Pope Francis celebrated another reconciliation ceremony at the Basilica of Sainte Anne de Beaupre, the oldest Catholic sanctuary in North America, on the fourth day of his visit to Canada, which he intends to restore the church’s ties with the native population.
The 85-year-old pontiff greeted thousands of people, many of whom were indigenous, from the Popemobile, who attended his arrival at the sanctuary of Sainte Anne de Beaupre, 30 kilometres east of Quebec City.
From the late 19th century to the early 1990s, the Canadian government sent 150,000 children to 139 church-run boarding schools, where they were separated from their families, language and culture as part of an unsuccessful policy of assimilation.
Pope Francis apologized for the abuse as he began his journey on Monday, a plea for forgiveness that has been overwhelming for many indigenous peoples.
Desneiges Petiquay said his visit was a “message of hope.” The 54-year-old housewife from the Manawan reserve was in the front row at Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupre.
“This pope, he knows we exist here, he recognizes us,” she told AFP. “Yesterday, I saw him up close, it touched me here,” she added, putting her hand on her heart.
During the mass at Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupre, on the shores of the St Lawrence River some 30 kilometres (18 miles) from Quebec City in Canada’s east, the pope said the Church was asking “burning questions… on its difficult and demanding journey of healing and reconciliation.”
“In confronting the scandal of evil and the Body of Christ wounded in the flesh of our Indigenous brothers and sisters, we too have experienced deep dismay; we too feel the burden of failure,” he said.
The pontiff will give a sermon at Notre Dame Cathedral in Quebec and on Friday, the last day of his six-day visit and he will stop at Iqaluit in Nunavut’s Arctic region.
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