On Monday Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau paid a visit to the Vatican, to meet His Holiness Pope Francis. At their meeting, Justin Trudeau asked the Pope to make a public apology for the Catholic Church’s role in the residential school system.
Back in the 19th century, the residential school system abused children for more than a century. This system would take children, mostly Native, away from their families and force them to attend boarding schools. The children were robbed of their identity, were not allowed to speak their native language or practice their culture. It has been alleged that the children were mentally and physically abused by the staff at the school.
Finally, in 1996 the last school closed that was largely run by the Catholic Church. The time these schools were run nearly 6,000 children lost their lives.
Justin Trudeau spoke to reporters and said, “I told him about how important it is for Canadians that we move forward on real reconciliation with indigenous peoples and highlighted how he could help by issuing an apology.”
The Pope’s response to this was cordial and informed the reporters that an apology was being worked on.
Prime Minister Trudeau has invited the Pope to Canada where he will make the apology. Anglican, Presbyterian and United churches have apologized for their role in running a few of these schools.
The previous Pope Benedict didn’t give an apology but instead visited the survivors from the system Phil Fontaine, in 2009 and expressed his sympathy.
This would not be the first time that Pope Francis would be apologizing on behalf of the Catholic Church. Earlier, the Pontiff apologized for the church failing to intervene in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
Although, the statement that was released by the Vatican regarding the Prime Minister’s visit had nothing about the apology mentioned. “(The two men) focused on the themes of integration and reconciliation, as well as religious freedom and current ethical events,” the statement read.
The Prime Minister visited the Pope during his trip to Italy for the G7 summit, a week after President Donald Trump visited the Pope.
