CANADA
Ottawa Citizen
JASON FEKETE, OTTAWA CITIZEN
The Vatican’s embassy in Ottawa says the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s demands for the Pope to come to Canada to apologize for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in residential schools abuse will be sent to the Pontiff and will be a “high priority.”
However, the Catholic Archbishop of Ottawa, who apologized earlier this week for the abuse at residential schools that were run by the Roman Catholic Church, said calls for the Pope to deliver an apology in Canada is “quite an extraordinary thing to demand.”
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission looking into the decades of abuse of aboriginal children at residential schools across Canada released a damning report Tuesday that includes 94 recommendations, including one that stretches all the way to the Vatican.
The commission is calling for Pope Francis to visit Canada within a year and apologize to survivors, their families and communities “for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in the spiritual, cultural, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis children in Catholic-run residential schools.”
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