Surely no Canadian is so naïve as to believe that Pope Francis’ six-day July visit will miraculously heal nearly 400 years of fraught, often deeply unjust relations, with Indigenous people.

Above and beyond. Having promised to contribute a substantial chunk of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops’ national commitment to donate $30 million over the next five years to the Indigenous Reconciliation Fund, the Diocese of Hamilton is now planning to raise even more money with annual envelope collections.

For six days in July the most important thing happening in this country will be an old man confronting our history.

Pope Francis will visit a residential school and will very likely be seen on the shores of Lac Ste. Anne during the annual pilgrimage to Manitou Sakahigan – Cree for “Lake of the Spirit.”

Chief Cadmus Delorme of Cowessess First Nation and Regina Archbishop Donald Bolen have been walking together for some time now — including through the work of ground-penetrating radar and finding 751 hits near a former Catholic-run residential school on Cowesses First Nation east of Regina in the summer of 2021.

Francis will visit Quebec City, Iqaluit and Edmonton between July 24 and 29, adding the weight of his office to Canadian Catholic efforts to reconcile with Indigenous Canadians and to repair the damage done by Catholic-run residential schools.

Whether or not Pope Francis will visit one of the sites where ground-penetrating radar has revealed possible graves of former residential school students is still not known, as some Indigenous leaders continue to lobby for the Pope to visit these forgotten cemeteries that touched off a national conversation about residential schools last year.

The Red River Metis went to Rome looking for the restoration of their communities, their culture and their churches.

A new bursary is helping to defray the cost of post-secondary education for Indigenous students within the Toronto Catholic District School Board.

The head of the Manitoba Métis Federation said his group's meeting with Pope Francis was an emotional encounter centered on reconciliation between the Indigenous community and the Catholic Church.

Alberta Métis fiddler Alex Kusturok says the opportunity to play before Pope Francis during the recent Indigenous meetings in Rome was not only an amazing experience for him, but he’s looking forward to telling his newborn son about it one day. 

At this pivotal moment in Canada’s relationship with Indigenous peoples, author and educator Kevin Lamoureux is encouraging those in the Church working to move beyond feelings of guilt to be part of the solution.

Two mercifully flown decades ago, Mr. Dan Brown foisted on the world from some printing presses the Luddites sadly missed smashing, a purported novel called The Da Vinci Code.

At the conclusion of the Lenten journey of Indigenous representatives to the Vatican, Pope Francis gave the delegation a laetare moment, a time to rejoice. The Pope’s poignant apology for the harm “members of the Catholic Church” did to Indigenous children in residential schools and his promise to visit Canada this summer is a major step toward healing a broken relationship.

Never was a single sentence more longed for. In 40 years since survivors began to speak out, 16 years since the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement and seven years since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada delivered its final report, nations and peoples have waited for a Pope to speak.