Pope calls Canada Indigenous abuse 'genocide', says must slow down

The town of Iqaluit, in the vast territory of Nunavut, Canada, on July 28, 2022, ahead of a visit by Pope Francis

Pope Francis offered a historic apology in Canada

Pope Francis said Saturday the decades-long abuse of Indigenous schoolchildren across Canada amounted to "genocide" as he returned from a six-day trip with an acknowledgement that he needed to slow down his pace of travel -- or could even resign.

During his "penitential pilgrimage" across Canada this week, the 85-year-old pope offered a historic apology to the First Nations, Metis and Inuit people for what he called the "evil" committed at Catholic-run residential schools.

While he told reporters the word "didn't come to my mind" while in Canada, "I did describe the genocide. And I asked for forgiveness for this process which was genocide".

Although Francis's unprecedented apology was mostly welcomed across Canada, from western Alberta to Quebec and the far north, many survivors said much more needed to be done for reconciliation.

Canada was the pope's 37th international trip since he was elected in 2013, but he admitted he would have to slow down his pace due to knee problems that saw him spent much of the visit in a wheelchair.

It was not the first time Francis has said that, if required, he could follow his predecessor Benedict XVI, who made history in 2013 by resigning due to his own declining health.

"But that doesn't mean the day after tomorrow I don't start thinking, right? But right now I honestly don't."

Ruling out surgery due to the risks of anaesthesia at his age, the pope -- who underwent colon surgery last year -- said he still planned to travel to Kazakhstan in September, and still had hopes of a trip one day to war-torn Ukraine.

He had wrapped up his Canadian journey Friday in the capital of the vast northern territory of Nunavut, Iqaluit, again asking forgiveness for abuse committed at the 139 residential schools run by the Catholic Church.

"I want to tell you how very sorry I am and to ask for forgiveness for the evil perpetrated by not a few Catholics who contributed to the policies of cultural assimilation," he said. 

Residents in Iqaluit, a community of just over 7,000 people and where small houses line the rocky ocean shore, have listened closely to the pope's words throughout his trip.

- 'Brilliant light' -

Many have observed that he did not specifically mention or apologise for the sexual abuse committed at the schools, despite the scandal over such abuse of children by Catholic clergy the world over.

"This doctrine of colonisation, it's true, it's bad, it's unfair," he said Saturday, adding that "there has always been a danger, a mentality of 'we are superior and these indigenous people don't matter', and that is serious".

Demands were also made in Canada for access to records documenting what happened in the schools, and for the Vatican museums to return Indigenous artefacts.

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