Prime Minister seeks papal apology over Canada school abuse

pulse

May 29, 2017 6:28 PM

Trudeau and the Argentinian pontiff had "cordial discussions" during their 36-minute private meeting.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, visiting thr Catican with his wife Sophie, was seeking a papal apology on behalf of the Catholic Church for documented abuse of indigenous Canadians at church-run boarding schools

Pope Francis on Monday met Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was expected to seek an apology over the abuse of indigenous Canadians at church-run boarding schools.

A Canadian truth and reconciliation commission sought an apology from the Roman Catholic church in an extensive list of recommendations in a 2015 report.

The report into a "cultural genocide" of more than a century of abuse collated evidence over six years from some 7,000 former students in Canada.

Trudeau and the Argentinian pontiff had "cordial discussions" during their 36-minute private meeting, the Vatican said in a statement.

Without addressing the schools issue directly, it said the talks had "focused on the themes of integration and reconciliation, as well as religious freedom and current ethical issues".

A spokesman for Trudeau, a Catholic who was educated at a Jesuit school and a fervent backer of gay rights, reiterated that the issue was "top of his agenda" going into the meeting.

Some 150,000 Indian, Inuit and Metis youngsters were forcibly enrolled into 139 residential schools, set up to assimilate native people and many operated by church groups on behalf of the Canadian government.

Many were physically and sexually abused and today blame their experience for a high incidence of poverty, alcoholism and domestic violence, as well as high suicide rates, in their communities.

Trudeau, having already offered his own apology to survivors, noted after the 2015 report that Pope Francis had previously offered similar apologies, for example over the treatment of indigenous communities during the colonial era in South America.

His predecessor Pope Benedict in 2009 expressed "sorrow" for the abuses in Canada. The first of the schools opened in 1874 and lasted until the last one closed in 1996.

Many survivors alleged abuse by headmasters and teachers, who stripped them of their culture and language.

At least 3,200 students never returned home.

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