Thousands of Indigenous people gathered Monday in Maskwacis, a small grassland community in Alberta, to hear Pope Francis’ long-awaited apology for generations of abuse and cultural repression at Canada’s Catholic residential schools.

Francis was due to arrive mid-morning at the site of the former Ermineskin Indian Residential School, now largely demolished. He also planned to visit the sites of the old school and nearby cemetery before speaking in a large open space in front of school survivors, their families and other well-wishers.

Francis arrived in Edmonton on Sunday, where he was greeted by representatives of Canada’s three major Indigenous groups – First Nations, Métis and Inuit – as well as religious and political dignitaries. During the welcoming ceremony, Francis kissed the hand of a residential school survivor, the Venerable Alma Desjarlais of Frog Lake First Nations, a gesture of humility and respect he had done before, during a meeting with Holocaust survivors.

The pope spent the rest of Sunday resting in a seminary in Edmonton, the capital of Alberta.

The Canadian government has admitted that physical and sexual abuse was endemic in government-funded Christian schools that operated from the 19th century to the 1970s. Nearly 150,000 Indigenous children were separated from their families and forced to attend to attempt to isolate them from the influence of their original homes, languages ​​and cultures and adapt them to the Christian society of Canada.

Francis’ six-day trip – which will also include other sites in Alberta, Quebec and Iqaluit, Nunavut, in the Far North – comes after meetings he held at the Vatican with First Nations delegations in spring, Métis and Inuit. These meetings culminated in a historic apology on April 1 for “deplorable” abuses committed by some Catholic missionaries in boarding schools.