In Canada, Francis will apologize to indigenous peoples for the injustice they have suffered. Conditions in the “Residential Schools” were brutal and sometimes inhumane.
There are four words Wilton Littlechild hopes to hear from the Pope: “I’m sorry.” Littlechild is the head of the Cree nation in the parish of Maskwacis. One of the largest “residential schools” has ever been there: boarding schools where children were severely abused by the indigenous people of Canada. Littlechild was co-chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which dealt with the history of “Residential Schools” – and the fate of the 150,000 indigenous children who passed through that school system and whose livelihoods were partially destroyed physically and psychologically.
When Pope Francis arrives in Canada on Sunday for his long-awaited visit, encounters with indigenous peoples will be the focus. And an apology – for the injustices that the Catholic Church, in cooperation with the Canadian State, inflicted on the country’s indigenous people, mainly through “residential schools”. The Pope sees his six-day visit, which will take him to Edmonton, Quebec and Iqaluit, as a “pilgrimage of penance” designed to contribute to healing and reconciliation.