EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) – Pope Francis is presiding over his first big Mass in Canada on Tuesday to honor grandparents, a day after he apologized for the Catholic Church’s role in severing generations of Indigenous family ties by participating in Canada’s “disastrous” residential school system.
Tens of thousands of people were expected for the Mass at the Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta, to mark the Feast of St. Anne, the grandmother of Jesus and a figure of particular veneration for Canadian Catholics. Later Tuesday, Francis was continuing with his ode to grandparents by leading a prayer service at one of North America’s most popular pilgrimage sites, Lac Ste. Anne, considered to be a place of healing.
It wasn’t clear if Francis would actually celebrate the Mass himself or designate someone else to lead while he presides sitting from the side of the altar, as he has done in recent months because his strained knee ligaments make standing and walking difficult. Either way, Francis was nevertheless expected to deliver the homily.
Francis has long lauded the role of grandmothers in passing the faith onto younger generations, citing his own experience with his grandmother, Rosa, while growing up in Buenos Aires. For several months, Francis has delivered weekly catechism lessons on the need to treasure grandparental wisdom and not discard them as part of today’s “culture of waste.”
Francis’ message has even greater resonance in Canada, given Indigenous families were torn apart by the church-enforced government policy of forcible assimilation.