PHOTOS | Pope in Canada apologises for school abuse, prays for healing for 'terrible' colonization

Pope Francis is on a 'penitential' six-day visit to Canada to beg forgiveness from survivors of the country's residential schools, where Catholic missionaries contributed to the 'cultural genocide' of generations of Indigenous children by trying to stamp out their languages, cultures and traditions.

Pope Francis is on a 'penitential' six-day visit to Canada to beg forgiveness from survivors of the country's residential schools, where Catholic missionaries contributed to the 'cultural genocide' of generations of Indigenous children by trying to stamp out their languages, cultures and traditions. (Photo | AP) 

In his first event in Canada, Francis blasted the residential schools Monday as a “disastrous error” and apologized at the site of a former school in Maskwacis for the “evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous peoples.” (Photo | AP)

More than 150,000 Native children in Canada were taken from their homes and made to attend government-funded Christian schools from the 19th century until the 1970s in an effort to isolate them from the influence of their families and culture. The aim was to Christianize and assimilate them into mainstream society, which previous Canadian governments considered superior. (Photo | AP)

An Indigenous man is pictured after Pope Francis delivered his apology to Indigenous people for the church's role in residential schools during a ceremony in Maskwacis, Alberta. (Photo | AP)

Ottawa has admitted that physical and sexual abuse was rampant at the schools, with students beaten for speaking their native languages. That legacy of that abuse and isolation from family has been cited by Indigenous leaders as a root cause of the epidemic rates of alcohol and drug addiction now on Canadian reservations. (Photo | AP)

The discoveries of hundreds of potential burial sites at former schools in the past year drew international attention to the schools in Canada and their counterparts in the United States. The revelations prompted Francis to comply with the truth commission's call for an apology on Canadian soil; Catholic religious orders operated 66 of the country's 139 residential schools.(Photo | AP)

Pope Francis kisses the hand of residential school survivor Elder Alma Desjarlais of the Frog Lake First Nation as he arrives in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, Canada, on July 25, 2022. (Photo | AP)

Reflecting the conflicting emotions of the day, some in the crowd wept as Francis spoke, while others applauded or stayed silent listening to his words, delivered in his native Spanish with English translations. Others chose not to attend at all. (Photo | AP)

Participants paraded a long red banner through the grounds bearing the names of more than 4,000 children who died at or never came home from residential schools; Francis later kissed it. (Photo | AP)

While the pope acknowledged blame, he also made clear that Catholic missionaries were merely cooperating with and implementing the government policy, which he termed the 'colonizing mentality of the powers.' Notably he didn't refer to 15th-century papal decrees that provided religious backing to European colonial powers in the first place. (Photo | AP)

Pope Francis waves to faithfuls after meeting Indigenous peoples and members of the parish community of Sacred Heart in Edmonton, Canada. (Photo | AP)

The crowd watches as Pope Francis celebrates mass at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, during his papal visit across Canada. (Photo | AP)

Nancy Saddleman, center, 82, cries as Pope Francis give mass in Edmonton, during his papal visit across Canada. (Photo | AP)

Pope Francis arrives for a pilgrimage at the Lac Saint Anne, Canada on Tuesday, July 26, 2022. (Photo | AP)

Pope Francis visits the Lac Ste. Anne pilgrimage site in Alberta, Canada. (Photo | AP)