In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission released its Calls to Action. One of those calls, No. 58, asked the Pope to deliver an apology in Canada. Yesterday, Pope Francis “begged for forgiveness” while speaking before thousands in Maskwacis, Alta., near the site of the former Ermineskin Residential School.

Today in The Conversation Canada, Jeremy M. Bergen from the University of Waterloo, a scholar of church apologies for historical wrongs, writes about the Pope's first statement.

“The meaning of an apology is not fully determined by the words that are said but by the actions that follow,” he writes. "Whether this apology has truly advanced the goal of healing may become evident only in years and decades to come."

Also today: 

All the best.

Susannah Schmidt

Education + Arts Editor

Pope Francis receives a traditional headdress after apologizing near the site of the former Ermineskin Residential School, in Maskwacis, Alta. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson

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