Canadian Indigenous leaders to meet pope over school abuse

By ROB GILLIES
Associated Press

TORONTO (AP) — In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI met with a First Nations delegation from Canada and privately expressed regret over abuse suffered by Indigenous children at church-run boarding schools. That’s no longer seen as sufficient after the discovery last year of about 200 unmarked graves of children at what was Canada’s largest Indigenous residential school. Indigenous leaders are now expecting Pope Francis to make a public apology. Francis is meeting with Indigenous Canadians next week at the Vatican ahead of a papal visit to the country possibly later this year. The former national chief of Canada’s Assembly of First Nations says last year’s discovery has put intense pressure on the church.