CANADA
Catholic Register
BY DEBORAH GYAPONG, CANADIAN CATHOLIC NEWS
December 13, 2016
OTTAWA – Pope Francis has said no to visiting Canada in 2017, but that hasn’t stopped Saskatchewan’s bishops and Indigenous leaders from planning a papal visit.
The bishops, Indigenous leaders and civic authorities have invited Pope Francis to visit the province in 2018 or ’19 to offer an official apology for the Catholic Church’s role in operating residential schools. A papal apology on Canadian soil was called for in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) 2015 report.
“The principal purpose of the visit would be to meet with, listen to and address our Indigenous people,” said a draft statement issued by the Catholic bishops of Saskatchewan.
“While this remains only an invitation at this point, we are hopeful that a pastoral visit by Pope Francis to Canada may indeed come about, and that an apology given in Saskatchewan to indigenous leaders and residential schools will be part of it,” said Regina Archbishop Donald Bolen.
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