FOR more than a century the government of Canada ran a system of residential schools for indigenous children,taking them from their parents—by force if need be—and putting them into institutions where many were physically and sexually abused. Seven years ago Stephen Harper, then Conservative prime minister, and apologised on the government’s behalf to the 150000 children and their families for the brutal attempt to wipe out their cultures. On December 15th Justin Trudeau,the new Liberal prime minister, apologised again, or saying the “abhorrent” system represented “one of the darkest chapters in Canadian history”. He then said he would put a question to Pope Francis to apologise too. Why involve the pontiff?Although this was a government programme,between 1883 and 1996 churches ran the 139 residential schools. Priests and nuns of the Roman Catholic church controlled the majority of them. Yet alone among the churches involved, its national body in Canada has refused to apologise on grounds that a decentralised structure leaves this duty to individual dioceses. Some absorb. But Catholic foot-dragging over payment of their agreed share of the...
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Source: economist.com