“I am about to make a penitential pilgrimage and I hope that with the grace of God I can contribute to the path of healing and reconciliation already traveled,” the Pontiff said during the Angelus prayer during of his trip to Canada, which will begin “next Sunday, if it is God’s will”.

“Unfortunately, in Canada, many Christians, including some members of religious institutes, have contributed to policies of cultural assimilation which in the past have severely affected indigenous communities in various ways,” Francis said.

The trip will take place less than a month after the pope postponed his visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan due to knee problems. After several weeks of moving around in a wheelchair, the religious recently began to walk with the help of a cane.

“Dear brothers and sisters of Canada, as you know, I will come to you, in the name of Jesus, above all to meet and embrace the indigenous people,” he stressed.

The Pope’s schedule on Canadian territory has already been published by the Vatican and includes meetings with various indigenous communities and former residents.

The trip follows the discovery of mass graves with hundreds of unidentified bodies in former boarding schools run by the Catholic Church in Canada, which were intended to “educate” the natives according to Catholic precepts, but for this do, they forcibly removed the children from their communities and forced them to abandon their customs and language.

In addition, students were frequently victims of sexual and physical abuse by teachers. The Catholic Church in Canada asked for forgiveness in September 2021, after attacks on parishes protesting the crimes committed, but Francis did not apologize until April this year, after meetings with indigenous peoples in the Vatican .

Today, even Jorge Bergoglio recalled that before his trip to Canada, “he received in the Vatican groups representing the indigenous peoples to whom I expressed my pain and my solidarity for the evil they suffered”.

“I thank you, in advance, for all the work of preparation and for the welcome you have reserved for me. Thank you all. I ask you, please, to accompany me in prayer”, said he concluded. (ANSA)