VATICAN CITY
Rome Reports
[with video]
2017-05-29
“Morning.”
“Good morning.”
“Nice to meet you.”
“It’s a pleasure. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Holy Father.”
While evidently holding in his emotion, Catholic Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, respectfully met with Pope Francis Monday morning.
The two spoke with official translators about “issues of integration and reconciliation, along with religious freedom and current ethical issues.”
Trudeau asked Pope Francis for a public apology, on behalf of the Church, to Canada’s first indigenous communities, who suffered physical and sexual abuse by Catholic-run schools.
It is a drama that affected about 150,000 natives in the late nineteenth century, who were forced to abandon their customs and assimilate the rest of the population in schools belonging to federal authorities, Catholics or Protestants.
In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI apologized and “expressed his sorrow at the anguish caused by the deplorable conduct of some members of the Church.”
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