Members of the community of the Kahnawake Mohawk Territory, Quebec march through the town on May 30, 2021, to commemorate the news that a mass grave of 215 Indigenous children were found at the Kamloops Residential School in British Columbia, Canada. Photo: AFP

Pope Francis met with both Vatican-based Canadian cardinals on Saturday as their country reels from the discovery of the remains of 215 children at a former school for indigenous students run by the Catholic Church.

The pope met separately with Cardinal Michael Czerny and Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the Vatican said in its daily announcement of papal appointments.

Ouellet meets with the pope every Saturday in his capacity as head of the Vatican department that oversees bishops.

Czerny, the Vatican's expert on migrants and refugees, does not have a regular weekly meeting with the pope. He is a Czech-born Canadian national whose family emigrated to Montreal when he was two years old.

While the Vatican did not say what was discussed in the private audiences, diplomats said it would be highly unusual if the recent events in Canada did not come up.

Many Canadians have called on the pope to make a formal apology for the Catholic Church's role in the residential schools, which operated between 1831 and 1996 and were run by a number of Christian denominations on behalf of the government.

Francis, who was elected pope in 2013, has already apologized for the Church's role in colonialism in the Americas but he has mostly chosen to make such apologies while visiting countries. No papal visit to Canada is scheduled.

Visiting Bolivia in 2015, Francis apologized for the "many grave sins were committed against the native people of America in the name of God."

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement on Friday the Catholic Church must take responsibility for its role in running many of the schools.

The residential school system forcibly separated about 150,000 children from their homes. Many were subjected to abuse, rape and malnutrition in what the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015 called "cultural genocide."

Reuters