Pope Francis To Head East After Historic Apology To Residential School Survivors

Pope Francis is heading east after a historic apology to residential school survivors during the Alberta leg of his visit to Canada.

Pope Francis is heading east after a historic apology to residential school survivors during the Alberta leg of his visit to Canada.

The chief of Tk'emlups te Secwepemc, Rosanne Casimir, was in Edmonton for the apology on Monday - and was also in attendance when the pope apologized at the Vatican for the Catholic Church's role in the treatment of children at residential schools.

Casimir says what she heard on Monday was much more powerful to hear, but the pontiff needs to take more steps to reconciliation.

In his apology, the pontiff requested forgiveness “for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous Peoples.”

Former chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Murray Sinclair, said the Pope’s apology “left a deep hole” by failing to recognize the role the church itself played in the residential school system and instead “placing blame on individual members.”

“It was more than the work of a few bad actors — this was a concerted institutional effort to remove children from their families and cultures, all in the name of Christian supremacy,” Sinclair said in a statement Tuesday.

The TRC had listed a papal apology as one of its 94 calls to action.

The pope is set to leave Edmonton for Quebec City for the next stage of what he is calling his penitential journey.

He'll make a brief stop in Iqaluit on Friday before heading back to the Vatican.