The Pope receives representatives of the indigenous people of Canada

Marco Guevara – Vatican City

Three days are dedicated to meeting and listening to the painful side of the past to walk together towards healing and reconciliation. The pope will meet with representatives of the Canadian indigenous people at the Vatican next week. Representatives of the Inuit, Medes and First Nations groups will accompany their bishops, said Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican’s press office. Meetings will be held on March 28 and 31 at three different times. Then, on April 1, “the audience will be held in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace. March 29 is dedicated to visits to the Vatican Museums. The meeting was scheduled to take place last December, but was postponed due to an outbreak.

The story of residential schools

The visit of representatives of the Canadian Aboriginal people is part of a process initiated by the Canadian Bishops’ Conference and the Council of Catholic Aborigines of Canada (CCC), which ultimately set the stage for the tragic story of residential schools established by the Canadian government. To culturally integrate tribal children in the 19th century and the last decades of the 900s. Schools were handed over to local Christian churches, including Catholic churches. In these schools, which are generally unfunded, children are often mistreated and abused.

The astonishment of Pope Francis

On June 6, 2021, during the time of Angels, Pope Francis revealed a story after learning of the discovery in the mass grave of 215 students of the “Kamloops Indian Residential School”. It is “a strong call for all of us to move away from the colonial model and ideological colonialism of today, and to walk side by side in dialogue and mutual respect and recognition of the rights and cultural values ​​of all daughters. Sons of Canada”.