After touching down in Edmonton Sunday, Pope Francis travels to Maskwacis this morning to meet with residential school Survivors.  It is home to one of the largest residential school sites in Canada, the former Ermineskin Residential School.

Chiefs and Elders from the Confederacy of Treaty 6 First Nations hope this visit will include an apology, to validate what survivors and their families and communities have been going through with the intergenerational trauma to bring about healing. Louis Bull Tribe Chief, Desmond Bull, says they don’t want sympathy – they want empathy.

He suggests if you see a First Nations, Metis or Inuit person dealing with addictions, remember what they have been dealing with.

“I just hope we all in this country work toward the common interest of learning more about each other, and putting this history in the forefront as part of that discussion is part of that healing process for us.”

At 9 a.m. Monday, the Pope is meeting with residential school Survivors. In the afternoon, he will meet with members of the parish community of Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples in Edmonton.

There will be an open-air Mass at Commonwealth Stadium Tuesday morning, and then later in the day he travels to Lac Ste. Anne, the site of an annual pilgrimage that welcomes tens of thousands of Indigenous participants from throughout Canada and the United States each year. Wednesday morning he flies to Quebec City and then on to Iqaluit next Friday.