Pope Francis apologised on Friday for abuse committed at church-run residential schools in Canada, telling Indigenous delegations at the Vatican it caused him "pain and shame".
"I ask for God's forgiveness for the deplorable conduct of these members of the Catholic Church," he said, following meetings this week with survivors from the First Nations, Metis and Inuit aboriginal groups.
After hearing "stories of suffering, deprivation, discriminatory treatment and various forms of abuse," Francis said he joined the Canadian bishops "in asking you for forgiveness".
Indigenous leaders want the pope to make the apology on Canadian soil.
The pontiff said he hoped to travel to Canada for the country's St Anne's Feast Day on July 26.
"This year, I would like to be with you on that day," he said.
About 150,000 children were taken from their homes. Many were subjected to abuse, rape and malnutrition in what the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015 called "cultural genocide".
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.
Francis slammed Friday the "ideological colonisation" of which "so many children have been victims".
"Your identity and culture have been wounded, many families have been separated," he said.
The schools scandal erupted anew last year with the discovery of the remains of 215 children at the former Indian Residential School in Kamloops in the Western Canadian province of British Columbia.
The discovery at the school, which closed in 1978, reopened old wounds and brought fresh demands for accountability. Hundreds more unmarked burial sites have been found since.
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