📷: Pope Francis kisses the hand of a Canadian Indigenous woman at a welcome ceremony in Edmonton, Canada, July 24, 2022. Francis arrived Sunday in Canada, where he is expected to personally apologize to Indigenous survivors of abuse committed over a span of decades at residential schools run by the Catholic Church. The head of the world's 1.3 billion Catholics landed at Edmonton's international airport shortly after 11 a.m. local time. He was welcomed by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mary Simon, the country's first Indigenous governor general, as well as Indigenous leaders in an airport ceremony that began with drums and chanting. Afterward Francis received welcome gifts from Indigenous leaders, shaking or kissing their hands and making conversation with each before the short ceremony ended. During the 10-hour flight from Rome, Francis told journalists traveling with him that "we must be aware that this is a penitential journey." The 85-year-old pontiff's Canada visit is primarily to apologize to survivors for the church's role in the scandal that a national truth and reconciliation commission has called "cultural genocide." From the late 1800s to the 1990s, Canada's government sent about 150,000 First Nations, Metis and Inuit children into 139 residential schools run by the church, where they were cut off from their families, language and culture. https://www.voanews.com/a/pope-in-canada-to-make-amends-for-indigenous-school-abuse/6671557.html