While presented as missionary work, the operation of residential schools by Catholics in Canada was actually an attempt to impose European culture on Canada’s Indigenous people, Pope Francis said.

On the treaty land of the Ermineskin Cree Nation, Samson Cree Nation, Louis Bull Tribe and the Montana First Nation, near the former site of one of Canada’s largest residential schools, Pope Francis said, “I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous peoples.”

After a flight of more than 10 hours from Rome, Pope Francis landed in Edmonton and met briefly at the airport with Indigenous leaders, Canada’s governor general and prime minister before heading to the local seminary for a rest.

The top representative of Europe’s Catholic bishops said the Vatican is changing its approach to the war in Ukraine because of the unlikelihood of a mediated settlement, and praised the resilience of Ukrainians in withstanding Russian aggression.

Saying he wanted to highlight the spiritual gifts of Opus Dei and its contributions to the Catholic Church’s evangelizing activities, Pope Francis said it will now work with and answer to the Dicastery for Clergy, rather than the Dicastery for Bishops.

In his message for the World Day of Prayer for Creation, the pope said the current climate crisis is a call for men and women, especially Christians, to “repent and modify our lifestyles and destructive systems.”

Pope Francis’ July trip to Canada was born out of his meetings with the nations’ Indigenous people and was planned around encounters with them, and if the pope’s words “have value elsewhere,” like throughout the Americas, all the better, said the director of the Vatican press office.

Pope Francis interrupted his traditional July break to meet with Prince Albert II of Monaco and his wife, Princess Charlene, at the Vatican.

The Vatican released a new policy consolidating the investment portfolios of all offices and keeping all current and future investments in line with the social doctrine of the Catholic Church.

For Andrii Yurash, Ukraine’s ambassador to the Holy See, Pope Francis’ consistent reminder of “the barbarism of war” is needed because “four months of war has made a lot of people around the world accustomed to this situation.”