Pope Francis assured on Wednesday August 2 that he received as “slap» Testimony of indigenous victims of abuse at church-run residential schools during his visit to Canada last week.
The pontiff returned Saturday from a six-day trip where he met with First Nations, Métis and Inuit representatives, to whom he apologized for his call.wrongdone in these boarding schools, which were set up by the governments of the day but were largely run by the Catholic Church.
“Sad moment”.
“I assure you that during these meetings, especially the last one, I accepted the pain of these people like a slap.Francis said during his weekly general audience at the Vatican. Listen to “old people who have lost children and don’t know where they are” was “sad moment“, he emphasized.
Francis ended his Canadian trip on Friday in Iqaluit, the capital of the vast Arctic archipelago territory of Nunavut, where he again apologized for the abuse at the 139 boarding schools where some 150,000 indigenous children have been sent since the late 19th century. in the 1990s. Many children were victims of abuse there, and at least 6,000 died there from disease, malnutrition or neglect, which Francois described as “genocideafter his journey.
Source: Le Figaro
