Pope Francis says the abuses suffered by Indigenous peoples while forced to attend residential schools amounted to genocide.
The pontiff made the comment Friday to reporters on his return flight from Iqaluit to Rome after his six-day tour of Canada.
Francis apologized several times during the week for the role played by the Roman Catholic Church in the institutions. He asked for forgiveness for the abuses committed by some members of the church as well as the cultural destruction and forced assimilation.
Some locals said they were disappointed that during his visit the pope did not name the crimes and abuses the boarders and survivors faced. They also criticized him for not using the term genocide.
When asked if he would use the word genocide and accept that members of the church participated in the genocide, Francis said yes.
The Pope stressed that he had not thought of using the word genocide during his trip, calling it a technical term.
“I asked for an apology, forgiveness for this story which is a genocide. he said in Spanish.
Francis said that instead of using the word genocide, he described attempts to destroy indigenous peoples through assimilation and colonization.
“I also condemned this: taking children from their families, changing the culture, changing minds, changing traditions, changing a race, let’s say, a whole culture. Yes, there is a technical word—genocide—but I didn’t use it because it didn’t occur to me. But I described it, yes, it was genocide, yes. »
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission called Indian Residential Schools a form of cultural genocide when it released its final report in 2015. However, since then a number of Indigenous groups have changed that to say it was a form of cultural genocide. a genocide.
Leah Gazan, an NDP MP from Manitoba, tabled a motion in the House of Commons last year calling on the federal government to recognize what happened in the residential schools as genocide, but she did not get the vote. unanimous consent.
The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls concluded in its final report that violence against women and girls is a form of genocide. The effects of residential schools were the subject of many testimonies from families and survivors.
Neglect and physical and sexual abuse were rampant in schools, and the Catholic Church ran 60% of schools.
Throughout his visit to Canada, Francis expressed his sadness, outrage and shame.
“In the face of this deplorable evil, the Church kneels before God and asks his forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the indigenous peoples,” he told a group of residential school survivors and their families on Monday. families reunited in Maskwacis, Alberta.
Throughout his stops in Alberta, Quebec, and Nunavut, the pope received messages urging him to rescind the Doctrine of Discovery, papal bulls, or official statements crafted to justify the colonization of the Americas. The doctrine was tied to the thought that settled lands were empty, when in fact they were home to indigenous peoples.
Some Indigenous scholars argue that the doctrine underlies all subsequent policies.
Indigenous leaders have been calling for its cancellation for decades, and the messages intensified before and during the pope’s visit.
Many said they were disappointed it wasn’t part of the pope’s apology.
He was asked on the plane on Friday if he thought it was a missed opportunity to take concrete action towards reconciliation.
“This doctrine of colonization: it’s true, it’s not a good thing, it’s unfair. Even today, we use it the same way, with velvet gloves perhaps, but we still use it today,” he said.
“That’s why we have to work on what you’re saying: going back and cleaning up, let’s say, what was done wrong, while knowing that the same colonialism exists today. “, he added.
Vatican officials said a statement on this was forthcoming.
The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, which helped organize the papal trip, said in a statement that the bishops plan to work with the Vatican to resolve the issue.