Canadian Indigenous leaders push for residential schools apology in Pope Francis meeting

At the Vatican, representatives for the Métis and Inuit, some of the largest Indigenous groups in Canada, urged Pope Francis to travel to their country to apologize for the Catholic Church’s role in the residential schools system.During both hour-long meetings, the Pope intended to “listen and do space for the painful stories brought by the survivors,” the Vatican said in a statement.The meetings come after Martha Greig, a residential school survivor who was part of the Inuit delegation, said she told the Pope she wishes he would travel to Canada to issue a “genuine heartfelt apology” because there are many families who need to heal and “to move on.””As a former residential school student, that would mean a lot to me, but more so for my fellow former students. A lot of them have now passed away, but it’s also their children that are affected as well,” Greig told reporters.The groups thanked the Pope for his time, Obed said, adding “there was also a true sense of openness and kindness that was shown to us as a delegation.”The Vatican has said several other meetings with the Canadian delegations will take place this week. Earlier this month, the Kapawe’no First Nation announced the discovery of 169 potential unmarked graves at the former St. Bernard Mission School at the Grouard Mission site. The potential graves were identified using ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and drone imagery, officials said. The Catholic Church opened St. Bernard Mission School in 1894 and it closed in 1961, according to Canada’s National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.CNN’s Hada Messia contributed to this report.