CANADA
America
Dean Dettloff
June 05, 2017
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he urged Pope Francis to formally apologize for the Catholic Church’s role in mistreatment of Canada’s indigenous communities, making the request during his meeting with the pope on May 29. Though a formal papal apology has not yet been issued, Mr. Trudeau’s request comes after a variety of attempts on the part of Catholics in Canada and the Vatican to address the legacy of residential schools, where indigenous children who had been removed from their communities were subjected to heavy-handed assimilation efforts and, in many cases, sexual, physical and emotional abuse. While the schools were financed by the government, most were administered by churches; they were founded in the late 19th century and began to shut down in the 1970s.
Several religious communities and Catholic organizations, including the Jesuits, have issued their own apologies and statements of reconciliation. While the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops has expressed solidarity with indigenous people in Canada, it has not issued a direct apology.
On its website, the conference highlights apologies made by particular Catholic communities but says each “diocese and religious community is legally responsible for its own actions. The Catholic Church as a whole was not associated with the Residential Schools, nor was the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.”
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