Truth and Healing: Pope Francis apologizes

04/01/2022 10:10 am

Indigenous leaders from Canada visit Rome, Pope offers apology

"For the deplorable conduct of those members of the Catholic Church, I ask for God's forgiveness and I want to say to you with all my heart: I am very sorry." - Pope Francis, April 1, 2022

 

"Listening to your voices, I was able to enter into and be deeply grieved by the stories of the suffering, hardship, discrimination and various forms of abuse that some of you experienced, particularly in the residential schools. It is chilling to think of determined efforts to instill a sense of inferiority, to rob people of their cultural identity, to sever their roots, and to consider all the personal and social effects that this continues to entail: unresolved traumas that have become intergenerational traumas." -Pope Francis
Read Meeting with Representatives of Indigenous Peoples in Canada

Earlier in the week, Indian Country Today reported on the visit. "Indigenous leaders from Canada and survivors of the country’s notorious residential schools met with Pope Francis on Monday [March 28, 2022] and told him of the abuses they suffered at the hands of Catholic priests and school workers, in hopes of securing a papal apology from him and a commitment by the church to repair the harm done." Read (and watch) "Indigenous leaders tell pope of abuses at residential schools" from Indian Country Today

FSPA, as a religious congregation with a history of administering a Native American boarding school during the era of assimilating Indigenous children into Euro-American culture, recognizes our complicity in unjust systems, both historically and now, and strives to enhance dignity and wholeness to those who have suffered for generations. 


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