“I would like once more to ask forgiveness of all the victims,” the pope said in a homily at Quebec’s Notre Dame Cathedral. “The pain and the shame we feel must become an occasion for conversion: Never again!”

The image of Pope Francis, all alone on the side of the lake, imploring God for healing, will surely remain as an iconic image of this penitential pilgrimage.

Pope Francis condemned Canada’s residential school system as “a deplorable evil” and asked forgiveness of the Indigenous Peoples for Christians participation in it.

From July 24 to July 29, Pope Francis will meet with Indigenous People in Canada to apologize and ask forgiveness, on their land, for abuses perpetrated in largely Catholic Church-run residential schools.

Archbishop Gallagher on U.S.-Vatican relations, the Holy See joining the Paris climate agreement and where Pope Francis hopes to visit in the coming year.

Four years after the Holy See and China reached a provisional agreement on the appointment of bishops, Archbishop Paul Gallagher says the results are “not terribly impressive.”

“We’re getting to a very dangerous situation worldwide,” the Vatican’s secretary for relations with states said, “and it wouldn’t take much to make things even worse” and to arrive at “a world in conflict.”

Pope Francis says he will make “a penitential pilgrimage” to Canada July 24 to embrace and contribute to healing and reconciliation with its Indigenous peoples

Continuing with determination to open up new positions of responsibility for women in the Roman Curia, Pope Francis has appointed three women as members of the Dicastery for Bishops.

Were a papal document forthcoming it could lead to a new and definitive papal teaching document on issues as polarizing as contraception, assisted procreation and palliative care.