Francis, responding to longtime pleas from Indigenous people, begged forgiveness for schools where children were forced to assimilate, many were sexually or physically abused and some died.
Pope Francis will travel to an Indigenous community in Canada to apologize for the church’s role in residential schools that tried to erase Indigenous culture, and where thousands of children died.
Pope Francis also promised to visit Canada as part of a process of healing and reconciliation over the church’s involvement in an abusive system of residential schools.