TORONTO – The Pope arrives. When, we still do not know but the news is certain because today the Vatican itself published it through an article on the Vatican News website: “The Pope wants to go to Canada in the context of the indigenous question” . In a nutshell, Francis said he was willing to accept the invitation of the Canadian episcopate, engaged in the process of reconciliation with the natives. “The dates of the visit will be made official soon”, reads the article. 

Already last June, during an Angelus, Bergoglio had shared with the crowd the dismay at the dramatic news that was arriving, even in the Vatican, from Canada: let’s review them briefly.

In May, in a former Catholic school, the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia, a mass grave is unearthed with over 200 human remains of Native Canadians. Back to the headlines, therefore, something that actually had been known for years and was already written, clearly, in the report drawn up, in 2015, by the Commission for Truth and Reconciliation of Canada, which detailed the mistreatment suffered by the natives within the framework of the policies decided at the time by the federal government whose goal was to separate the indigenous children from their families to include them in a cultural assimilation program, which included, among other things, the “didactic” ban on speaking the language of origin but also hidden forms of worse abuse. According to the Commission, in fact, various violence was perpetrated against thousands – it is estimated between 4 and 6 thousand – of the approximately 150 thousand indigenous children who attended those schools – managed by local Catholic structures – from the end of the 19th century to the end of the 1970s (the last was completely closed in 1978). 

The involvement of Canadian ecclesial structures in this spiral – in addition to the aforementioned mass graves, the subsequent discovery of another 715 anonymous graves near another structure, the Marieval Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan – leads the Bishops’ Conference of Canada to express “remorse” for the mistreatment and death of thousands of indigenous children and to acknowledge “with pain” that “the historical trauma” and “the legacy of the suffering and challenges faced by indigenous peoples” continue “to this day”.

The intention therefore emerges to set up programs and funds that become the object of discussion with the indigenous leadership and see the involvement of dioceses, parishes and ecclesial bodies.

Speaking on Canadian television, the Archbishop of Regina, Donald Bolen, defines this path “a long journey” to be made “alongside the natives in their search for justice”, even apologizing “when it is clear that it is important to do so”.

The “mea culpa” of the North American episcopate is followed in June by the regret expressed by the Pope who, finally, decides to take a step further by announcing – and we come to today – his trip to Canada, “on a date that will be fixed later “as specified in a press release from the Vatican Press Office.

What the Pontiff is preparing for is the fourth trip of a Pope to Canada. In its history, the country has in fact received, up to now, three Apostolic Visits, all made by Pope Saint John Paul II: in 1984, 1987 and 2002.

On the first occasion, Pope Wojtyla visited Quebec City, Trois-Rivières, Montreal, St. John’s, Moncton, Halifax, Toronto, Midland (Ontario), Winnipeg / St. Boniface, Edmonton, Yellowknife, Vancouver and Ottawa / Hull. The planned trip to Fort Simpson in the Northwest Territories, to meet the indigenous people, was canceled due to bad weather, but Pope Wojtyla kept his promise and in 1987 he met the Natives in Fort Simpson itself, delivering a message to the Aboriginal peoples and meeting the leaders of the four national indigenous organizations: the First Nations Assembly, the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada, the Metis National Council and the Council of Natives of Canada.

Finally, in 2002, the third Apostolic Visit to Canada with the participation of Pope Wojtyla at the 2002 World Youth Day in Toronto where 800,000 people gathered in Downsview Park for the closing Papal Mass on 29 July 2002.

The photo of Pope Francis is by Ashwin Vaswani on Unsplash