papal visit to Canada

During an in-flight news conference July 29, Pope Francis also talked about his future papal trips, possible retirement and the German church’s synodal path.

St. Anne, the grandmother of Jesus; Mary, his mother; and St. Kateri, the daughter of a Mohawk father and Algonquin mother “can help us come together and start to weave anew a reconciliation that can uphold the rights of the most vulnerable in our midst and look at history without resentment or forgetfulness,” the pope said.

The pope met with government, civic and Indigenous leaders at the fortress, the official residence of the governor general of Canada.

Pope Francis delivered his apology on the treaty land of the Ermineskin and Samson Cree Nations, the Louis Bull Tribe and the Montana First Nation, as part of his “penitential pilgrimage” to Canada.

While presented as missionary work, the operation of residential schools by Catholics in Canada was actually an attempt to impose European culture on Canada’s Indigenous people, Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis had described his visit to Canada July 24-29 as a “penitential pilgrimage” to ask forgiveness for the trauma inflicted on Indigenous children by too many of the priests and nuns who ran about 60% of the schools for the Canadian government.

Pope Francis is scheduled to be in Canada July 24-29, flying to Edmonton, Quebec and Iqaluit. He also will visit the site of a former residential school near Edmonton, join Indigenous pilgrims at Lac Ste. Anne and celebrate Mass at the National Shrine of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré near Quebec.

The Vatican confirmed the pope’s plan to be in Canada July 24-29, returning to Rome July 30.