the first step of “penitential pilgrimage” by Pope Francis in Canada on Monday July 25 at a cemetery. Arrived in Edmonton (Alberta, West) the day before to seek forgiveness for the abuse inflicted on around 150,000 children at 139 boarding schools run by Christian missionaries from 1831 to 1996, with the aim of ‘killing “The Indians in them were torn away,” the head of the Catholic Church gathered in a cemetery south of the city, on the territory of the Four Nations of Maskwacis. Canadian authorities now estimate that more than 6,000 First Nations, Inuit or Métis children paid for their detention with their lives. Bodies are regularly discovered around the old settlements. Many other former residents died prematurely.

In Maskwacis was one of the largest of these boarding schools, that of Ermineskin. A stone’s throw from the memorial erected in his place, the Pope, in a wheelchair, escorted by four First Nations chiefs, met with some 2,000 representatives of Indigenous Canada. They have long demanded an apology from the Catholic Church, which administers 60% of these facilities. In the first speech of his stay, in the presence of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, he asked her no fewer than seven times ” Forgiveness “ to “the devastating experiences made in boarding schools”.

In these institutions, children were cut off from their families, their language and their culture. They were often forced to work and exposed to living and sanitary conditions that led to disease. Many of them have been mistreated and abused, including sexual abuse. The other Christian denominations apologized in the 1990s for having competed in this system. Also the Canadian government. The Catholic Church rejected this. By spring, Pope Francis received representatives of the indigenous peoples in Rome and began with an apology. The visit to Canada follows this process.

“Pain, Outrage and Shame”

The head of the Catholic Church gave them a very personal address ” Pains, [de] outrage and [de] shame” who have accompanied him since the spring.

“I beg your pardon for the way in which, unfortunately, many Christians supported the colonizing mentality of the powers that oppressed the indigenous peoples. I’m desperate. I beg your pardon, especially for the way in which many members of the Church and religious communities participated, even with indifference, in those projects of cultural destruction and forced assimilation by the governments of the time that led to the boarding school system. (…) This was a devastating error inconsistent with the gospel of Jesus Christ. (…) I want to repeat it with shame and clarity: I humbly ask forgiveness for the evil committed by many Christians against indigenous peoples. »

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