Several times this week, Pope Francis has asked “forgiveness for the evil committed” against aborigines in canadaespecially in boarding schools for Native American children run by the Church, and deplored that some of its members have “cooperated” in policies of “cultural destruction”.
“For me, that wasn’t enough,” says Abigail Brooks, 23, a member of Saint Mary’s First Nation from neighboring eastern New Brunswick shortly before the sovereign pontiff’s arrival at the Saint-Anne-de-Beaupré shrine. , on the shores. of the Saint Lawrence River this Thursday.
If you “accept” his apology, he regrets that he did not “name the pervasive sexual abuse in boarding schools” run mainly by the Catholic Church, where some 150,000 children were forcibly interned between the late 19th century and the 1990s.
“Every Child Matters”
She would also like to “have access to the archives” and for him to return the indigenous art objects stored in the Vatican. “They have had so many for so long, it is part of reconciliation to take back what is ours,” he said, wearing a traditional dress believed to have healing properties according to indigenous rites.
In the crowd, there are still many who wear an orange T-shirt, sweatshirt or scarf with the words “Every child Matters” (“every child matters”), in memory of the young people who never returned from boarding schools, victims of the disease . , malnutrition or abuse.
The Pope faced with protest
Among the faithful, most of them quite old, gathered in the sun in the presence of many police officers, some hold in their hands the photo of a missing loved one. “It is important that the pope remember the survivors when he returns to Rome,” said Ghislain Picard, leader of the indigenous communities of Quebec and Labrador.
“Religion has always had considerable weight, even at the political level, which is why we also ask for the revocation of the papal bull,” another important step in reconciliation.
A point of tension for many natives. During Thursday’s ceremony, a banner reading ‘Revoke Doctrine’ was briefly unfurled calling for change, referring to 15th-century papal edicts that allowed European powers to colonize non-Christian lands and peoples.
Pope Francis has not yet ruled on this doctrine, nor on the possibility of returning artifacts. And despite the repeated pleas of many survivors, the spiritual leader of the 1.3 billion Catholics did not apologize in the name of the Church, but for the evil committed by “certain Christians
Source: BFM TV
