SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia (AP) – Pope Francis has cast himself as the spiritual and political leader of the world’s oppressed with his remarkable mea culpa for the sins and crimes of the Catholic Church against the indigenous peoples during the colonial conquest of the Americas.
He’ll have a chance to embellish that reputation Friday when he visits Bolivia’s notorious Palmasola prison.
Francis “humbly” begged forgiveness Thursday at a gathering of indigenous leaders in Bolivia in the presence of Bolivia’s first-ever indigenous president, Evo Morales, the climactic high of Francis’ weeklong South American tour.
In the speech, Francis noted that Latin American church leaders in the past had acknowledged that “grave sins were committed against the native peoples of America in the name of God.” St. John Paul II, for his part, apologized to the continent’s indigenous for the “pain and suffering” caused during the 500 years of the church’s presence in the Americas during a 1992 visit to the Dominican Republic.
But Francis went further, and said he was doing so with “regret.”