POPE Ratzinger yesterday apologised to native Canadians who were physically and sexually abused at church-run boarding schools they were forced to attend. He said he was sorry for their anguish, and was praying they would heal.
Native Canadian Phil Fontaine pictured in Rome. Photo: AP
According to this report, from the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 Indian children in Canada were forced to attend state-funded Christian schools in an effort to assimilate them into Canadian society. Nearly three-quarters of the 130 schools were run by Catholic missionary congregations.
The Canadian government has admitted that physical and sexual abuse was rampant in the schools, with students beaten for speaking their native languages.
It has formally apologised and offered billions of dollars in compensation. The Catholic Church itself has paid some $79 million in compensation – but hadn’t issued any form of apology until yesterday when Ratzinger met with a group of former students and victims and told them of his “personal anguish” over their suffering.
That legacy of abuse and isolation has been cited by Indian leaders as the root cause of epidemic rates of alcoholism and drug addiction on reservations.
Phil Fontaine, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, and himself a victim of abuse at one of the schools said:
What we wanted the Pope to say to us was that he was sorry and … that he deeply felt for us. We heard that very clearly.
A Vatican statement said:
Given the sufferings that some indigenous children experienced in the Canadian residential school system, the Holy Father expressed his sorrow at the anguish caused by the deplorable conduct of some members of the church and he offered his sympathy and prayerful solidarity.
This was the latest apology by the Roman Catholic führer for the abuse committed by church members against the young. During his trip to the United States last year, Ratzinger said he was “deeply ashamed” of the clergy sex abuse scandal that devastated the American church. And in Australia, he told victims of abuse he was “deeply sorry” for their suffering.
The aim of the residential school system was to isolate the native Canadians from the influence of their homes and culture, which the government at the time considered inferior to mainstream Canadian society.
While many students say they received good education at the schools, they are now a symbol of exploitation and cruel treatment of native Canadians. Children, many of whom did not speak English, were forcibly taken from their homes and often harshly punished. Others were subjected to sexual abuse.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a formal apology in Parliament last year, calling the treatment of children at the schools a sad chapter in the country’s history. He said the policy of forced assimilation was wrong, had caused great harm and had no place in the country.
The United, Presbyterian and Anglican churches already have apologised for their roles in the abuse.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
April 30th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
Once again it shows that religion is nothing but about control of people always has been always will be , when Oh when ,is the human race going to rid it's self from this bloody nonsense called religion?
April 30th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Is there a place on our earth were Children haven't been abused by Catholic priests and other church members?
April 30th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
It must mean that priests, in private actually don't belive a fucking a word of it – otherwise why threaten lay sinners with hell, knowing fully that they themselves are dirty peado bastards and evil child abusers who would be first into the flames for eternal torment if it wasn't bullshit.
April 30th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Religion and money are evil and our world would be a whole lot better without them.
Google Jacque Fresco to find out why.
April 30th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
He didn't apologise. He expressed 'sorrow' and 'anguish', and offered his 'sympathy'.
But the bastard couldn't bring himself to apologise.
April 30th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
How many times does the Catholic church have to apologise for physical and sexual abuse before people realise that it is a problem that is inherent in the structure of the Catholic church. The Pope may be suffering from "personal anguish" over these events, but not enough to do anything about rooting out the sadists, deviants and child molesters within the ranks of the Catholic priesthood.
April 30th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
The earlier one expressed sorrow for the treatment of the jews,
This has sorrow for the treatment of the Canadian indians…..but he & they still encourage africans to die horribly, they did the same shit to american indians and to the hawiians. ANd to everyone else they think they can do it to. Don't hold your breath waiting for them to act better in the future.
April 30th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
I thought Ratty told the Australian abuse victims to " Get over it and move on "
April 30th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
Completely off subject but following on from 'Jesus is my friend' I thought you might enjoy this….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....;fe…
April 30th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
Personally, if someone abused me, a half hearted apology would not suffice. The Catholic church has apologized a lot over the past couple of decades – but, to my knowledge, has not done any house cleaning. Saying sorry is one thing, being sorry is another. Whether is be priests or those evil cows who ran the Magdalene homes they should all be thrown in prison.
April 30th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
Completely off the topic but following on from 'Jesus is my friend' I thought you might enjoy this….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....;fe…
April 30th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
I know what my take is on this one but lots of you seem to have got there before me. The Catholic Church is this very moment doing the things that future Popes will presumably be apologising for. The insincerity of his crocodile tears is demonstrated by the fact that he does nothing to clean up his Church's act. Interestingly the last bout of half apologising last year coincided with radio airtime of a song by Rhianna called Take a bow which contained the lines "Don't tell me you're sorry 'cause your not baby, when you know you're only sorry you got caught," I thought at the time that it was rather apt.
April 30th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
Pope Ratzinazi expressing sorrow for the behavior of priestly childfuckers is like Hitler expressing sorrow for the behavior of prison guards at Auschwitz. It was Ratzinazi in his role as his retarded predecessor's Grand Inquisitor who ordered the cover-up of decades of priestly childfucking, and threatened the victims with excommunication if they went public. Pope Goodspeaker XVI is the most repulsive, evil, despicable turd of tapeworm shit since AdolfHitler.
WRH, recovered Catholic, Canadian by choice.
April 30th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
I understand, having been raised in it, that the RCC is a vile and reprehensible organization. What I don't get is why the First Nation peoples continue to travel to the Vatican to kiss the ass of the pope, and continue to allow these monsters access to their children.
April 30th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
Bloody hell Doc, dont beat about the burning bush! If you've got something to say, come on out and say it
April 30th, 2009 at 8:30 pm
That's the great thing about the catholic religion: you can abuse men, women and children then go and confess to your imaginary friend to rid your concience – job done!
April 30th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
Let me play the devil's advocate again,
We know about the crusades, the Spanish inquisitions, the Salem witch trials. Unspeakable ruthless acts in the name of god. But, we, the inhabitants of the early colonies, knew that this land was owned and occupied by indiginous people. But, we had guns, they didn't. So we took the land from them, piece by piece, all the way to the pacific ocean. But, we made peace treaties with them, then broke every one of them.
It's not a new story, it goes all the way back through recorded history. The Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Galls, the Huns, the Persians…etc. The Spaniards anihilation of the Aztec was sanctioned by the roman catholic church because they practiced human sacrifice, but it was really about the gold.
Here's my point. You can irradicate religion, and humanity would be better off for sure, but until you irradicate human greed, all you have done is assasinate the devil's whoar. The answer to the human condition lies deeper.
Norman Lycan
May 1st, 2009 at 10:34 pm
I thought for one dreadful moment you were going to say "lies in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ" Norman – you really had me going there!!
The headline we`re all waiting for is: "Pope apologises for 'deplorable' Catholic Church" – but I don`t think we`ll be seeing THAT one somehow!!!
May 3rd, 2009 at 12:05 am
Barriejohn,
Maybe its an issue of how many beers or tokes you had before you read my post, but I never said anything about personal relationships, let alone with a false god.
As far as apologies that the roman catholic church needs to make in order to restore the illusion of a loving caring father, it will take that delapidated old farce twenty years to clear up what happenned in the old testimate.
I agree, not forthcoming.
Norman Lycan
January 21st, 2010 at 9:33 am
We will never know the full true scale of the crimes against humanity that occured. MAny terrible things happened and many murders that were never found out. ALot was covered up by the murderers. Everywhere these people have gone on the planet they have caused chaos and wiped out native populations & pushed people off their own land. I say they deserve payback. This could have spiritual implications for a long time as there are many things we still don’t under about conciousness. THe pain may well be felt in psychic links through dreams of the future relatives
August 13th, 2010 at 12:31 am
Ok. Before I start let me just say that I love some aspects of Canada despite being an American. You’re easy going personalities are great…But your media has you whipped far more than ours.
Sexual abuse is a common trait of humans. The percentages of abused people in the states is 1 in 3. The amount of catholics in the US is about 20% of the population. This would mean that assuming EVERY child was molested in church that still would only account for 1 in 5 people, using a common denominator of 1 in 15 we can find that means that 5/15 people are sexually abused, and the MAXIMUM assuming EVERY child who is sexually abused was abused by a Catholic priest (come on Canadians, grow up, you know that can’t be the case) is 3/15 people. What does that mean? The amount of sexual abuse in the Catholic church is A TON lower than that of “secular” beliefs. Of course, I was raised Catholic, my sister was molested by a non-catholic, my mother was abused by a non catholic, my aunt was abused by a non catholic, and so was my other Aunt. That’s 4 out of 12, which matches with the 1/3 statistics if you switch common denominator (divide by 4) and not one was catholic, so the amount of catholic molestations is likely small. To those of you saying it’s a Catholic trait, if you don’t get why these statistics don’t match with the comment that “Sexual abuse is encouraged by Catholics” your government has you whipped. Sexual abuse (a human trait) is NOT something that is being caused or encouraged by the Catholic Church. It’s being casued by some perverted morons and has NEVER been supported by the Catholic church. Ever.
You Canadians always have the right information right in front of you. Stop letting your goverment rule you so much. It is in the interest of a government who opposes religion (and Catholic succession to the throne, see I’m educated in your country) to make a bad image of religion. You talk about special interests all the time. I can’t even believe how many Canadians act like “Money” is “greed” and “corporations” are “bad” but not their system. No. Never that.