The first papal visit to Canada was almost 40 years ago. That’s when Pope John Paul conducted a 12-day, cross-country tour in September of 1984. As a young reporter working at The Canadian Press, I was only tangentially involved in the coverage – my job was to represent CP at a downtown Toronto press centre, collect media passes from organizers and then distribute them to the small army of reporters and photographers who were documenting the pope’s every move. Looking back on the way the media covered that first trip in 1984, it truly was a different era. Newsrooms were much bigger. John Paul had an almost rock star aura at the time. He filled Montréal’s Olympic Stadium for a mass and millions of people across the country – many of whom weren’t Catholic – came out to see him as he travelled in his custom-made Popemobile. (I remember getting a quick glimpse of him in the vehicle as he travelled down Toronto’s University Avenue, where the sidewalks were thick with cheering admirers.) And there was no public discussion about the church’s role in the Indian Residential School system, which would still have been in existence in some parts of the country then.

John Paul met with Indigenous groups on that trip, including a stop at the historic Martyrs’ Shrine in Midland, Ont., located near the site of a 17th century Jesuit mission. The pope praised “the many efforts of the Church, beginning three and a half centuries ago, to bring the Gospel of Christ into the lives of the native peoples of North America.”

Much has changed in the 38 years since that first papal visit. When Pope Francis touches down in Edmonton on Sunday, it will be the beginning of a five-day visit that will likely be much more sombre than John Paul’s 1984 tour. Francis’s first public appearance will be at a former Indian Residential School, where he is expected to expand on a personal apology he made to an Indigenous delegation that travelled to the Vatican earlier this year.

The Conversation Canada has devoted a lot of coverage to the role of churches in the residential school tragedy and we have several stories in the works for the pope’s upcoming visit. In the meantime, to help readers understand the importance of the expected apology, I’ve assembled some stories that look at the issue from different perspectives.

Have a great weekend and we’ll be back in your Inbox on Monday.

Scott White

CEO | Editor-in-Chief

Weekend Reads: The importance of papal apologies

Indian Residential Schools: What does it mean if the Pope apologizes in Canada?

Christopher Hrynkow, University of Saskatchewan

A papal apology, if done in ‘a good way,’ could help remove barriers to transforming harmful relationships between Indigenous Peoples and the Catholic Church.

Pope’s visit to Canada: Indigenous communities await a new apology — and a commitment to justice

Tiffany Dionne Prete, University of Lethbridge

Pope Francis and the Catholic Church must make a plan with Indigenous Peoples, not for us, in order to walk the path of reconciliation. Some initial suggestions of what a plan might include.

Pope Francis’ visit to Canada: The complicated relationship between Indigenous communities and the church

Jonathan Hamilton-Diabo, University of Toronto

It is reasonable to expect that any apology from the Pope will be met with mixed responses.

Why the Pope’s visit is important to all Canadians

Marie-Pierre Bousquet, Université de Montréal

Pope Francis’ visit concerns all Canadians. It’s about our relationship to history and the construction of a state that marginalized Indigenous people and tried to assimilate them.

Pope Francis’s apology for residential schools doesn’t acknowledge institutional responsibility

Jeremy M. Bergen, University of Waterloo

As a theologian who studies church apologies for historical wrongs, I understand why the Pope was moved to speak this week, but I hope this was not his definitive apology.

As an Indigenous delegation prepares to visit the Vatican, it’s worth revisiting Trudeau’s 2017 papal gift of the Jesuit ‘Relations’

Micah True, University of Alberta

It is worth considering whether efforts to enlist the church in reconciliation have been helped or hindered by how settlers think about early written records.

Pope Francis’ apology for abuse in Chile would once have been unthinkable

Mathew Schmalz, College of the Holy Cross

Popes are not infallible, yet apologies are rare.

The Church of England is apologising for medieval antisemitism – why now?

Tony Kushner, University of Southampton

The Church of England’s apology for medieval antisemitism is welcome. But there is something missing.