Pope Francis closed a week of meetings with delegations from Canada's Indigenous peoples at the Vatican.
The Pope directly addressed them after listening to how abuse committed by members of the Church in Canada's residential schools scarred their own lives and communities, and made the historic apology that Indigenous Canadians had waited so long to hear.
POPE FRANCIS
For the deplorable conduct of those members of the Catholic Church, I ask for God's forgiveness and I want to say to you with all my heart: I am greatly pained. And I join my brothers, the Canadian bishops, in apologizing.
The Pope also shared his desire to fulfill the wish of the Indigenous delegations and issue an apology on behalf of the Church on Indigenous lands, as they had expressed in their previous meetings.
POPE FRANCIS
I will be happy to benefit again from meeting you when I visit your native lands, where your families live. But I won’t come in the winter! So I will close by saying “until we meet again” in Canada, where I will be able better to express my closeness to you.
Members from each delegation then shared traditional songs and dance from their tribes, which included two fiddlers.
As well as a traditional dance.
Each delegation then presented the Pope with a parting gift. Among them, this pair of snow shoes.
In return, the Pope gave them each a bronze olive branch, as a sign of peace and reconciliation.
In their press conference, the leaders of each delegation said they were extremely encouraged by the Pope's words and look forward to his visit to Canada, but maintain there is much work left to be done for reconciliation.
CASSIDY CARON
President, Métis National Council
The apology we received today is absolutely historic, and so meaningful to so many people. This opens a door for us to continue to move forward in our healing journeys, and it opens a door for us to continue to fight for action.
GERALD ANTOINE
Northwest Territories Regional Chief
We accept this apology as a gesture of good faith, that acknowledges he will come to our home and to visit with our families, to formally apologize to all our family members.
Although the Vatican has not yet announced dates or confirmed the trip, Pope Francis' expressed desire to visit Canada, and preference to travel there before the winter, signal that the Pope could return to the Western Hemisphere in the coming months.
JM
