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EDMONTON — George Arcand Jr. says it was a humbling experience to welcome Pope Francis to Canada as the Treaty 6 Grand Chief encouraged the leader of the Roman Catholic Church to join a path of healing by speaking with survivors of residential schools.Francis arrived Sunday to an honour drum song ahead of a brief welcome ceremony in an airport hangar in Edmonton.
The Pope handed each guest a red box. Most contained a commemorative coin. Some clergy members received rosaries instead. There, Francis kissed the hand of residential school survivor Alma Desjarlais of Frog Lake First Nation. Another survivor, Vicki Arcand, said meeting Francis was a"lifetime experience," but she has mixed emotions.
Francis made the unusual choice not to hold Sunday mass because, organizers said, his first public statements on the trip are to be at the former Ermineskin Indian Residential School in the nearby community of Maskwacis on Monday.An estimated 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend residential schools in Canada, where neglect and physical and sexual abuse were rampant. More than 60 per cent of the schools were run by the Catholic Church.
Archibald, whose sister died in a residential school in Ontario, said she's concerned that First Nations leadership was not consulted enough ahead of the Pope's visit. She said the focus of the his time in Canada should be on residential school survivors.
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