From Monday to Friday, The Pope will hold meetings with representatives of the Métis, First Nations and Inuit peoples, who suffered all kinds of abuses in residential schools financed by the Canadian State and managed in some cases by institutions of the Catholic Church and other Christian groups.
Diary
In his first activity on Canadian soil, andhe Pope was received by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and by representatives of indigenous groups, who dedicated typical songs to him at the welcome ceremony in the main hangar of the airport.
During the tour, Francisco, 85 years old and still recovering from pain in his right knee that will force him to travel in a wheelchair, will travel almost 20,000 kilometers and will also visit Québec and Iqaluit.
The presence of the Pope on Canadian soil is one of the 94 explicit requests that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) demanded in 2015, which, with the participation of indigenous representatives, was instituted by the Canadian Government to document the history of suffering in boarding schools.
“Call to Action 58 calls for the Pope to issue an apology to survivors, their families and communities for the role of the Roman Catholic Church in the spiritual, cultural, emotional, physical and sexual abuse of First Nations children, Inuit and Métis in the administration of residential schools”, TRC spokespersons raised with Télam.
For those responsible for the Commission, “this visit and apology are a first symbolic step on the path of healing and reconciliation, but the Catholic Church must follow this visit with sincere, significant and immediate action to repair and put an end to the damage. continuously committed by the institutions within the Church,” they said.
From 1883 until the closure of the last residential school in 1996, some 150,000 native minors were separated from their families in a systematic plan of forced assimilation to Westernize their customs that the official report even described as “cultural genocide.”
apologies
Francis will begin this Monday his round of meetings with the indigenous populations, with a visit to Maskwacis, almost 100 kilometers south of Edmonton, to have a meeting with representatives of the First Nations, Métis and Inuit on the esplanade of one of the largest schools that served as boarding schools for the children of these towns, Ermineskin, which operated between 1895 and 1975.
Some of the people that Francis will meet were part of the delegations that traveled to the Vatican in late March and early April to hear a first apology from the Pope that will now be continued in their lands.
After the visit to Maskwacis, The Pope will return to Edmonton to have another meeting with indigenous representatives and local ecclesial communities.
In addition to the abuses suffered and the poor living conditions of the boarding schools as a result of the State’s low investment in the facilities, the indigenous people estimate that at least 4,100 children died in the schools in the midst of poor living conditions and many were also buried. in mass graves, of which there have been several discoveries in recent years.
In addition to the focus on asking the indigenous people for forgiveness, the Pope will also make references to the environmental issue during the nine speeches he will deliver in Spanish in Canada, Vatican sources told Télam, as well as a renewed condemnation of colonialism.
On a political level, Francis held a brief meeting with Trudeau at the Edmonton airport on Sunday and on Thursday, in the second stage of the trip, he will have a bilateral meeting with the premier in Quebec, in the east of the country, before giving his traditional speech. political and civil authorities.
Source: Ambito
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