Pope Francis agreed Saturday that the attempt to wipe out indigenous culture in Canada through a church-run residential school system amounts to cultural “genocide.” Speaking to reporters on his way home from Canada, Francis said he did not use the term during his trip to atone for the Catholic Church’s role in schools because it never occurred to him.
Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission determined in 2015 that the forced removal of Indigenous children from their homes and placement in residential schools for assimilation constituted “cultural genocide.” About 150,000 children from the late 1800s to the 1970s were subjected to the policy of forced assimilation, intended to make them fully Christian and Canadian. Physical and sexual abuse was rampant in schools, and children were beaten for speaking their mother tongue.
Dear brothers and sisters of the #Indigenous Peoples, Now I return home carrying in my heart the treasure of all those who have marked me, your faces, smiles and words, stories and places will always stay with me. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart. #Apostolic Journey
— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) July 30, 2022
“It’s true that I didn’t use the word because it didn’t come to mind, but I described genocide, didn’t I?” Francis said. “I apologized, I asked for forgiveness for this work, which was genocide.” Francis said he repeatedly condemned the system that broke family ties and tried to impose new cultural beliefs as “catastrophic” on generations of indigenous peoples.
In the main apology from his trip to Canada, delivered on Monday, Francis spoke of “cultural destruction” but did not use the term “cultural genocide” as some survivors of the school had hoped and hoped.
“It’s a technical word, genocide.” I didn’t use it because it didn’t come to mind, but I described it, and it’s true that it’s genocide,” he said on Saturday.