2022年7月26日，梵蒂冈媒体公布的一张照片显示，教皇方济各(屏幕上)在加拿大埃德蒙顿的英联邦体育场举行弥撒。梵蒂冈媒体讲义/ANSA环保局-埃菲社

教皇方济各周二在加拿大西部的一个体育场向数万人发表了露天弥撒，一天前，他就天主教学校虐待土著儿童的事件做出了具有里程碑意义的道歉。

这位85岁的教皇在乘坐教皇专车经过亚伯达省埃德蒙顿的会场时，微笑着挥手致意，并几次停下来亲吻人群中递给他的婴儿。

方济各随后用西班牙语发表了他的布道，这是他此次访问中最大的露天活动之一，他祈祷"未来我们的土著兄弟姐妹遭受暴力和边缘化的历史永远不会重演。"

仪式开始前，人们在晴朗的天空下就座，安全措施非常严格。官员们表示，大约有5万人参加了活动。

空气中弥漫着传统音乐，而人群中的土著人可以通过他们的橙色衬衫辨认出来——这意味着他们在该国忍受的失败的强制同化政策

Some held a banner reading "Every child matters," while others wore traditional headdresses. Francis himself wore a garment that officials said had been inspired by Indigenous art.

In the first major address of his visit on Monday, to a gathering of Indigenous people in the community of Maskwacis, south of Edmonton, Francis offered a long-awaited apology to Canada's First Nations, Metis and Inuit people for the "evil" inflicted on them for decades.

"I am sorry," he said, citing the "cultural destruction" and the "physical, verbal, psychological and spiritual abuse" of children over nearly a century at the schools.

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After Tuesday's mass, the leader of the world's 1.3 billion Catholics is expected to continue what he has described as a "penitential" journey, travelling to Lac Ste Anne, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) west of Edmonton, for a liturgical celebration at one of North America's most important pilgrimage sites.

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St. Anne, whose feast day is Tuesday, was the grandmother of Jesus in the Catholic tradition.

Every year since the end of the 19th century, thousands of pilgrims mainly from Canada and the United States have come to bathe and pray in the healing waters, according to Indigenous rites.

- 'Path together' -

From the late 1800s to the 1990s, Canada's government sent about 150,000 children into 139 residential schools run by the Church, where they were cut off from their families, language and culture.

Many were physically and sexually abused, and thousands are believed to have died of disease, malnutrition or neglect.

Monday's apology by the pope for the role Church members had played in the abuse had a powerful impact on many, leaving survivors feeling overwhelmed and leaders praising it as historic, even as some warned it was only a first step.

"Where do you go from there?" David Henderson, from the Manitoba First Nations community, told AFP in Edmonton. "It's still going to take a lot of healing."

Others were more critical.

"I feel it would have meant more to a lot of people if it came from the heart without reading a sheet of paper," said Caroline L. Bruyeri, a former student of one of the schools.

Henry Swanpy, of the Sagkeeng First Nations community, said he was "disappointed" the pope had not delivered his apology directly in English, rather than in Spanish repeated through an interpreter.

"He should have learned to apologize in our language," Swanpy said.

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Since May 2021, more than 1,300 unmarked graves have been discovered at the sites of the former schools, sending shockwaves through Canada, which has slowly begun to acknowledge this long, dark chapter in its history.

More than 4,000 children have been identified as dying in the schools, but the true toll is estimated to be at least 6,000.

The abuse created trauma for generations.

Following a July 27 TO 29 visit to Quebec City, Pope Francis – who often uses a wheelchair due to knee pain – will end his trip in Iqaluit, capital of the northern territory of Nunavut and home to the largest Inuit population in Canada.

There he will meet again with former residential school students, before returning to Italy.

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