Canadian bishops hope for papal meeting with indigenous people

She cites a statement from the Canadian Episcopal Conference that Bishop has been working on for more than two years on encounters with “a diverse group of elders/knowledgeables, boarding school survivors and youth from across the country.” The purpose of the meeting is to “promote dialogue and healing” and to give Pope Francis the opportunity to “hear directly to representatives of the indigenous peoples, express their closeness with them, discuss the effects of colonialism and the role they play in the Church. “.

Two weeks ago, Rosanne Casimir, the head of the indigenous community Tk’emlups te Secwepemc, informed the public that 215 bodies of girls and boys from indigenous families had been found at a former re-education center near Kamloops. The country’s government and the Catholic Episcopal Conference were shocked and announced a comprehensive explanation.

abuse at home

Kamloops Boarding School was one of 139 reeducation homes in Canada. It is estimated that more than 150,000 Indigenous children ended up in these facilities between 1830 and 1998. There they were often not allowed to speak their mother tongue; Many of them were abused or abused.

Many of these homes were run by the Catholic Church, including Kamloops Boarding School. It opened in 1890. About 500 children were housed there in the 1950s. State officials took over in 1969; The house was closed in 1978.

According to media reports, the government in Ottawa officially apologized to the survivors of the homes in 2008 and together with the churches paid two billion Canadian dollars (equivalent to about 1.4 billion euros today) in compensation. So far, experts know of 4,100 deaths at the facilities. But they consider a higher number of unproven cases.

(Cape – SST)