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Pope Francis denounces “ideological colonization” during visit to Canada – Top Stories News – Report by AFR

Pope Francis on Wednesday condemned “ideological colonization” and renewed his apology to indigenous peoples for decades of abuse in a speech to Canada’s top officials, who urged him to take more action leading to “real reconciliation.”

The leader of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics was speaking in Quebec City, the final leg of his landmark tour of Canada, which he began this week with a strong apology for the church’s role in abusing Indigenous children in Catholic-run boarding schools.

On Wednesday, the 85-year-old pope slammed the “deplorable” school system, again expressing his “deep shame and sadness… I renew my plea for forgiveness for the wrongs done to indigenous peoples by so many Christians.”

He scoffed at the “colonialist mentality” of the past, adding: “Even today, there are plenty of forms of ideological colonization that clash with the reality of life, suffocate peoples’ natural attachment to their values ​​and seek to uproot their traditions, history and… religious ties.”

He praised multiculturalism and vowed to advance indigenous rights and “move forward in a brotherly and patient journey… to work for healing and reconciliation”.

From the late 19th century through the 1990s, the Canadian government sent some 150,000 children to 139 Church-run boarding schools, where they were cut off from their families, language and culture by a failed policy of forced assimilation.

Many were physically and sexually abused, and thousands are believed to have died from disease, malnutrition, or neglect.

Francis was welcomed into Canada, and his apology – which he first made Monday in the western Indigenous community of Maskwacis – has been hailed as historic, although many Indigenous people who have spoken to AFP have warned there is more work to be done.

That point was brought to the Pope’s attention again on Wednesday by Mary Simon, Canada’s first indigenous governor-general, who joined Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to greet Francis as he arrived in Quebec City from Edmonton.

“No matter where you’re listening from … you’re on tribal land,” she said.

She commended the school system survivors who came to hear the Pope’s words “with open hearts and minds, some ready to forgive, some still living in pain, but all ready to listen.”

The Pope’s visit, she added, is “an important step towards further dialogue and action that will lead to real reconciliation.”

Trudeau also looked to the future.

“Survivors and their descendants must be at the center of everything we do together going forward,” he said.

– “Intolerant” cultural fashion –

Pope Francis also embraced the culture of abandonment on Wednesday, branding it “a cultural fad that … proves intolerant of difference and focuses on the present moment, on the needs and rights of the individual, while often neglecting their duties to the community.” most vulnerable and neglected.”

The Pope also reiterated his feelings about the war in Ukraine, warning of “an arms race and deterrence strategies” and raising the specter of “terrible and protracted Cold Wars”.

Along the road from the airport to the Citadel in Quebec City, hundreds of people, smartphones in hand, crowded behind the barriers to catch a glimpse of the Pope in his white Fiat. Some carried Vatican welcome signs or flags.

On Thursday, Francis will visit the national shrine of Saint Anne de Beaupre, one of the most important pilgrimage sites in North America, and preside at a mass. Later that day he will go to Notre Dame Cathedral in Quebec City to preach a sermon.

On Friday he travels to the Arctic archipelago of Nunavut, where he visits the town of Iqaluit as the final stop of his six-day visit.

Francis suffered from knee pain and often used a wheelchair while touring Canada.

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