Should Pope apologize for abuse at Canadian residential schools for Indigenous children?

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No, because apparently the past two Popes have apologized for the residential schools.
 
And also, they shouldn’t be seeking an apology from the pope because:

The Catholic Church as a whole wasn’t involved in the residential schools. It was only 16 of the 70 dioceses of Canada. So not even the CCCB owes an apology; it’s the individual dioceses that do (if they think they should, and if they haven’t already).
 
I can understand the reluctance to do so because it would open up the Church to some level of legal culpability. If this was a program that was not directly run by the Church, he may not want to do that.

Nevertheless, the level of cultural and physical violence committed against Native Americans in these North American schools was atrocious and vile and wrong. The people committing the errors may well have thought they were doing the Lord’s work, but that should not stop us from acknowledging the pain and suffering these folks went through.

Pope Francis seemed to realize this when he acknowledged the wrongs of St. Junipero Serra during the mission period in California. Hopefully he will give a similar acknowledgement here.
 
The Pope had no role in this.

The Canadian Bishop’s council should address this, not the Pope.
 
Part of good leadership is acknowledging when those under your authority have done wrong. And taking responsibility for your lapse in oversight that allowed the wrong to continue.

Whether the Pope knew or not is not really the question.
 
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I believe someone else said both Pope Benedict and JPII have already apologized for this.
 
It seems that the apology they request is not necessarily concerning the abuse, but about assimilation of the native peoples into Canadian western culture, which I believe would also cover the Church’s evangelization and the attempt to convert the natives to Catholicism from native religions. The popes have apologized for the abuse, but they cannot apologize for attempting to bring these people to Christ.
 
It looks like sorrow and regret was expressed, but not an actual apology. I suppose that explains why they are still asking for an apology for the abuse suffered.
 
Has the Canadian government apologized for actually letting it happen? It was under their jurisdiction.
 
I believe that is the purpose of the 94 point truth and reconciliation process they are currently going through.
 
Took them long enough, considering they financed it and it was happening in my lifetime - and there’s a chance some of those legislators who were responsible are still in Parliament.
 
I agree that you can’t apologize for bringing souls to Christ. You, however, can apologize for abuse. They are asking for an apology for the abuses such as this one:
One of the most notorious Catholic-run institutions, St. Anne’s Indian Residential School, employed the use of a homemade electric chair and was the subject of a six-year police investigation in the 1990s that led to the conviction of two nuns and three other school workers.
Click to expand...
 
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mrsdizzyd said:
One of the most notorious Catholic-run institutions, St. Anne’s Indian Residential School, employed the use of a homemade electric chair and was the subject of a six-year police investigation in the 1990s that led to the conviction of two nuns and three other school workers.
Click to expand...
What in the actual…!!!

Where do they FIND these people?? I’m serious. My GOD.
 
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I will point out many survivors felt this matter was closed in 2009 after Pope Benedict invited survivors to the Vatican and expressed his sorrow for what had occurred.

It was only after the Truth &a Reconciliation Commission decided the Pope should come to Canada and issue an apology - using similar language to that provided to Irish sex abuse survivors in 2010 - that the matter was re-opened.

Trudeau is a tool using any opportunity he can to pander to his base at the expense of Christians, and this is just another example.
 
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