Indigenous Canadians Hopeful Ahead Of Pope's Apology For School Abuse
NDTV
Pope Francis will visit the site of one of the state boarding schools run by churches in Canada where Indigenous children were once forcibly sequestered.
For decades, trauma has lingered in the tiny Indigenous Canadian community of Maskwacis. But some hope to finally find a degree of closure during a visit by Pope Francis to apologise for the Church's role in a century of abuse.
The pontiff will stop in the community of 19,000 people some 62 miles (100 kilometers) north of Edmonton, Alberta, on July 25, to visit the site of one of the state boarding schools run by churches where Indigenous children were once forcibly sequestered.
Many of the children -- those who survived -- still live in towns such as Maskwacis.
"Maybe they will hear something that will help them to move forward in their life," Ermineskin Cree Nation chief Randy Ermineskin tells AFP.
