For the first time since the start of the war in Ukraine, Pope Francis received in a private audience this morning a top-ranking member of the Russian Orthodox Church, second only to patriarch Kirill of Moscow.

Gerry Desnomie, 74, suffered verbal, emotional and sexual abuse in a church-run residential school. He welcomed the pope’s apology in Canada—but says three points were missing.

“We are at a different place than we were a week ago in the church’s walk with Indigenous Peoples, a better place.”

An exclusive interview with Mandy Gull-Masty, the grand chief of the Cree Nation and the first woman to hold that post, about Pope Francis' visit to Canada and the future of the reconciliation process.

Aboard the papal plane, Pope Francis addresses questions about future travel, the doctrine of discovery, contraception and Germany’s Synodal Way.

In Quebec, Pope Francis spent time meeting with Canadian government officials about the rights of Indigenous peoples, a substantial step in the at times tenuous relationship between the Holy See and Canada.

“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.