Francis hopes to reconcile with Canada's indigenous people for the abuse indigenous children suffered at mostly church-run residential schools.

Hundreds of possible grave sites have been found at the schools.

Catholic missionaries are among those responsible for these abuses.

Compensation is sought. So is the return of indigenous artefacts. Many want school records released and are asking for support to extradite accused abusers.

A 15th-century papal edict justifying their dispossession by colonialists must also be rescinded, indigenous people say.

Francis told reporters accompanying him on the plane that his six-day visit must be handled with care.

His trip follows his April 1 apology from the Vatican for the trauma Canada's indigenous peoples have suffered. He admitted these traumas occurred as a result of a church-enforced policy to eliminate their culture and assimilate them into a Canadian, Christian society.

While his April 1 apology was acknowledged, many called for him to apologise on Canadian soil.

Between 1881 and 1996 more than 150,000 indigenous children were separated from their families and brought to residential schools.

Many were starved, beaten and sexually abused in a system Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission called "cultural genocide".

A top papal adviser says early in his papacy Francis had said no single culture can claim a hold on Christianity.

The Church cannot demand people on other continents to imitate the European way of expressing the faith, he stressed at the time.

Although it's not yet known if Francis intends to apologise on this trip, Chief Vernon Saddleback of Samson Cree Nation says it would be well received.

"For him to come out here to do it in person — I can't say enough how important that is because that's where healing begins, when you start to own up to actions.

"When you own up to actions you can start the process of walking towards forgiveness."

The penitential trip won't be easy for the 85-year-old Francis or for residential school survivors and their families.

"It is an understatement to say there are mixed emotions," said Chief Desmond Bull of the Louis Bull Tribe.

Non-indigenous Canadians are also approving of Francis's visit.

"It's really important that he's coming over here for healing and reconciliation and hope," says one.

Another, who is not a Catholic, says the Pope's trip is an important one.

"I think that it's needed.

"I think coming from a top level like that means a lot to the indigenous people, really."

Source

• The Province
• AP News
• Reuters

Pope Francis has recently indicated his willingness to visit Canada on a pilgrimage of healing and reconciliation with indigenous peoples. The date of the visit is yet to be announced.

"Our hope is that he does come to Kamloops," Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc Kúkpi7 (Chief) Rosanne Casimir told Global News. She is hoping an apology and promise to release key documents will be the result of Pope Francis' visit to Canada.

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The Canadian Council of Bishops (CCB) said last week "after carefully considering the request" for an apology, Francis "felt that he could not personally respond".

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has expressed disappointment with Francis's decision.

Undeterred by the CCB's statement that Francis won't apologise, Canada's New Democratic Party (NDP) is planning to table a motion in the House of Commons.

The NDP wrote to Trudeau on Monday saying they planned to table a motion calling on the CCB to invite the Pope to Canada to issue the apology.

"Easter is traditionally a time of renewal. But in Canada there can be no renewal, and the work of reconciliation will not be complete without an apology from the Pope," the letter written by NDP MPs Charlie Angus and Romeo Saganash says.

The motion also calls on the Catholic Church to hand over the money it promised to raise when it signed the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement and to turn over documentation related to the schools.

The Catholic Church ran 72 percent of Indian residential schools, which were created to assimilate indigenous children.

About 150,000 children attended residential schools during the institutions' over century-long history.

One of the institutions, St. Anne's Indian Residential School, used a homemade electric chair.

The school was the subject of a six-year police investigation in the 1990s that led to two nuns and three other school workers being convicted.

Source

• La Croix
• CBC
• New York Times
• Image: Collective Evolution