Indigenous Canadians wary, hopeful as pope prepares apology
MASKWACIS, Alberta (AP) — Indigenous Canadians are voicing a range of skepticism, wariness and hope as Pope Francis prepares to arrive in their country next week.
He’s scheduled to deliver a historic apology for abuses at Catholic-run residential schools. Generations of Indigenous children were sent to the schools in a system designed to sever them from their tribal families and traditions.
Thousands died from disease, fire and other causes at Catholic and Protestant-run schools.
Francis apologized in April to a Canadian Indigenous delegation at the Vatican for the “deplorable conduct” at the schools.
Now he’ll be apologizing on Canadian soil at the site of a former residential school.