Pope Francis

Pope Francis departed Rome on Sunday for a week-long trip to Edmonton, Canada, where he's set to apologize for the Catholic Church's role in the abuse of ...

Two Canadian cardinals will accompany him throughout his visit, Cardinal Marc Ouellet and Cardinal Michael Czerny. In April, the Pope told Indigenous leaders at the Vatican that he feels "sorrow and shame for the role that a number of Catholics, particularly those with educational responsibilities, have had in all these things that wounded you, in the abuses you suffered and in the lack of respect shown for your identity, your culture and even your spiritual values." While in the country he will meet with Indigenous groups and address the scandal of abuse and erasure of indigenous culture in the country's residential schools.

During his six-day trip, he's expected to meet with and apologize to indigenous Canadians for abuses committed at Church-run residential schools.

“Dear brothers and sisters of #Canada,” the pope tweeted before his departure, “I come among you to meet the indigenous peoples. I hope, with God's grace, that my penitential pilgrimage might contribute to the journey of reconciliation already undertaken. The pope’s itinerary includes stops in Edmonton, Quebec City, and Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut. He returns to Rome on Saturday, July 30.

Pope Francis departs from Rome's Fiumicino Airport on Sunday morning to begin his 37th Apostolic Journey abroad, which will see him embrace the people ...

Therefore, he sets out to touch with his own hands the suffering of those populations, to pray with them and to make himself a pilgrim in their midst.” His first public encounters begin in earnest on Monday morning. One week ahead of his departure, the Pope said at his Angelus address on 17 July that he is undertaking a “penitential pilgrimage” to Canada, in the hopes of contributing to the “process of healing and reconciliation with the country’s indigenous peoples.”

Pope Francis has begun a fraught visit to Canada to apologize to Indigenous peoples for abuses by missionaries at residential schools.

After the graves were discovered, the Oblates finally offered "complete transparency and accountability" and allowed him into its headquarters to research the names of alleged sex abusers from a single school in the western Canadian province of Saskatchewan, he said. The Canadian government has admitted that physical and sexual abuse were rampant in the state-funded Christian schools that operated from the 19th century to the 1970s. He said the Oblates agreed on a joint project to digitize the photographs and make them available online. Indigenous groups are seeking more than just words, though, as they press for access to church archives to learn the fate of children who never returned home from the residential schools. Both are in rural areas, and organizers are arranging shuttle transport from various park-and-ride lots. Francis had no official events scheduled Sunday, giving him time to rest before his meeting Monday with survivors near the site of a former residential school in Maskwacis, where he is expected to deliver an apology.

Pope Francis arrives in Edmonton, Canada, to mark the start of his 37th Apostolic Journey abroad, what he has called a “penitential pilgrimage” to the ...

Indigenous representatives and Archbishop Richard Smith of Edmonton discuss the legacy of Canada's residential-school system and their hopes regarding the ...

And the Church, along with the Canadian government, will have to continue to take a share of responsibility for that. They understood the beauty of the culture; they understood the importance of linguistic preservation. He then stressed the importance of addressing the issue and never shying away from what has happened: “This is not something we could ever run from or would ever want to run from. “I think what we have to look at more broadly is the missionary dimension,” he said. Our discussion led to the broader issue of mission and how these schools were run by missionary orders under the direction of the Canadian government. In his speeches, he noted that they were often the victims of prejudice and “among the poorest and most marginalized in society.” My concern is that the hurt and anger is going to keep on being passed on to our children and future generations. The Holy Father did so earlier this year, when a group of Indigenous visited the Vatican in Rome, as did Pope Benedict XVI to another Indigenous delegation in 2009, but Francis is expected to augment this further while on Canadian soil. “I have a lot of sadness and anger because I don’t know how their life was in there,” she said. And during this period, stories have continued to emerge of how the Indigenous were mistreated while attending Canadian residential schools. Addressing the issue of how Indigenous were treated in state-owned, church-run residential schools was to be the central focus of Pope Francis’ agenda during his Canada visit July 24-29. Together, we’re standing in a small prayer room in the parish house connected to Sacred Heart Church in downtown Edmonton. This is a majority-Indigenous parish, and in this prayer room, Elder Marty showed me how the Indigenous community has incorporated symbols and icons from their culture into their Catholic faith.

Pope Francis has arrived in Edmonton to start his six-day visit in Canada.

By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. By clicking on the sign up button you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. You may unsubscribe any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our emails. Organizers say attendees must be in their seats no later than 8:15 a.m. when the program begins. “The painful legacy of residential schools, which is the focus of this papal visit to Alberta, requires both expressions of remorse and concrete actions,” Kenney continued. “While his presence among us is of historic significance to Alberta Catholics, the papal visit is a blessing for all Albertans, beginning with Indigenous Peoples. “It’s, like, once-in-a-lifetime to meet the Pope,” said Caroline Puyat, a Catholic, who was one of about 40 people gathered along the overpass. About 120 passengers travelled with the Pope, including Canadian journalists, Vatican-accredited media and papal staff such as medical and security personnel, organizers said. Indeed, “walking together” is the theme of the latest papal visit. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. He then got into a wheelchair and was taken to a red carpet for the official welcome ceremony. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Aboard the papal plane, Francis told reporters this was a “penitential voyage” and he urged prayers in particular for elderly people and grandparents.

He said the Oblates agreed on a joint project to digitize the photographs and make them available online. After the graves were discovered, the Oblates finally offered “complete transparency and accountability” and allowed him into its headquarters to research the names of alleged sex abusers from a single school in the western Canadian province of Saskatchewan, he said. The Canadian government has admitted that physical and sexual abuse were rampant in the state-funded Christian schools that operated from the 19th century to the 1970s. Indigenous groups are seeking more than just words, though, as they press for access to church archives to learn the fate of children who never returned home from the residential schools. Then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a formal apology over the residential schools in 2008. A succession of Indigenous leaders and elders greeted the pope and exchanged gifts.

EDMONTON, Alberta — Pope Francis began a historic visit to Canada on Sunday to apologize to Indigenous peoples for abuses by missionaries at residential ...

After the graves were discovered, the Oblates finally offered “complete transparency and accountability” and allowed him into its headquarters to research the names of alleged sex abusers from a single school in the western Canadian province of Saskatchewan, he said. The Canadian government has admitted that physical and sexual abuse were rampant in the state-funded Christian schools that operated from the 19th century to the 1970s. Indigenous groups are seeking more than just words, though, as they press for access to church archives to learn the fate of children who never returned home from the residential schools. Yet he expressed hope that with the papal apology, “We could begin our journey of healing .. and change the way things have been for our people for many, many years.” At one point, Francis kissed the hand of residential school survivor Elder Alma Desjarlais of the Frog Lake First Nations as she was introduced to him. Francis exited the back of his plane with the help of an ambulift, given his strained knee ligaments have forced him to use a wheelchair.

Ayesha Rascoe talks with reporter Emma Jacobs about Pope Francis' trip to Canada this week. He's calling it his "pilgrimage of penance" for the treatment of ...

JACOBS: This really is a penance. RASCOE: This is obviously going to be a painful trip for many. JACOBS: There are a lot of really complicated feelings about this visit and also a real range of reactions. And that announcement began a real year of reckoning that has culminated in this trip. JACOBS: The Catholic Church ran the largest number of residential schools in Canada during a period beginning in the 19th century up through the 1990s. It's the first stop in a weeklong trip the pope describes as his pilgrimage of penance.

Francis flew from Rome to Edmonton, where his welcoming party included Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mary May Simon, an Inuk who is Canada's ...

After the graves were discovered, the Oblates finally offered “complete transparency and accountability” and allowed him into its headquarters to research the names of alleged sex abusers from a single school in the western Canadian province of Saskatchewan, he said. The Canadian government has admitted that physical and sexual abuse were rampant in the state-funded Christian schools that operated from the 19th century to the 1970s. He said the Oblates agreed on a joint project to digitize the photographs and make them available online. Indigenous groups are seeking more than just words, though, as they press for access to church archives to learn the fate of children who never returned home from the residential schools. Then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a formal apology over the residential schools in 2008. A succession of Indigenous leaders and elders greeted the pope and exchanged gifts.

Pope Francis landed in Edmonton and met briefly at the airport with Indigenous leaders, Canada's governor general and prime minister.

He probably likes Canada, but he's not coming here because he likes Canada. He is coming here to address this specific and particular pastoral need as a pastor." Looking on is Mary Simon, governor general of Canada. The pope was beginning a six-day visit to Canada. (CNS photo/Vatican Media) Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, was accompanying Pope Francis on the trip. Many children endured emotional, physical and sexual abuse at the schools, in addition to being cut off from their native languages, customs and ceremonies. Pope Francis greets Grand Chief George Arcand of the Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations as he arrives at Edmonton International Airport July 24, 2022. Four Indigenous drummers heralded the arrival of their special guest.

The visit to Canada is a great act of goodwill by the Pope, and one that intends to heal and reconcile.

This Papal trip might help to somewhat normalize relations, and the position of Gibbard might be upgraded to that of an ambassador. Currently, Canada has not formally appointed an ambassador to the Holy See. There is a chargée d'Affaires, Paul Gibbard. He took the position in the year 2021, after three years of vacancy. The “Indian residential schools” system was a network of boarding schools created by the Canadian federal government in the 19th century. This may also apply to relations between Canada and the Holy See, as these have been strained for a while. This point is pertinent, irrespective of whether one agrees with DeWolf otherwise: A 2019 Canadian Human Rights Court ruling established that between 2006 and 2017, the government had removed between 40,000 to 80,000 indigenous children from their families and deprived them of social services. These schools did not simply provide education to children of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples. Assessing these, including the question of responsibilities in what was perpetrated in those schools, turned out to be far more complex than many expected. The schools were run by several Christian denominations, including some Catholic dioceses and religious communities. However, after the visit, the full reality and extent of the residential schools system still needs to be fully brought to light — and not just with a view to the role of the Church. In short, this visit is a great act of goodwill by the Pope, and one that intends to heal and reconcile. The Canadian Bishops' Conference acknowledged in a November 1993 brief for the Royal Commission on Aboriginal People that “the various types of abuse experienced in some residential schools have led us to a profound examination of conscience in the Church.” The visit to Canada is a great act of goodwill by the Pope, and one that intends to heal and reconcile.

Pope Francis will visit a former residential school in Canada today, where he is expected to make a historic personal apology to Indigenous survivors of ...

The papal visit, though highly anticipated, is also a source of controversy for some survivors and their families. The pope was in a wheelchair Sunday and used a lifting platform to board the plane in Rome, and was also in a wheelchair on the tarmac in Edmonton. "I hope that this visit is the beginning of a change in history, a change in the way business is going to be done, and a way for us to begin our healing journey," George Arcand Jr, the grand chief of the Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations, said on national television. Later, the pontiff will go to the Sacred Heart Catholic Church of the First Peoples in Edmonton, one of the city's oldest churches, where he will deliver a second speech to Indigenous communities. A delegation of Indigenous peoples traveled to the Vatican in April and met the pope - a precursor to Francis' six-day trip - after which he formally apologised. Pope Francis will visit a former residential school in Canada today, where he is expected to make a historic personal apology to Indigenous survivors of abuse committed over decades at the Catholic-run institutions.

Governor General Mary Simon and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau walked alongside the Pope as an aide pushed him in a wheelchair into an airport hangar for the ...

He probably likes Canada, but he’s not coming here because he likes Canada. He is coming here to address this specific and particular pastoral need as a pastor.” Many children endured emotional, physical and sexual abuse at the schools, in addition to being cut off from their native languages, customs and ceremonies. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, was accompanying Pope Francis on the trip. “But let’s do an Angelus here,” he said, referring mainly to his customary Sunday midday address. “I'm happy to greet you like always,” he said. Four Indigenous drummers heralded the arrival of their special guest.

On his first full day in Canada, Pope Francis is expected to offer an apology to Indigenous residential school survivors for an often-brutal system run in ...

Francis, after hosting an Indigenous delegation at the Vatican, apologized in April for the “deplorable conduct” of some “members” of the Catholic Church involved with the residential school system. Severing ties to Indigenous culture, including familial ones, was an aim of the system. At Francis’s first stop Monday, he is expected to speak in front of several thousand people, many of them survivors of the residential school system. One said she was told that the Sun Dance, an Indigenous ceremony, amounted to devil worship. During a 2015 trip to Bolivia, he apologized for the church’s “grave sins” during colonialism and for crimes committed against native people. The trip is a major break from the norms of papal overseas travel, where celebration and evangelization tend to be the central goals.

EDMONTON, Alberta — Thousands of Indigenous persons are expected to converge Monday on the small Alberta prairie community of Maskwacis to hear a ...

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The Roman Catholic leader is expected to apologize for the church's role in running boarding schools where Indigenous children were sexually and physically ...

But like all of them, it was a place of horrors for the children forced to attend it between 1894 and 1976. It followed the announcement that there was evidence of 215 grave sites at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia, a revelation that shocked the nation. Francis will not see any of the school buildings that continue to haunt the memories of former students. While the federal government funded and established the system, it turned to churches to operate most of them, which in most cases used the schools as missionary outposts. From the 1880s through the 1990s, the Canadian government forcibly removed at least 150,000 Indigenous children from their homes and sent them to residential schools to assimilate them into Western ways. The nation’s attention refocused on the legacy of the schools last year after analyses of ground-penetrating radar revealed evidence of more than 1,000 remains buried in unmarked graves around several schools. But Murray Sinclair, a former judge, senator and head of the commission, said he estimates that the figure exceeds 10,000 children. The Canadian government formally apologized 14 years ago for establishing the schools and has paid billions of dollars in reparations to former students. For Francis, the six-day trip will mark the end of a long travel drought. Since then, the Canadian government and Indigenous communities have worked to address the profound damage inflicted there, which continues to reverberate today. “I don’t see how any of these words that he’s going to say will actually fix the damage that the residential schools caused. “And that means you have to make peace with the church.”