The Canadian government has made it clear that Pope Francis’ apologies to indigenous people for decades of abuse in church-run residential schools did not go far enough.
Earlier this week, the Pope issued a historic apology for the… The Church’s Role in Running Residential Schools for Indigenous Children where Abuse Was Pervasive.
But in response to the apology, the government reiterated criticism from some survivors that the pope’s apology made no reference to the sexual abuse of children in the schools.
The response came as Pope Francis arrived in Quebec City to meet with Canada’s Governor General Mary Simon and the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the second leg of his week-long journey to Canada.
More than 150,000 Indigenous children in Canada were forced to attend government-funded Christian schools from the 1800s to the 1970s.
While apologizing for the “bad” school system, the pope said it was “promoted by government authorities at the time” as part of an assimilation policy.
Responding to criticism on Wednesday, the pope added that “local Catholic institutions played a role” in the implementation of that policy.
Mr Trudeau, a Catholic whose father was prime minister while the last residential schools were in operation, insisted that the Catholic Church as an institution was to be blamed and needed to do more.
He said the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission had called for a papal apology on Canadian soil in 2015.
He said Pope Francis’ visit “would not have been possible without the courage and perseverance” of the survivors who traveled to the Vatican last spring to apologize.
“Apologies for the role the Roman Catholic Church, as an institution, has played in the mistreatment of the spiritual, cultural, emotional, physical and sexual abuse suffered by indigenous children in church-run residential schools,” Trudeau said.
The Canadian government apologized to the schools in 2008, calling them a sad chapter in Canadian history.
As part of a settlement involving the government, churches and the approximately 90,000 remaining students, Canada paid reparations amounting to billions of dollars that were handed over to indigenous communities.
Both the Pope and Mr Trudeau said the visit was a start and that reconciliation was the duty of all.
“It is our responsibility to see our differences not as an obstacle, but as an opportunity to learn, understand each other and take action,” said Mr Trudeau.