Newsmax host condemns Pope Francis' “white apology tour”

The pope apologized for the role of the Catholic Church in a “cultural genocide” in Canada

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

From the July 25, 2022, edition of Newsmax's Rob Schmitt Tonight

ROB SCHMITT (HOST): In other news, as we move on from the economy, the woke pope has arrived in North America, in Alberta, Canada, apologizing for crimes committed by Christian white people against indigenous people hundreds of years ago.

...

SCHMITT: Alright, so Canadian natives then actually put a headdress on the pope after he made this, kind of, pointless statement. We'll let you know if the pope has any comments to make on any of the other countless genocides and atrocities that the world has seen over the last thousand years. Don't hold your breath. The woke pope's white apology tour heads the United States next, when he's likely going to tell us more about the evils of capitalism. Look forward to that.

The Associated Press reported on the pope's trip:

Pope Francis issued a historic apology Monday for the Catholic Church’s cooperation with Canada’s “catastrophic” policy of Indigenous residential schools, saying the forced assimilation of Native peoples into Christian society destroyed their cultures, severed families and marginalized generations.

“I am deeply sorry,” Francis said to applause from school survivors and Indigenous community members gathered at a former residential school south of Edmonton, Alberta. He called the school policy a “disastrous error” that was incompatible with the Gospel and said further investigation and healing is needed.

“I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous peoples,” Francis said.

In the first event of his weeklong “penitential pilgrimage,” Francis traveled to the lands of four Cree nations to pray at a cemetery and then deliver the long-sought apology at nearby powwow ceremonial grounds. Four chiefs escorted the pontiff in a wheelchair to the site near the former Ermineskin Indian Residential School, and presented him with a feathered headdress after he spoke, making him an honorary leader of the community.

Francis’ words went beyond his earlier apology for the “deplorable” abuses committed by missionaries and instead took institutional responsibility for the church’s cooperation with Canada’s “catastrophic” assimilation policy, which the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission said amounted to a “cultural genocide.”