Pope Francis started a historic visit to Canada on July 24 to apologize to Indigenous people for abuses by missionaries at residential schools, an essential step in the Catholic Church’s attempt to reconcile with Native communities and help them out in recovering from trauma.
Francis kissed the hand of a residential school remnant as he was greeted at the Edmonton, Alberta, airport being Indigenous representatives, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mary Simon, an Inuk who is Canada’s first Indigenous governor-general.

This visit has stirred many emotions in Canada as survivors and their families are struggling with the trauma of their loss and receive a long-sought papal apology.
Francis had no official events scheduled for July 24, giving him time to rest before his meeting Monday with rem near the site of a former residential school in Maskwacis, where he is supposed to make devotions at a cemetery and apologize.

Indigenous groups are looking for more than words, though, as they press for access to church archives to accept the fate of children who never come back home from school. They also want fair play for the abusers, financial reparations and the return of Indigenous artefacts.

The Canadian government has accepted that physical and sexual abuse happened in the state-funded Christian schools, which operated from the 19th century to the 1970s century. Some 150,000 Indigenous children were adopted from their families and forced to attend to isolate them from the influence of their place, Native cultures and languages and blend them into Canada’s Christian society by influencing.
Then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a grievance over the residential schools in 2008. As part of a lawsuit settlement involving government, churches and approximately 90,000 suffering students, Canada financed reparations that amounted to billions of dollars being given to the Indigenous community. According to Canada’s Catholic Church, its dioceses and religious orders have given more than $50 million amount in cash and in-kind contributions. They hope to add $30 million more in the next five years.
Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission 2015 had called for a papal apology to be delivered on Canadian soil.

The Inuit community, for its part, is looking for Vatican assistance to deport a single Oblate priest, the Rev. Joannes Rivoire. He ministered to the Inuit community until he left in the 1990s and went to France. Canadian authorities issued a warrant for him in 1998 on accusations of much sexual abuse.

At a news conference on July 24 in Edmonton, according to organizers, they would do all they could to make school survivors attend the papal events, particularly for the Maskwacis apology and the Tuesday gathering at Lac Ste. Anne has long been a popular pilgrimage site for Indigenous Catholics.
In rural areas, organizers are arranging shuttle transport from different park-and-ride lots.