Report
Pope Francis receives Indigenous people from Canada, a crucial step towards healing
Audio 01:22
Pope Francis received two delegations of indigenous people from Canada on Monday, March 28.
AFP - HANDOUT
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
Pope Francis received two delegations of indigenous people from Canada on Monday, March 28.
Coming to the Vatican this week, they were able to tell their stories and testify to the abuses they suffered in boarding schools run by the Catholic Church.
But also ask the pope to apologize.
First meetings that open a historic week for the representatives of these Canadian nations.
Advertising
Read more
With our correspondent at the Vatican,
Éric Sénanque
They came with a message: that of their people whose families have been uprooted, displaced;
come, they say, for truth, healing and reconciliation.
The pope received two groups, took the time to listen to them.
“
His face looked sad
,” confided one of the members received.
A positive first contact for Martha Grieg, an Inuit survivor of a Native residential school in the 1960s: “
He seemed very interested in what he was told.
I believe that something will really happen in the future, if all goes well.
»
►Also read:
Residential schools in Canada: a belated realization
An essential step towards recovery
According to Micth Case, member of the Métis Nation of Ontario, this trip to Rome is also a way to loosen tongues, beyond the reparations expected from the Church: "
For me, it is an opportunity for the survivors, and on behalf of many others to tell their story, not just to the Holy Father, although that is important, but to the whole world.
Our communities have been ignored and forgotten for so long.
»
If last September the Church of Canada had officially asked for forgiveness for the violence committed in the residential schools, the Métis as well as the Inuit came to hear a request for forgiveness from the mouth of the pope, an essential step in their eyes on their journey of healing. .
►Also read:
Canada: Indigenous leaders received by Pope Francis
On Friday, April 1, the pope will receive all the indigenous delegations for a long-awaited speech.
He received this Monday a traditional gift: elk skin moccasins, a symbol for these peoples of the long way to go still towards healing.
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
Vatican
Canada