Pope Francis has apologised for the Catholic Church’s cooperation with a “catastrophic” policy that forced Canada’s Indigenous people to assimilate into Christian society. 

More than 150,000 Indigenous people were forced to attend state-funded Christian schools from the 19th century until the 1970s. 

Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission has said it amounted to “cultural genocide”. 

Survivors and Indigenous community members gathered at the site of a former school in Edmonton, Alberta on Monday for the in-person apology from the pontiff. 

“I am deeply sorry,” Pope Francis said. 

“I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous peoples.” 

The Pope’s latest statements went beyond his apology at the Vatican in April for the “deplorable” acts. 

He said he took responsibility for the church’s institutional cooperation with the “catastrophic” assimilation policy, 

The Canadian government has admitted that physical and sexual abuse was rampant at the schools, with students beaten for speaking their native languages.

Pope Francis said the policy marginalised generations, suppressed Indigenous languages, severed families, led to physical, verbal, psychological and spiritual abuse and “indelibly affected relationships between parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren”.

Indigenous leaders have cited the legacy of abuse and isolation as a root cause of the epidemic rates of alcohol and drug addiction on Canadian reservations.

The discovery of hundreds of potential burial sites at former schools in 2021 prompted Pope Francis to comply with the truth commission’s call for him to apologise on Canadian soil. 

While Pope Francis acknowledged institutional blame, he also made clear that Catholic missionaries were merely cooperating with and implementing the government policy of assimilation. 

“I ask forgiveness, in particular, for the ways in which many members of the Church and of religious communities cooperated, not least through their indifference, in projects of cultural destruction and forced assimilation promoted by the governments of that time, which culminated in the system of residential schools,” he said.

He called for a further investigation, a possible reference to Indigenous demands for further access to church records and personnel files of priests and nuns, to identify who was responsible. 

“Although Christian charity was not absent, and there were many outstanding instances of devotion and care for children, the overall effects of the policies linked to the residential schools were catastrophic,” Pope Francis said.

Many in the crowd wore orange shirts which have become a symbol of residential school survivors, following the story that one woman had a shirt that was a gift from her grandmother confiscated when she arrived at a school. 

While it was a solemn occasion, elders danced and the crowd cheered and chanted war songs, victory songs and finally a healing song.

Chief Randy Ermineskin of the Ermineskin Cree Nation said while some had chosen to stay away it was a historic day for his people.

“My late family members are not here with us anymore. My parents went to residential school, I went to residential school,” he said. 

“I know they’re with me, they’re listening, they’re watching.”

Pope Francis said he understood the memories could trigger old wounds, and his presence could be traumatic.

“It is necessary to remember how the policies of assimilation and enfranchisement, which also included the residential school system, were devastating for the people of these lands,” he said

Felisha Crier Hosein attended in honour of her late mother who helped create the museum for the nearby Samson Cree Nation.

Parallels between Australia and Canada

Assembly of First Nations National Chief RoseAnne Archibald greeted the Pope during his welcoming ceremony.

In a news conference afterward, she criticised the organisation of the trip.

“That’s a part of the problem we’ve had with the church, is that they have not been really including us in the proper planning of this process,” she said.

“It’s been very unilateral and we don’t feel that it has been about survivors. It has been more about the church.”

She said there are many parallels that could be drawn between the treatment of Indigenous people in Canada and Australia.

She said if the church was serious about making amends, the discussion must keep going well after the Pope had flown home.

“He talked about an investigation into the past, about how there’s work to do beyond the apology,” she said.

“There are records the Vatican holds to identify the little ones that died in these institutions, there are sacred items that have to be returned.”

Pope Francis said following the apology at the Vatican in April he had been given a set of beaded moccasins as a symbol of the children who never returned from the schools. 

He was asked to return them in Canada.

Pope Francis said the moccasins had “kept alive my sense of sorrow, indignation and shame” but in returning them hoped they could also represent a path to walk together.

This apology comes almost 21 years after Pope John Paul II apologised to Australia’s Aboriginal people for the role of the Catholic Church played in forcibly removing children from their families.