July 25, 2022, the Pope at a Canadian Indigenous Cemetery

On July 25, 2022, Pope Francis went to the cemetery of Maskwacis, an Aboriginal reserve located about a hundred kilometers from Edmonton, in the west of the country. In front of a row of graves of victims of abuse in residential schools for natives run by the Catholic Church, the pope meditates, alone.

The photo of this pope in prayer in front of these frail white crosses will symbolize his attitude during this trip, during which Francis will apologize on behalf of the Church for his role during almost a century in the administration of the boarding schools.

“It’s very ‘Pope Francis’, before acting, before speaking, he begins to pray,” says Loup Besmond de Senneville, correspondent for La Croix in the Vatican, present on the spot. “What touches me about this photo is its impotence. He is in prayer, the solution, he asks God, there is great fragility, ”describes Anne-Bénédicte Hoffner, deputy director of La Croix.

After recollecting himself that day, the first of a week-long trip, the pope will formulate before survivors of residential schools for natives a request for forgiveness for the role played by the Catholic Church in the administration of these establishments. A “devastating error incompatible with the Gospel of Jesus Christ”, he will judge.

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