Native Americans laud Biden for historic apology over boarding schools. They want action to follow
Laveen Village, Arizona, US AP President Joe Biden did something Friday that no other sitting US president has: He apologised for the systemic abuse of generations of Indigenous children endured in boarding schools at the hands of the federal government. For 150 years the US removed Indigenous children from their homes and sent them away to […]
Investigation finds at least 973 Native American children died in US Government boarding schools
Billings, Montana, US AP At least 973 Native American children died in the US Government’s abusive boarding school system, according to the results of an investigation released Tuesday by Interior Department officials who called on the government to apologise for the schools. The investigation commissioned by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland found marked and unmarked graves at […]
Essay: Churches don’t pay taxes. Should they?
SAM VICTOR and HILLARY KAELL look – in an article first published on The Conversation – at the debate in Canada over whether churches should pay taxes…
Hearing pain of Canada school survivors felt like slaps, Pope says
Vatican City Reuters Pope Francis said on Wednesday he felt the pain of survivors of Canada’s residential school system “like slaps” and that the Catholic Church has to face up to its responsibility for institutions that abused children and tried to erase Indigenous cultures. The Pope dedicated his talk at his weekly general audience to […]
Pope says genocide took place at church schools in Canada for Indigenous children
Aboard the papal plane Reuters Pope Francis said on Saturday that what happened at residential schools that the Roman Catholic and other Christian Churches ran to forcefully assimilate Canada’s Indigenous children was genocide. The Pope made the comment while flying back to Rome after a week-long trip to Canada, where he delivered a historic apology […]
Pope again asks for forgiveness as tour ends in Canada’s north
Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada Reuters Pope Francis again asked for forgiveness after meeting on Friday with residential school survivors in the Arctic territory of Nunavut, the last stop in his six-day visit to Canada to apologise to Indigenous people for abuse in government schools run by the Roman Catholic Church. After a private meeting in a […]
Updated: Pope seeks forgiveness for sexual abuse at Canadian residential schools
Updated: 11:45am (AEST) Sainte-Anne-De-Beaupre, Quebec, Canada Reuters Pope Francis on Thursday asked for forgiveness for sexual abuse at Canadian schools for Indigenous children run by Catholic orders, addressing a deep wound that many survivors wanted him to acknowledge during his apology tour in Canada. Pope Francis greets the faithful before presiding over a Mass at […]
Pope apologises for “deplorable evil” of Canadian Indigenous schools
Maskwacis, Alberta Reuters Pope Francis apologised on Monday to Canada’s native people on their land for the church’s role in schools where Indigenous children were abused, calling their forced cultural assimilation a “deplorable evil” and “disastrous error.” Speaking near the site of two former schools in Maskwacis, Alberta, Francis apologised for Christian support of the […]
Pope, starting Canada trip, says he has “great desire” to visit Kyiv
Aboard the papal plane Reuters Pope Francis said on Sunday he yearned to visit Ukraine, in his efforts to try and bring an end to a five-month-old war that he has repeatedly decried. “I have a great desire to go to Kyiv,” the Pope said when asked about a possible future trip to Ukraine. He […]
Papal trip: Indigenous Canadians wary, hopeful as Pope prepares apology
PETER SMITH, of Associated Press, on how, ahead of the papal trip this week, Indigenous Canadians are voicing a range of scepticism, wariness and hope…