‘I am very sorry’: Pope Francis apologizes to Indigenous delegates for residential schools

Emotional support or assistance for those who are affected by the residential school system can be found at Indian Residential School Survivors Society toll-free 1 (800) 721-0066 or 24-hr Crisis Line 1 (866) 925-4419.

Pope Francis has apologized for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in Canada’s residential schools.

His apology came during a final meeting with First Nations, Inuit, and Metis Delegates at the Vatican.

With nearly 200 people, including delegates, family, and supporters, watching on, Francis said he is “ashamed” and “indignant” at all they had endured.

“I ask for God’s forgiveness and I want to say to you with all my heart: I am very sorry,” the Pope said through a translator. “I also feel shame — I’m saying it now and I’m repeating it — sorrow and shame for the role that a number of Catholics, particularlly those with educational responsibilities have had in all these things that wounded you.”

Francis also confirms he is planning to come to Canada, though it’s unclear when that trip would take place. First Nations, Inuit, and Metis delegates say that could happen as soon as this summer.

Each of the groups had told the Pope in meetings earlier this week of what took place in Canada’s residential schools. They also had told him that they hoped he would apologize for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in the system.

Metis National Council president Cassidy Caron sat with residential school survivor Angie Crerar during the apology.

“When Angie and I were sharing a book and reading the book together, I pointed out the words, ‘I am sorry.’ She broke down into tears and it was so moving because I know how important that is to her and I know how important those words are going to be to our survivors back at home, which is why we will continue to advocate for Pope Francis to share those words, those sentiments, what he’s learned and what he’s heard from us, back on our homelands,” Caron said after the apology.

“Behind the cover-ups, behind the indifference over 100 years, behind the lies, behind the lack of justice, this Pope, Pope Francis, decided to go right through it and decided to speak words that First Nations, Inuit, and Metis have been longing to hear, for decades,” added Inuit leader Natan Obed.

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Elder Fred Kelly prayed for the thousands of children who were taken to residential schools.

“And so that we can live not only in peace and harmony but in the meantime that we can find that reconciliation and the healing that our first generations need,” he said.

“Today is a day that we’ve been waiting for and certainly one that will be uplifted in our history,” added Chief Gerald Antoine, who spoke with reporters after the Pope’s apology. “His holiness, Pope Francis, head of the Catholic Church has issued a long overdue apology for the Roman Catholic role in church-run residential schools.”

An estimated 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend residential schools, of which more than 60 per cent were run by the Catholic Church.

Thousands of children never returned to their families.

Canadians have been forced to confront the horrors of the schools over the last year, with the discoveries of unmarked graves at the sites of the former institutions.