Pope apologizes for residential schools

The Pope apologized today for the Catholic church’s role in the abuse found in residential schools.

The Vatican says the pontiff expressed his sorrow at a meeting today with victims and representatives of native Canadians. During the meeting, at which the group was able to share stories and concerns, Pope Benedict emphasized that ?¢‚Ǩ?ìacts of abuse cannot be tolerated.?¢‚Ǩ¬ù

Finally.

The Anglican church apologized 1993, the Presbyterian Church in 1994 and the United Church in 1998. The federal government apologized last year.

I’m not sure why the Catholic church, which ran 75% of the schools, took so long to apologize. At least they did.

Sure, they didn’t actually say, “I apologize”, but if Phil Fontaine can view such an aabsence as not diminishing the statement, so can I.

3 thoughts on “Pope apologizes for residential schools

  1. The Catholic church takes a long time to make most decisions. It is after much thought and consideration before they do anything. Maybe because of some of the long-standing Traditions, or maybe they wait for a sign from above, but I commend them for finally stepping up to the plate.

  2. Monolithic, top-down religions don’t do a very good job in general at admitting mistakes. Admitting mistakes weakens their claims to direct spiritual authority. Though the policy was finally changed in 1978, the LDS church has never apologized for the priesthood ban.

  3. I don’t accept it. They should have out and out apologized for what they did not just that they were sorry “it” happened. That is not the same thing. It is like someone just saying they are sorry but leaving it as a blank slate rather then I am sorry I hurt you. They could be just sorry they were caught or they were sorry they were the last ones. No.. I don’t accept it.

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