Pope Francis addresses
representatives of the Indigenous Peoples of the First Nations
in the first public event ofhis visit to Canada and apologized
for the evils committed by many Christians by imposing forced
assimilation in the residential school system.
The Argentine pontiff said he was "deeply sorry" for "the ways
in which, regrettably, many Christians supported the colonizing
mentality of the powers that oppressed the indigenous peoples".
He asked forgiveness "for the ways in which many members of the
Church and of religious communities cooperated in projects of
cultural destruction and forced assimilation".
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