Pak Sahafat – Pope Francis, the leader of the world’s Catholics, acknowledged this Saturday on his return from Canada: What happened to the forced assimilation of Aboriginal children in Canadian boarding schools run by Catholics and other Christian churches was “genocide”.
According to Pak Sahafat News Agency, citing Reuters news agency, The Pope made these comments on his flight back to Rome after his week-long trip to Canada. In Canada, he apologized for the church’s role in the church’s policy against indigenous children.
A Native Canadian reporter on the plane asked him why he didn’t use the word “genocide” during the trip and if he accepted that church members were complicit in the genocide.
The Pope replied: It’s true that I didn’t use the word because I hadn’t thought of it. But I described the genocide and apologized and asked for forgiveness for such an act that was genocide.
The leader of the world Catholics added: I condemn separating children from their parents and trying to change their culture, their thoughts and traditions, their race and their entire culture.
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Discovery of mass graves and human rights violations in Canada
Between 1881 and 1996, more than 150,000 Canadian aboriginal children were separated from their families and sent to boarding schools. Many children were starved, beaten and sexually abused in what Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission called “cultural genocide”.
It was early last year that the news of the discovery of hundreds of mass graves in the grounds of the buildings that used to be a boarding school of the Catholic Church for Aboriginal children in Canada caused uproar in the world and revealed another face of long-term oppression against Native Americans in Canada.
Pope: I am ready to resign
Reuters wrote: The pope also said on Saturday that aging and walking problems have brought a new, slower season to his pontificate, and reiterated that he will resign the day serious health problems prevent him from running the church.
In response to reporters on the plane returning from Canada, he said: I don’t think I can do the trips with the same routine as before.
The leader of the world’s Catholics, who lives at the age of 85, uses a wheelchair and a walker or cane due to torn ligaments and knee inflammation.
The pace of the pope’s trip to Canada, which focused on his apology for the church’s role in boarding schools for indigenous children, was slower than in the past, usually with just two events a day and a long break.
Francis said he preferred not to have surgery on his knee because he didn’t want a repeat of the negative long-term side effects from the anesthesia he suffered a year ago after bowel surgery.
He indicated that before deciding on future trips, he would first visit the regions and countries he had previously promised, such as South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lebanon and perhaps Kazakhstan.
The Pope said in an interview earlier this month that he has no plans to resign anytime soon.
He has repeatedly said he could follow in the footsteps of Pope Benedict, who in 2013 became the first pope in 600 years to resign rather than rule for life.