Canadian official: pope should apologize to First Nations

Canada’s Indigenous services minister has asked Pope Francis to issue a formal apology for the role the Catholic Church played in Canada’s residential school system after the remains of 215 children were located at what was once the country’s largest such school.

Chief Rosanne Casimir of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation in British Columbia said the remains of 215 children were confirmed in May at the school in Kamloops, British Columbia, with the help of ground-penetrating radar. So far none has been excavated.

The Kamloops Indian Residential School was Canada’s largest such facility and was operated by the Roman Catholic Church between 1890 and 1969 before the federal government took it over as a day school until it closed in 1978. Nearly three-quarters of the 130 schools in Canada were run by Catholic missionary congregations.