On a stage designed to evoke a qammaq -- a traditional Inuit summer home built of whale ribs, sod and stone -- Pope Francis again apologized to the Indigenous communities of Canada for Catholics' complicity in breaking up their families and suppressing
Meeting Indigenous survivors of residential schools in Canada, Pope Francis entrusted them and the journey of truth, healing and reconciliation to three women: St. Anne, Mary and St. Kateri Tekakwitha.
"These women can help us to come together and start to weave anew
In the face of sin and failure, the temptation to wallow in despair and do nothing comes from the devil, Pope Francis said.
While commentators, politicians and survivors discussed whether Pope Francis' apology for the Catholic Church's role in running residential schools was
In a British-built fort on the highest hill in Quebec City, Pope Francis spoke to Canadian government and cultural leaders about the never-ending challenge of multiculturalism.
And in the Citadelle, the 19th-century fort, Pope Francis finally was welcomed formally to Canada July 27
The words "I am sorry" are powerful.
For Tammy Ward of the Samson First Nation, those words from Pope Francis brought tears as she listened on the Muskwa, or Bear Park, Powwow Grounds.
"It's just very powerful," Ward told The Catholic Register, Toronto-based newspaper,
Celebrating the feast day of Jesus' grandparents, Pope Francis not only urged people to honor their elders, but he asked them to think about what they will hand on to future generations.
"We received so much from the hands of those who preceded
The first step of Pope Francis' "penitential pilgrimage" to Canada involved him returning two pairs of children's moccasins.
The little shoes were not among the Indigenous artifacts held in the Vatican Museums, but rather reminders that Chief Marie-Anne Day Walker-Pelletier of the Okanese
After a flight of more than 10 hours from Rome, Pope Francis landed in Edmonton and met briefly at the airport with Indigenous leaders, Canada's governor general and prime minister before heading to the local seminary for a rest.
Governor General Mary Simon
Pope Francis' July trip to Canada was born out of his meetings with the nations' Indigenous people and was planned around encounters with them, and if the pope's words "have value elsewhere," like throughout the Americas, all the better, said the director
When Pope Francis travels to Canada to apologize to Indigenous communities for the way the Catholic Church joined efforts to uproot them from their traditional culture and spirituality, their traditions will be on full display.
The First Nation, Métis and Inuit people will