By ROB GILLIES
March 26, 2022

TORONTO (AP) — When an Assembly of First Nations delegation traveled to the Vatican in 2009 to meet with then-Pope Benedict XVI, the pontiff told them in a private meeting of his “personal anguish” over abuse suffered by Indigenous children in church-run boarding schools they were forced to attend in Canada.

What at the time was called an expression of deep, heartfelt regret is no longer seen as sufficient after last year’s discovery in British Columbia of about 200 unmarked and previously undocumented graves of children at what was Canada’s largest Indigenous residential school — one of numerous, similar grim sites across the country.

Now Indigenous leaders are expecting nothing less than a public apology from Pope Francis, with government officials up to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau lending support to their cause. Set to meet with First Nations, Métis and Inuit survivors at the Vatican next week ahead of a visit to Canada that could come later this year, the pontiff appears likely to offer just such an apology for the church’s role in boarding school abuses.

“We’re trying to give a voice to the voiceless by going there,” said Gary Gagnon, who will represent the Métis people of mixed European and Indigenous ancestry in the delegation. Originally scheduled for last December, the visit was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-covid-health-justin-trudeau-canada-c47e9a274bb55a25ff2ce0f5c2637304

[niyad]

1. reparations. won't reverse the horrors, but about the only thing the rcc understands.