ROME — Pope Francis left early Sunday on a week-long “penitential” trip to Canada aimed at “reconciliation and healing” with the country’s indigenous peoples.
In a press release, the Vatican specified that this is Francis’ 37th international trip, flown on the newly reconstituted ITA Airways bound from Rome to Edmonton, Alberta.
Last Sunday, the pontiff said he wished to come among the Canadian people “above all in the name of Jesus to meet and embrace the indigenous peoples.”
“Unfortunately, in Canada, many Christians, including some members of religious institutes, have contributed to the policies of cultural assimilation that, in the past, have severely harmed native communities in various ways,” he stated during his Angelus message.
“For this reason, I recently received some groups in the Vatican, representatives of indigenous peoples, to whom I expressed my sorrow and solidarity for the harm they have suffered,” he continued, noting his intent to embark on a “penitential pilgrimage,” which he hopes “will contribute to the journey of healing and reconciliation already undertaken.”
According to Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, with this voyage the pope intends “to touch with his own hands the suffering of those populations, to pray with them and to make himself a pilgrim in their midst.”
In June 2021, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau insisted that Pope Francis come personally to Canada to apologize for church-run boarding schools where hundreds of unmarked graves had been found.
This photograph taken on July 23, 2022, shows a plaque in honor of the survivors of the Ermineskin Indian Residential School displayed by the modern day schools near the site of the Ermineskin Residential School in Maskwacis, Alberta, ahead of Pope Francis’ visit to Canada. Pope Francis is expected to offer an apology to Indigenous peoples for more than a century of abuses at state schools run by the church in Canada. ( PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty)
“I have spoken personally directly with His Holiness, Pope Francis, to impress upon him how important it is not just that he makes an apology but that he makes an apology to indigenous Canadians on Canadian soil” Trudeau said at the time.
“I know that the Catholic church leadership is looking and very actively engaged in what next steps can be taken,” he added.
After the pope expressed “sorrow” last year over mistakes made in the past, a number of indigenous leaders said such sorrow was insufficient and intimated that they were looking for monetary reparations as well.
Charlie Angus, a member of parliament from the New Democratic Party (NDP), said the pope’s words “ring hollow in Canada.”
“Sorrow is not an admission of culpability. Anyone can feel sad over the deaths of children,” he said in a statement. “He needs to take responsibility for the policies that caused those deaths. It is time to apologize, turn over the documents and pay the money.”
Following three nights and two days in Edmonton, Francis will fly to Quebec and then on to Iqaluit on Baffin Island in northeast Canada.
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