Canada: Pope Francis came to apologize to indigenous peoples

Pope Francis was welcomed to the sound of Native American songs and drums upon his arrival in Canada on Monday, July 25. He made the long trip to meet the native community there and express his regrets on behalf of the church. “Let us be careful on this journey which, as I said, is a journey of penance”he expressed on board the plane.

At the end of the 19th century, the Canadian state set up a system of forced assimilation. children are torn from their parents and placed in boarding schools run by the Catholic Church. They are often victims of violence there. “Here, when we were punished, we had to clean the stairs with a toothbrush“, says a survivor. The discovery of 215 bodies of children last year buried near a former boarding school drew the ire of the indigenous community. The Pope’s visit is therefore an important moment. Until 1996, 150,000 children have gone through these institutions.