The Vatican announced Pope Francis has accepted an invitation to Canada for a “pilgrimage of healing and reconciliation.”
The invitation comes from the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB).
A date hasn’t been set on when the Pope will visit and a location hasn’t been announced.
But in a press release, the Vatican said the Pope “has indicated his willingness to visit the country.”
“The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops has invited the Holy Father to make an apostolic journey to Canada, also in the context of the long-standing pastoral process of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples,” the statement reads.
In late September, the CCCB issued an apology for the church’s role in residential schools. In the apology the bishop’s promised to send a delegation of survivors to the Vatican to meet with the Pope in December.
The Pope has refused to apologize for the church’s role in residential schools, but the visit signals that may change.
Since May, Indigenous communities from across the country have reported unmarked graves from the residential school system.
Revelations of abuse at the schools has been widely known for decades and the federal government officially apologized for its role in the schools back in 2008.
More to come…
