Canadian residential colleges had been cultural ‘genocide’: Pope Francis

Pope Francis agreed on Saturday that the try to get rid of Indigenous tradition in Canada by means of a church-run residential faculty system amounted to a cultural “genocide.”

Pope Francis spoke to journalists aboard the papal flight again from Canada on Saturday. (File picture/AP)

Pope Francis agreed on Saturday that the try to get rid of Indigenous tradition in Canada by means of a church-run residential faculty system amounted to a cultural “genocide.”

Speaking to reporters whereas en route dwelling from Canada, Francis mentioned he didn’t use the time period throughout his journey to atone for the Catholic Church’s function within the colleges as a result of it by no means got here to thoughts.

Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission decided in 2015 that the compelled elimination of Indigenous youngsters from their properties and placement within the residential colleges to assimilate them constituted a “cultural genocide.”

Some 150,000 youngsters from the late 1800s to the Nineteen Seventies had been topic to the compelled assimilation coverage, aimed toward making them absolutely Christian and Canadian. Physical and sexual abuse had been rampant on the colleges, and youngsters had been overwhelmed for talking their Native languages.

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“It’s true I didn’t use the word because it didn’t come to mind, but I described genocide, no?” Francis mentioned. “I apologized, I asked forgiveness for this work, which was genocide.”

Francis mentioned he repeatedly condemned the system that severed household ties and tried to impose new cultural beliefs as “catastrophic” to generations of Indigenous peoples.

In the principle apology of his Canada journey, delivered Monday, Francis spoke of “cultural destruction,” however he didn’t use the time period “cultural genocide” as some faculty survivors had hoped and anticipated.

“It’s a technical word, ‘genocide.’ I didn’t use because it didn’t come to mind, but I described that, and it’s true it’s a genocide,” he mentioned on Saturday.

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