Ermineskin Indian Residential School

As Pope Francis's visit to Canada shifts east, Indigenous leaders say their communities deserve to hear him on Quebec soil beg forgiveness for the sins of the Catholic Church in that province.

Pope Francis delivered a historic apology on Monday to survivors of Canada's residential schools. The majority of those government-funded institutions, in which thousands of Indigenous children suffered abuse and neglect, were run by the Catholic Church.

Pope Francis delivered on Monday, July 25, 2022, an apology for the Roman Catholic Church's role in residential schools, saying many Christians supported the colonization of Indigenous people. He made the remarks at the former site of the Ermineskin Indian Residential School in community of Maskwacis, south of Edmonton.

Pope Francis delivered an apology to Indigenous residential school survivors in Maskwacis, Alta., after a visit to the former site of the Ermineskin Indian Residential School on Monday.

Tears streamed down the faces of elders and survivors as Pope Francis apologized Monday in Maskwacis, Alta., south of Edmonton, after visiting the site of the former Ermineskin Indian Residential School.

George Arcand Jr. says it was a humbling experience to welcome Pope Francis to Canada as the Treaty 6 Grand Chief encouraged the leader of the Roman Catholic Church to join a path of healing by speaking with survivors of residential schools.

Residential school survivor Rod Alexis remembers his late father telling him: "Son, I don't know how to be a parent."

Susan Enge will be thinking of her mother’s time in a residential school during the long journey south from the Northwest Territories to see Pope Francis in Alberta.