U.S. Catholic bishops apologize for church's role at Indigenous boarding schools
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Clarita Vargas, 64, one of the survivors of St. Mary's Mission, an Indian boarding school, stands in the St. Mary's church on the Colville Reservation in Omak, Washington, in February 2024.
U.S. Catholic bishops apologized Friday for the Catholic Church's part in fostering "a history of trauma" on Indigenous children at church-run boarding schools where priests sexually abused students.
Why it matters: It's an official acknowledgment of the church's past abuse against Indigenous children as the extent of widespread abuses inflicted on Native children over many decades has come into sharper focus.
Zoom in: The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops approved by an 181-2 vote the document "Keeping Christ's Sacred Promise: A Pastoral Framework for Indigenous Ministry" in Louisville, Kentucky, as part of the apology.
- "The system itself left a legacy of community and individual trauma that broke down family and support systems among Indigenous communities," the document said, referring to boarding schools.
- The document didn't mention sexual abuse but said the church must "increase awareness and break the culture of silence that surrounds all types of afflictions and past mistreatment and neglect."
- The document also gave new guidelines for ministering to Indigenous Catholics.
Catch up quick: Indigenous children at the U.S.'s 408 federal Indian boarding schools suffered whippings, sexual abuse, forced labor and severe malnourishment between 1819 and 1969, a 2022 Interior Department report found.
- The boarding schools were part of the American government's campaign to compel Native American assimilation into white culture.
- An Interior Department investigation identified marked or unmarked burial sites at roughly 53 different schools.
- The Catholic Church was one of many groups that took part in the boarding school system.
Zoom out: A Washington Post investigation published in May documented pervasive sexual abuse by priests at boarding schools in remote regions of the Midwest and Pacific Northwest, including Alaska.
- Since the 1890s, at least 122 priests, sisters and brothers assigned to about two dozen of the schools were accused of sexually abusing Native American children, The Post investigation found.
- The majority of documented cases, involving more than 1,000 children, happened in the 1950s and 1960s, per The Post.
Between the lines: The apology about boarding schools is the latest acknowledgment by the Catholic Church for its troubled history with Native Americans in the U.S.
- New Mexico, a state with more than 20 tribes, was at the center of sexual abuse scandals years before the Boston Globe's 2002 "Spotlight" investigation into the church's cover-up of clergy abuse.
- The Servants of Paraclete facility, formerly known as Via Coeli in northern New Mexico, served for years as a place to treat priests from around the country who were accused of sexual abuse.
- Those priests were later assigned to parishes across New Mexico and Arizona where they continued to abuse Native American and Latino children, according to various lawsuits.
Don't forget: Native Americans are roughly 4% of U.S. Catholics. More than 350 parishes serve predominantly Indigenous people, according to USCCB statistics.
- Historical Indigenous Catholic churches can be found in places like Taos Pueblo.
