Pope Francis will travel to Canada as planned next month, the Vatican said on Thursday, confirming that the long-planned trip will take place, although the Roman Catholic religious leader is dealing with some health problems.
The pope, who will be in Canada from July 24 to 29 with stops in Edmonton, Quebec City and Iqaluit, is coming here to personally apologize for the abuses suffered by indigenous people by the Catholic Church.
“We know that the Holy Father was deeply moved by his meeting with the indigenous people in Rome earlier this year and that he hopes to build on the important dialogue that has taken place,” said Archbishop Richard Smith, organizer of the pope’s visit to Canada. in a statement.
“We pray that this worship will serve as another significant step in the long journey of healing, reconciliation, and hope,” Smith said.
According to a route published by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, the pope will begin his visit to Edmonton with a brief ceremony at the airport before setting a day off after a long flight from Europe.
The next day, July 25, he will meet with survivors at the site of the former Ermineskin Indian Housing School in the Maskwaci community, south of the city. Ermineskin, which operated between 1916 and 1973, is one of the largest residential schools in the country.
Pope Francis holds an audience in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace with local delegations from Canada to the Vatican, April 1, 2022 (Photo to be distributed by Reuters)
Later that day, Francis is scheduled to visit Sacred Heart of the First Nations, a local church in the city center – a church that was recently rebuilt after a devastating fire in 2020.
On July 26, the pope will celebrate an open-air liturgy at the city’s 56,000-seat Commonwealth Stadium, an event that will be open to the public. Canadian bishops said the service would include local traditions as part of the gathering.
He will then travel to Lac Ste. Anne, Alta, a place of worship where for more than a century, the first nations and Catholics of the mestizos traveled to celebrate the feast of St. Anne, who is said to be the mother of Mary and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. .
The next stop is the city of Quebec, where the pope will meet with the prime minister and governor-general at La Citadelle and then deliver a public address.
On July 28, he will lead a liturgy at the Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, a national church where about 10,000 to 15,000 guests are expected to attend. Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré is one of the oldest and most popular places of worship in North America, regularly attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors each year to a place where a number of miracles are said to have taken place.
Later that day, he will participate in an evening prayer service with bishops, priests, deacons and seminarians at the Basilica-Cathedral of Notre Dame de Quebec.
Canadian bishops said the public will be able to participate in the events in Quebec, as there will be a special area on the plains of Abraham on July 27 and 28 where people can witness the “Expression of the Local Population” and watch papal events in the countryside on big screens.
On July 29, the pope will meet with a delegation of indigenous people from eastern Canada before heading north to Iqaluit.
While in Nunavut, the pope will take part in a private meeting with survivors of residential schools and host a delegation of young people and elders at a local primary school before returning to Rome.
The trip to Africa has been canceled
In some circles, there were fears that the pope would cancel his visit to Canada after the Vatican halted his next trip abroad – a multi-day tour of Africa scheduled for early July.
Vatican officials said the pope should withdraw from a planned trip to the Republic of Congo and South Sudan “at the request of his doctors” so as not to “jeopardize the results of the therapy he is undergoing on his knee.”
The pope was to visit South Sudan with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the head of the Church of Scotland to make a general, ecumenical call for peace in a war-torn country.
Due to ongoing health problems – the pope was recently seen in a wheelchair due to mobility concerns – Canadian bishops said the pope’s participation in public events was expected to be “limited to approximately one hour”.
The pope uses a wheelchair due to stretched ligaments in his right knee, which makes walking and standing difficult and painful.
So far, he has refused surgery, instead receiving injections, keeping his knee as still as possible, and walking with a cane or an assistant.
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