Pope to visit Canada to apologize for Indigenous abuses

By FRANCES D’EMILIO
Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis is going ahead with plans to visit Canada this summer to apologize in person for abuse suffered by Indigenous people at the hands of the church. The Vatican on Friday announced that Francis will head to Canada on July 24 and visit Edmonton, Quebec and Iqaluit, a small town in the north where about half the population are Inuit. Last month, Francis made a historic apology for abuses in Canada’s church-run residential schools and said he wanted to go to Canada to deliver the apology to survivors of misguided Catholic missionary zeal. The 85-year-old pope has been lately using a wheelchair due to badly strained knee ligament. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says an in-person papal apology is a necessary step in dialogue.