VANCOUVER (WNEWS) — Calls for the Pope to apologize continue to pour in. Catholic bishops in Canada have issued statements expressing anguish, offering prayers to the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation after the remains of 215 children were found buried in a residential school in Kamloops.
The Kamloops Indian Residential School opened in 1890 and operated until 1969 under Roman Catholic administration. Over 150,000 First Nations, Inuit, and Metis children were taken from their families and confined in conditions that constituted cultural genocide. The Calls to Action report reads, “We call upon the Pope to issue an apology to Survivors, their families, and communities for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in the spiritual, cultural, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis children in Catholic-run residential schools.”
The final report of the commission estimates that, between 1890 and 1996, 4,100 to 6,000 children died of abuse or neglect in residential schools.
