Pope Francis leaves Rome for Canada apology tour

Pope Francis boards an airplane ahead of his visit to Canada at Rome Fiumicino airport in Fiumicino, Italy, July 24, 2022. REUTERS

ROME — Pope Francis left Rome on Sunday for a trip to Canada to apologize for the role of the Roman Catholic Church in residential schools where many indigenous children were abused.

The 85-year-old pope, his entourage and journalists flew out of Rome’s Fiumicino airport on an ITA Italian airline plane en route to Edmonton, capital of Alberta.

The week-long trip will include at least five encounters with native people as Francis makes good on a promise to apologize on their home territory for the Church’s role in the state-sanctioned schools, which sought to erase indigenous cultures.

It also will be a test of pope’s health. He had to cancel a trip to Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan in early July because of a knee problem that forced him to use first a wheel chair and later a cane.

In an exclusive interview with Reuters this month, Francis gave details of his ailment for the first time in public, saying he had suffered “a small fracture” in the knee when he took a misstep while a ligament was inflamed.

RELATED STORIES

Pope’s Canada trip to make amends for Indigenous school scandal

Pope Francis in Canada: why his apology for school abuse will be significant

Pope hopes Canada trip will help heal ‘evil’ done to indigenous people

Pope’s apology to Canada’s Indigenous a ‘step forward’