BLAJ, Romania: Pope Francis apologised to the Roma people on Sunday for the Roman Catholic Church’s “discrimination” against them as he wrapped up a visit to Romania.

Making up around 10 percent of Romania´s 20 million people, many Roma are marginalised and live in poverty and have suffered centuries of discrimination and insults. “I ask forgiveness - in the name of the Church and of the Lord - and I ask forgiveness of you. For all those times in history when we have discriminated, mistreated or looked askance at you,” the pope said in a speech to the Roma community in the central town of Blaj. “My heart, however, is heavy. It is weighed down by the many experiences of discrimination, segregation and mistreatment experienced by your communities. History tells us that Christians too, including Catholics, are not strangers to such evil,” he said.

“Indifference breeds prejudices and fosters anger and resentment. How many times do we judge rashly, with words that sting, with attitudes that sow hatred and division!”

Earlier, the pontiff beatified seven Greco-Catholic bishops jailed and tortured during the Communist era. “The new blessed ones suffered and sacrificed their lives, opposing a system of totalitarian and coercive ideology,” he told some 60,000 worshippers attending mass on a “Field of Liberty” in Blaj. “These shepherds, martyrs of faith, garnered for and left the Romanian people a precious heritage which we can sum up in two words: freedom and mercy,” added Francis, while praising the “diversity of religious expression” in mainly Orthodox Romania. Regime officials detained the beatified bishops overnight on October 28, 1948, accusing them of “high treason” after they refused to convert to Orthodoxy. The Greek-Catholic Church was outlawed under 1948-89 Communist rule. The bishops died of maltreatment, some still in jail, others in confinement in an Orthodox monastery. They were then buried in secret — to this day the whereabouts of four of their graves is unknown. The bars of the cells where they were held were symbolically incorporated into the throne built specially for the papal visit. The bishops followed the Eastern Rite Catholic Church which emerged from an Orthodox schism at the end of the 17th century when the central region of Transylvania was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. While retaining Orthodox practices they recognised Roman Catholic papal authority — unacceptable for the Communist regime which took power following World War II. </s> Image copyright Reuters Image caption The pope asked for forgiveness from the Roma people

Pope Francis has apologised to the Roma people on behalf of the Catholic Church during his visit to Romania.

At a meeting with Roma people on the last day of his visit to the country, the pontiff asked forgiveness for "all those times in history when we have discriminated, mistreated or looked askance at you".

Roma people have faced persecution in Europe for centuries.

Hundreds of thousands are thought to have been killed during the Holocaust.

Nowadays Roma live mainly in southern and central Europe, and make up an estimated 8% of Romania's total population. They complain they struggle to get work because of discrimination, and many live in poverty.

Image copyright EPA Image caption The pope made the comments when he met with Roma people in central Romania

"I ask forgiveness - in the name of the Church and of the Lord - and I ask forgiveness of you," Pope Francis said in the central town of Blaj.

"Indifference breeds prejudices and fosters anger and resentment," the pontiff said. "How many times do we judge rashly, with words that sting, with attitudes that sow hatred and division!"

"This is a historic moment for me and my people," Damian Draghici, a Roma MEP for Romania, told the BBC. "I hope this message will change people's attitude and stereotypes against our people."

Who are the Roma?

The meeting with the Roma came after a ceremony in Blaj at which Pope Francis beatified seven bishops who were jailed and tortured during Communist rule in Romania.

Authorities detained the men in 1948 for treason after they refused to convert to Orthodox Christianity.

All seven died in confinement and were buried in secret.

"With great courage and interior fortitude, they accepted harsh imprisonment and every kind of mistreatment, in order not to deny their fidelity to their beloved Church," Pope Francis told tens of thousands of worshippers at the open-air Mass on Sunday.

Beatification - a papal "blessing" on a dead person" - is a crucial step on the way to sainthood.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Thousands see Pope Francis arrive in Romania

The seven bishops were part of the Eastern Catholic church - a religious group that practises Orthodox Christian rituals but recognise the Pope's authority.

When a Communist regime took power in Romania following the end of World War II, the authorities outlawed Eastern Catholicism and demanded worshippers convert to Orthodoxy.

According to 2011 census data, only about 150,000 Eastern Catholics remain in Romania - roughly one 10th of the number that followed the church in 1948.

Historians believe thousands of Romanians were executed by Communist authorities, with many more imprisoned or tortured for opposing the regime.

The totalitarian government collapsed in December 1989. President Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife were executed on Christmas Day.

Image copyright EPA Image caption An icon showing the seven bishops appeared during the mass

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Tens of thousands of people attended the open air ceremony in Blaj </s> The pope asked for forgiveness from the Roma people

Pope Francis has apologised to the Roma people on behalf of the Catholic Church during his visit to Romania.

At a meeting with Roma people on the last day of his visit to the country, the pontiff asked forgiveness for "all those times in history when we have discriminated, mistreated or looked askance at you".

Roma people have faced persecution in Europe for centuries.

Hundreds of thousands are thought to have been killed during the Holocaust.

Nowadays Roma live mainly in southern and central Europe, and make up about 10% of Romania's total population. They complain they struggle to get work because of discrimination, and many live in poverty.

The pope made the comments when he met with Roma people in central Romania

"I ask forgiveness - in the name of the Church and of the Lord - and I ask forgiveness of you," Pope Francis said in the central town of Blaj.

"Indifference breeds prejudices and fosters anger and resentment," the pontiff said. "How many times do we judge rashly, with words that sting, with attitudes that sow hatred and division!"

Who are the Roma?
• An ethnic group thought to have come to Europe from northern India about 1,500 years ago
• Most live in southern and central Europe, although some have also emigrated to the US and Brazil - the EU lists them as the largest ethnic minority in Europe
• Roma were enslaved in Romania into the 19th century
• Nazi Germany targeted Roma people during the Holocaust, and historians estimate hundreds of thousands were murdered
• Roma complain of housing and employment discrimination throughout Europe

The meeting with the Roma came after a ceremony in Blaj at which Pope Francis beatified seven bishops who were jailed and tortured during Communist rule in Romania.

Authorities detained the men in 1948 for treason after they refused to convert to Orthodox Christianity.

All seven died in confinement and were buried in secret.

"With great courage and interior fortitude, they accepted harsh imprisonment and every kind of mistreatment, in order not to deny their fidelity to their beloved Church," Pope Francis told tens of thousands of worshippers at the open-air Mass on Sunday.

Beatification - a papal "blessing" on a dead person" - is a crucial step on the way to sainthood.

An icon showing the seven bishops appeared during the mass

Tens of thousands of people attended the open air ceremony in Blaj

The seven bishops were part of the Eastern Catholic church - a religious group that practises Orthodox Christian rituals but recognise the Pope's authority.

When a Communist regime took power in Romania following the end of World War II, the authorities outlawed Eastern Catholicism and demanded worshippers convert to Orthodoxy.

According to 2011 census data, only about 150,000 Eastern Catholics remain in Romania - roughly one 10th of the number that followed the church in 1948.

Historians believe thousands of Romanians were executed by Communist authorities, with many more imprisoned or tortured for opposing the regime.

The totalitarian government collapsed in December 1989. President Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife were executed on Christmas Day.

Media captionNicolae and Elena Ceausescu home was opened to the public in 2016, 27 years after they were executed </s> Pope Francis apologised to the Roma people on Sunday for the Roman Catholic Church’s "discrimination" against them as he wrapped up a visit to Romania.

Making up around 10 percent of Romania’s 20 million people, many Roma are marginalised and live in poverty and have suffered centuries of discrimination and insults. "I ask forgiveness - in the name of the Church and of the Lord - and I ask forgiveness of you. For all those times in history when we have discriminated, mistreated or looked askance at you," the pope said in a speech to the Roma community in the central town of Blaj.

"My heart, however, is heavy. It is weighed down by the many experiences of discrimination, segregation and mistreatment experienced by your communities. History tells us that Christians too, including Catholics, are not strangers to such evil," he said.

"Indifference breeds prejudices and fosters anger and resentment. How many times do we judge rashly, with words that sting, with attitudes that sow hatred and division!" Earlier, the pontiff beatified seven Greco-Catholic bishops jailed and tortured during the Communist era.

"The new blessed ones suffered and sacrificed their lives, opposing a system of totalitarian and coercive ideology," he told some 60,000 worshippers attending mass on a "Field of Liberty" in Blaj.

"These shepherds, martyrs of faith, garnered for and left the Romanian people a precious heritage which we can sum up in two words: freedom and mercy," added Francis, while praising the "diversity of religious expression" in mainly Orthodox Romania.

Regime officials detained the beatified bishops overnight on October 28, 1948, accusing them of "high treason" after they refused to convert to Orthodoxy. The Greek-Catholic Church was outlawed under 1948-89 Communist rule.

The bishops died of maltreatment, some still in jail, others in confinement in an Orthodox monastery. They were then buried in secret -- to this day the whereabouts of four of their graves is unknown.

The bars of the cells where they were held were symbolically incorporated into the throne built specially for the papal visit. The bishops followed the Eastern Rite Catholic Church which emerged from an Orthodox schism at the end of the 17th century when the central region of Transylvania was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

While retaining Orthodox practices they recognised Roman Catholic papal authority -- unacceptable for the Communist regime which took power following World War II. Under a 1948 decree formally abolishing the Eastern Catholic churches, Greco-Catholics were forcibly obliged to return to the Orthodox fold.

Under such stark political repression, most Romanian Catholics -- who numbered more than 1.5 million in 1948, abandoned their faith and their community has shrunk to around 200,000 today in a country of 20 million, almost nine in 10 of whom profess Orthodoxy.

The politics which has seeped through Romania’s modern religious history has poisoned inter-faith relations -- even if the papal visit has softened feelings to a degree. "No matter where we go, to the town hall, to the police or to school, doors get closed," a 72-year-old Roma, who gave his name as Ion, told AFP.

Roma, originating from northern India, suffered around five centuries of slavery before the practice was formally abolished in 1856. But they remain a mainly poor and marginalised community -- even if recent years have seen roads paved and homes getting running water and electricity.

Francis’s arrival in Blaj to wind up his visit was part of his attempt at inclusiveness on his three-day visit to one of what remains Europe’s poorest states. Although Romania has developed apace since obtaining EU membership in 2007 there remain some "urban or rural ghettos where nothing has changed," according to sociologist Gelu Duminica, who heads the anti-discrimination Impreuna (Together) association.

Duminica and others in Blaj saw it as no coincidence that Francis, often seen as a defender of the rights of the most marginalised, chose the Barbu Lautaru district of Blaj, whose inhabitants are mainly Roma, to launch his appeal for tolerance and social inclusion.

"The pope’s visit is a message for those who are marginalised, disregarded or not accepted by others," said Mihai Gherghel, an eastern Catholic priest, who supervised the construction of the Blaj church where Francis celebrated Sunday mass. </s> BLAJ, Romania (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Sunday asked forgiveness in the name of the Catholic Church for the mistreatment of the Roma people, a move likely to increase tensions with Italy’s anti-immigrant Interior Minister Matteo Salvini.

Francis made the comment during a meeting with Roma people at the last event of his three day trip to Romania, saying his heart was made “heavy” by the meeting.

“It is weighed down by the many experiences of discrimination, segregation and mistreatment experienced by your communities. History tells us that Christians too, including Catholics, are not strangers to such evil,” he said.

With an estimated population of 10-12 million, approximately six million of whom live in the European Union, Roma people are the biggest ethnic minority in Europe and rights groups say they are often the victims of prejudice and social exclusion.

Salvini, who has clashed with the pope repeatedly on migration issues, reacted angrily last month when Francis received a group of Roma at the Vatican last month.

Salvini, head of the far-right Lega party and a deputy prime minister, responded by repeating his promise to close all Roma camps in Italy.

“I would like to ask your forgiveness for this,” the pope told the Roma. “I ask forgiveness – in the name of the Church and of the Lord – and I ask forgiveness of you. For all those times in history when we have discriminated, mistreated or looked askance at you ...”.

A Roma youth, Razaila Vasile Dorin, told reporters: “It’s an honor that a person like the pope comes to our community. We are proud.”

“It’s important that the pope is asking forgiveness. There is racism in every country. When we go out everyone looks at us and we don’t like that. I am proud to be a gypsy.”

Earlier on Sunday, the pope said a Mass for some 100,000 people during which he beatified seven Communist-era bishops of the Eastern Rite Catholic Church who died in prison or as a result of their harsh treatment during Romania’s communist era.

“(The bishops) endured suffering and gave their lives to oppose an illiberal ideological system that oppressed the fundamental rights of the human person,” Francis said.

Slideshow (20 Images)

After World War Two, Romania’s Communist authorities confiscated properties of the Eastern Rite Catholic Church and ordered its members to join the majority Orthodox Church, which was easier for the party to control.

Historians say about half a million Romanians including politicians, priests, doctors, officers, land owners and merchants were sentenced and jailed in the 1950s and early 1960s and a fifth of them perished in prisons and labor camps.

Many Catholic properties taken by the Communist dictatorship or given by the government to the Orthodox have yet to be returned 30 years after the fall of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. </s> BUCHAREST, Romania — Pope Francis, on the last day of his trip to Romania, on Sunday asked for forgiveness on behalf of his church for the suffering endured by the Roma people, saying his heart was “weighed down by the many experiences of discrimination, segregation and mistreatment” they have experienced.

The pope offered the apology at a newly consecrated church in a poor neighborhood of Blaj, a city in Transylvania, where a priest of Roma ethnicity welcomed him “to the periphery of the peripheries.”

“History tells us that Christians too, including Catholics, are not strangers to such evil,” Francis said. “I would like to ask your forgiveness for this. I ask forgiveness — in the name of the church and of the Lord — and I ask forgiveness of you, for all those times in history when we have discriminated, mistreated or looked askance at you.”

This was his first trip to Romania — and the first by a pontiff since John Paul II visited 20 years ago — and Francis sought to mend relations between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. He also took the opportunity to advocate for millions of Romanian emigrants, to hearten the country’s small Catholic population and to again position himself as a counterbalance to the tip toward nationalism around the world. </s> Pope apologizes to Roma on behalf of the Catholic Church

Pope Francis has apologised to the Roma people on behalf of the Catholic Church during a visit to Romania.

At a meeting with Roma people on the last day of his visit to the country, the pontiff asked forgiveness for “all those times in history when we have discriminated, mistreated or looked askance at you”.

Roma people have faced persecution in Europe for centuries in Europe and during the last war. Thousands suffered the atrocities of the Holocaust and were killed. Nowadays Roma live in southern and central Europe and make up 10% of Romania’s total population. To date people still face discrimination and most live in poverty. </s> related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery.

4 related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery.

BLAJ, Romania: Pope Francis on Sunday (Jun 2) beatified seven Greco-Catholic bishops jailed and tortured during the Communist era on the final day of his visit to Romania.

"The new blessed ones suffered and sacrificed their lives, opposing a system of totalitarian and coercive ideology," the pontiff told some 60,000 worshippers attending mass on a "Field of Liberty" in the small central town of Blaj.

"These shepherds, martyrs of faith, garnered for and left the Romanian people a precious heritage which we can sum up in two words: freedom and mercy," added Francis, while praising the "diversity of religious expression" in mainly Orthodox Romania.

Regime officials detained the beatified bishops overnight on Oct 28, 1948, accusing them of "high treason" after they refused to convert to Orthodoxy.

The Greek-Catholic Church was outlawed under 1948-89 Communist rule.

The bishops died of maltreatment, some still in jail, others in confinement in an Orthodox monastery. They were then buried in secret - to this day the whereabouts of four of their graves is unknown.

The bars of the cells where they were held were symbolically incorporated into the throne built specially for the papal visit.

The bishops followed the Eastern Rite Catholic Church which emerged from an Orthodox schism at the end of the 17th century when the central region of Transylvania was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

While retaining Orthodox practices they recognised Roman Catholic papal authority - unacceptable for the Communist regime which took power following World War II. Under a 1948 decree formally abolishing the Eastern Catholic churches, Greco-Catholics were forcibly obliged to return to the Orthodox fold.

"This anti-faith hatred came from (Soviet leader) Joseph Stalin, who had in the same way liquidated the Ukrainian Greco-Catholic church," researcher Emanuel Cosmovici told AFP. Complicit in 1948, Romania's Orthodox Church would itself face repression under the Communists - albeit some senior prelates did collaborate with the party.

Under such stark political repression, most Romanian Catholics - who numbered more than 1.5 million in 1948, abandoned their faith and their community has shrunk to around 200,000 today in a country of 20 million, almost nine in 10 of whom profess Orthodoxy.

The politics which has seeped through Romania's modern religious history has poisoned inter-faith relations - even if the papal visit has softened feelings to a degree.

Beyond religious discrimination, Romania has also known the racial variant, with the country's Roma, making up as much as 10 per cent of the population, not hesitating to mention the fact during Francis' visit.

"He will definitely speak about discrimination because we have no rights at all," said Ion, a pensioner from central Romania, ahead of Sunday's mass.

"No matter where we go, to the town hall, to the police or to school, doors get closed," the former construction site worker told AFP ahead of Francis's arrival in Blaj, where several thousand Roma live.

Roma, originating from northern India, suffered around five centuries of slavery before the practice was formally abolished in 1856.

But they remain a mainly poor and marginalised community - even if recent years have seen roads paved and homes getting running water and electricity.

Francis's arrival in Blaj to wind up his visit was part of his attempt at inclusiveness on his three-day visit to one of what remains Europe's poorest states.

Although Romania has developed apace since obtaining EU membership in 2007 there remain some "urban or rural ghettos where nothing has changed," according to sociologist Gelu Duminica, who heads the anti-discrimination Impreuna (Together) association.

Duminica and others in Blaj saw it as no coincidence that Francis, often seen as a defender of the rights of the most marginalised, chose the Barbu Lautaru district of Blaj, whose inhabitants are mainly Roma, to launch his appeal for tolerance and social inclusion.

"The pope's visit is a message for those who are marginalised, disregarded or not accepted by others," said Mihai Gherghel, an eastern Catholic priest, who supervised the construction of the Blaj church where Francis celebrated Sunday mass. </s> Pope Francis on Sunday asked the Roma people for "forgiveness" for discrimination committed by the Roman Catholic Church against them after meeting with members of the community in Romania.

"I ask forgiveness in the name of the Church... for the times when in the course of history we have discriminated against, mistreated or mistrusted" the Roma people, the pope said in a speech to the Roma community in the central Romanian town of Blaj. </s> Like his predecessors, Pope Francis is devoted to the interests of the institution he leads.

The institution in question is, of course, quite old, popular, rich, with subsidiaries and 1.2 billion followers across the globe.

The institution's rules, that the followers must unquestionably abide by, are set out in dogmatic texts, commandments and edicts, including the doctrine that the pope, "acting as supreme teacher … cannot err when he teaches in matters of faith or morals."

Like his predecessors, Pope Francis knew when he was chosen in a secret conclave by his fellow cardinals in March 2013, that the title was his for life and, that, fortuitously, as "supreme teacher," he "cannot err" while he manages the Church, comfortably ensconced at its Vatican headquarters.

Pope Francis also knows that, in exchange for such coveted job security and singular infallibility, his main job is to promote and protect the institution's parochial interests at home and abroad.

Apparently, Pope Francis, the Roman Catholic Church's "supreme teacher," has calculated that it's not in its interests that he travel to Canada to personally apologise to indigenous peoples for the crimes committed by priests and nuns over more than 150 years against thousands of indigenous children at as many as 80 forced-conversion gulags, euphemistically known as "residential schools."

The crimes perpetrated at those largely Catholic-run "residential schools" have been documented by a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which describes in exhaustive detail how indigenous child after child after child was kidnapped, stuffed into a tiny suit or dress and paraded like a play doll, beaten, fondled, raped, tortured in homemade electric chairs, discarded, abandoned, killed and, ultimately, buried often in unmarked, mass graves.

In December 2015, the TRC tabled its findings. One of the report's 94 "calls to action" was a plea to the pope to visit Canada promptly and apologise for the degradations and depravity visited upon so many children, for so many years by so many Catholic "teachers" who faithfully served the "supreme teacher".

The pope's response to "call to action" number 58: silence. During an audience with the pope last year, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, another teacher, implored the supreme teacher to "consider the gesture". The pope's response: silence.

Predictably, the supreme teacher who cannot err left it to his surrogates at the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) to respond finally by letter in late March to indigenous survivors who also believe the pope should apologise.

Stripped of the polite embroidery, the CCCB's reply was: Look, he's read the report. He takes it "seriously". But he's not going to apologise to any of you and he isn't obliged to explain why he won't apologise.

Since they delivered their missive, the bishops have been reminded by politicians, reporters and scripture-quoting columnists that popes have apologised many times, albeit belatedly and grudgingly, for the Church's many "errors" - to put it charitably.

Records show Pope John Paul II apologised more than 100 times. He apologised for, among other egregious trespasses, the Church's role in the persecution of Galileo, a devout Catholic, the African slave trade, various burnings at the stake, religious wars, as well as the "church's sins against Jews, heretics, Gypsies, native peoples and women".

Pope Benedict XVI followed suit, although he attached big asterisks to his apologies by insisting that the mea culpas were intended only to atone for the lamentable actions of individual Christians, not the Church's institutional culpability. Still, in 2010, he apologised to the countless Irish victims of countless sexual predators in clerical clothing.

And while on a pilgrimage to South America in July 2015, none other than Pope Francis himself apologised for crimes the Catholic Church committed against indigenous peoples during the colonisation of the Americas.

At a gathering of indigenous activists in Bolivia, attended by the country's first indigenous president, Evo Morales, Pope Francis also "humbly" begged for forgiveness for the "pain and suffering" that the Church has caused in the past.

Despite this recent history of contrition, Pope Francis and his ardent Canadian subordinates remain adamant: There will be no formal apology to the indigenous children who endured, suffered and perished inside the Catholic Church's conversion-gulags in Canada.

Earlier this month, The New Democratic Party (NDP) attempted to introduce a motion in the House of Commons to try to get Pope Francis to change his obstinate mind and apologise.

The governing Liberal party said it would support the NDP's motion. The motion, however, required unanimous consent before it could be debated and voted on. One Conservative Member of Parliament objected, temporarily derailing the motion.

Canada's bishops helped stall consideration of the motion by, in part, rewriting history in an official letter, claiming that the "Catholic Church as a whole in Canada was not associated with the residential schools."

Not done desecrating the past, Archbishop Richard Gagnon lectured survivors at an Ottawa press conference about the "difference" between the German pontiff's Irish apology and the Argentinian pontiff's apology they're pining for.

"The Holy Father wrote a letter to the Irish," Archbishop Gagnon said. "Number 58 specifies the pope comes to Canada within a certain period of time, a very narrow period of time, and give an apology. So, there's a difference between the two."

The archbishop's remarks prompted the indigenous NDP MP who co-sponsored the motion, Romeo Saganash, to say he was disgusted. "I wanted to go throw up," Saganash said. He wasn't alone.

Undeterred, Saganash, a survivor, successfully re-introduced his motion on Thursday. By his side, was another survivor, Kind Hearted Eagle Women.

"I'm here, begging the Holy Father, the pope, to walk with us to healing," she said. "I ask him to walk [with] and have sympathy [for] all indigenous people."

Pope Francis will, I suspect, rebuff Kind Hearted Eagle Women's request even though decency and the historical record demand it. In doing so, the Pope will confirm that he is devoted, above all, to the institution he leads.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.
During his visit to Romania, Pope Francis apologizes to the Roma people on behalf of the Catholic Church and asks forgiveness for "all those times in history when we have discriminated, mistreated or looked askance at you." He also beatifies seven Eastern Catholic church bishops who were jailed for treason and tortured under Communist rule. All died in confinement and were buried in secret.