Image: Pope Francis prepares to deliver his apology to Indigenous people on July 25, 2022, in Maskwacis, Alberta, Canada with chiefs of the four nations on whose land he stood. (Photo by Miles Morrisseau/ICT)
MASKWACIS, Alberta, Canada – Saying it is time to find a pathway forward for healing, Pope Francis issued a long-awaited apology to the Indigenous people of Canada for the Catholic Church’s role in the brutal residential school system that separated children from their families, culture and language.
"I am deeply sorry," the Pope said, from the grounds where the former Ermineskin Indian Residential School operated from 1916 to 1975 as one of the largest government-funded schools run by the Catholic Church.
"In the face of this deplorable evil, the church kneels before God and implores his forgiveness for the sins of her children."
When the apology finally came nearly 150 years after the first Indigenous children were snatched from their families to face abuse and neglect, it drew applause and a few whoops from the hundreds of people gathered to hear the Pope at Maskwacis in the heart of the Cree First Nations and other Indigenous communities.
But it also brought tears – tears for the children who never came home, whose remains were dumped in unmarked graves. For the children who returned to their families with trauma that would endure through generations. For elders who still can’t speak of the atrocities.
And it brought renewed calls for reconciliation and reparation to the generations who were taught that their language, culture and traditions were inferior to the Christian foundations of the colonizing government.
To read more of Miles Morrisseau's article, please click here.
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