Indigenous Canadians are voicing a range of skepticism, wariness and hope as Pope Francis prepares to arrive there next week to deliver a historic apology for abuses at Catholic-run residential schools.
Marlene Poitras participates in a smudging, a ceremonial burning of scented plants for purification and blessing, with church elder Fernie Marty outside of Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples on Sunday, July 17, 2022, in Edmonton, Alberta.
Speaking in the council chambers of the Montana First Nation, a neighboring Cree tribe where she now works, Buffalo recalled that the nuns, who were white, beat the girls when they spoke in their native Cree instead of English. Elmer Waniandy raises the crucifix as he leads his fellow parishioner into the rededicated and newly renovated Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples sanctuary, on Sunday, July 17, 2022, in Edmonton, Alberta. Pope Francis will meet with parishioners at Sacred Heart during his visit to the Canadian province.
But the painful history took on new urgency last year when surveys of former schools with ground-penetrating radar found evidence of hundreds of unmarked graves. “I’m going to go see him,” she said, sitting in the council chambers near a line of photos of past Montana chiefs. “I’m not mad at him.”
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