Pope Francis Visits Canada to Apologize for Abuse Indigenous Children Suffered in Catholic Schools

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Pope Francis has apologized for the Catholic Church's "catastrophic" residential school system for Indigenous children in Canada.

Speaking Monday at a former residential school south of Edmonton, Alberta, the 85-year-old pontiff asked the Indigenous community for "forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous peoples," according to the Associated Press.

Over 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend Christian-based, state-run schools, starting in the 1870s and ending in 1997, CBC reported. More than 4,100 of the students are believed to have died at the facilities, which separated the kids from their family and culture.

"I am deeply sorry — sorry for the ways in which, regrettably, many Christians supported the colonizing mentality of the powers that oppressed the Indigenous peoples," Francis said in Spanish, per The Washington Post.

Francis, who arrived in Canada on Sunday, also promised a "serious investigation" into the schools, CNN reported.

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"I ask forgiveness, in particular, for the ways in which many members of the Church and of religious communities cooperated, not least through their indifference, in projects of cultural destruction and forced assimilation promoted by the governments of that time, which culminated in the system of residential schools," the pope said.

He later added, "What our Christian faith tells us is that this was a disastrous error, incompatible with the Gospel of Jesus Christ," according to the Post.

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Monday's speech was the first event of Francis' "penitential pilgrimage" to Canada, which will last six days, the AP reported.

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Prior to his speech, Francis visited a cemetery believed to contain the remains of residential school students, per the Post. Additionally, he stopped by the former site of the Ermineskin residential school that was managed by Roman Catholic missionaries from its opening in 1895 to 1968, the year before it closed.

While at Ermineskin, four chiefs presented the pope with feathered headdress, which he was pictured wearing on Monday.

The pontiff will also visit the sites of former residential schools in Alberta, Quebec City and Iqaluit, Nunavut, during his trip to Canada, the outlet reported.

He is expected to make additional remarks later this week, per the Post.

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Pope Francis received a round of applause after using the phrase "sorry" twice during Monday's speech, according to the report.

Felisha Crier Hosein attended the event in place of her mother, who helped develop the Samson Cree Nation and died in May, per the AP. "I came here to represent her and to be here for the elders and the community," she said.

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"Sorry is not going to make what happened go away," Hosein explained. "But it means a lot to the elders."

In April, Pope Francis apologized for the suffering inflicted on Canada's Indigenous Peoples while speaking to a group of Indigenous leaders from Canada's First Nations at the Vatican.

"For the deplorable conduct of those members of the Catholic Church, I ask for God's forgiveness and I want to say to you with all my heart: I am very sorry," he said, according to Vatican News, an outlet officially affiliated with the Catholic Church.