VATICAN CITY, July 24 — Pope Francis heads to Canada today for a chance to personally apologise to Indigenous survivors of abuse committed over a span of decades at residential schools run by the Catholic Church.
Francis' Canada visit — which he has called a"penitential pilgrimage" of"healing and reconciliation" — is primarily to apologise to survivors for the Church's role in the scandal that a national truth and reconciliation commission has called"cultural genocide". A delegation of Indigenous peoples travelled to the Vatican in April and met with the pope -- a precursor to Francis' six-day trip.In the community of Maskwacis, some 100 kilometres south of Edmonton, the pope will address an estimated crowd of 15,000 expected to include former students from across the country.