Canada’s Catholic bishops sorry for abuses of Indigenous children
Al Jazeera
Decision falls short of the recommendation from Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission for the Pope to apologise.
Catholic Bishops in Canada have apologised “unequivocally” to Canada’s Indigenous peoples for a century of child abuse at church-run residential schools that was part of a government programme to “assimilate” them into Canadian society, but the step still falls short of the recommendation for the pope to also make an apology.
“We acknowledge the grave abuses that were committed by some members of our Catholic community; physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual, cultural, and sexual,” according to a statement from the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops published on Friday.
“Along with those Catholic entities which were directly involved in the operation of the schools and which have already offered their own heartfelt apologies, we, the Catholic Bishops of Canada, express our profound remorse and apologize unequivocally,” the statement said.
