Pope Francis says genocide happened at residential schools: ‘I did condemn this’
Global News
When asked if he would use the word genocide and accept that members of the church participated in genocide, Pope Francis said yes.
Pope Francis says the abuses Indigenous Peoples faced while being forced to attend residential schools amounted to genocide.
The pontiff made the comment Friday to reporters on his flight from Iqaluit back to Rome following his six-day tour of Canada.
Francis apologized multiple times throughout the week for the role the Roman Catholic Church played in the institutions. He begged for forgiveness for abuses committed by some members of the church as well as for cultural destruction and forced assimilation.
Some Indigenous people said they were disappointed that during his visit the Pope did not name the crimes and abuses that students and survivors faced. They also criticized him for not using the term genocide.
When asked if he would use the word genocide and accept that members of the church participated in genocide, Francis said yes.
The Pope said he didn’t think to use the word genocide during his trip, calling it a technical term.
“I asked for forgiveness for what has been done, which was genocide, and I did condemn this,” he said in Spanish through a translator.
Francis said instead of using the word genocide he described the attempts at destroying Indigenous Peoples through assimilation and colonization.