Justin Trudeau urged Pope Francis to visit Canada to apologize to its indigenous peoples for the Catholic Church’s treatment of aboriginal children in the schools it ran there.
Starting in the late 19th century, about 30% of the children of Canada’s native peoples, or about 150,000 children, were placed in what were known as “residential schools” in a government attempt to strip them of their traditional cultures and ancestral languages.
For over a century the schools were government-funded but many were administered by Christian churches, mostly Roman Catholic.
“I told him how important it is for Canadians to move forward on real reconciliation with the indigenous peoples and I highlighted how he could help by issuing an apology,” Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, said after the meeting.
He also said he had invited the pontiff to make the apology in Canada.
Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission said in a 2015 report that the practice, which kept children from the First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples far from their parents, amounted to “cultural genocide.”
Many children were physically and sexually abused. The commission made 94 recommendations, including that the pope issue a formal apology in Canada to survivors and their descendents for the church’s “role in the spiritual, cultural, emotional, physical and sexual abuse” of the children.
Trudeau said he and the pope also discussed climate change. They both agree that climate change is caused by human activity. Trudeau, who is Catholic, said he had “a deeply personal and wide-ranging, thoughtful conversation with the leader of my own faith.”
Canadian bishops have said the pope might visit next year.
“All the world wondered after…” Revelation 13:3.