On the plane that took him back to Rome, Francis used this term several times, although he had not uttered it during his stay.
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Posted on 7/30/2022 11:17 AM Updated on 7/30/2022 12:14 PM
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After forgiveness confession. Pope Francis called the tragedy of aboriginal boarding schools in Canada on Friday, July 29, after returning from a six-day trip to the country “genocide.” He had already, on numerous occasions, asked “forgiveness” from the Indian population for the role played by “many Christians” in this system, which is administered primarily by the Catholic Church.
“I didn’t say the word (during the trip) because it didn’t come to my mind, but I described the genocide,” the pope said on the plane that took him back to Rome. He described a “process” of “genocide” consisting of “kidnapping children, changing the culture, changing the mentality, changing the traditions, changing a race, let’s put it that way, an entire culture.”
About 150,000 children were forcibly recruited into residential schools for Aboriginal children in Canada between the late 19th century and the 1990s. Many suffered physical or sexual abuse, and thousands never returned because of disease, malnutrition, or neglect.