Pope Francis will visit Canada from July 24 to 30, on a trip during which he will publicly apologize for decades of violence against indigenous populations in Catholic boarding schools.
“I ask God for forgiveness and I join my brother Canadian bishops in apologizing,” the Supreme Pontiff declared in April during an audience at the Vatican before delegations from the Métis, Inuit and indigenous peoples of Canada.
Through the voices of the indigenous “I have received, with great sadness in my heart, the stories of suffering, deprivation, discriminatory treatment and various forms of abuse suffered by several of you, especially in boarding schools,” Francis declared. “I would like to be with you this year for the celebration of Santa Ana on July 26,” he anticipated.
“His Holiness’s visit would not be possible without the courage and determination of the survivors, indigenous leaders and young people who shared their stories,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday.
While the Pope apologized in Rome last month, a formal in-person apology in Canada from the Catholic Church to survivors and their families responds to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s call.
Between the late 19th century and the 1980s, some 150,000 indigenous, mestizo, and Inuit children were forcibly recruited into 139 boarding schools across Canada, where they were cut off from their families, their language, and their culture.
Thousands died, mostly from malnutrition, disease or neglect, in what the Committee for Truth and Reconciliation defined in 2015 as a “cultural genocide.” Others were victims of physical or sexual abuse.
In the last year, more than 1,300 anonymous children’s graves have been found in the former boarding schools. Searches continue across the country.
The Pope will visit Edmonton, capital of the Canadian province of Alberta, Canada’s second city with the largest number of Aboriginal people living in urban centers.
The Vatican specified that he will also travel to Iqaluit, in the Canadian extreme north, not far from the Arctic Ocean, an area that has the largest number of Inuit.
The pope’s program also includes Quebec City, which is mostly French-speaking, where the Catholic Church has held a preponderant place.
