Meeting the Jesuits, Indigenous and youth
On July 28, Pope Francis prayed Vespers with bishops, priests, deacons, consecrated persons, seminarians, and pastoral workers at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Quebec. He urged those present to model Christian joy and fraternity to those to whom they minister.
Aug 05, 2022

On July 28, Pope Francis prayed Vespers with bishops, priests, deacons, consecrated persons, seminarians, and pastoral workers at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Quebec. He urged those present to model Christian joy and fraternity to those to whom they minister.
The next day, he attended a closed-door meeting with Jesuits. This was followed with a meeting with a delegation of Indigenous peoples.
He then flew to Iqaluit. The city was the last stop of the 85-year-old pontiff’s “penitential pilgrimage” to Canada before heading back to Rome.
Prior to that, the pontiff gifted a statue of St Joseph and the Child Jesus to the archbishop’s residence in Québec City, according to the Holy See Press Office. He presented an identical statue of Jesus’ foster father to St Joseph Seminary, which hosted him at the start of his trip in Edmonton, Alberta.
While in the air, Pope Francis remembered St Kateri Tekakwitha. Tekakwitha, also known as the “Lily of the Mohawks,” became the first Native American saint in 2012.
Pope Francis met with youth and elders before attending a farewell ceremony in Iqaluit, the capital and only city of Nunavut, Canada’s northernmost and most sparsely populated territory.
At the final stop of his trip to Canada, the pontiff met with Inuit residential school survivors and visited the Nakasuk Elementary School.
In a brief address Friday to delegates representing nine indigenous nations of Canada, Pope Francis said he was returning home “greatly enriched” after his week-long “penitential pilgrimage” to Canada, during which he publicly apologised several times for past abuses perpetrated by Catholics against the nation’s indigenous.
Vespers at the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Québec, July 28, 2022. (Vatican Media)
The Pope holds a private meeting with a group of former students of residential schools in Iqaluit, July 29, 2022. (Vatican Media)
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