These words, delivered by Pope Francis to Canadian Indigenous leaders during their historic visit to Rome in 2022, were decades in the making.

Francis apologized for the Catholic Church’s role in what he said were “deplorable” abuses at Canada’s residential schools, which forcibly assimilated Indigenous children into Canadian society, stripping them of their language and culture.

More than 4,000 Indigenous children died from either neglect or abuse in residential schools, most of which were run by the church, according to Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The last residential school closed in 1998.

The discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves on the grounds of former residential schools in British Columbia and Saskatchewan in 2021 further laid bare the extent of the horrors.

Indigenous leaders had fought for decades for a papal apology for the harm inflicted on First Nations, Inuit and Métis children.

Francis will be remembered in Canada as the pope who finally delivered that apology — first at the Vatican, then again during an emotional six-day “pilgrimage of penance” in Alberta, Quebec and Nunavut.

“I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous peoples,” Francis said in Canada.

The pontiff’s visit was bittersweet for survivors, some of whom said it triggered more pain.

But Francis’ public recognition of the Church’s wrongdoing — abuses for which he said he felt “sorrow and shame” — were a crucial step toward reconciliation, according to many Indigenous leaders.

“We’ve lost an ally,” Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, told CNN affiliate CBC News. “He wanted to right the wrongs of the past.

“Pope Francis opened up a new chapter to healing for survivors and their families.”