Pope Francis was greeted with traditional drumming and singing during his visit to Edmonton, Canada. Representatives of the indigenous peoples were waiting for him there, to whom he will apologize on behalf of the the Catholic Church for the abuses they suffered in the schools where they were interned for the so-called processes of assimilation.

After a flight of more than ten hours and because of the jet lag, the organizers of the trip preferred that the pope rest the rest of the day at the seminary of this city in the Canadian province of Alberta to better manage the rest of the agenda starting tomorrow, Monday.

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Due to his knee problems, the Pope descended the plane in an elevator and not by the stairs and in a wheelchair he went to one of the airport hangars where the Governor General of the Canada, Mary Simón, the first Indigenous woman to hold this office and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The pope was welcomed by a six-person drum troupe and singers from the Alexis Nation who sang their traditional songs, then in great silence with Simon, Trudeu and the pope seated, greetings were exchanged between the delegations.

The pope remains seated for his health

A change in the pusual rotocolo which seems to be repeated in the next few days to prevent the pope from spending too much time on his feet.

In addition to the Aboriginal representatives, there were also soldiers from the 1st Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group.

A brief ceremony, as will be all the events of this trip, so that Pope Francis, 85, does not get too tired.

It will be a trip that will put testing Francisco’s mobility issues, albeit during the flightthe pontiff wanted to walk through the narrow corridors of the plane to greet the journalists with the help of a cane.

“Better than yesterday, but worse than tomorrow,” Francisco joked about his knee pain.

During the flight, Francis assured reporters he was traveling in the “spirit” of a “penitential journey”. apologize to the indigenous people.

When asked if he wasn’t too tired going around the plane and if he wouldn’t have been better off sitting down during the greetings, the Argentine pontiff replied that he could do it little by little.

The journalists questioned him in particular about the possible trip to Ukraine and Francisco assured that he would like to go there and that he “He will see”, but he admitted “that it is complicated” the organization.

The Secretary of State for Relations with States, Paul Richard Gallagher, assured in a recent interview that Francis could go to Kyiv as early as August, although from the pope’s answers this circumstance seems remote.

The Pope’s itinerary

the official calendar will begin on Monday with a visit to one of these boarding schools in Maskwaciswhere he will meet with Indigenous Peoples, First Nations, Métis and Inuit, and deliver his first speech which, like the rest, will be in Spanish.

According to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 139 government-funded schools have been founded in Canada and managed most by the Catholic Church in which around 150,000 indigenous children were interned and separated from their families, forced to abandon their languages, traditions and culture.

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In the afternoon, the Pope will go to the Church of the Sacred Heart, where he will hold a meeting with the indigenous populations and with the members of the parish community and there he will bless the image dedicated to Saint Kateri Tekakwitha , the first indigenous woman in North America to be recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church