It’s unclear as to whether an Ontario nurse who received a religious exemption from COVID-19 vaccination based on Catholic faith will set a precedent for others arguing on similar grounds. 

It was genocide, plain and simple.

As Pope Francis concluded his intensive five-day pilgrimage of reconciliation on Canadian soil, he spoke directly to Inuit youth in Iqaluit and offered them three pieces of advice: keep walking upwards, come to the light each day and be part of a team.

On the final day of Pope Francis’ pilgrimage of penance, one of healing and reconciliation, he says it is he who has been “enriched” by the experience.

If Canadian Catholics were looking for a roadmap to reconciliation, Pope Francis laid it out for them at a vespers prayer service in Quebec City’s exquisite Notre Dame Basilica Cathedral on a rainy Thursday evening.

In the face of sin and failure, the temptation to wallow in despair and do nothing comes from the devil, Pope Francis said.

For Vaughan Nicholas there were tears well before Pope Francis began to speak. Waiting for Mass at the National Shrine of Ste. Anne de Beaupre east of Quebec City to begin, he said, “I’m hoping I will actually feel something.”

Shahbaz Bhatti, declared Servant of God by Pope Francis in 2012, has a special place in the hearts of thousands of Pakistani Canadians who fled their country to find safety and freedom of religion here. 

Pope Francis has arrived in Quebec with the same message he has tried to share with Indigenous Canadians in the West — that Christ wants to be incarnate in every culture, in Indigenous cultures, Quebecois culture, Canadian culture.

Like generations of pilgrims before him, Pope Francis came to the water’s edge at Lac Ste. Anne seeking healing — not his healing, ours.