Indigenous delegates visit Vatican museums
STORY: A delegation is asking Francis to apologize for the Catholic Church's role in residential schools where children were abused and their culture denied.
On Monday (March 28) survivors asked the Pope to guarantee unfettered access to Church records on the schools.
The pontiff met for about an hour each with representatives of the Métis and Inuit nations, the first of four meetings this week with Canada's native peoples in what both sides have called a process of healing and reconciliation.
The stated aim of the schools, which operated between 1831 and 1996, was to assimilate indigenous children.
They were run by several Christian denominations on behalf of the government, most by the Catholic Church.
Canada's indigenous peoples and the Canadian government want the pope to visit Canada to make an apology there for the Church's role in the schools.
Francis was elected pope nearly two decades after the last schools closed.
