OTTAWA — The past three popes have invested deeply in the forgiveness-begging business, offering official apologies for the church’s sins against Jews during World War II and Indigenous people in Bolivia, among others.

But Canada’s Roman Catholic bishops said late last month that Pope Francis would not apologize in the foreseeable future for the boarding schools where, for more than a century and a half, more than 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend in an effort to obliterate their cultures and languages.

About 70 percent of children went to schools operated by the church.

Now, the Canadian House of Commons is poised to consider a motion to ask those bishops to return to Rome to seek a papal apology, fulfilling a specific recommendation for healing the rift between Canada and its Indigenous people by a national Truth and Reconciliation Commission that documented the abuses at the schools.

“This wasn’t the work of a few bad apples,” said Charlie Angus, a practicing Catholic and New Democratic Party member of Parliament who introduced the motion, which is supported by the government and likely to pass. “The church’s role was enormous.”