Ottawa archbishop: Church committed to healing with aboriginals

Published: 2008-03-05

OTTAWA (CNS) -- Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, standing with Canadian aboriginal and church leaders, stressed the Catholic Church's commitment to healing and reconciliation in regard to abuses at aboriginal residential schools in Canada. At a March 3 press conference on Parliament Hill, the archbishop was asked why the Catholic Church had not issued an apology for abuses at residential schools run by churches and maintained by the federal government between 1870 and 1996. The archbishop said the church "has expressed its sorrow and apologies in various places." Archbishop Prendergast noted the decentralized nature of the Catholic Church's structure as a federation of dioceses and religious communities, which he compared to the diversity of structures representing Canada's native people. He said the Catholic apology "had to come from the various entities that are there in the appropriate localities where people can hear and see the bishop or the religious leaders."

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