Pope Francis met with 22 First Nations survivors of Indian Residential Schools from Eastern Canada in the residence of the Archbishop of Quebec.
In his message to the survivors, the Pope reiterated the penitential nature of his journey and expressed his hope for the Church and Indigenous communities to reconcile despite their strained past.
POPE FRANCIS
I have come in a spirit of penance, to express our heartfelt pain as a Church at the wrong inflicted on you by not a few Catholics who supported oppressive and unjust policies in your regard.
I do this so that progress may be made in the search for truth, so that the processes of healing and reconciliation may continue.
Pope Francis then referenced three women to whom he entrusted the reconciliation process: St. Anne, the mother of Mary, Our Lady herself, and Saint Kateri Tekawitha, the 17th century Indigenous saint who died during a smallpox epidemic in Quebec.
POPE FRANCIS
Her sanctity of life was also made possible by certain noble and virtuous traits inherited from her community and the indigenous environment in which she grew up.
May they bless the journey we now share, and intercede for us and for this great work of healing and reconciliation that is so pleasing to God.
The Pope then met privately with the delegates to close the Quebec portion of his trip to Canada, where about 10% of the country's 1.8 million Indigenous population lives.
JM
