‘Deplorable Evils’ Apology comes from Pope to Indigenous people in Canada

By Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer

#Canada, August 4, 2022 – Pope Francis has acknowledged and apologized for what he described as the ‘deplorable evils’ committed against indigenous people in Canada at Catholic indigenous schools.

The pope was speaking at a meeting with representatives from the First Nation, Métis and Inuit people on Monday. The meeting was arranged after he was presented with a pair of moccasins several months ago in Rome as a sign of the suffering indigenous people endured at the hands of the Catholic Church.

Francis asked God and the indigenous people for forgiveness for what went on in the schools created by white Catholics to “assimilate” indigenous children.

“I am deeply sorry. Sorry for the ways in which, regrettably, many Christians supported the colonizing mentality of the powers that oppressed the indigenous peoples.” Francis said

While he maintained that some good came from the schools he acknowledged that the overall effects of the schools were catastrophic.

“It is necessary to remember how the policies of assimilation and enfranchisement, which also included the residential school system, were devastating for the people of these lands.” He said.

“When the European colonists first arrived here, there was a great opportunity to bring about a fruitful encounter between cultures, traditions and forms of spirituality. Yet for the most part that did not happen. Again, I think back on the stories you told: how the policies of assimilation ended up systematically marginalizing the indigenous peoples; how also through the system of residential schools your languages and cultures were denigrated and suppressed; how children suffered physical, verbal, psychological and spiritual abuse” he recalled.

At least one Former leader of the school Duncan Campbell Scott admitted his objective was to destroy the indigenous culture.

Survivors and records prove that the schools subjected indigenous students to malnourishment and other forms of abuse and the last of them only closed in 1996. The issue of the abuse garnered international attention when multiple mass graves with hundreds of bodies of indigenous children were found in recent months and survivors began to open up. They describe starving, beatings and familial separation as well as disease, neglect and death.

Pope Francis was gifted a traditional headdress and allowed to hear the stories of several former students. He admitted that his apology would be only the beginning of what would be a long road of reconciliation.