Pope Francis expresses sorrow after graves of indigenous children were found in Canada

After Canadian PM Justin Trudeau urged the Vatican to apologise, Pope Francis on June 6 expressed sorrow over the findings of the remains of more than 200 children at a former indigenous boarding school, which was run by the Catholic Church. Remains of children as young as three were found buried on the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. The unmarked graves were unearthed at the former residential school, which was an institution that forcibly separated indigenous children from their parents to assimilate them into Canadian society.

On Sunday, Pope Francis said, “I observe with pain the shocking discovery in Canada of the remains of 215 children, pupils of the Kamloops Indian Residential School, in the province of British Columbia. I join the Canadian Bishops and the whole Catholic Church in Canada in expressing his closeness to the Canadian people, who have been traumatized by the shocking news”. 

According to Pope Francis, the incident was a strong call to abandon the "colonial model" and work toward the recognition of rights of the ingenious communities in Canada. It is imperative to note that the school was one of the 130 schools which hosted 150,000 indigenous children. It was run by the Catholic Church from the late 19th century to the 1960s and was then taken over by the federal government, and later closed in the 1970s. While the schools argued that they were imparting knowledge, a report in 2015 found that the children were subjected to abuse, malnutrition and rape and at least 4,000 of them died while being at these reform institutes.

Pope requests Canada to ‘work together' 

The Pope requested Canadian authorities “to continue to work together with determination to shed light on this sad event and to commit themselves humbly to a path of reconciliation and healing”. 

Meanwhile, a  team of nine UN Human rights experts have also urged the Canadian government and the Vatican to hold a swift and thorough investigation into the discovery of unmarked graves in British Columbia. In a statement, experts urged the authorities to conduct forensic examinations of the remains found as well as to expedite the identification of the missing children. “It is inconceivable that Canada and the Holy See would leave such heinous crimes unaccounted for and without full redress,” they said.

(With inputs from ANI)