Meetings of members of a delegation made up of Métis, Inuit and First Nations with Pope Francis begin Monday at the Vatican.
The Métis delegates will be the first to sit down with the pontiff on Monday morning. They will be followed in the afternoon by the Inuit delegates. The turn of the First Nations delegates will come on Thursday.
The three groups will meet together with the pontiff during a public audience that the Vatican could broadcast live on its website.
Each indigenous group will be entitled to a private meeting of 30 minutes with the pope.
The delegation expects Francis to pledge to apologize for the role played by the Catholic Church in the residential school scandal.
The 32 members of the delegation no doubt have different expectations about the planned meeting with the head of the Catholic Church.
Chief Gerald Antoine, who heads the Assembly of First Nations delegation to Rome, says having been able to talk to friends, families, youth and victims on the plane that took them brought from Montreal to Rome established a sense of unity.
Taylor Behn-Tsakoza of Fort Nelson First Nation in British Columbia calls just being in Rome a memorable moment. An initial meeting scheduled for December was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some 170 people made the trip. In addition to official delegates, family members and others came to support. Staff from the Assembly of First Nations, the Métis National Council and the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatam are also present.
Canadian bishops will accompany the delegation, including the president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, Raymond Poisson.
Delegates will also visit the Vatican Museums to view collections of indigenous art. They will also go to Assisi, the birthplace of Saint Francis of Assisi.
The theme of the meeting is: “Indigenous peoples and the Church: walking together towards healing and reconciliation”.
The Vatican says it is open to a visit by Pope Francis to Canada.