Pope Francis used the word "race" in an air interview on his return from his trip to Canada. The Pope was to apologize for abuses committed against indigenous people in church schools in the North American country. The mainstream press was nowhere outraged by the pope's words, which also shows how tendentious the liberal press campaign that lasted for several days on Viktor Orbán's use of similar words is and how widespread the double standard is.

Pope Francis visited Canada between July 24-30, so to speak, on a penitential pilgrimage to apologize for the fact that some Catholic schools were once sites for the assimilation of indigenous people, especially the Inuit Indians. (Although the main means of this was the public school system.)

As usual, the Pope gave an interview on board the plane, in which he confirmed that he considers the treatment of Canadian aborigines, when they were torn from their parents to be reeducated in residential schools, to be genocide. When a journalist asked us why the Pope did not use the word genocide in his Canadian speeches, he replied:

"True, I didn't use that word because it didn't occur to me, but I described the genocide and apologized for this genocidal "work". For example, I also condemned this: taking children [from their parents],

to change the culture, to change the way of thinking, to change the traditions, to change a race, so to speak, a whole culture. Genocide is a technical word, I didn't use it because it didn't occur to me, but I described it... indeed, yes, there [was] a genocide."

In the Italian original it read: "È vero, non ho usato la parola perché non mi è venuta in mente, ma ho descrito il genocidio e ho chiesto scusa, perdono, per questo "lavoro" che è genocida. Per esempio ho condannato questo pure: togliere i bambini, cambiare la cultura, cambiare la mente, cambiare le tradizioni, cambiare una razza - diciamo così - tutta una cultura. Sì è una parola tecnica genocidio, io non l'ho usata perché non mi è venuta in mente, ma ho descrito... è vero, sì, sì è un genocidio.”

In press reports, the Pope's use of the word "race" is not always cited. On the other hand, the French-language article of La Presse quotes: "Enlever des enfants, changer la culture, leur état d'esprit, leurs traditions — changer une race, une culture entière... oui j'utilise le mot genocide."

Today, 5 percent of the Canadian population is aboriginal. Between 1833 and 1996, more than 150,000 indigenous children were separated from their families and placed in boarding schools run by Christian denominations. Many children starved to death, were beaten and many were victims of sexual abuse. All of this was called "cultural genocide" by the Reconciliation Commission established by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. According to EuroNews, up to six thousand children may have lost their lives in more than 130 such schools. The more than 1,300 graves discovered near these institutions in 2021 really shocked the country. The committee essentially called on the Pope to apologize. The Canadian College of Bishops has done this before.

Pope Francis has expressed his "regret, outrage and shame" at the actions of many members of the Roman Catholic Church, who operate and operate the majority of boarding schools in Canada.

The 85-year-old head of the church called the school system a "catastrophic mistake" and apologized for "the evil that so many Christians have committed" against indigenous people.

During his two trips to Canada II. Pope János Pál met the indigenous people in 1984 and 1987. XVI. And in 2009, Pope Benedict received the Grand Chief of the Assembly of First Nations of Canada, Phil Fontaine, and even then he expressed his sorrow for the way some Catholic institutions had previously treated the indigenous people.

Source: Mandiner.hu

Featured image: MTI/EPA/ANSA/Ciro Fusco