An Apology From the Catholic Church for Residential Schools Is Not Good Enough, Indigenous Leaders Say

A week and a half after 215 childrens' remains were found on the former grounds of a Catholic-run Indian Residential School in British Columbia, many are disappointed by a lack of ownership and apology from the highest levels of the Catholic Church.

On May 27, the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation located in B.C.'s southern interior announced preliminary findings of an unmarked gravesite on its property, the former grounds of the Kamloops Indian Residential School, holding the remains of at least 215 children-some as young as three years old.

On June 5, after a meeting with two Canadian Cardinals the day before, Pope Francis spoke to a congregation in his typical Sunday morning address at Saint Peter's Square in Vatican City. The Pope expressed "sorrow" "about the shocking discovery," according to a translation of his prepared statement, though he offered no official apology for the role the Catholic Church played in the displacement of an estimated 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Métis children.

https://nativenewsonline.net/currents/an-apology-from-the-catholic-church-for-residential-schools-is-not-good-enough-indigenous-leaders-say