Canada demands a formal apology from the Vatican
According to the Canadian premier, Pope Francis should come to Canada and apologize on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada needs a formal apology from the head of Catholics on Canadian soil. After all, it was the Catholic Church that organized boarding schools for indigenous children whose hundreds of bodies were found in two unmarked graves.
As recently as last Friday, Trudeau said he had already asked the Pope to come to Canada to apologize. That conversation came a day after it was announced that there were about 751 unmarked graves at the site of a former Catholic boarding school in Saskatchewan.
"I personally spoke with His Holiness Pope Francis to convince him how important it is not only that he apologize, but that he apologize to indigenous Canadians on Canadian soil," Trudeau told reporters.
"I know that the leadership of the Catholic Church is following what is happening and is actively involved in what further steps can be taken," the prime minister added.
Recall that the Catholic Church ran the school and the cemetery where the unnamed graves were found from 1886 to 1970. According to experts, it cannot be claimed that these were only children's graves, but they are all nameless.
According to Reuters News Agency, Canada's residential school system, which ran from 1831 to 1996, removed some 150,000 children from aboriginal families. All of them attended Christian boarding schools, mostly Catholic, run by the federal Government.
Pope Francis has already called for reconciliation after the discovery of 215 graves earlier this month. "This sad discovery tells us even more about the pain and suffering of the past," he said.
