MASKWACIS, Alberta, (Reuters) – Pope Francis apologized on Monday to Canada’s native people on their land for the Church’s role in schools where indigenous children were abused, calling their forced cultural assimilation a “deplorable evil” and “disastrous error.”
Speaking near the site of two former schools in Maskwacis, Alberta, Francis apologized for Christian support of the “colonizing mentality” of the times and called for a “serious” investigation of the schools to help survivors and descendants heal.”With shame and unambiguously, I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the indigenous peoples,” said Francis, who arrived and left in a wheelchair due to a fractured knee.
The address to the First Nations, Metis and Inuit people was the first apology on Canadian soil by the pope as a part of tour to heal deep wounds that rose to the fore after the discovery of unmarked graves at residential schools last year.The 85-year-old pope had promised such a tour to indigenous delegations that visited him earlier this year at the Vatican, where he made an initial apology.
Indigenous leaders wearing eagle-feather war headdresses greeted the pope as a fellow chief and welcomed him with chanting, beating of drums, dancing and war songs.
“I am here because the first step of my penitential pilgrimage among you is that of again asking forgiveness, of telling you once more that I am deeply sorry,” he said.He was addressing the indigenous groups in the Bear Park Pow-Wow Grounds, part of the the ancestral territory of the Cree, Dene, Blackfoot, Saulteaux and Nakota Sioux people.
“Sorry for the ways in which, regrettably, many Christians supported the colonizing mentality of the powers that oppressed the indigenous peoples. I am sorry,” he said. “In the face of this deplorable evil, the Church kneels before God and implores his forgiveness for the sins of her children.”
After the pope spoke, Chief Wilton Littlechild placed a feather headdress on the pontiff’s head. Francis stood from his chair and wore it for a few moments before a clapping crowd.
An indigenous singer also performed a version of Canada’s national anthem in Cree, with tears pouring down her face. A red banner with names of missing children was carried before the pope, who kissed it.
Before his address, Francis prayed silently in a field of crosses in the cemetery of a church for indigenous people and passed by a stone memorial to the two residential schools once in the area.
