did the pope visit canada

Pope’s Penitential Pilgrimage to Canada to reconcile and heal

By Deborah Castellano Lubov

Pope Francis’ imminent Apostolic Visit to Canada will be first of all a penitential pilgrimage geared at healing and reconciliation with the nation’s indigenous peoples, suggests the Director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni, noting this follows the Pontiff’s five encounters with the aboriginal peoples in Rome in April.

During a briefing at the Press Office on Wednesday, the Director presented the Pope’s 37th Apostolic Visit abroad. The North American nation will be the 56 th country he's visited. Pope Francis is following in the footsteps of his predecessor, St. John Paul II who visited Canada three times during his pontificate, most recently in 2002.

Saint Kateri Tekakwitha and Saint Anne

Bruni recalled how Pope Francis will also visit the National Shrine of Ste. Anne de Beaupre in Quebec, where, like his predecessor, he will celebrate Mass.

At the Shrine, Pope Francis, again like John Paul II, will remember the first canonized Native American saint, Kateri Tekakwitha, and bless a statue of her.

The Director of the Holy See Press Office noted that St. Anne is important for the indigenous especially “out of respect for the elderly and the idea of the nonna (‘ grandmother’).” St Anne and her husband St Joachim, the grandparents of Jesus, are patron saints of grandparents and the elderly.

The Pope’s Journey comes in response to invitations he received from the Church and the civil authorities in Canada, and from Canada’s indigenous peoples themselves.

Arctic stop

During the 24-30 July Visit, the Pope will make stops in Edmonton, Quebec, and the northern city of Iqaluit.

In Iqaluit, Bruni warned, “it will be cold, very cold,” noting that there are only countries like Iceland and Norway that have population centres further north. He joked that for those suffering the intense heat during the scorching European heatwave, it could be refreshing.

The protocol of the Trip will be slightly different from others because the Holy Father will meet with authorities only once in Quebec, the second step of his travel, on Wednesday. Moreover, this time there will be representatives of the First Nations, Métis, and Inuit indigenous peoples at the encounter, which generally is reserved solely for civil authorities and diplomats.

The first leg of the Pilgrimage will be dedicated primarily to meeting with indigenous peoples in Edmonton. The Pope will meet with several more groups of indigenous people in Quebec.

Residential Schools

A particularly significant moment of the trip will take place in the Arctic city of Iqaluit, when Pope Francis will meet some former students of the infamous "residential schools" where indigenous children were often subjected to harsh discipline and sometimes mistreated and abused. It is now recognized that the residential school system sought to erase their culture.

Under that system, indigenous children were separated from their families, sometimes against their will, and forced to attend boarding schools away from their homes. Mortality rates were high in the institutions, which were established and funded by the Canadian government, but whose management was entrusted to Christian communities, including Catholic dioceses and religious orders.

The Vatican spokesman recalled Pope Francis' meeting in Rome with representatives of Canada's First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities this spring, when the Holy Father expressed "indignation and shame" for what their peoples experienced.

On the Journey, the Pope will be joined by his usual papal entourage, which will include the Roman Curia’s two Canadian cardinals, the Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, Cardinal Marc Ouellet; and the Prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, Cardinal Michael Czerny.

At his events and Masses in Canada, the Pope is expected to deliver his nine discourses in Spanish. There will be jumbotrons in Edmonton and Quebec, which are expected to offer English and French simultaneous translations, respectively.

The choice of Spanish, he suggested, is because Spanish is more widely understood than Italian, and to take into account the experience of local translators. He also did not exclude that the choice of Spanish was made in view of reaching a wider audience, as there are many Spanish speakers in some parts of Canada.

Mobility considerations on papal flight

The Holy Father is expected to greet journalists on the outgoing flight to Canada and to hold his usual press conference on the return flight to Rome. More than sixty journalists are expected to accompany the Pope aboard the papal flight.

Bruni noted that the best way to manage these events is still being studied, cautioning the journalists present not to expect the Holy Father to be standing the entire time or for the conference to be particularly long.

Responding to questions about the Pope’s mobility challenges due to his knee pain, the Vatican spokesman noted that he may occasionally use the wheelchair during the trip, as he does in Rome. 

Although the Holy Father normally departs from Rome’s Fiumicino Airport and returns to the capital’s Ciampino Airport, this time Pope Francis will return instead to Fiumicino international airport.

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Pope Francis’ Canada visit: Read live updates here

By CNA Staff , Katie Yoder

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 29, 2022 / 07:45 am

Pope Francis is visiting Canada in what he has called a “penitential pilgrimage” from July 24 to July 29.

Read the latest updates about his trip below.

July 30, 5:53 a.m.: Full text: Pope Francis’ in-flight press conference from Canada

Pope Francis returned to Rome on Saturday after a week-long trip to Canada. During his trip, the pope visited Edmonton, Québec, and Iqaluit on what he called a “penitential pilgrimage” to apologize to the country’s indigenous communities.

Please read here for CNA’s full transcript of Pope Francis’ press conference on the flight from Iqaluit, Canada, to Italy.

July 30, 5:09 a.m.: Pope Francis: Canada's residential schools system was 'cultural genocide'

Speaking to journalists on the papal plane on July 30, the pope explained that he had not used the term “genocide” during his public apologies for past abuses perpetrated by Catholics in the system because it had not come to mind.

You can read more here .

July 29, 9:17 p.m.

📹HIGHLIGHTS | Pope Francis finished his trip to Canada by visiting Iqaluit, at the edge of the Arctic, where no plant grows taller than 8 inches. As a final wrap-up to his pilgrimage, he met with young people and elders. #PopeinCanada #WalkingTogether pic.twitter.com/2hQP8h7Vmm — EWTN News (@EWTNews) July 30, 2022

July 29, 7:55 p.m.: Choose light over darkness, Pope Francis tells young people in Iqaluit

Pope Francis on Friday encouraged indigenous young people and elders in Iqaluit in northern Canada not to be disheartened but to seek out what is good.

“You will come to realize that Jesus, from the cross, never points his finger at you; he embraces you and encourages you, because he believes in you even at those times when you stop believing in yourself. So never lose hope, fight, give it your all, and you will not be sorry.”

July 29, 6:40 p.m.: Pope Francis gifts his ‘dearest friend’ to Canada

As Pope Francis concludes his visit to Canada, he is leaving behind his “dearest friend”: St. Joseph.

Before traveling to Iqaluit on Friday, the 85-year-old pontiff gifted a statue of St. Joseph and the Child Jesus to the archbishop’s residence in Québec City, according to the Holy See Press Office. He presented an identical statue of Jesus’ foster father to St. Joseph Seminary, which hosted him at the start of his trip in Edmonton, Alberta.

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“I am leaving you my dearest friend,” he told the institute, Vatican News shared.

July 29, 5:00 p.m.

Pope Francis meets with youth and elders before attending a farewell ceremony in Iqaluit, the capital and only city of Nunavut, Canada’s northernmost and most sparsely populated territory. Catholics can watch live below.

July 29, 1:22 p.m.: Pope Francis praises Canada’s indigenous people as he departs Québec

In a brief address Friday to delegates representing nine indigenous nations of Canada, Pope Francis said he is returning home “greatly enriched” after his weeklong “penitential pilgrimage” to Canada, during which he publicly apologized several times for past abuses perpetrated by Catholics against the nation’s indigenous.

(Story continues below)

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“​​I have come as a brother, to discover firsthand the good and bad fruit borne by members of the local Catholic family in the course of the years. I have come in a spirit of penance, to express my heartfelt pain at the wrong inflicted on you by not a few Catholics who supported oppressive and unjust policies in your regard,” the 85-year-old pope said, addressing the group gathered at the archbishop’s residence in Québec City.

July 29, 1:00 p.m.

While in the air, Pope Francis remembers Saint Kateri Tekakwitha. Tekakwitha, also known as the “Lily of the Mohawks,” became the first Native American saint in 2012. She was raised in New York, by her uncle, a Mohawk chief, after her parents died from a smallpox epidemic. After encountering Jesuit priests in her village, she converted to Catholicism at 19. Her relatives and the village attempted to punish her for her beliefs. She later ran away to Montreal, Canada, where she could practice her faith and live out her life as a consecrated virgin.

My thoughts and prayers in these days have focused often on Saint Kateri Tekakwitha. We venerate her for her devotion to prayer and work, and her ability to endure many trials patiently and meekly. #IndigenousPeoples — Pope Francis (@Pontifex) July 29, 2022

July 29, 11:47 a.m.

The papal flight prepares to depart Québec for Iqaluit. You can read more about Iqaluit and why Pope Francis is traveling there here .

July 29, 10:30 a.m.

Pope Francis meets with a delegation of indigenous peoples in Québec. Catholics can watch him speak live below.

July 29, 9:45 a.m.

Pope Francis attended a closed-door meeting with Jesuits in Québec this morning.

July 29, 7:19 a.m.

Today marks the last day of Pope Francis' visit to Canada. He will be meeting with members of the Society of Jesus and a delegation of indigenous peoples in Québec. From there, he will fly to Iqaluit, where he will meet with students of former residential schools, young people and elders, and attend a farewell ceremony.

You can read more about Iqaluit and why Pope Francis is traveling there here .

Pope Francis’ Events Schedule for #29July2022 #PopeinCanada #WalkingTogheter @papal_visit pic.twitter.com/MeHHwbIK2D — Holy See Press Office (@HolySeePress) July 29, 2022

July 28, 8:54 p.m.

📹VIDEO | Pope Francis was greeted by cheers during his visit to Quebec. He was also able to get out of his vehicle by his own means before using his wheelchair. Let's keep praying for his health and the fruits of his trip. #PopeinCanada #WalkingTogether pic.twitter.com/DPRaAjx4Jf — EWTN News (@EWTNews) July 29, 2022

July 28, 6:23 p.m. : Pope Francis: Complaining that the world is evil is ‘not Christian’

Speaking Thursday to a group of priests, bishops, deacons, consecrated persons, seminarians, and pastoral workers at the Cathedral Basilica of Notre-Dame de Québec, Pope Francis urged those present to model Christian joy and fraternity to those to whom they minister. 

“Christian joy is about the experience of a peace that remains in our hearts, even when we are pelted by trials and afflictions, for then we know that we are not alone, but accompanied by a God who is not indifferent to our lot. When seas are rough: The storm is always on the surface but the depths remain calm and peaceful. That is also true of Christian joy: It is a free gift, the certainty of knowing that we are loved, sustained and embraced by Christ in every situation in life,” the pope said in his homily as part of a Vespers service at the cathedral. 

July 28, 5:50 p.m. : Pope Francis’ Canada trip: What is Iqaluit and why is he going there?

Pope Francis is set to fly to Iqaluit, Canada, on Friday, July 29. The city marks the last stop of the 85-year-old pontiff’s “penitential pilgrimage” to Canada before he heads back to Rome.

At the final stop of his trip to Canada, the pontiff will meet with Inuit residential school survivors and will visit Nakasuk Elementary School.

Here is what to know about Iqaluit, its lone Catholic parish, and the significance of the pope’s visit.

July 28, 5:34 p.m.: Pope Francis: Jesus comes to us when we are at our lowest

At a July 28 Mass in the historic Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré in Québec, Pope Francis preached on the hope and redemption that Christ offers in the face of shame, and how God seeks to draw near to us in moments of failure.

“On the path of life and faith, as we seek to achieve the dreams, plans, hopes and expectations deep in our hearts, we also come up against our own frailties and weaknesses; we experience setbacks and disappointments, and often we can remain imprisoned by a paralyzing sense of failure. Yet the Gospel tells us that at those very moments we are not alone, for the Lord comes to meet us and stands at our side,” the pope said, preaching in his native Spanish.

📹 HIGHLIGHTS | Pope Francis presided over the Holy Mass at the National Shrine of Saint Anne de Beaupre in Quebec. St. Anne, the grandmother of Jesus, was proclaimed patroness of Québec in 1876. #PopeinCanada #WalkingTogether pic.twitter.com/hnd1UrgcDv — EWTN News (@EWTNews) July 28, 2022

July 28, 5:20 p.m.

Pope Francis delivers a homily during evening prayer from the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Québec, Canada. Catholics can watch live below.

July 28, 5:00 p.m.

Catholics can watch evening prayer with Pope Francis from the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Québec, Canada, live below.

Pope Francis will pray Vespers with bishops, priests, deacons, consecrated persons, seminarians, and pastoral workers at the cathedral.

July 28, 3:00 p.m.

Whenever our failures lead to an encounter with the Lord, life and hope are reborn and we are able to be reconciled: with ourselves, with our brothers and sisters, and with God. #ApostolicJourney #Canada — Pope Francis (@Pontifex) July 28, 2022

July 28, 12:50 p.m.

Following Mass at the National Shrine of Saint Anne de Beaupré in Québec, Pope Francis met with the guests of the Fraternité Saint Alphonse welcome and spirituality center.

He was welcomed in the center's garden by permanent guests and by those who habitually frequent the center — in total, about 50 people including the elderly, people suffering from various addictions, and HIV/AIDS patients. The director in charge, Father André Morency, was also present. The pope greeted them, listened to their stories, and collected their prayers.

Before leaving, he gifted them with an icon of the "Most Holy Lady of Jerusalem."

Pope Francis shared a special moment with a guest of the Fraternité St Alphonse reception and spirituality center in Quebec. There are about 50 people at the center. Among them are the elderly and people suffering from addictions. #PopeInCanada #walkingtogether 📷 Vatican Media pic.twitter.com/kW0mcTrSsl — Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) July 28, 2022

July 28, 12:02 p.m.

This morning Pope Francis presided over Mass at the Sanctuary of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré in Quebec. #PopeInCanada #WalkingTogether 📷 Vatican Media pic.twitter.com/sVwHiq52dn — Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) July 28, 2022

July 28, 9:30 a.m.

Catholics can watch Holy Mass in Québec with Pope Francis from the National Shrine of Saint Anne de Beaupré, the oldest pilgrimage site in North America, live below. The shrine houses three relics of St. Anne.

Local authorities estimate that 2,000 people are at the shrine today.

July 28, 9:25 a.m.

Pope Francis is arriving at St. Anne de Beaupré in Québec to celebrate Mass. Originally built in the 17th century to welcome a miraculous statue of the saint, it marks the most ancient shrine in North America. According to tradition, one of the first builders of the church suffered from a severe scoliosis and was healed. St. Anne, the grandmother of Jesus Christ, was proclaimed patroness of Québec in 1876. Pope Francis has centered much of his trip on this saint.

July 28, 6:52 a.m.: A look beyond the headlines: Pope Francis encounters Catholic life and history on his journey to Canada

The images of Pope Francis receiving a feathered headdress by indigenous Canadians, the many moving moments and significant gestures on this papal trip have made headlines around the world. This “penitential pilgrimage”, dedicated to a real path of reconciliation with the Native American populations, is also an Apostolic journey to a country with a rich and varied Catholic history.

July 27, 7:00 p.m.: Pope Francis expresses ‘deep shame’ in Canada, warns of new ‘cancel culture’

Pope Francis asked for forgiveness for the harm done to indigenous Canadians by Catholics in a Wednesday address before top government officials and representatives of the indigenous peoples in Canada.

“I express my deep shame and sorrow, and, together with the bishops of this country, I renew my request for forgiveness for the wrong done by so many Christians to the indigenous peoples,” the 85-year-old pontiff said, citing the Catholic Church’s role in running many of the country’s government-sponsored residential schools for indigenous children.

July 27, 6:28 p.m.: Did Pope Francis meet Justin Trudeau before? Here’s what you need to know as the two meet today

Pope Francis met with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau this afternoon, July 27, in Quebec City, as part of his weeklong “penitential pilgrimage” to Canada.

In their 36-minute 2017 meeting, which the Vatican described as “cordial,” the pope gave Trudeau a medallion symbolizing forgiveness, joy, and mutual acceptance. The medallion also references Matthew 5:7: “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”

July 27, 6:00 p.m.

Pope Francis signed the book of honor at the Citadelle de Québec. He wrote: “As a pilgrim in Canada, a land that stretches from sea to sea, I pray to God that this great country will always be an example in building a future that preserves and values its roots, particularly its indigenous peoples, and in being a welcoming home for all.”

📹HIGHLIGHTS | Pope Francis arrived in Quebec. He met Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the Governor General of Canada, representatives of indigenous peoples, members of the Diplomatic Corps, and civil authorities. #PopeinCanada #WalkingTogether pic.twitter.com/S0ToRrW9vV — EWTN News (@EWTNews) July 28, 2022

July 27, 4:55 p.m.

Pope Francis arrives in Québec and is welcomed by top government officials, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Canada's governor general, Mary Simon.

Pope Francis arrived in Québec and was welcomed by top government officials, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Canada's governor general, Mary Simon. #PopeInCanada #WalkingTogether 📷 @andygag / pool VAMP pic.twitter.com/VY08DDgJ8m — Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) July 27, 2022

July 27, 4:30 p.m.

Catholics can watch Pope Francis’ meeting with Canadian civil and religious authorities, members of the diplomatic corps, and representatives of the indigenous peoples in Québec live below.

July 27, 1:00 p.m.: Pope Francis in Canada: How Ukrainian migrants and indigenous peoples can learn from each other

During his “penitential pilgrimage” to Canada, Pope Francis visited Sacred Heart Church, Edmonton's first parish dedicated to pastoral care for people from the First Nations, Metis, and Inuit communities. Just one block away from this parish is the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Cathedral of St. Josaphat, home to a Ukrainilarge Ukrainian community that began to emigrate to Western Canada 130 years ago.

The history of indigenous peoples in Canada speaks to the plight of Ukrainian immigrants. The situation faced by indigenous peoples bears many similarities to what is now being experienced in Ukraine with Russian aggression, explained Bishop David Motiuk, bishop of the Eparchy of Edmonton.

July 27, 12:00 p.m.

Pope Francis will be in Québec today. Canada's governor general, Mary Simon, will welcome him as the representative of Queen Elizabeth II, Canada's head of state. The pontiff will also meet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, civil authorities, representatives of indigenous peoples, and members of the diplomatic corps.

Pope Francis’ Events Schedule for #27July2022 #PopeinCanada #WalkingTogheter @papal_visit pic.twitter.com/nRb9Vdg7Ip — Holy See Press Office (@HolySeePress) July 27, 2022

July 27, 10:10 a.m.

This map illustrates Pope Francis’ flight path for his Canada trip.

July 26, 8:45 p.m.: Pope Francis blesses the water, pilgrims at Lac Ste. Anne in Canada

Pope Francis concluded his second full day in Canada with a visit to Lac Ste. Anne, the site of one of Canada’s most famous Catholic pilgrimages and a place of spiritual significance for the nation’s indigenous people. The pope celebrated a Liturgy of the Word at the Shrine of Ste. Anne, with a crowd of mostly indigenous people in attendance, estimated at around 10,000.

The large, shallow, and muddy lake — about an hour’s drive from Edmonton — has been revered as a place of spiritual significance, and of healing, for centuries.

📹 HIGHLIGHTS | Pope Francis visited Lac Ste. Anne, the site of an annual pilgrimage that welcomes tens of thousands of Indigenous participants from throughout Canada and the United States each year. #PopeinCanada #WalkingTogether pic.twitter.com/o1PTQDmr8v — EWTN News (@EWTNews) July 27, 2022

July 26, 7:00 p.m.

Pope Francis visits Lac Ste. Anne, a famous Catholic pilgrimage site in Canada that holds spiritual significance for the nation’s indigenous people. 

The pope blessed a bowl of the lake’s water, which was brought up to a small wooden structure, shaped like a teepee, overlooking the lake. He made the Sign of the Cross towards the four cardinal points, according to indigenous custom. The pope prayed by the water's edge in his wheelchair before sprinkling the crowds with the blessed water. 

You can watch his visit to Lac Ste. Anne here.

July 26, 4:24 p.m.: Pope Francis preaches on sharing faith with love before 50,000 at largest stadium in Canada

Preaching at a Mass celebrated in Canada’s largest stadium, Pope Francis reflected on the elderly, who he said should be honored, and who serve as an example to the Church on how to pass on faith in a loving way.

“In addition to being children of a history that needs to be preserved, we are authors of a history yet to be written,” the Holy Father said.   “The grandparents who went before, the elderly who had dreams and hopes for us, and made great sacrifices for us, ask us an essential question: what kind of a society do you want to build?”

📹 HIGHLIGHTS | On the feast of Jesus' grandparents, St. Anne and St. Joachim, Pope Francis celebrated an open-air Mass at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton. An estimated 50,000 people attended. #PopeinCanada #WalkingTogether pic.twitter.com/N2zQAvAxge — EWTN News (@EWTNews) July 26, 2022

July 26, 3:00 p.m.

Pope Francis asks for the intercession of St. Joachim and St. Anne, the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary, for a “better future.” July 26 marks their feast day.

May Saints #JoachimAndAnn help us honour our #GrandparentsAndElders , to treasure their presence in order to create a better future, a future in which the story of violence and marginalization suffered by our #Indigenous brothers and sisters is never repeated. — Pope Francis (@Pontifex) July 26, 2022

July 26, 12:45 p.m.

According to local authorities, an estimated 50,000 people are attending the Mass celebrated by Pope Francis from the Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta.

July 26, 11:30 a.m.

Catholics can watch Pope Francis’ Mass from the Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta, below.

July 25, 8:48 p.m.: No remains unearthed yet from Canada’s residential school grave sites

On May 27, 2021, the news broke that unmarked graves containing the remains of indigenous children had been discovered on the grounds of a former residential school in British Columbia. 

The Kamloops Indian residential school, which operated from the late 19th century to the late 1970s, was among Canada’s government-sponsored schools run by the Catholic Church to forcibly assimilate indigenous children.

More than a year later, no bodies have been discovered at the Kamloops site. It is not clear whether the graves said to have been discovered there actually exist. 

July 25, 7:42 p.m.: Pope Francis: Christ offers example of reconciliation through suffering

Speaking to a group of Catholics at Sacred Heart parish in Edmonton July 25, Pope Francis reiterated his “shame” and sorrow at the hurt caused by Catholics during the era of Canada’s residential school system, and praised the parish community as “a house for all, open and  inclusive, just as the Church should be.”

You can read more here . 

📹HIGHLIGHTS | Pope Francis met with parish members of the Community of the Sacred Heart in Edmonton. This Catholic church has bounced back from two major fires in its history, in 1966 and 2020. #PopeinCanada #WalkingTogether pic.twitter.com/rcbIbPOSe1 — EWTN News (@EWTNews) July 26, 2022

July 25, 6:30 p.m.

Catholics can watch Pope Francis' meeting with members of the Sacred Heart parish community in below. The church is the only designated indigenous church in Canada.

July 25, 2:17 p.m.: Pope Francis apologizes for harm done to indigenous Canadians at residential schools

In a speech in rural Canada before a crowd of indigenous Canadian people, Pope Francis publicly apologized for the Catholic Church’s role in running much of Canada’s government-sponsored residential school system. 

During more than a century of operation, the system worked to stamp out aspects of native culture, language, and religious practice. 

“I am here because the first step of my penitential pilgrimage among you is that of again asking forgiveness, of telling you once more that I am deeply sorry,” Pope Francis said.

You can read more here . You can also watch his speech below during his meeting with indigenous Canadians in Maskwacis, Alberta.

📹 HIGHLIGHTS | Pope Francis met with Metis, Inuit, and First Nations people in Maskwacis, Alberta. He apologized for the Catholic Church’s role in running much of Canada’s government-sponsored residential school system. #PopeinCanada #WalkingTogether pic.twitter.com/zPHmSaajIB — EWTN News (@EWTNews) July 25, 2022

July 25, 1:11 p.m.

Pope Francis started his Monday events in Canada by visiting the cemetery and chapel of Our Lady of Seven Sorrows in Maskwacis, Alberta, where he spent a moment of silent prayer. #WalkingTogether #PopeInCanada 📷 Vatican Media pic.twitter.com/gAndrjEZwl — Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) July 25, 2022

July 24, 12:58 p.m.

Pope Francis arrives in Canada at Edmonton International Airport and attends a welcoming ceremony.

📹VIDEO | Pope Francis arrived in Canada. He did not use the plane stairs, and a car took him to the official welcome ceremony at Edmonton airport. He used a wheelchair to greet Canadian authorities and indigenous leaders. #PopeinCanada #WalkingTogether pic.twitter.com/rdKlJeDhaL — EWTN News (@EWTNews) July 24, 2022

July 24, 9:33 a.m.: Pope Francis begins “penitential pilgrimage” to Canada During his six-day trip, the pope is expected to meet with and apologize to indigenous Canadians for abuses committed at Church-run residential schools in the 20th century. 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 boarded the papal plane that will take him to Canada on his 37th apostolic journey. He has called this trip a 'penitential pilgrimage.' 📷 @dibanezgut / @EWTNVatican pic.twitter.com/WL39c9FvPs — Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) July 24, 2022

July 23, 8:00 a.m. : Pope Francis' visit to Canada: A CNA explainer

Pope Francis is set to arrive in Canada on July 24, arriving back in Rome on July 30. During his trip, he’s expected to meet with and apologize to indigenous Canadians for abuses committed at Church-run residential schools in the 20th century. Why this trip, and why now? Read about it here .

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Pope Francis in Canada

Walking together, july 24 – 29, 2022, consult the archives, healing and reconciliation: an historic journey.

Pope Francis made a pastoral visit to Canada from July 24 to 29, 2022. The Pope’s visit provided a unique opportunity for him, once again, to listen and dialogue with Indigenous Peoples, to express his heartfelt closeness and to address the impact of colonization and the participation of the Catholic Church in the operation of residential schools throughout Canada. The papal visit also provided an opportunity for the shepherd of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics to connect with the Catholic community in Canada.

The Catholic Church has a responsibility to take genuine and meaningful steps to journey with Indigenous Peoples of this land on the lengthy path to healing and reconciliation. This site provides information on the historic journey of Pope Francis to Canada, a significant step on the road to truth, understanding and healing. We invite you to join us as we reflect, pray and welcomed the Holy Father for these special days among us.

“…I ask for God’s forgiveness and I want to say to you with all my heart: I am very sorry. And I join my brothers, the Canadian bishops, in asking your pardon.”

– Pope Francis – April 1, 2022

The visit, drawing on the theme of “Walking Together”, included a combination of public and private events, with an emphasis on Indigenous participation throughout the visit.

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The Papal Visit to Canada secretariat has been created by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, the national assembly of the Bishops of Canada. It was founded in 1943 and officially recognized by the Holy See in 1948. The Papal Visit team is working closely with numerous partners including the Vatican, Indigenous Elders, knowledge keepers and survivors of residential schools along with government officials at the federal, provincial and municipal levels as we prepare for this historic visit.

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Papal visit to Canada Francis Begs Forgiveness for ‘Evil’ Christians Inflicted on Indigenous People

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‘I humbly beg forgiveness,’ Francis tells Canada’s Indigenous people.

MASKWACIS, Alberta — Pope Francis offered a sweeping apology to Indigenous people on their native land in Canada on Monday, fulfilling a critical demand of many of the survivors of church-run residential schools that became gruesome centers of abuse, forced assimilation, cultural devastation and death for over a century.

“I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous peoples,” Francis said to a large crowd of Indigenous people, some wearing traditional clothing and headdresses, in Maskwacis, Alberta, the site of a former residential school.

The pope made his apology in a pow wow circle, a covered ring surrounding an open space used for traditional dancing and drumming circles. Around it were teepees, campfires, and booths labeled “Mental Health and Cultural Support.”

Francis, who arrived at the event being pushed in a wheelchair, added that his remarks were intended for “every Native community and person” and said that a feeling of “shame” had lingered since he apologized to representatives of Indigenous people in April at the Vatican.

He said he was “deeply sorry” — a remark that triggered applause and approving shouts — for the ways in which “many Christians supported the colonizing mentality of the powers that oppressed the Indigenous peoples.”

“I am sorry,” he continued. “I ask forgiveness, in particular, for the ways in which many members of the church and of religious communities cooperated, not least through their indifference, in projects of cultural destruction and forced assimilation promoted by the governments of that time, which culminated in the system of residential schools.”

Those schools separated children from parents; inflicted physical, sexual and mental abuse; erased languages; and used Christianity as a weapon to break the cultures, and communities, of Indigenous people. Christian churches operated most of the schools for the government with Catholic orders responsible for running 60 to 70 percent of the roughly 130 schools, where thousands of children died.

Francis said it was “right to remember” on the site of such traumas, even at the risk of opening old wounds.

“It is necessary to remember how the policies of assimilation and enfranchisement, which also included the residential school system, were devastating for the people of these lands,” he said, adding, “I thank you for making me appreciate this.”

He called the abuses often carried out with missionary zeal, a “disastrous error” that eroded the people, their culture and values.

Francis also said that “begging pardon is not the end of the matter,” adding that he “fully” agreed with skeptics who wanted actions. And he said that he hoped for further investigations and that “concrete ways” could be found to help survivors begin a path toward healing and reconciliation.

After delivering his speech, which he offered in Spanish and which was translated into English, Chief Wilton Littlechild of the Ermineskin Cree Nation, who had introduced the pope, fitted him with a headdress, its white feathers standing over his white robes. The crowd erupted in applause.

When Francis had finished his remarks, many who had listened said they were satisfied with his apology.

“It was genuine and it was good,” said Cam Bird, 42, a residential school survivor from Little Red River reserve in Saskatchewan. “He believes us.”

But others were still taking stock of what had just happened after so many generations of devastation and trauma.

“I haven’t really digested it yet,” said Barb Morin, 64, from Île-à-la-Crosse, Saskatchewan, whose parents suffered in residential schools and who wore a shirt reading “Residential School Survivors Never Forgotten.” “I’m having a really hard time internalizing this right now.”

— Jason Horowitz

After delivering an apology to Indigenous people, Francis pursues reconciliation.

EDMONTON, Alberta — Hours after delivering a sweeping apology on the land of Indigenous people for his church’s role in causing generations of abuse and trauma at church-run residential schools, Pope Francis met with more survivors on church grounds.

Calling himself “a friend and pilgrim in your land,” Francis laid out his vision at the Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples in Edmonton, Alberta for how an open and tolerant church could spiritually, and practically, achieve reconciliation with representatives of the First Nations, the Métis and the Inuit.

“That is what the church is, and should always be — the place where reality is always superior to ideas,’’ the pontiff said. “Not a set of ideas and precepts to drill into people, but a welcoming home for everyone.”

Francis expanded on his appeal for forgiveness that he had made earlier in the day.

“It pains me to think that Catholics contributed to policies of assimilation and enfranchisement that inculcated a sense of inferiority,” Francis said, “robbing communities and individuals of their cultural and spiritual identity, severing their roots and fostering prejudicial and discriminatory attitudes.’’

He noted that “this was also done in the name of an educational system that was supposedly Christian.”

Francis then tried to meld the theology of the church with the spirituality of Indigenous people, but noted, “I can only imagine the effort it must take, for those who have suffered so greatly because of men and women who should have set an example of Christian living, even to think about reconciliation.”

He said it was all the worse because so many priests and nuns contributed to “lasting pain.”

Francis, a critic of proselytizing and colonialism, said it happened “because believers became worldly, and rather than fostering reconciliation, they imposed their own cultural models. This attitude dies hard, also from the religious standpoint.”

He talked about the “shame, as believers” for what had transpired, and used Indigenous symbols, including the tepee, to draw more connections with the Catholic faith. He argued that the example of Christ on the cross, “crucified in the many students of the residential schools,” was the transformative power that would turn sorrow into love and result into true reconciliation.

“In the name of Jesus,” he said, “may this never happen again in the Church.”

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An Indigenous community prepares for pilgrims flocking to see the pope.

ALEXIS NAKOTA SIOUX NATION, Alberta — Since 1887, Catholics, most of them Indigenous, have made an annual pilgrimage to the reed-lined shore of Lac Ste. Anne. And for much of that period, the closest Indigenous community to the site, what is today known as the Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation, has been hosting pilgrims.

With Pope Francis planning to attend on Tuesday, the people of Alexis have expanded their usual welcome. At the grounds running down to the lake shore, space has been cleared for upward of 3,000 campers, and adjacent fields nearby have been cleared for more for if that proves insufficient. Portable toilets dot the community, which is about three miles from the shrine, and a long row of portable buildings has been fitted with showers.

On Sunday afternoon, a steady stream of campers were arriving, some hauling large trailers, others bringing one-person tents or making shelters from logs and tarps.

“There are a lot of feelings about Pope Francis coming here,” said Chief Tony Alexis. “There’s the people who are very happy and celebrating that Pope Francis is here because they’ve always been faithful to the church. And there’s the ones who have been struggling with the pain that has been caused because of residential schools. So they’re a little bit apprehensive.”

Thousands of Indigenous children died and countless others were sexually and physically abused at the schools.

Not everyone arrived in a car or a pickup. Adam McDonald had walked from Fort McMurray, Alberta, a distance he measured precisely at 477.5 kilometers (296.7 miles). He pulled a wagon, which, he said, weighed up to 300 pounds when fully loaded during the two-and-a-half-week walk. Fastened at front end was a flag commemorating missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, while a commemorative flag for children who had died at residential schools was unfurled at the back.

“After the pope blesses the water, I’m going to release a lot of weight,” he said on Sunday. “All of that weight that I’ve been carrying for a number of years, I will let it go.”

Nearby, outside a large trailer, Marie Trottier was selling traditional beaded crucifixes hanging on deerskin necklaces. For more than two decades, Ms. Trottier, who is Métis and lives in the northern Saskatchewan community of Buffalo Narrows, has assisted priests in conducting the Dene language service at the Mass.

Ms. Trottier said she had cried when she watched video of the pope land on Sunday in Edmonton, Alberta. She said that the abuse at residential schools had never shaken her faith.

“My mum and dad raised me with this faith, the Catholic Church, and I’m going to live with it; I’m going to die with it,” Ms. Trottier, 74, said. “It’s not God or Jesus that made a mistake. It’s the human beings that made that mistake.”

— Ian Austen

Indigenous communities seek healing and consider the impact of the pope’s apology.

MASKWACIS, Alberta — Survivors of the abuses in Canada’s church-run residential schools and advocates for Indigenous people listened to Pope Francis beg for forgiveness on Monday in a damp field that resonated with generations of pain and trauma.

Before his speech, the pope prayed at the nearby Ermineskin cemetery. He was pushed in a wheelchair by aides and lowered his head as he visited graves. Survivors gathered to hear his remarks weighed what the apology meant.

“Today means hope and healing,” said Leanne Louis, 52, who wore a traditional ribbon skirt and held an Eagle Staff representing the Montana First Nation in Maskwacis. “Hope for a better future for all of our residential school survivors.”

Ms. Louis said she herself was a survivor of the Maskwacis school, which she attended as a day student, and where she was beaten by teachers and sexually abused by other students as a third grader.

She said she had a mental block of the time, forgetting the names of teachers and their faces. Her mother, she said, also suffered physical and sexual abuse at the school and was broken by it. “She became an alcoholic,” said Ms. Louis, who has four children. “She drank 24/7. I was raised by my grandparents and made the choice to never touch alcohol.”

But the grandparents who raised her were also survivors of the same school, though they never spoke a word about it. Her grandfather went deaf as a boy studying there and developed a lifelong animosity for education. “He hated education,” she said, adding that it was an insidious result of his abuse there. “He hated school.”

“It’s a first good step,” Chief Leeketchemonia, 50, of the Keseekoose First Nation, said of the pontiff’s apology, “but a lot more work needs to be done.”

He said he hoped it would “get the healing started” and said there needed to be “more involvement on the church’s behalf to support First Nations and to regain trust. A lot of our elders say that can be given will ever make up for what was taken away from them.”

Leah Omeasoo Gillette, 40, of the Samson Cree Nation, which also lived on the Maskwacis reservation, performed for Francis as a dancer, wearing a Jingle Dress, also known as a healing dress, which jangled with tin cones.

While she was herself not a survivor of the schools, she said she considered herself “an intergenerational survivor.”

“I have experience trauma in my life,” she said, “and I believe it all stemmed from the residential schools.”

Before the pope arrived, Elder Ted Quewezance, a residential school survivor from Keeseekoose First Nation, who has played a leading role in the search for children’s graves around the schools, said, “You will have to decide if you will accept or reject the apology.”

“Most of my life I was a very angry man and a very hurt man,” he said, his voice breaking as friends and family rubbed his back. “All that’s happened to me, I know that accepting the apology will help me let go of my pain. When you are abused, that is all you think about it. You relive the experience over and over again.”

Canada’s residential schools were a system of ‘cultural genocide,’ a commission found.

The investigation into Canada’s scandalous system of mandatory residential schools for Indigenous children was among the most comprehensive reviews in the country’s history, taking testimony from more than 6,000 witnesses and reviewing thousands of documents over six years.

And, in the end, the conclusion of the National Truth and Reconciliation Commission was unambiguous: “Children were abused, physically and sexually, and they died in the schools in numbers that would not have been tolerated in any school system anywhere in the country, or in the world.”

From the 1880s through the 1990s, the Canadian government forcibly removed at least 150,000 ​Indigenous children from their homes and sent ​them t​o residential schools to assimilate them. ​Their languages and religious and cultural practices were banned, sometimes using violence. It was, the ​commission ​reported in 2015, a system of “cultural genocide.”

Because of the schools, generations of Indigenous children were raised by adults, including priests and nuns, who had little understanding of their roles, and many students developed mental health and substance abuse problems from the trauma they suffered at the schools.

The number of students who died at the schools is still a matter of historical research. But Murray Sinclair, a former judge, senator and head of the commission, said he estimates that the figure exceeds 10,000 children .

Searching for the Unmarked Graves of Indigenous Children

For more than a century, indigenous children in canada were forced to attend residential schools, where many endured abuse. thousands were never seen again and survivors were long ignored. we followed a team of archaeologists who came to the muskowekwan first nation to search for the graves of these lost children..

“What residential school was, and still is, is a nightmare.” For more than a century, Indigenous children in Canada were taken from their homes and sent to residential schools to forcibly assimilate them into white society. And thousands were never seen again. Now, more than 20 years after the last school shut down, searches for the remains of these lost children are happening across the country. “There’s nothing on the surface, but once we interpret the data, we can see if we can find these children.” We followed a team of archaeologists who came to the Muskowekwan First Nation to investigate what lies beneath the ground. “There is unmarked graves there. They’re all over the place. But nothing has been done.” Here, some residential school survivors hope that scientific evidence will reveal to the rest of the world a truth they’ve long known. “These stories are real. I saw something in here. And people have never listened.” Harvey Desjarlais was taken to residential school when he was 6 1/2 years old. “And I remember being locked in the dorm. I cried so much because of the harshness. Small boys’ dorm — this is where we were kept. They shave your head, cut off your braids. Right here, a boy hung himself. I found him hanging. He wasn’ t hanging. He was laying there. He was already —” Generations of Indigenous children suffered physical and sexual abuse inside the boarding schools. They were established by the Canadian government and initially run by the Catholic Church. “This used to be the chapel over here. This is where we used to pray 10 times a day. They used to call us little savages. ‘You little savage. Your ceremonies, that’s paganism.’ That’s how they spoke to us.” After his years as a student, Harvey worked as the school’s caretaker for 22 years. Today, he still visits the grounds of the former school, even though it shut down in 1997. “I come here just about every day. I have a dream of elders. You know, like calling. And I know what they’re calling about. They’re our children.” “You look at your map. And you could just draw a circle so we could find out exactly where these graves are.” The First Nation has invited archaeologists to search for unmarked graves, and survivor testimony will be crucial. Elders have long shared stories of what happened at these schools but were rarely believed outside their community. “We lived on top of the graves for many, many years. But we couldn’t do nothing. There’s a big hill over here — all graves, all graves.” “About the researchers coming here, it’s been a long time coming.” Laura Oochoo is Harvey’s longtime partner. She also went to the Muskowekwan Residential School. “I’m at a place where I’m trying to understand, what’s this all mean for — for all of us right now? People are angry with the finding of our kids. This horror, it’s living with that. They deserve to be honored and respected, you know? That’s all I think that they would want.” “I’m very confident that there is something there.” The archaeologists Terence Clark and Kisha Supernant are leading the search effort. They’re using ground-penetrating radar to locate burial sites. The rest of the team is made up of graduate students, including Micaela Champagne, who, along with Kisha, is Indigenous. “So I’ve been an archaeologist now for about 20 years. And with Indigenous communities, they would prefer, often, to have less destructive methods, so ways to not disturb a lot of earth. So there’s a bunch of them. And that’s a 3-year-old.” “And it’s all in the same year.” “The work that we’re doing with the ground-penetrating radar is to locate children’s graves. And before we really get into that, we need to understand how many children we’re looking for.” Many of the records from this era are incomplete or have been destroyed, but the documents that remain contain clues to some deaths and abuses. “There’s a couple sort of suspicious-y ones that are, like, 14 years old.” “Babies, it’s babies.” Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission investigated residential schools, and in a 2015 report, concluded that many children died from malnourishment, disease and suicide. “This was a deliberate act to colonize, ‘to extinguish the Indian in the child.’ That’s a direct quote.” “The mastery of words.” “This was planned, it was callous, and abuse and death were known about.” “I was gang-raped by a gang in the school, you know? And after I went through all the turmoil of sexual assault, I became suicidal in school. I was 12 years old when I tried to commit suicide. A lot of us that came out of that school had a hard time.” Harvey’s come to the school to show researchers where to look in person. “My name’s Harvey.” “I’m Terry.” “I was here since 1949.” “Wow.” “I went to school here 17 years, and I worked here another 22 years. From here, all the way this way, it has to be looked at. There was bodies all along, up to about the bottom, where the line is about there, just maybe past there.” “OK.” “All right, let’s maybe put it all down, and we’ll smudge before I put anything in the ground here.” “Sounds good.” “Archaeology has a very dark past about stealing Indigenous remains. And there was something in me that was telling me that this is something that I have to be a part of. The equipment’s actually quite heavy. It’s kind of representative of helping to shoulder some of that weight from those communities.” “So the ground-penetrating radar basically takes a electromagnetic wave and sends it down to the ground from a sensor at a particular frequency. So the higher the frequency, the tighter the wave. And it sends that down. And it’s basically measuring what’s reflected back.” After scanning the ground for four days, the team processes the data and stitches it together in 3D to see if the resulting images show any signs of children’s remains. “From four and a half to seven and a half, there’s just a lot of stuff something going on.” “Something going on there, yeah.” “This is the type of shape that we have found. The color pattern, you can almost imagine a child lying on its side in that pit. We’ve had survivors tell us to look in this spot. There’s no other sort of natural phenomenon to explain why you’d have this oval pit underneath the surface. And then the fact that there are eight to 10 or 12, all of those things together, um, yeah.” “It’s about as certain as we can get. “Yeah.” “That’s heartbreaking.” “This is why we do it. It’s just — it shows the value of what we’re doing.” “And there’s thousands of these across the country. Thousands. People deserve answers, and they deserve justice.” This time, they’ve discovered two unmarked graves. But researchers say they expect to find over 80 more at Muskowekwan. They still have large swaths of land around the school left to scan. “It’s in our traditional belief that our ancestors are constantly walking beside us and with us to give us strength. We turned a corner, and there was the boiler room. The boiler room was used as a way to get rid of some of the remains and children. It was difficult, but I also needed to understand, as a granddaughter of a survivor, what she went through.” “We’re supposed to be these objective scientists, but there are these moments of emotion. Sometimes they’re joy, sometimes they’re sorrow, and everything in between.” “Underneath that grief and everything, you can sometimes feel relief.” After the ground sonar identifies where bodies might be buried, the First Nation hopes to have a traditional feast and ceremony to honor the children who died at the school. The next step is for the community to decide whether they want to unearth the remains. “Do you think that all this is giving closure to the era of residential school? I think so.” “I think so, yeah.” “It’s making the choice to heal away from the trauma, the abuse. We know who we are. We come from this Creator-given land. That’s who we are.”

Death came in many forms . Diseases like the Spanish flu and tuberculosis raced through the overcrowded schools. Many had farms tended by students where accidents, sometimes fatal, occurred. Malnutrition, a result of underfunding, was rife at many schools. And fires destroyed several of the remote schools, often with students trapped inside.

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. Depending on the period of time, the Roman Catholic Church operated between 60 and 70 percent of the schools, with Protestant denominations running the balance.

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. For most of the time that the system operated, the government refused to reimburse the churches for burials or to pay to return students’ bodies to their communities.

The ground-penetrating radar searches continue at many school sites, and many communities are expected to hold difficult discussions about whether to exhume the remains.

The place where the pope delivered his apology is notorious among survivors.

Pope Francis’s first apology in Canada to Indigenous people for the abuse they suffered at residential schools was made in an intimate setting, at the Ermineskin Cree Nation, the site of one of the 130 schools that were once spread across most of Canada.

The former Indian Residential School that stood at Ermineskin , a town of just over 3,000 people that is 60 miles south of Edmonton, Alberta, was not among the most notorious or the largest schools in the system. But like all of them, it was a place of horrors for the children forced to attend it between 1894 and 1976.

“As a survivor, I know what is to come will be painful,” Chief Randy Ermineskin of the Ermineskin First Nation said in a statement. “Just seeing pictures of the schools, remembering the hallways, the classrooms, how we were treated — it is triggering. It’s emotional.”

Established by Roman Catholic missionaries, the Ermineskin school became overcrowded early on, a product of the federal government’s chronic underfunding of its system, which a National Truth and Reconciliation Commission found was set up to eradicate Indigenous languages and cultures.

That overcrowding caused the spread of disease through Ermineskin’s dorms. The federal government estimated that in the 1920s half its students had tuberculosis.

And there was worse, according to testimony from former Ermineskin students. Many described suffering physical, sexual and emotional abuse at the school.

Last year, the Ermineskin Cree Nation brought in technicians from a Montreal-based engineering firm to search the former school grounds and nearby cemeteries for the remains of former students in unmarked graves, a process still underway. 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.

The government took control of the school from the church in 1969. The dorms were closed shortly afterward and it continued as a day school until 1976.

Francis did not see any of the school buildings that continue to haunt the memories of former students. They were long ago demolished and replaced by a black stone monument bearing a drawing of the school, its name and dates of operation, along with the inscription “Honoring Our Survivors” in English and Cree.

Records to fill gaps about residential schools are sought from Catholic groups.

ROME — Much remains unknown about the specific operations of Canada’s church-run residential schools, in part, some critics say, because Catholic orders that ran them have only recently begun to open their archives.

Kimberly Murray, a Mohawk lawyer who was executive director of the National Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which investigated the residential school system until 2015, said that at that time, “Catholic entities” had been “the most difficult’’ to get records from.

Sometimes, she said, that was because there were so many different entities — orders, congregations, dioceses — that had to be dealt with individually.

The residential schools were run by various Christian denominations, but most were run by the Catholic Church. Each Catholic order, though, kept its own records, which would not have been shared with the Holy See, an archivist at the Vatican said.

But Stephanie Scott, executive director of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, a Canadian archive and research body, said last year’s discovery of signs of unmarked graves at the site of a former residential school in British Columbia had “changed the landscape across the country, not only with the church, but also the federal government.”

Earlier this year, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, which managed the most schools, 48 in all, gave Raymond Frogner, the center’s archivist, access to the congregation’s historical records . Mr. Frogner found administrative records, as well as photographs of life at residential schools that “could give some indication of children who perhaps might have been known to be lost,” he told the CBC .

“It has changed, we are on the right path, the right road,” said Ms. Scott. “It is not an ideal, perfect situation yet.”

Access to the archive in Rome was “the result of ongoing dialogue and communication” with the Oblate religious community in Canada, which last year pledged to make all its archives available after unmarked graves were found in June 2021 at the former Marieval Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan, which the Oblates had operated.

The Oblates said at the time that they were committed “to establish the truth of what happened in residential schools,” and the order’s involvement in running them.

Ms. Scott said that since the discovery of the unmarked graves last year there had been a groundswell of support from the Oblates but also provincial and community archives and two other Catholic congregations.

“From where I am sit and seven years later, following the close of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, we are in a position where we are now able to gather further information that the TRC did not previously hold and some of the challenges that they faced,” she said.

“The landscape has changed, and it’s only through the spirit of the children guiding that process, because I can tell you that until this point we were struggling,” she said. “People would not reach out to us, and all of a sudden they are, asking how they can help. So I am hopeful,” she said.

— Elisabetta Povoledo

A chief marvels on a 32-year effort to expose wrongdoing and get redress.

OTTAWA — The events that led to Pope Francis’ coming to Canada to offer an apology to Indigenous people for the harm they suffered in church-run schools can be traced to a Canadian television program that aired 32 years ago .

During it, Phil Fontaine, then a regional chief in Manitoba, told an interviewer in often harrowing detail about being abused as a student at residential schools run by the Roman Catholic Church. His story was a revelation to non-Indigenous Canadians.

“Then, there was very little known about the residential school experience; it just wasn’t a factor in the lives of ordinary Canadians,” Mr. Fontaine said last week in an interview as he prepared to travel to meet the pope at the site of a former residential school. “I thought that the best way to come to grips with this issue was to go public and, in effect, call out the church.”

But Mr. Fontaine did not just retell what had happened to him. He also presented a list of demands: that school records be opened to allow researchers to determine what happened, that there be a public inquiry and, finally, that former students get a formal apology.

With the pope’s apology on Monday, Mr. Fontaine will finally have achieved all those goals after decades of resistance.

Along the way, Mr. Fontaine became the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations and a leading plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit. That suit was eventually settled, with apologies and billions of dollars in reparations from the federal government, which established the system, and the Protestant churches that ran some of them.

Perhaps just as important, the settlement established a Truth and Reconciliation Commission , which heard from more than 6,000 witnesses and combed through documents to tell the grim story of the schools, where thousands of children died and sexual and physical abuse was widespread.

Mr. Fontaine also continued to push the Vatican, meeting privately as chief with Pope Benedict XVI. No apology came from a pope until this year, though, and the Catholic church has paid only a sliver of the 25 million Canadian dollars (about $19.3 million) it agreed to raise in reparations as part of the lawsuit settlement.

Like most Indigenous people, Mr. Fontaine does not believe that the process of reconciliation is even close to being finished. But he does marvel at the progress he and many others achieved over three decades.

“This speaks to the incredible persistence and resiliency of our community to stay focused on getting things done right,” Mr. Fontaine said. “We didn’t anticipate that we would be as successful as we were.”

The United States also ran an abusive school system for Native American children.

As Pope Francis traveled to Canada this week to apologize for the church’s role in residential schools for Indigenous children, the United States also continued to wrestle with the legacy of its government-run schools for Native American children.

An initial investigation commissioned by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and released this year cataloged some of the brutal conditions that Native American children endured at more than 400 boarding schools that the U.S. federal government forced them to attend between 1819 and 1969. The inquiry was an initial step, Ms. Haaland said, toward addressing the “intergenerational trauma” that the policy left behind.

An Interior Department report released on Wednesday highlighted the abuse of many of the children at the U.S.-government-run schools, with instances of beatings, withholding of food and solitary confinement. It also identified burial sites at more than 50 of the former schools, and said that “approximately 19 federal Indian boarding schools accounted for over 500 American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian child deaths.” The number of recorded deaths is expected to grow, the report said.

The report is the first step in a comprehensive review that Ms. Haaland, the first Native American U.S. cabinet secretary , announced in June after the discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves of children who attended similar schools in Canada provoked a national reckoning there.

Beginning in 1869 and until the 1960s, hundreds of thousands of Native American children in the United States were taken from their homes and families and placed in the boarding schools, which were operated by the government and churches.

There were 20,000 children at the schools by 1900; by 1925, the number had more than tripled, according to the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, based in Minneapolis.

The discovery of the unmarked graves in western Canada last year — 215 in British Columbia , 750 more in Saskatchewan — led Ms. Haaland to announce in May of this year that her agency would search the grounds of former schools in the United States and identify any remains. Ms. Haaland’s grandparents attended such schools.

“The consequences of federal Indian boarding school policies — including the intergenerational trauma caused by the family separation and cultural eradication inflicted upon generations of children as young as 4 years old — are heartbreaking and undeniable,” Ms. Haaland said during a news conference. “It is my priority to not only give voice to the survivors and descendants of federal Indian boarding school policies, but also to address the lasting legacies of these policies so Indigenous peoples can continue to grow and heal.”

— Mark Walker

Tensions linger over what the Catholic Church owes school survivors.

Although Pope Francis has apologized to Indigenous people for the harm they suffered at residential schools operated by the Roman Catholic Church, another major point of contention still looms over the church’s relationship with Canada’s first people.

Unlike the Canadian government and the Protestant denominations that also ran residential schools, the Catholic Church has largely not fulfilled its commitments under a landmark class action settlement to compensate former students.

As the pope participates in reconciliation events in Canada this week, hopes remain high that he will back up the church’s apology with steps toward reparations.

Under a settlement in 2006 of a class action brought by former students, most of the 4.7 billion Canadian dollars paid in reparations came from the federal government. Protestant churches paid about 9.2 million Canadian dollars.

But the Catholic Church, which ran about 70 percent of the more than 130 schools, has paid just 1.2 million of the 25 million Canadian dollars it had agreed to raise in cash contributions as compensation. The schools operated from the 1870s until 1996.

That anemic fund-raising effort was partly because the Catholic Church lacks a central governing body in Canada, unlike its Protestant counterparts.

But the church was also effectively released from its obligations when a Conservative government led by former Prime Minister Stephen Harper decided in 2015 not to appeal a key court decision in favor of the church.

That decision sided with church lawyers, who argued that the 1.2 million-dollar payment settled all of its obligations.

Why the government backed off from a legal challenge is unclear.

“This was a decision of the previous Conservative government,” Justine Leblanc, a spokeswoman for Marc Miller, the current Indigenous affairs minister, wrote in an email. “We cannot speculate as to their internal decision-making process.”

Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafonde, the academic director of the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre, accused the government of giving the Catholic Church special consideration.

“The federal government — as administrator of the settlement — treated the Catholic entity differently from other churches almost from the beginning,” she wrote in an analysis last December. “It permitted the Catholic entity to make ‘best efforts’ to raise funds to fulfill obligations and, from what is known, did only minimal monitoring of whether the entity met its obligations.”

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops announced last year that it had launched another fund-raising attempt, this time with a target of collecting 30 million Canadian dollars over five years.

So far the church has raised 4.6 million Canadian dollars.

— Ian Austen and Vjosa Isai

Indigenous leaders want the Vatican to return their heritage.

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican’s museums are undoubtedly best known for their masterpieces by Caravaggio, Raphael and Michelangelo. But unbeknownst to many, the Vatican also has an ethnological museum with some 80,000 pieces that originated from cultural items assembled for a 1925 exhibition sponsored by Pope Pius XI.

The “Vatican Missionary Exposition,” as it was known, consisted of cultural material from Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania “minutely and vividly portraying the life and customs of natives in every corner of the globe where Catholic missionaries are engaged,” The Associated Press wrote at the time. Held in the Vatican gardens, the exhibition drew more than one million visitors.

Indigenous leaders in Canada now want some of these pieces back.

Last December, the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, a group that represents the interests of Inuvialuit people, called for the “immediate return of all Indigenous artifacts held in the collection of the Vatican Museum.” The group singled out an Inuvialuit kayak that it described in a statement “as a piece of Inuvialuit history, made by Inuvialuit hands in Inuvialuit traditions.”

“It is not ‘the pope’s kayak,’” the group said.

The kayak was one of several pieces shown to representatives from Canadian Indigenous communities during a visit to the Museums last spring as part of their weeklong visit to the Vatican. Other items included moccasins, jewelry and thread-embroidered gloves.

After the trip, several delegates told Canadian news media that at least some of the material should be repatriated.

A sacred ceremonial pipe, for example, has no business being in the Vatican Museums, said Norman Yakeleya, from the Dene Nation in the Northwest Territories. He suggested that plastic models could be displayed instead.

Cody Groat, a Kanyen’kehaka citizen from Six Nations of the Grand River Reserve, Ontario, and an assistant professor of history and Indigenous studies at Western University in London, Ontario, said the items in the Vatican belonged where they originated.

“They have meaning that is contemporary to us today, they have teachings that they can provide us today,” Professor Groat said. “They’re not something that we are just going to put on display. It’s something we are going to use to help revitalize our culture and our nations.”

But the Vatican, he said, might be reluctant to repatriate items because of the precedent it could set. “It’s not just a Canadian nation issue,” Professor Groat said.

Cultural items from North America are not currently on exhibit at “Anima Mundi,” or “soul of the world,” the name of the ethnological collection. The museum is instead showcasing the permanent collection from Australia and Oceania.

Gloria Bell, who teaches art history at McGill University in Montreal, said her research countered the Vatican’s official narrative that the items in its collection were gifts given to the pope for the 1925 exhibition.

Given archival records and the history of missionary labor at church-run residential schools where Indigenous children were forcibly sent, Professor Bell said, “it’s clear that some of these were sent under coercive circumstances.”

“Using the term gift glosses over the colonial legacy of the Anima Mundi exhibition and how the majority of this collection was acquired,” she said.

Key moments on the path to the pope’s apology.

TORONTO — The last church-run residential schools in Canada that Indigenous children were forced to attend, and where many were abused, closed in the 1990s. Since then, the Canadian government and Indigenous communities have worked to address the profound damage inflicted there, which continues to reverberate today.

Here are five important moments leading to the apology Pope Francis is to deliver to Indigenous communities on Monday.

A brutal system of abuse in the name of assimilation.

The Indian Act of 1876 allowed the Canadian government to establish the residential schools, most of which were operated by the Roman Catholic Church and were meant to assimilate Indigenous children by erasing their culture and languages.

They were punished for speaking Indigenous languages, wearing their hair in braids or practicing religion outside of what was being taught at school.

Over more than a century, roughly 150,000 students attended some 130 schools, where many were sexually abused, malnourished and fell sick from the poor conditions. Many died or never returned home.

As the number of students dwindled, the last of the schools closed in 1996, ushering in a period of national reckoning, including official investigations, over Canada’s treatment of Indigenous people.

A major class action settlement for former students.

As a result of a lawsuit by former students at the schools, Canadian courts approved a sweeping class-action settlement that has paid out more than 3.2 billion Canadian dollars to about 28,000 survivors, according to a 2021 repor t by an independent committee overseeing the settlement.

In addition to financial compensation, the settlement also included funding for other initiatives, such as memorials and other commemorative projects and a program that provides mental health services to survivors and their families.

A national commission leads to a reckoning with a grim past.

A National Truth and Reconciliation Commission created in 2007 as part of the settlement agreement hosted gatherings in seven cities across the country to, among other things, hear the firsthand accounts of Indigenous people who had been sent to residential schools.

At local hearings, survivors shared their stories of Catholic monks raping children younger than 10 and hungry students resorting to stealing apples from orchards to eat.

In 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued an official apology from the government to Indigenous communities.

Evidence of unmarked graves discovered at residential schools.

Last year, the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation in British Columbia said it had found evidence of unmarked graves of 215 children on the grounds of the Kamloops Indian Residential School, which was once the largest in Canada, with about 500 students.

The discovery, made using ground-penetrating radar, shocked Canadians and revived a national discourse around the horrors of residential schools.

Several other communities also announced preliminary findings of possible unmarked graves on former residential school grounds. Last June, Cowessess First Nation said it had found 751 possible unmarked graves at the site of a school in Saskatchewan.

A trip to Italy and a papal apology.

In the spring, a delegation of Indigenous leaders from Canada traveled to the Vatican, and received a hoped-for apology from Pope Francis.

“I feel shame — sorrow and shame — for the role” that Catholics played “in the abuses you suffered and in the lack of respect shown for your identity, your culture and even your spiritual values,” Francis said . He also promised to travel to Canada and deliver a personal apology.

Ian Austen contributed reporting from Ottawa.

— Vjosa Isai

Papal apologies have a long tradition in a church with a troubled legacy.

VATICAN CITY — When Pope Francis apologized in Canada for the Roman Catholic Church’s involvement in a system of boarding schools that abused Indigenous children for more than a century, he wasn’t the first pontiff to try to make belated amends.

During his 27-year papacy, Saint John Paul II issued some 100 apologies, some specific, others broad.

Visiting the Dominican Republic in 1992 , John Paul recalled “the enormous suffering” endured by the Indigenous people during centuries of colonization. “We must in all sincerity acknowledge the abuses that were committed,” he said.

In 2000, the pope issued a sweeping apology for two millennia worth of past sins, citing religious intolerance and injustice toward Jews, Muslims, women, immigrants, the poor, Indigenous peoples, and others.

And a year later, writing to the church in Oceania , the area that includes Australia, New Zealand and scattered South Pacific islands, John Paul II expressed deep regret for “the shameful injustices done to Indigenous peoples,” lamenting the role that members of the Church may have played, “especially where children were forcibly separated from their families,” he wrote. (A footnote: it was the first papal document posted via the internet.)

Pope Benedict XVI wrote a letter in 2010 to Irish Catholics saying he was “truly sorry” about the abuses suffered by Irish children, including those who were abused in residential institutions.

And he met with Canadian Indigenous leaders in 2009 , expressing “sorrow at the anguish caused by the deplorable conduct of some members of the Church” in Canada. He offered “his sympathy and prayerful solidarity,” adding that “acts of abuse cannot be tolerated in society,” but stopped short of a full apology.

Pope Francis has been more decisive. While on a 2015 trip to Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay, Pope Francis issued a direct apology for the complicity of the Roman Catholic Church in the oppression of Latin America during the colonial era. “I say this to you with regret: many grave sins were committed against the native peoples of America in the name of God,” Francis told a gathering of social activists, farmers, workers and Bolivian Indigenous people in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia.

He then “humbly” asked for forgiveness. “Not only for the offenses of the Church herself, but also for crimes committed against the native peoples during the so-called conquest of America,” he said.

Two years later, Francis apologized for the “sins and failings of the Church and its members, among whom priests, and religious men and women who succumbed to hatred and violence, betraying their own evangelical mission” in the Rwandan genocide of 1994.

In 2020, the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, wrote a letter to Pope Francis demanding a public apology for the abuses inflicted on the Indigenous peoples of Mexico.

A year later, Francis wrote to Mexican bishops urging clergy members to “recognize the painful errors committed in the past,” and calling on them to re-examine the role the church had played in the country’s history. The letter prompted controversy among the political right in Spain , which rallied behind the country’s role in conquering the Americas 500 years ago.

How a papal resignation has complicated Pope Francis’s tenure.

ROME — Over the last few weeks, close watchers of the Roman Catholic Church have carefully studied shadows on the Vatican walls for proof that Pope Francis is about to retire .

They pointed at an unexpected move to create new cardinals in August as a sign that Francis, 85, was stacking the college that will pick his successor before an early exit. They read deep into his planned visit to an Italian town with a connection to a medieval pope who called it quits. They saw the pope’s use of a wheelchair and his cancellation of a trip to Africa as evidence of his papacy’s premature ending, despite Vatican explanations about a healing right knee.

But in an interview this month, Francis, who is on the second day of a planned six-day visit to Canada, dispelled the rumors, calling the supposed evidence mere “coincidences” and telling Reuters that the idea of resignation “never entered my mind. For the moment no. For the moment, no. Really.”

The only shadow that seemed real then was the one cast by Francis’s predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, who in 2013 became the first pontiff to retire in nearly 600 years . In doing so, he changed the nature, and perception, of the papacy from a lifetime mission assigned by the Holy Spirit to a more earthly calling, subject to political pressures, health assessments and considerations about the church’s best interests.

“Now it is much easier to envision a resignation because Benedict paved the way for that, and it changed our perception,” said Giovanna Chirri , a veteran Vatican reporter who broke the news of Benedict’s retirement when she understood the pope, to the shock of the cardinals around him, tender his resignation while speaking in Latin. “It is not like before.”

For all of Benedict’s struggles to leave a mark on the church, his papacy is often remembered for its public relations missteps and inconvenient revelations about dysfunction within the Vatican. But the German pontiff’s decision to quit transformed the office, creating pre-Benedict and post-Benedict eras when it comes to the expectations of how long popes will stay in power.

Francis is clearly living in the post-Benedict era, often leaving open the possibility of one day resigning if declining health made it impossible to run the church.

“But when the time comes that I see that I can’t do it, I will do it,” Francis said again of retirement in the Reuters interview. “And that was the great example of Pope Benedict. It was such a very good thing for the church. He told popes to stop in time. He is one of the greats, Benedict.”

Gaia Pianigiani contributed reporting.

Vatican says Pope Francis has agreed to visit Canada, meet with Indigenous leaders

A canadian delegation is scheduled to meet with the pope at the vatican in december.

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WARNING: This story contains distressing details.

Pope Francis has agreed to visit Canada to help ongoing efforts at reconciliation with Indigenous people following the discovery this summer of hundreds of potential burial sites at former church-run residential schools, the Vatican said on Wednesday.

In a brief statement, the Vatican said the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) has invited the Pope to make an apostolic journey to Canada "also in the context of the long-standing pastoral process of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples."

The Vatican says Francis has indicated his "willingness" to visit Canada at a date to be determined. Given the time usually required to organize an overseas papal visit, it appeared unlikely such a pilgrimage could happen this year.

"The Bishops of Canada have been engaged in meaningful discussions with Indigenous Peoples, especially those affected by Residential Schools who have shared stories about the suffering and challenges that they continue to experience," said Rev. Raymond Poisson, CCCB president.

"We pray that Pope Francis' visit to Canada will be a significant milestone in the journey toward reconciliation and healing."

Assembly of First Nations National Chief RoseAnne Archibald said in a media statement that she will welcome Pope Francis and expects him to deliver a "long overdue" apology to residential school survivors.

"The Catholic Church must be accountable and acknowledge their responsibility for implementing and running these institutions of assimilation and genocide," she said.

She also called on the church to make "a number of reparations," including returning diocese land and investing in long-term healing and support programs.

Minister wants 'full recognition' from Pope of harm caused

Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller told reporters in Ottawa that the Pope's upcoming visit has been demanded for a long time.

"I think that for the Holy Father — in whom many of the faithful saw a lot of hope when he was installed — full and complete recognition of the harm caused to Indigenous peoples was at the top of the list of what they wanted to see him do in Canada, on the territory," he said.

"I know there are mixed views, mixed perspectives on that, but in the grand scheme of what we call reconciliation, I think for Indigenous peoples, that full recognition of harm caused is something that is long waited for from the Holy Father himself."

WATCH | Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller on Pope's visit:

Miller reacts to Pope agreeing to visit Canada

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh also said he expects the Pope to apologize for the wrongs committed by the Catholic Church against Indigenous people, particularly in residential schools.

"But an apology is not good enough," Singh said.

The church must provide compensation for survivors and release residential school records to "give closure to families so that they can know what happened to their children."

From the 19th century until the last school closed in 1997, more than 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend state-funded Christian boarding schools in a campaign to assimilate them into Canadian society. Thousands of children died there of disease and other causes; others never returned to their families.

Nearly three-quarters of the 130 residential schools were run by Roman Catholic missionary congregations, with others operated by the Presbyterian, Anglican and the United Church of Canada.

A few months ago, Francis agreed to meet in December with Indigenous survivors of Canada's notorious residential schools amid calls for a papal apology for the Catholic Church's role.

At that time, the bishops conference said the pontiff had invited the delegations to the Vatican and would meet separately with three groups — First Nations, Métis and Inuit — during their Dec. 17-20 visit. The Pope will then preside over a final audience with all three groups Dec. 20, according to the bishops group.

LISTEN | Why residential school survivors are skeptical about compensation:

Trudeau disappointed with slow response

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in response to a question last week while visiting Tk'emlúps te Secwe̓pemc Nation in B.C., pointed out that those three churches had signed on to the landmark 2005 Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement.

"We have seen, unfortunately, from the Catholic Church, a resistance to taking on responsibility, either financial or moral, for its role in residential schools," Trudeau said.

"I think the millions of Catholics like me across this country expect the church to step up and fulfil its moral responsibilities, its legal and economic responsibilities, its historic responsibilities, but also to practise what it quite literally preaches," he added.

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops said last month that they would give $30 million to help support survivors of the residential school system.

The church committed in 2005 to pay $29 million in cash under the 2005 agreement, but documents recently obtained by CBC News showed much of the money was spent on lawyers, administration, a private fundraising company and unapproved loans.

Apology doesn't end the process: Fontaine

Phil Fontaine, the former grand chief of the Assembly of First Nations and Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, had been selected as a delegate to meet with Francis at the planned meeting at the Vatican.

"We're working toward something quite substantial in our meeting with the Holy Father, and that has to include, not just the apology — which is significant — but what comes after the apology," he told CBC Manitoba last week. "That is, in my view, where important steps have to be taken both from the Catholic Church and their various entities in Canada and our people."

Phil Fontaine talks about his upcoming meeting with Pope Francis

A papal apology was one of 94 recommendations from Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, but the Canadian bishops conference said in 2018 that the Pope could not personally apologize for the residential schools.

Deacon Rennie Nahanee, a member of the Squamish First Nation, said he is the only Indigenous deacon in British Columbia.

He told CBC News the reconciliation project should allow Indigenous people to let go of the past.

"I know it's difficult, but it's like a cancer that's inside them. A tumour. That if they don't get rid of it, that tumour, it's just going to keep on spreading like the cancer it is," he said.

"The only way that our future generations will have a brighter future, a better future, a happier future is through reconciliation, through forgiveness. To start over with a clean state and we will have a new life to begin."

Francis acknowledged sorrows and sufferings

Pope Benedict XVI, who retired in 2013, met with some former students and victims in 2009 and told them of his "personal anguish" over their suffering. But he offered no apology.

The issue came to the fore in the spring, when investigators in Canada using ground-penetrating radar reported finding hundreds of potential burial sites at two residential schools for Indigenous children. The discoveries revived calls for the Pope to make a formal apology.

Canadian Catholic bishops pledge $30M for reconciliation efforts

Pope Francis addressed the discoveries of an estimated 200 potential burial sites on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School on June 6. Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc originally reported its radar survey detected 215 potential burial sites but later revised that down to 200.

"I follow with sorrow the news that arrives from Canada about the upsetting discovery of the remains of 215 children," Francis said. "I join with the Catholic church in Canada in expressing closeness to the Canadian people traumatized by the shocking news. This sad discovery increases the awareness of the sorrows and sufferings of the past."

"May the political and religious authorities continue to collaborate with determination to shed light on this sad affair and to commit to a path of healing," Francis added.

The Argentine pope has apologized for the sins and crimes committed by the Catholic Church against Indigenous peoples during the colonial era conquest of the Americas. He begged forgiveness during a 2015 visit to Bolivia and in the presence of Indigenous groups.

• Trudeau says Catholic officials must 'step up' morally, financially for residential school survivors
• Indigenous delegation pursues residential school 'apology … on our lands' from Pope Francis

Francis, who underwent bowel surgery early in the summer, has resumed regular activities, with a meeting with President Joe Biden on tap for Friday.

A Vatican source told Reuters earlier this week that Francis is set to travel Cyprus and Greece, including the Greek island of Lesbos to meet migrants, from Dec. 2-6.

Support is available for anyone affected by the lingering effects of residential school and those who are triggered by the latest reports. A national Indian Residential School Crisis Line has been set up to provide support for residential school survivors and others affected. People can access emotional and crisis referral services by calling the 24-hour national crisis line: 1-866-925-4419.

With files from CBC News, Jason Warick

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The ‘Deplorable’ History Behind the Pope’s Apology to Canada’s Indigenous Communities

M any of Wahéhshon Whitebean’s family members attended Canada’s residential schools—largely Catholic-run institutions designed to erode Indigenous culture and that were rife with abuse. So Pope Francis’s six-day trip across Canada, which began Sunday, feels personal for 39-year-old Whitebean, who attended an Indian day school, a similar institution but one in which students returned to their families in the evenings. (Pope Francis has called the tour a “pilgrimage of penance” and apologized on Monday .)

The issue is also an academic pursuit for Whitebean, who is pursuing a Ph.D. at McGill University researching Indian day schools in her home community of Kahnawà:ke, just outside of Montreal, Québec. For the last few months, Whitebean has been poring over archives and interviewing dozens of survivors from these institutions. She used to think of herself as somewhat de-sensitized to the issue but says that lately it’s been hard to hold it together while reading detailed complaints—from parents about abuses their children suffered from not being allowed to use the bathroom to having their hands burned on a stove. “I don’t know what came over me. I just started to cry. I bawled and realized at that point it was like a dam broke and all the emotion and my anger and grief was just building up for a while doing this work,” Whitebean says. “There’s no justice for us. There hasn’t been justice.”

Whitebean’s story shows how important the matter is for Indigenous peoples as Pope Francis visits various communities across Edmonton, Québec and Iqaluit in the northern territory of Nunavut. (Francis was welcomed to Canada on Sunday by Indigenous leaders as well as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.)

Read more: What to Know About the Pope’s Visit to Canada and Apology to Indigenous Communities

The Catholic church’s role in residential schools

In 2015, Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) issued a report documenting how the nation’s policy toward Indigenous peoples amounted to “cultural genocide” through its attempts to eliminate Indigenous governments, ignore Indigenous rights and “through a process of assimilation, cause Aboriginal peoples to cease to exist as distinct legal, social, cultural, religious, and racial entities in Canada.” The report noted that a key way in which the Canadian government executed this policy was through residential schools, which more than 150,000 children have attended since the late 19th century. The Catholic church operated about 70% of residential schools in Canada, before the government took control of them in 1969. The last residential school shut in the 1990s.

In recent years, the remains of more than 1,300 people —mainly children—have been discovered using new technology on the grounds of three former residential schools in Canada, prompting an outcry. Indigenous communities say the figures confirm what they have long suspected; estimates suggest between 10,000 and 50,000 children never returned home after attending the schools.

“Deliberately going after Indigenous children as the quickest path to assimilation is just inhumane,” says Dale Turner, associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto.

“In establishing residential schools, the Canadian government essentially declared Aboriginal people to be unfit parents,” the TRC report noted. “The residential school system was based on an assumption that European civilization and Christian religions were superior to Aboriginal culture.” In these schools, children were banned from speaking their own languages and church-led campaigns prohibited Indigenous spiritual practices.

The facilities were also overcrowded, and diseases such as tuberculosis and measles wreaked deadly havoc on Indigenous children.

“When you leave a home that has structure, love and empathy to go into an institution that has no love, no compassion, very cold and in many cases physical, emotional and sexual abuse to children, it has an impact that will stay with them for their entire life—as well as the lives of their children and grandchildren,” says Angela White, executive director of the Indian Residential School Survivors Society (IRSSS). “Many of these residential school survivors went to these institutions, not knowing a parent’s love, and blaming their parents for making them go—without knowing that they were forced to go.”

For Whitebean, the older generations in her family have embraced a culture of silence around their experience at residential schools because of the trauma and shame associated with them. Her grandmother told her that her great-grandmother’s body was full of scars from residential school. She says that others in her family reported different forms of physical and sexual abuse.

What the Pope’s apology means

The Pope’s apology, which comes seven years after the TRC recommended one, will hold different weight across Indigenous communities—but for many there is a sense that it isn’t enough.

Whitebean says she has mixed feelings about the Pope’s visit. “I just don’t believe that anything practical or real or beyond lip service will come out of the visit. I don’t want any more hollow apologies,” she says.

The IRSSS’s White notes that the people her organization represents hold diverse views but personally, she’s not sure it’s enough. “They had many opportunities to provide this apology—along with accountability and transparency about their participation in how these schools were operated, so it’s too little, too late,” White says.

That’s not to say that the apology doesn’t hold greater meaning for other Indigenous peoples, a large number of whom are still Catholic. In April, while meeting with a delegation of Indigenous leaders in the Vatican, the Pope issued an historic apology for the “deplorable” abuses at residential schools. He had promised the delegation he would apologize on Canadian soil.

Indeed, the trip marks the first time a papal visit to Canada is focused on reckoning with the harm caused by the church. “To say that the Pope’s apology does not have political significance in what’s going on in contemporary politics is a mistake because I do think the Pope has an opportunity to come down on the side of Indigenous peoples here,” Turner says. “Part of that reconciliation is to recognize what they took from Indigenous people, which is those important, historical, philosophical, everyday relationships they have with their homelands.”

“This ritual needs to take place for meaningful reconciliation to take place,” Turner says, adding that it was important for it to occur on Indigenous homelands.

And the Pope’s apology is part of a growing movement towards recognizing past abuses against Indigenous peoples. Last year, Trudeau became the first Canadian prime minister to apologize for the “incredibly harmful government policy” that created the residential schooling system.

What Canada’s Indigenous communities want next

For Whitebean, it’s important that the church honor its pledge to raise funds. Some 48 local Catholic church entities were required to use their “best efforts” to fundraise 25 million Canadian dollars for survivors as part of the 2008 Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA), between the government of Canada and thousands of survivors, but ended up raising less than 4 million.

That fundraising gap set the stage for a subsequent pledge. Last year, a group of Canadian bishops announced they would set up an Indigenous Reconciliation Fund that would raise up to 30 million Canadian dollars . So far, less than 5 million has been raised.

By contrast, the IRSSA saw the federal government set up a major compensation fund for children who had been enrolled in residential schools. A 2021 report found that the government has paid out at least 3 billion Canadian dollars in compensation so far.

Whitebean says that the church should also return cultural artifacts held in the Vatican, give back land to Indigenous owners and make it easier for the public to access records related to residential and day schools. Many records are housed within individual religious orders and can still be difficult to access, according to Whitebean.

But whatever comes next, many Indigenous peoples will agree that Pope Francis did not mince his words while condemning the residential school system. “I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous peoples,” he said on Monday outside a former residential school in Maskwacis, Alberta.

Correction, July 26

The original version of this story misstated the university where Dale Turner works. It is the University of Toronto, not McGill University.

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Write to Sanya Mansoor at [email protected]

Visit by Pope Francis to Canada: Here’s what happened on July 26

This article was published more than 1 year ago. Some information may no longer be current.

Pope Francis is visiting Canada between July 25 and July 29, making stops in Edmonton, Quebec City and Iqaluit to address the devastating legacy of Canada’s residential school system. On Monday, the Pope gave a formal apology for the abuses of residential schools . “I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous peoples,” he said.

Latest updates

• The Pope praised Indigenous reverence for elders during outdoor mass.
• Métis National Council statement called the papal apology a ‘step forward.’
• The Pope visited Lac Ste. Anne to take part in the community’s annual pilgrimage.

Pope Francis waves the the crowd as he makes a lap at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta. Gavin John/The Globe and Mail

Pope Francis arrives to preside a mass at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta. AMBER BRACKEN/Reuters

A portrait of an Indigenous patron is displayed on Priest Stan Fontaine of the Winnipeg Dioces as he waits for Pope Francis to arrive at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton Alberta. Gavin John/The Globe and Mail

Pope Francis merchandise hangs at a pop up store outside of Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta. Gavin John/The Globe and Mail

People cheer and wave at Pope Francis as he arrives at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta. Gavin John/The Globe and Mail

A priest takes a photo with his cell phone prior to the arrival of Pope Francis at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta. Gavin John/The Globe and Mail

Nancy Saddleman, 82, who spent 14 years at Kamloops Indian residential school from 1945-59, since she was 5 years old, cries while attending a mass presided by Pope Francis at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta. AMBER BRACKEN/Reuters

People attend a mass presided by Pope Francis at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta. AMBER BRACKEN/Reuters

People watch as Pope Francis arrives to preside a mass at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta. AMBER BRACKEN/Reuters

Pope Francis kisses a child as he arrives for an open-air mass at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta. PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP/Getty Images

Chief Wilton Littlechild, centre, arrives at Commonwealth Stadium for an open air mass by Pope Francis in Edmonton, Alberta. Eric Gay/The Associated Press

Onlookers take photos as Pope Francis (C) arrives for an open-air mass at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta. PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP/Getty Images

A child arrives at Commonwealth Stadium for an open air mass by Pope Francis in Edmonton, Alberta. Eric Gay/The Associated Press

Pope Francis (C) celebrates an open-air mass at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta. PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP/Getty Images

People take photos at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta. PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP/Getty Images

An Indigenous woman wears a traditional headdress as she waits for a Holy Mass with the Pope at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta. VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images

Pope Francis presides a mass at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta. GUGLIELMO MANGIAPANE/Reuters

Pope Francis arrives to preside a mass at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta. GUGLIELMO MANGIAPANE/Reuters

Pope Francis kisses a baby as he arrives to preside a mass at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta. GUGLIELMO MANGIAPANE/Reuters

People look on as Pope Francis arrives for an open-air mass at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta. PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP/Getty Images

Pope Francis waves as he arrives for an open-air mass at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta. VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images

Faithful attend a mass celebrated by Pope Francis at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta. PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP/Getty Images

Pope Francis participates in an open-air mass at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta. VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images

People await the arrival of Pope Francis at Lac Ste. Anne, northwest of Edmonton, Alberta on July 26, 2022. VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images

Cardinals arrival ahead of Pope Francis on the shores of Lac St Anne, Alberta. Gavin John/The Globe and Mail

Pope Francis makes his way to the holy water to bless it as at the annual pilgrimage event in Lac Ste. Anne, Alta. Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press

Pope Francis participates in the Lac Ste. Anne Pilgrimage and Liturgy of the Word at Lac Ste. Anne, Alberta. VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images

Pope Francis blesses the crowd with holy water after performing the pilgrimage to Lac St Anne, Alta. Gavin John/The Globe and Mail

Pope Francis blesses faithfuls at the Lac Ste. Anne pilgrimage site in Alberta. Gregorio Borgia/The Associated Press

Pilgrims wait outside Ste. Anne Shrine where Pope Francis will give the Liturgy of the Word at Lac Ste. Anne, Alberta. PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP/Getty Images

Pope Francis gives the Liturgy of the Word at the Shrine during Lac Ste. Anne Pilgrimage. VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images

Indigenous chiefs listen to Pope Francis at the Lac Ste. Anne pilgrimage site in Alberta. Eric Gay/The Associated Press

Members of the crowd watch as Pope Francis celebrates mass the Lac Ste. Anne pilgrimage site in Alberta. Eric Gay/The Associated Press

5:30 p.m. MT

Pope leads pilgrimage and blesses lac ste. anne.

Pope Francis blesses the crowd with holy water after performing the pilgrimage to Lac St Anne, Alta on July 26, 2022. Gavin John/The Globe and Mail

At Lac Ste. Anne, thousands of people waited for hours in the sun for the pontiff’s arrival. As he travelled to the shore, the crowd of faithful strained to see him, with people calling out to him, “Father” And “Your Holiness.”

Sitting underneath a stark white crucifix at the shoreline, he spoke briefly in English, delivering a short prayer before being taken in his wheelchair down to the water’s edge. He sprinkled water at the shore, and then went on to the shrine, where he delivered a speech in Spanish about the meaning and traditions of the Lac Ste. Anne pilgrimage.

Francis performed a blessing of the lake, then sat in silence looking out at the water. He then spent several minutes sprinkling the blessed water onto people lined up at the annual pilgrimage site.

The pontiff used a traditional wooden tool with a brush on the end and dipped it into a bowl of water as he was pushed in a wheelchair.

– Carrie Tait and Canadian Press

5:05 p.m. MT

Pope francis arrives at lac ste. anne.

Pope Francis has arrived at the Lac Ste. Anne pilgrimage site, northwest of Edmonton.

Speech on violence against Indigenous women stirs audience ahead of Pope Francis

Just before Pope Francis arrived at the Lac Ste. Anne shrine in Alberta, Tara Elwood-Desjarlais gave a powerful speech on the violence that Indigenous women have suffered for decades – and are still suffering. She had the audience of several hundred riveted.

Ms. Elwood-Desjarlais, a member of Kehewin Cree Nation and a council member of the village of Alberta Beach, delivered some horrific statistics: Indigenous women represent a quarter of female suicides in Canada, but only 4 per cent of the population. Murder is the third leading cause of their deaths, and First Nations women are four-and-a-half times more likely to be murdered than non-Indigenous women, she said.

In an interview after her talk, she said she regrets that Pope Francis did not hear her speak, and that her address wasn’t broadcast or livestreamed. “I would like him to bring the issue to the world stage,” she said. “This is an issue among Indigenous women all over the world. We’ve been going missing for hundreds of years.”

– Eric Reguly

3:30 p.m. MT

Pope francis to join lac ste. anne pilgrimage.

A handful of vehicles have parked on secondary roads next to Highway 16, presumably to catch a glimpse of Pope Francis’s motorcade as he travels to Lac Ste. Anne. So far, his trip to Alberta has not seen devotees gathering on highways and overpasses in hopes of seeing him. Tuesday’s highway crowds are still sparse, with only two or three vehicles in a handful of clusters. At the end of one laneway perpendicular to the highway, a small group waited in lawn chairs.

At 5 p.m. Pope Francis will join throngs of pilgrims on the shores of Lac Ste. Anne.

Originally called Wakamne, or God’s Lake, by the Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation and manitou sâkahikan, or Spirit Lake, by the Cree, the lake has long been a gathering place for Indigenous peoples.

The first annual pilgrimage was organized in 1889 by Father Joseph Lestanc. Since then, the lake has become a sacred pilgrimage site. Every year around the July 26th feast of Ste. Anne, up to 40,000 pilgrims flock to the lake. Stories abound of the sick and infirm recovering after wading into the shallow waters.

This year, however, a blue-green algae bloom in the lake has prompted Alberta Health Services to advise against wading in areas where the algae is visible. It’s unclear how the advisory might affect plans for the Pope to preside over vespers, or evening prayers.

– Patrick White and Carrie Tait

2:00 p.m. MT

Timothy schmalz sculpture to be unveiled at lac ste. anne.

Canadian sculptor Timothy Schmalz’s latest work will be unveiled Tuesday afternoon at the Lac Ste. Anne pilgrimage site outside Edmonton. Titled Mary, Untier of Knots , it will be a gift from Francis to the Indigenous peoples he is visiting, and serve as a symbol of his tour.

The bronze life-size sculpture began as shaped clay in Mr. Schmalz’s studio in St. Jacobs, Ont. The plan is for Francis to bless the sculpture and the lake itself, after which the artwork will find a permanent home at the Skaro Shrine to the Blessed Virgin Mary, northeast of Edmonton.

The sculpture was inspired by, and is faithful to, a baroque painting of the same name by Johann Georg Melchior Schmidtner. It depicts Mary standing on a crescent moon, surrounded by angels as she unties knots in a long ribbon. Mr. Schmalz has said that the Catholic residential schools can be interpreted as one of the knots.

Francis is said to adore the painting, to the point that he sent copies of the image to poor areas of Buenos Aires, where he was born.

1:30 p.m. MT

Murray sinclair issues blistering critique of papal apology.

The chief commissioner of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission has issued a blistering critique of Pope Francis’s apology to Indigenous people, saying “it left a deep hole in the acknowledgement of the full role of the church in the residential school system, by placing blame on individual members of the church.”

Murray Sinclair issued a press release moments before Francis appeared in front of thousands of people at Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium for an open-air mass.

In 2015, the commission called on the Pope to deliver an apology in Canada for the church’s role in the residential school system. On Monday Francis apologized for individual Catholics who participated, but not for the church as a whole. The wording jarred many Indigenous leaders and residential school survivors, who had been reiterating demands for an institutional apology.”

It was more than the work of a few bad actors – this was a concerted institutional effort to remove children from their families and cultures, all in the name of Christian supremacy,” Mr. Sinclair said. He added that he hopes the Pope will take the criticism to heart as he continues with his pilgrimage to Canada.

– Patrick White

1:10 p.m. MT

Métis nation president to welcome pope francis to lac ste. anne.

Métis Nation of Alberta President Audrey Poitras says she is honoured to be welcoming Pope Francis to the pilgrimage at Lac Ste. Anne later today.

The site northwest of Edmonton has long been sacred to Métis, First Nations and Catholic people.

However, Poitras says words and apologies are not enough.

She says she hopes that feeling the spirit of the Métis at the location will lead to real actions and accountability.

– The Canadian Press

11:30 a.m. MT

Communion distributed to thousands at commonwealth stadium.

Priests, deacons and volunteers are distributing communion to tens of thousands of people at a public mass led by Pope Francis at Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium.

People are lining up at various stations in the stadium to receive communion wafers, which are being placed into their hands.

Organizers have said they hope to complete the process in 10 to 12 minutes.

11:15 a.m. ET

Pope praises indigenous reverence for elders.

Pope Francis spoke of honouring grandparents, the importance of family history and a future where violence and marginalization of Indigenous people is never repeated during an outdoor mass in Edmonton on Tuesday.

The Globe and Mail

The mass took place on the day the Roman Catholic Church marks the feast of the grandparents of Jesus.

The Pope praised the Indigenous tradition of showing great respect for elders and learning from them, saying their memory must not be lost in modern society’s “fog of forgetfulness.”

Francis, who has often spoken about what he learned from his grandmother Rosa in Buenos Aires, used the occasion to repeat his frequent appeals to younger generations to cherish their grandparents and learn from them.

In his homily, Francis called grandparents “a precious treasure that preserves a history greater than themselves.” ”This is our history, to which we are heirs and which we are called to preserve,” he said.”

In the fog of forgetfulness that overshadows our turbulent times, it is essential to cultivate our roots, to pray for and with our forebears, to dedicate time to remember and guard their legacy. This is how a family tree grows; this is how the future is built.”

Francis’ ode to grandparents will continue later today with a prayer service at one of North America’s most popular pilgrimage sites, Lac Ste. Anne, considered to be a place of healing.

10:45 a.m. MT

Pope francis presides over mass.

Pope Francis, who has been using a wheelchair, is presiding over a large public mass in Edmonton from a specially designed chair.

9:50 a.m. MT

Pope arrives for mass, tours commonwealth stadium.

Pope Francis arrives at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton on July 26, to take part in a public mass. Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press

Stadium fills with attendees for mass

Thousands of people began filing into the stadium two or three hours before Francis was to arrive at about 10 a.m. local time.

Several people interviewed by The Globe and Mail accepted Francis’s Monday apology, and that they are at the stadium because they respect what he stands for.

“To us, Francis represents hope and change for the Catholic Church,” said Angela Jackson, 45, an artisan from Canmore, Alta. “He represents openness and acceptance of different groups of people, like LGBTQ people, who have been shunned in the past. Our faith should be about universal love and acceptance.”

Brian Lucas, 46, a member of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation of Port Alberni, B.C., agreed. He and his family drove 14 hours to see the Pope. “I have no reason to hate him or the church, though both my parents were in residential schools and they had awful problems with alcohol and gambling.”

Mr. Lucas said he accepted Francis’s apology and that it was time to move on. “I don’t want to hold onto resentment because I don’t want to pass on resentment to my children and grandchildren. I have learned that it is more important to treat everyone with dignity and respect.”

Pope blesses babies as he circles stadium

Francis blessed babies, including Gianna George, when he circled Commonwealth Stadium in the popemobile. Carrie Tait

Francis blessed babies, including Gianna George, when he circled Commonwealth Stadium in the popemobile. Gianna’s parents, Gerrin and Liza, held her up and security passed the child to the pope.

He kissed her on the forehead and the crowd cheered. ”We feel so excited and thrilled. Our prayers have been answered and heard,” Ms. George said after the blessing. Gianna was born in Janurary.

The family came to Edmonton from Calgary to see the pope. Gianna’s grandparents – Annie George and George Kanjirappala – were also there for the moment.

”This is a big blessing. God just gave us a big blessing,” Gianna’s grandmother said.

– Carrie Tait

9:10 a.m. MT

Diverse crowd gathers for mass.

A program is running as people find their seats, including a performance by Inuit throat singers, and a speech by Indigenous leader Phil Fontaine, former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations.

It is a diverse crowd at the stadium for the papal visit, with children and seniors and people from a variety of backgrounds, including a large number of Indigenous people.

– Jana Pruden

8:05 a.m. MT

Métis national council statement calls papal apology a ‘step forward’.

The Métis National Council has just released a statement. Yesterday’s apology was “a step forward” on the pathway of truth, justice, healing and reconciliation, says President Cassidy Caron. “In committing to a serious investigation and supports for survivors, Pope Francis has begun to move the Catholic Church from offering mere words to taking real action.”

Ms. Caron says she will continue to push the church to “further reflect upon and apologize for the role of its doctrines in justifying colonizing systems such as residential schools,” and work with First Nations and Inuit leadership to “ensure that all next steps in our collective journey are survivor-driven and contribute to meaningful and lasting change.”

It’s essential, she adds, that we respect that the apology “will mean different things to different people. All of those meanings are valid and deserve our deepest love, respect and support.”

– Tavia Grant

8:00 a.m. MT

People line up for pope’s public mass.

Thousands of people are streaming into Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium for the Pope’s first mass in Canada. Long lines of faithful are snaking outside the stadium, going through security checkpoints on their way inside.

The mass, with an expected crowd of 60,000 people, is the first big open-air event on the Pope’s trip and takes place on the day the Roman Catholic Church marks the feast of the grandparents of Jesus.

It wasn’t clear if Francis would actually celebrate the Mass himself or designate someone else to lead while he presides sitting from the side of the altar, as he has done in recent months because his strained knee ligaments make standing and walking difficult. Either way, Francis was nevertheless expected to deliver the homily.

Francis has long lauded the role of grandmothers in passing the faith onto younger generations, citing his own experience with his grandmother, Rosa, while growing up in Buenos Aires. For several months, Francis has delivered weekly catechism lessons on the need to treasure grandparental wisdom and not discard them as part of today’s “culture of waste.”

The Pope is scheduled to arrive just after 11:00 a.m. EST and will first tour the area in the popemobile.

– Jana Pruden and The Associated Press

3:00 a.m. MT

Second full day of the pope’s visit to canada.

At 10:15 a.m., Pope Francis is scheduled to deliver an open-air mass to 65,000 people at Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium.

June 26 is the feast of St. Anne, grandmother of Jesus and a revered figure among Indigenous Catholics. Tickets to the mass are free, but organizers have struggled to stamp out fraudulent resellers. Overflow seating has been set aside at nearby Clarke Stadium.

In the afternoon, he’ll proceed 90 kilometres northwest to Lac Ste. Anne, a holy site that attracts as many as 40,000 pilgrims each year.

The lake is known as Wakamne, or “God’s Lake” to the Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation who live nearby and Manito Sahkahiga, or “Spirit Lake” by the Cree. The name “Lac Ste Anne” was given to it by the Rev. Jean-Baptiste Thibault, the first Catholic priest to establish a mission on the site.

Last week, Alberta Health Services issued an alert for toxic blue-green algae in the lake and warned visitors against swimming or wading. It’s unclear how the advisory will affect proceedings.

– Patrick White and The Associated Press

Monday, July 25

Pope calls residential schools a ‘disastrous error’; meets with members of sacred heart church of the first peoples.

Pope Francis greets faithful outside the church after a meeting with indigenous peoples and members of the Parish Community of Sacred Heart in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada July 25, 2022. GUGLIELMO MANGIAPANE/Reuters

“I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous peoples,” Pope Francis said in a formal apology for the abuses at residential schools on Monday. Thousands of survivors and their families gathered in Maskwacis for the papal visit.

In the afternoon, Pope Francis visited Sacred Heart Church in Edmonton, where he reiterated his apology made hours earlier at Maskwacis. The congregation consisted largely, although not exclusively, of Indigenous peoples. After Pope Francis spoke, children presented him with gifts, such as art from Indigenous artist Jason Carter. Elders presented him with a red, yellow, and orange star blanket.

Pope Francis begs forgiveness for abuses at residential schools: A close look at the papal apology

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Pope apologizes for ‘catastrophic’ school policy in Canada

Pope Francis puts on an indigenous headdress during a meeting with indigenous communities, including First Nations, Metis and Inuit, at Our Lady of Seven Sorrows Catholic Church in Maskwacis, near Edmonton, Canada, Monday, July 25, 2022. Pope Francis begins a “penitential” visit to Canada to beg forgiveness from survivors of the country’s residential schools, where Catholic missionaries contributed to the “cultural genocide” of generations of Indigenous children by trying to stamp out their languages, cultures and traditions. Francis set to visit the cemetery at the former residential school in Maskwacis. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope Francis prays at a gravesite at the Ermineskin Cree Nation Cemetery in Maskwacis, Alberta, during his papal visit across Canada on Monday, July 25, 2022. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)

Indigenous people hold up a banner while waiting for Pope Francis during his visit to Maskwaci, the former Ermineskin Residential School, Monday, July 25, 2022, in Maskwacis, Alberta. Pope Francis traveled to Canada to apologize to Indigenous peoples for the abuses committed by Catholic missionaries in the country’s notorious residential schools. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Pope Francis kisses the hand of residential school survivor Elder Alma Desjarlais of the Frog Lake First Nation as he arrives in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, on Sunday, July 24, 2022. The pope’s visit to Canada is aimed at reconciliation with Indigenous people for the Catholic Church’s role in residential schools. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)

An Indigenous man is pictured after Pope Francis delivered his apology to Indigenous people for the church’s role in residential schools during a ceremony in Maskwacis, Alberta, as part of his papal visit across Canada on Monday, July 25, 2022. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)

An Indigenous dancer performs during a ceremony attended by Pope Francis in Maskwacis, Alta., as part of his papal visit across Canada on Monday, July 25, 2022. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)

Indigenous people wait for Pope Francis during his visit to Maskwaci, the former Ermineskin Residential School, Monday, July 25, 2022, in Maskwacis, Alberta. Pope Francis traveled to Canada to apologize to Indigenous peoples for the abuses committed by Catholic missionaries in the country’s notorious residential schools. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Pope Francis arrives for a meeting with indigenous communities, including First Nations, Metis and Inuit, at Our Lady of Seven Sorrows Catholic Church in Maskwacis, near Edmonton, Canada, Monday, July 25, 2022. Pope Francis begins a “penitential” visit to Canada to beg forgiveness from survivors of the country’s residential schools, where Catholic missionaries contributed to the “cultural genocide” of generations of Indigenous children by trying to stamp out their languages, cultures and traditions. Francis set to visit the cemetery at the former residential school in Maskwacis. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope Francis prays with Indigenous peoples in a cemetery at the former residential school, in Maskwacis, near Edmonton, Canada, Monday, July 25, 2022. Pope Francis begins a “penitential” visit to Canada to beg forgiveness from survivors of the country’s residential schools, where Catholic missionaries contributed to the “cultural genocide” of generations of Indigenous children by trying to stamp out their languages, cultures and traditions. Francis set to visit the cemetery at the former residential school in Maskwacis. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

An Indigenous woman waits for Pope Francis during his visit to Maskwaci, the former Ermineskin Residential School, Monday, July 25, 2022, in Maskwacis, Alberta. Pope Francis traveled to Canada to apologize to Indigenous peoples for the abuses committed by Catholic missionaries in the country’s notorious residential schools. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Pope Francis leaves with Indigenous peoples after praying in a cemetery at the former residential school, in Maskwacis, near Edmonton, Canada, Monday, July 25, 2022. Pope Francis begins a “penitential” visit to Canada to beg forgiveness from survivors of the country’s residential schools, where Catholic missionaries contributed to the “cultural genocide” of generations of Indigenous children by trying to stamp out their languages, cultures and traditions. Francis set to visit the cemetery at the former residential school in Maskwacis. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

This preview of a digital embed shows the areas in Canada where Pope Francis plans to visit in late July. (AP Digital Embed)

Indigenous people gather to see Pope Francis on his visit to Maskwacis, Alberta during his papal visit across Canada on Monday, July 25, 2022. (Jason Franson./The Canadian Press via AP)

FILE - Elmer Waniandy raises the crucifix as he leads his fellow parishioner into the rededicated and newly renovated Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples sanctuary, July 17, 2022, in Edmonton, Alberta. Pope Francis’ trip to Canada, which begins Sunday July 24, 2022, to apologize for the horrors of church-run Indigenous residential schools marks a radical rethink of the Catholic Church’s missionary legacy in the Americas, spurred on by the first American pope and the discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves at the school sites. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski, File)

Pope Francis delivers his speech as he meets the indigenous communities, including First Nations, Metis and Inuit, at Our Lady of Seven Sorrows Catholic Church in Maskwacis, near Edmonton, Canada, Monday, July 25, 2022. Pope Francis begins a “penitential” visit to Canada to beg forgiveness from survivors of the country’s residential schools, where Catholic missionaries contributed to the “cultural genocide” of generations of Indigenous children by trying to stamp out their languages, cultures and traditions. Francis set to visit the cemetery at the former residential school in Maskwacis. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

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MASKWACIS, Alberta (AP) — Pope Francis issued a historic apology Monday for the Catholic Church’s cooperation with Canada’s “catastrophic” policy of Indigenous residential schools, saying the forced assimilation of Native peoples into Christian society destroyed their cultures, severed families and marginalized generations.

“I am deeply sorry,” Francis said to applause from school survivors and Indigenous community members gathered at a former residential school south of Edmonton, Alberta. He called the school policy a “disastrous error” that was incompatible with the Gospel and said further investigation and healing is needed.

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

In the first event of his weeklong “penitential pilgrimage,” Francis traveled to the lands of four Cree nations to pray at a cemetery and then deliver the long-sought apology at nearby powwow ceremonial grounds. Four chiefs escorted the pontiff in a wheelchair to the site near the former Ermineskin Indian Residential School, and presented him with a feathered headdress after he spoke, making him an honorary leader of the community.

Francis’ words went beyond his earlier apology for the “deplorable” abuses committed by missionaries and instead took institutional responsibility for the church’s cooperation with Canada’s “catastrophic” assimilation policy, which the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission said amounted to a “cultural genocide.”

More than 150,000 native children in Canada were forced to attend government-funded Christian schools from the 19th century until the 1970s in an effort to isolate them from the influence of their homes and culture. The aim was to Christianize and assimilate them into mainstream society, which previous Canadian governments considered superior.

Ottawa has admitted that physical and sexual abuse was rampant at the schools, with students beaten for speaking their native languages. That legacy of that abuse and isolation from family has been cited by Indigenous leaders as a root cause of the epidemic rates of alcohol and drug addiction now on Canadian reservations.

The discoveries of hundreds of potential burial sites at former schools in the past year drew international attention to the schools in Canada and their counterparts in the United States. The revelations prompted Francis to comply with the truth commission’s call for an apology on Canadian soil; Catholic religious orders operated 66 of the country’s 139 residential schools.

Reflecting the conflicting emotions of the day, some in the crowd wept as Francis spoke, while others applauded or stayed silent listening to his words, delivered in his native Spanish with English translations. Others chose not to attend at all.

“I’ve waited 50 years for this apology, and finally today I heard it,” survivor Evelyn Korkmaz said. “Part of me is rejoiced, part of me is sad, part of me is numb.” She added, however, that she had hoped to hear a “work plan” from the pope on what he would do next to reconcile, including releasing church files on children who died at the schools.

Many in the crowd wore traditional dress, including colorful ribbon skirts and vests with Native motifs. Others donned orange shirts, which have become a symbol of school survivors, recalling the story of one woman whose beloved orange shirt, a gift from her grandmother, was confiscated at a school and replaced with a uniform.

“It’s something that is needed, not only for people to hear but for the church to be accountable,” said Sandi Harper, who traveled with her sister and a church group from Saskatchewan in honor of their late mother, who attended a residential school.

“He recognizes this road to reconciliation is going to take time, but he is really on board with us,” she said, calling the apology “genuine.”

Despite the solemnity of the event, the atmosphere seemed at times joyful: Chiefs processed into the site venue to a hypnotic drumbeat, elders danced and the crowd cheered and chanted war songs, victory songs and finally a healing song. Participants paraded a long red banner through the grounds bearing the names of more than 4,000 children who died at or never came home from residential schools; Francis later kissed it.

“I wasn’t disappointed. It was quite a momentous occasion,” said Phil Fontaine, a residential school survivor and former chief of the Assembly of First Nations who went public with his story of sexual abuse in the 1990s.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who last year apologized for the “incredibly harmful government policy,” also attended, along with other officials.

As part of a lawsuit settlement involving the government, churches and approximately 90,000 survivors, Canada paid reparations that amounted to billions of dollars being transferred to Indigenous communities. Canada’s Catholic Church says its dioceses and religious orders have provided more than $50 million in cash and in-kind contributions and hope to add $30 million more over the next five years.

While the pope acknowledged blame, he also made clear that Catholic missionaries were merely cooperating with and implementing the government policy, which he termed the “colonizing mentality of the powers.” Notably he didn’t refer to 15th-century papal decrees that provided religious backing to European colonial powers in the first place.

Jeremy Bergen, a church apology expert and professor of religious and theological studies at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, Ontario, said Francis made clear he was asking forgiveness for the actions of “members of the church” but not the institution in its entirety.

“The idea is that, as the Body of Christ, the church itself is sinless,” he said via email.

“So when Catholics do bad things, they are not truly acting on behalf of the church,” Bergen added, noting it’s a controversial idea on which many Catholic theologians disagree.

Francis said the schools marginalized generations, suppressed Indigenous languages, led to physical, verbal, psychological and spiritual abuse and “indelibly affected relationships between parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren.” He called for further investigation, a possible reference to demands for further access to church records and personnel files of priests and nuns to identify perpetrators of abuses.

“Although Christian charity was not absent, and there were many outstanding instances of devotion and care for children, the overall effects of the policies linked to the residential schools were catastrophic,” Francis said. “What our Christian faith tells us is that this was a disastrous error, incompatible with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

The first pope from the Americas was determined to make this trip, even though torn knee ligaments forced him to cancel a visit to Africa earlier this month.

The six-day visit — which also includes stops in Quebec City and Iqaluit, Nunavut, in the far north — follows meetings Francis held in the spring at the Vatican with First Nations, Metis and Inuit delegations. Those encounters culminated with Francis’ apology April 1 for “deplorable” abuses at residential schools and a promise to do so again on Canadian soil.

Francis recalled that one of the delegations gave him a set of beaded moccasins as a symbol of children who never came back from the schools, and asked him to return them in Canada. Francis said in these months they “kept alive my sense of sorrow, indignation and shame” but that in returning them he hoped they can also represent a path to walk together.

Event organizers had mental health counselors on hand Monday, knowing the event could be traumatic for some people.

Later Monday, Francis visited Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples, an Edmonton parish whose sanctuary was dedicated last week after being restored from a fire. The church incorporates Indigenous language and customs in liturgy, and both were on display during the event, with folksongs and drums and providing the backdrop to the pope’s visit.

Associated Press writers Rob Gillies in Toronto and Holly Meyer in Nashville, Tennessee, contributed.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Pope Francis' tour came with a minimum $55-million price tag for Ottawa

A family member of residential school survivors says the minimum $55-million price tag for Pope's visit to Canada last year feels like another slap in the face for Indigenous people.

"Think of all the money that could have gone to survivors, all of the money that could have gone to healing, all of the money that was rightfully supposed to be given to folks who survived genocide," Michelle Robinson, who is Sahtu Dene, said from Calgary.

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Documents obtained by The Canadian Press under freedom of information laws show the federal government spent a minimum of $55,972,683 for the leader of the Roman Catholic Church to visit Canada over six days last July.

Pope Francis apologized for the Catholic Church's role in residential schools during stops in Alberta, Quebec and Nunavut.

Indigenous Services Canada earmarked about $30 million. Those funds were to be used for travel, local programs and healing initiatives.

Crown-Indigenous Relations spent $5.1 million, the majority for a $3.9-million contract to broadcast the papal tour's stops, as well as translation services into Indigenous languages and French.

RCMP said, as of Feb. 24, 2023, it had spent more than $18 million, which included overtime pay, travel expenditures and accommodation costs. Global Affairs Canada spent about $2 million on travel, meetings and accommodations, plus an additional $35,728 on communication and media relations.

Public Safety Canada redacted all costs from documents obtained through access-to-information requests.

"I think all costs should be public knowledge," Lori Campbell, the associate vice-president of Indigenous engagement at the University of Regina, said in an email.

Campbell said it's difficult to put a dollar amount on the harm residential school caused those who attended and the intergenerational effect felt now.

An estimated 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend residential schools over a century, and the Catholic Church ran about 60 per cent of the institutions.

David Chartrand, Manitoba Metis Federation president, said in a statement that the apology was necessary to address historic wrongs.

"There is always a cost associated with hosting any foreign head of state, including Pope Francis, and it's generally considered as part of the cost of maintaining diplomatic relations," Chartrand said.

"Regardless, the logistical costs for the apology will never outweigh the price paid by our survivors and their families."

Heather Bear, vice chief of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations in Saskatchewan, agreed that the apology was important for many people, but it cannot come at the expense of funding for Indigenous people.

"We paid enough. We paid enough with our lives," Bear said.

Survivors had asked for the Pope to apologize for decades leading up to the visit, including during a trip to the Vatican by Indigenous leaders in 2009 and last April. The call became heightened after thousands of possible unmarked graves were located at the sites of numerous former residential schools.

The visit was intended to be a result of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's calls to action, Campbell said. The commission investigated the legacy of residential schools.

"Although it was important to some that the Pope follow through on the call to action, I don't know any Indigenous individual personally, old or young, who feels that this was money well spent," Campbell said.

Some survivors and Indigenous people have said the Pope's apology on Canadian soil was important to their healing and the process of reconciliation. Others said it fell short.

Francis begged for forgiveness for abuses committed by some members of the Catholic Church as well as for cultural destruction and forced assimilation, but only said residential schools amounted to genocide when asked about it by reporters on his flight back to Rome.

Robinson's grandmother, aunt and uncle attended residential schools. She said the church has already not met its commitments under the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement.

In 2006, 49 Catholic entities agreed to use their "best efforts" to raise $25 million as part of a compensation package to former students. After raising less than $4 million, a court released the Catholic corporations from their financial obligations.

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, which were not party to the original agreement, made a commitment in 2021 to raise $30 million in up to five years after the previous campaign's shortcomings were reported.

The Canadian bishops organized the papal visit and previously said it cost the organization about $18.6 million.

Robinson said she understands there would be a cost with the Pope's visit and to some people the apology was important. However, she believes security heightened the costs due to anti-Indigenous concerns over protests or violence.

Robinson added the Catholic Church has not upheld its financial obligations and now has cost Canada millions more through the Pope's visit -- so it should hold the bill.

She said Canada's money would be much better spent on language and culture revitalization, anti-racism training, education and supporting Indigenous people.

"That money absolutely could have been spent in that better way and it wasn't."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 23, 2023.

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