(Washington) The American Catholic bishops recognized Friday their role in “the trauma” inflicted on Indigenous people and apologized, particularly regarding children removed from their families to be forcibly assimilated in boarding schools.
“The Church recognizes that it played a role in the trauma suffered by indigenous children,” the conference of Catholic bishops wrote in a document.
An investigation of Washington Post in late May showed that at least 122 priests, assigned to 22 Catholic boarding schools since the 1890s, were later accused of sexually abusing Indigenous children.
Most of the documented abuses took place in the 1950s and 1960s. They affected more than 1,000 children.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which approved this document by vote, establishes the rules and policies of the Church in the United States.
“We apologize for failing to elevate, strengthen, honor, recognize and appreciate the people entrusted to our pastoral care,” they added, while affirming that they wanted to “break the culture of silence.”
For decades, the United States removed Native children from their biological parents en masse and placed them in boarding schools or non-Native families.
The American Congress put an end to these policies of forced assimilation with the “Indian Child Welfare Act” in 1978.
In American boarding schools, Native children “were forced to abandon their languages, clothing and customs,” the bishops wrote.
“Healing and reconciliation can only take place when the Catholic Church recognizes the harm done to its indigenous children,” they also assured, calling on all members of the Church to “cooperate” on any investigation concerning its role in these cases.
A report from the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs in 2022 totaled 408 boarding schools located in 37 U.S. states and territories.
According to the document, 84 boarding schools were managed by Catholic religious communities or entities.
In Canada, this dark chapter in North American history has been revived since the spring of 2021, and the discovery of more than a thousand anonymous graves on the sites of former Catholic residential schools for indigenous people.
During a visit to Canada in the summer of 2022, Pope Francis asked “forgiveness for the evil committed” against the country’s indigenous people.