(Washington) The American Catholic bishops recognized Friday their role in “the trauma” inflicted on Native Americans and apologized, particularly regarding children removed from their families to be forcibly assimilated in boarding schools.

“The Church recognizes that it played a role in the trauma suffered by Native American children,” the Catholic bishops’ conference wrote in a document.

A Washington Post investigation in late May showed that at least 122 priests, assigned to 22 Catholic boarding schools since the 1890s, were later accused of sexually abusing Native American children.  

Most of the documented abuses took place in the 1950s and 1960s, involving more than 1,000 children.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which approved the document by vote, establishes the rules and policies of the Church in the United States.

“We apologize for our failure to uplift, strengthen, honor, recognize and appreciate those entrusted to our pastoral care,” they added, while affirming their desire to “break the culture of silence.”

For decades, the United States removed Native American children from their biological parents en masse and placed them in boarding schools or non-Native American families.

The US Congress put an end to these policies of forced assimilation with the “Indian Child Welfare Act” in 1978.

In American boarding schools, Native American children “were forced to abandon their languages, clothing, and customs,” the bishops wrote.  

“Healing and reconciliation can only take place when the Catholic Church recognizes the harm done to its Native American children,” they also assured, calling on all members of the Church to “cooperate” on any investigation concerning its role in these cases.  

A 2022 report from the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs totaled 408 boarding schools located in 37 U.S. states and territories.  

According to the document, 84 boarding schools were run by Catholic religious communities or entities.

In Canada, this dark chapter in North American history has been revived since the spring of 2021, with the discovery of more than a thousand anonymous graves on the sites of former Catholic residential schools for indigenous people.

During a visit to Canada in the summer of 2022, Pope Francis asked “forgiveness for the evil committed” against the country’s indigenous people.