Hearing pain of Canada school survivors felt like slaps, pope says
Pope Francis holds a news conference aboard the papal plane on his flight back after visiting Canada
Wed, August 3, 2022
By Philip Pullella
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) -Pope Francis said on Wednesday he felt the pain of survivors of Canada's residential school system "like slaps" and that the Catholic Church has to face up to its responsibility for institutions that abused children and tried to erase indigenous cultures.
The pope dedicated his talk at his weekly general audience to his trip last week to Canada, where he delivered a historic apology for the Church's role in the government-sanctioned schools, which operated between 1870 and 1996.
More than 150,000 indigenous children were separated from their families and brought to residential schools. Catholic religious orders ran most of them under successive Canadian governments' policy of assimilation.
The children were beaten for speaking their native languages and many were sexually abused in a system Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission called "cultural genocide."
The pope met indigenous survivors throughout the trip and on the last day, mostly elderly school survivors in Iqaluit, capital of the isolated Arctic territory of Nunavut, told him their stories in a private meeting.
"I assure you that in these meetings, especially the last one, I had to feel the pain of these people, like slaps, how they lost (so much), how the elderly lost their children and did not know where they ended up, because of this policy of assimilation," Francis said in unscripted comments.
"It was a very painful moment but we had to face up, we have to face up before our errors and our sins," he said.
During the trip, the pope's apologies evoked strong emotions and praise as a first step in reconciliation, but some survivors said they fell short of expectations and that he had not apologised clearly enough for the Church as an institution.
In an apparent attempt to answer the critics, he said on Wednesday that priests, nuns and lay Catholics had "participated in programmes that today we understand are unacceptable and contrary to the Gospel. That is why I went to ask forgiveness in the name of the Church".
Some were also heartened when the pope, speaking to reporters on the plane taking him back to Rome on Saturday, branded what happened at the schools as "genocide."
Francis, who is suffering from a knee ailment, walked the some 20 metres (yards) to his seat on the stage of the Vatican's audience hall using a cane and at the end remained standing to greet some participants. He later used a wheelchair when aides moved him among the crowd.
He mostly used a wheelchair during the Canada trip, including during his in-flight news conference on the return flight.
(Reporting by Philip Pullella, Editing by William Maclean and Frank Jack Daniel)
Pope Francis holds a news conference aboard the papal plane on his flight back after visiting Canada
Wed, August 3, 2022
By Philip Pullella
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) -Pope Francis said on Wednesday he felt the pain of survivors of Canada's residential school system "like slaps" and that the Catholic Church has to face up to its responsibility for institutions that abused children and tried to erase indigenous cultures.
The pope dedicated his talk at his weekly general audience to his trip last week to Canada, where he delivered a historic apology for the Church's role in the government-sanctioned schools, which operated between 1870 and 1996.
More than 150,000 indigenous children were separated from their families and brought to residential schools. Catholic religious orders ran most of them under successive Canadian governments' policy of assimilation.
The children were beaten for speaking their native languages and many were sexually abused in a system Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission called "cultural genocide."
The pope met indigenous survivors throughout the trip and on the last day, mostly elderly school survivors in Iqaluit, capital of the isolated Arctic territory of Nunavut, told him their stories in a private meeting.
"I assure you that in these meetings, especially the last one, I had to feel the pain of these people, like slaps, how they lost (so much), how the elderly lost their children and did not know where they ended up, because of this policy of assimilation," Francis said in unscripted comments.
"It was a very painful moment but we had to face up, we have to face up before our errors and our sins," he said.
During the trip, the pope's apologies evoked strong emotions and praise as a first step in reconciliation, but some survivors said they fell short of expectations and that he had not apologised clearly enough for the Church as an institution.
In an apparent attempt to answer the critics, he said on Wednesday that priests, nuns and lay Catholics had "participated in programmes that today we understand are unacceptable and contrary to the Gospel. That is why I went to ask forgiveness in the name of the Church".
Some were also heartened when the pope, speaking to reporters on the plane taking him back to Rome on Saturday, branded what happened at the schools as "genocide."
Francis, who is suffering from a knee ailment, walked the some 20 metres (yards) to his seat on the stage of the Vatican's audience hall using a cane and at the end remained standing to greet some participants. He later used a wheelchair when aides moved him among the crowd.
He mostly used a wheelchair during the Canada trip, including during his in-flight news conference on the return flight.
(Reporting by Philip Pullella, Editing by William Maclean and Frank Jack Daniel)
Vatican Pope Nurse Massimiliano Strappetti, right, follows Pope Francis as he meets young people and elders at Nakasuk Elementary School Square in Iqaluit, Canada, Friday, July 29, 2022. Francis has promoted the Vatican nurse whom he credited with saving his life to be his "personal health care assistant." The Vatican announced the appointment of Massimiliano Strappetti, currently the nursing coordinator of the Vatican's health department, in a one-line statement Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022.
(AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Thu, August 4, 2022
ROME (AP) — Pope Francis has promoted a Vatican nurse whom he credited with saving his life to be his “personal health care assistant.”
The Vatican announced the appointment of Massimiliano Strappetti in a one-line statement issued Thursday. Strappetti, the nursing coordinator of the Vatican’s health department, accompanied Francis on a difficult trip to Canada last month.
Francis, 85, last year credited Strappetti with having accurately ascertained an intestinal problem that led to the pope's 10-day hospital stay in July 2021 to remove 33 centimeters (13 inches) of his colon that had narrowed.
“A nurse, a man with a lot of experience, saved my life,” Francis told the COPE radio of the Spanish bishops' conference in the months after his surgery.
Francis noted that Strappetti's intervention was the second time a nurse had saved his life. A nurse in his native Argentina decided in 1957 to double the amount of drugs the future pope, then known as Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was prescribed after part of his lung was removed due to a respiratory infection, he recalled.
Francis has a personal physician, Dr. Roberto Bernabei, who was appointed last year. Bernabei is an internist and geriatric specialist at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome.
The pontiff has had a series of health problems in the past year, most significantly strained ligaments in his right knee that sharply reduced his mobility. After months of magnetic and laser treatments, Francis can walk short distances with a cane or walker, though he also uses a wheelchair.
Strappetti was on hand to help with the wheelchair during Francis' general audience Wednesday. He coordinates the nurses of the Vatican's small health care system, which provides basic care for Vatican employees and their families.
Strappetti’s appointment was announced days after he and a doctor accompanied Francis on his weeklong “penitential pilgrimage” to Canada to atone for the Catholic Church’s role in the country’s residential schools for Indigenous children. Francis always travels with a doctor and nurse who are on call in case he has health problems. Strappetti, for example, was on hand when Francis issued his main apology and received a feathered headdress from Indigenous leaders.
On the flight home from the trip, Francis said he would have to slow down his future travels and maybe resign one day.
“This trip was a bit of a test. It’s true you can’t do trips in this state, maybe we have to change a bit the style, reduce, pay the debts of the trips that I still have to do and reorganize,” he said. But he added that “the door is open” to also resign if he can’t carry on.
Thu, August 4, 2022
ROME (AP) — Pope Francis has promoted a Vatican nurse whom he credited with saving his life to be his “personal health care assistant.”
The Vatican announced the appointment of Massimiliano Strappetti in a one-line statement issued Thursday. Strappetti, the nursing coordinator of the Vatican’s health department, accompanied Francis on a difficult trip to Canada last month.
Francis, 85, last year credited Strappetti with having accurately ascertained an intestinal problem that led to the pope's 10-day hospital stay in July 2021 to remove 33 centimeters (13 inches) of his colon that had narrowed.
“A nurse, a man with a lot of experience, saved my life,” Francis told the COPE radio of the Spanish bishops' conference in the months after his surgery.
Francis noted that Strappetti's intervention was the second time a nurse had saved his life. A nurse in his native Argentina decided in 1957 to double the amount of drugs the future pope, then known as Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was prescribed after part of his lung was removed due to a respiratory infection, he recalled.
Francis has a personal physician, Dr. Roberto Bernabei, who was appointed last year. Bernabei is an internist and geriatric specialist at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome.
The pontiff has had a series of health problems in the past year, most significantly strained ligaments in his right knee that sharply reduced his mobility. After months of magnetic and laser treatments, Francis can walk short distances with a cane or walker, though he also uses a wheelchair.
Strappetti was on hand to help with the wheelchair during Francis' general audience Wednesday. He coordinates the nurses of the Vatican's small health care system, which provides basic care for Vatican employees and their families.
Strappetti’s appointment was announced days after he and a doctor accompanied Francis on his weeklong “penitential pilgrimage” to Canada to atone for the Catholic Church’s role in the country’s residential schools for Indigenous children. Francis always travels with a doctor and nurse who are on call in case he has health problems. Strappetti, for example, was on hand when Francis issued his main apology and received a feathered headdress from Indigenous leaders.
On the flight home from the trip, Francis said he would have to slow down his future travels and maybe resign one day.
“This trip was a bit of a test. It’s true you can’t do trips in this state, maybe we have to change a bit the style, reduce, pay the debts of the trips that I still have to do and reorganize,” he said. But he added that “the door is open” to also resign if he can’t carry on.
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