The pope recognizes a ‘genocide’ in the tragedy of indigenous boarding schools

First modification: 07/30/2022 – 13:48

“It’s true, I haven’t used the word [durante el viaje] because it has not come to my mind but I have described the genocide and I have apologized, sorry, for this work that is genocidal,” the Pope said at a news conference on the plane back to Rome. “Remove the children and change the culture, change the mind, change the traditions, change a race, let’s say, a whole culture,” the pontiff added, referring to boarding schools for aboriginal children created in Canada between the late 19th century and the 1990s.

The Pope apologizes to the Inuit

He had not yet uttered these words, but on several occasions, Pope Francis has repeated: “I apologize, I’m sorry” during his public interventions, whether in Spanish, English or even Inuktituk, the language of the Inuit. “During his visit, he apologized for the abuses committed by members of the Catholic Church in boarding schools for indigenous children. And he went one step further, asking for forgiveness from the victims of sexual abuse,” the RFI correspondent in Spanish in Canada reported on Friday. Diane Gonzalez.

For the last leg of his trip, the 85-year-old pontiff headed to Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut, in Canada’s far north, where he was greeted with the sound of Inuit throat singing amidst the colorful houses. In this small city, which can only be reached by plane and is home to just over 7,000 people, mostly indigenous, the Pope spoke of the “great suffering” of those who were forcibly interned with the aim of ” Kill the Indian in the child’s heart.”

Pilgrimage of Penance

The Pontiff also recalled that he was making a pilgrimage of penance, thinking of the abused children in religious boarding schools for indigenous people. Abuses inflicted, according to him, not only by some Catholics.

While some boarding school survivors see the pope’s visit to Canada as an opportunity to start the healing process, others hoped for something more. They would have liked Francisco to recognize the responsibility of the institution for the abuses suffered by several generations of children.

On several occasions, protesters also called for the repeal of the doctrine of discovery. It is a concept of public international law as well as of indigenous law of the fifteenth century that allows colonizers to appropriate territories if they carry out missionary work.

“The Pope’s apology has not been complete”

Many Aboriginal people point out that there is still a long way to go and that this is only the first step in a long healing process. In Iqaluit, many also expected precise answers from the Pope about Father Johannes Rivoire, who has become for many a symbol of the impunity of sexual abusers protected by the Church. The Pope did not mention this case in his speech.

This French priest, who spent three decades in Canada’s Far North until 1993, now lives in a nursing home in the French city of Lyon. He is accused of sexual abuse of indigenous children, for which he currently has an extradition order from the Canadian government.

For Kilikvak Kabloona, president of the Nunavut Tunngavik organization, which represents the Inuit of Nunavut, “the Pope’s apology was not complete.”

“It did not address sexual abuse and did not recognize the institutional role of the Catholic Church in protecting abusers, which allows sexual violence to flourish,” he said. “We want Rivoire to be extradited to Canada to face his charges in court and we have asked the Pope to intervene and ask him to return to Canada,” he added. An Inuit delegation is scheduled to visit France in September.

(With AFP)