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Pope Francis delivered an historic apology today for the flagrant abuses to native children in Canada decades ago.
In it, he termed the embattled school policy a "disastrous error" as he tried to heal the lifelong scar surrounding those who attended the Catholic Church's residential schools.
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A round of applause greeted a repentant Pope Francis at the former Ermineskin Indian Residential School near Edmonton, Alberta, where Indigenous children were forced to be assimilated into Canadian society.
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Citing the Catholic priests' and nuns' abuses that pulverised the children's ties to their Indigenous families, the Pope sombrely called the assimilation policies "catastrophic".
Owning up to the grievous errors and evil that stultified the Indigenous peoples, the pontiff said "individuals of their cultural and spiritual identity" were an intrinsic part of the society.
The pope's sincerest apology elicited tears as many remained silent and wept.
Still, the backdrop was awash with native colours with many clad in orange shirts in support of the survivors.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also attended.
This was just the first event of his weeklong "penitential pilgrimage" to Canada to deliver the long-anticipated apology.
A circuitous path, but to traumatised survivors, it was worth the wait.
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EVELYN KORKMAZ, Residential School Survivor:
I've waited fifty years for this apology. And finally today, I heard it.
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CHIEF TONY ALEXIS, Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation:
As soon as the apology started, people were triggered immediately. And this wound that has been opened again...we can't just leave it like that. We really have to take the steps to make sure that we help heal and recover our people.
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Following prayers at the Sacred Heart Church came a meet-and-greet between the pope and the masses who descended upon the region to greet him.
But the Vatican is still running the gauntlet of those who demand more.
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Our people have called for the releasing of the records and also the repatriation of those babies, bring them home.
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To make it up to the bruised Indigenous people, the pope also prayed at the graves of the some 6,000 deceased children.
All this, decades after more than 150,000 native children in Canada were stripped of their unique cultural identities as multiple generations were relegated.
And experts say that amounted to a wipeout of indigenous cultures.
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