VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI apologized Wednesday to Canadian Indians who were physically and sexually abused at church-run boarding schools they were forced to attend, saying he was sorry for their anguish and was praying they would heal.
The head of the Roman Catholic Church met with a group of former Canadian Indian students and told them of his "personal anguish” over their suffering, they said.
They emerged from the meeting happy and comforted, said Phil Fontaine, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations.
From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 Indian children in Canada were forced to attend state-funded Christian schools as an effort to assimilate into society.
The Canadian government has admitted that physical and sexual abuse was rampant in the schools, with students beaten for speaking their native languages.
That legacy of abuse and isolation has been cited by Indian leaders as the root cause of epidemic rates of alcoholism and drug addiction on reservations.
The Canadian government has formally apologized and offered billions of dollars in compensation. The Catholic Church itself has paid some $79 million in compensation — but hadn’t issued any type of institutional regret until Wednesday.
by the associated press
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