Pope meets Inuit survivors in Iqaluit

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IQALUIT, Nunavut — Pope Francis arrived in Iqaluit on Friday for the ultimate leg of a historic tour that noticed the pontiff categorical “deep disgrace and sorrow” and apologize for abuses dedicated by some members of the Roman Catholic Church.

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The temporary go to to Nunavut’s capital marks the primary time a pope has travelled to the territory.

Francis had a non-public assembly with Inuit survivors of residential faculties and their households on the Nakasuk Elementary Faculty earlier than participating in a public cultural occasion, the place he watched conventional throat singers carry out.

Arnrak Korgak, a day college survivor, joined a crowd of tons of ready to see Francis. He turned emotional talking concerning the college students who had been despatched south to residential faculties and by no means got here house.

“We really feel their ache,” he mentioned.

Mary-Lee Aliyak mentioned it was an vital day and hoped it is going to assist individuals with their therapeutic.

“Residential college was a manner of taking away our tradition and language. However, at this time is historical past,” she mentioned.

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“It’s making a historical past that we’re acknowledged as individuals, because the First Peoples of Canada.”

Francis was additionally to provide a speech, interpreted into Inuktitut, earlier than boarding a aircraft again to Rome within the night.

The chief of the nationwide group representing the Inuit individuals invited the Pope to go to the Inuit homeland throughout an Indigenous delegation to the Vatican earlier this yr. Natan Obed, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, mentioned it may very well be a significant go to for Inuit, who skilled lasting ache and struggling however stay open to the potential of true reconciliation.

The six-day go to, which Francis described as “penitential,” was greeted by celebrations and criticism throughout prior stops in Quebec and Alberta.

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After a non-public assembly between Francis and Indigenous leaders and survivors in Quebec Metropolis earlier Friday, Ghislain Picard, head of the Meeting of First Nations Quebec-Labrador, mentioned will probably be as much as every individual to resolve if the Pope’s journey met their expectations.

He mentioned survivors have “had their second.”

“It’s actually as much as them to take the measure of all this, whether or not it’s going to offer that sort of manner for his or her therapeutic,” Picard mentioned after the assembly. “It’s going to take time.”

Residential college survivors sporting ribbon skirts and an elder holding a feather had been among the many Indigenous delegation who had a 45-minute personal viewers with the Pope.

In an tackle to open the assembly, the pontiff advised them he’d come to Canada in a “spirit of penance” to apologize for the wrongs inflicted upon them by “not only a few Catholics.”

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“I’ve come as a pilgrim, regardless of my bodily limitations, to take additional steps ahead with you and for you,” he advised the group.

“I do that in order that progress could also be made within the seek for fact, in order that the processes of therapeutic and reconciliation might proceed, and in order that seeds of hope can hold being sown for future generations — Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike — who need to reside collectively, in concord, as brothers and sisters.”

The delegation included survivors and representatives of First Nations throughout Japanese Canada, a few of whom may very well be seen presenting the Pope with presents.

Cree Grand Chief Mandy Gull-Masty mentioned the assembly was marked by some confusion as supporters of some residential college survivors had been requested to go away the room by the archbishop’s workers even after papal safety had allow them to in.

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She mentioned survivors used the assembly to share their ache and tales. One from her neighborhood in northern Quebec forgave the church for trespassing towards the neighborhood, she mentioned, whereas one nation insisted on how its methods, tradition and language should be acknowledged and revered by the church.

Chief Duke Peltier of the Wiikwemkoong First Nation in northern Ontario mentioned after the assembly that he had anticipated “slightly extra sincerity and extra of an acceptance of duty for the church’s participation within the assimilative efforts of our individuals.”

“I didn’t get the sense they’re fairly prepared to totally take part in therapeutic,” he mentioned of the Pope’s go to.

In his tackle, Francis mentioned he had been enriched by tales of the Indigenous individuals he has met in Canada.

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“I can actually say that, whereas I got here to be with you, it was your life and experiences, the Indigenous realities of those lands, which have touched me, remained with me, and can at all times be part of me,” he mentioned.

Each Picard and Gull-Masty mentioned it’s now as much as Canadian bishops to take the following concrete steps.

Picard mentioned Indigenous leaders shared a meal Thursday night with the bishops however not one of the key points — entry to church archives, the rescinding of the Doctrine of Discovery, the return of sacred objects possessed by the Vatican — had been addressed.

— With information from Sidhartha Banerjee in Quebec Metropolis