Pope Francis hopes Canada trip will help heal “evil” done to indigenous people

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Pope Francis said on Sunday that he hopes his trip to Canada next week can help heal the wrongs done to Indigenous people by Roman Catholic priests and nuns who ran abusive residential schools.

The July 24-30 trip will include at least five meetings with Indigenous representatives as Francis makes good on a promise to apologize on their home territory for the Church's role in the state-sanctioned schools, which sought to erase Indigenous cultures.

"Unfortunately in Canada many Christians, including some members of religious orders, contributed to the policies of cultural assimilation that in the past gravely damaged native populations in various ways," Francis said at his weekly address to people in St. Peter's Square.

More than 150,000 native children in Canada were forced to attend state-funded Christian schools from the 19th century until the 1970s in an effort to isolate them from their homes and culture. The aim was to Christianize and assimilate them into mainstream society, which previous Canadian governments considered superior.

The Canadian government has admitted that physical and sexual abuse was rampant at the schools, and that students were beaten for speaking their native languages. Indigenous leaders say the legacy of abuse and family separation was a root cause of the epidemic rates of alcohol and drug addiction on Canadian reservations.