‘Great expectations’ for meeting with Pope

Indigenous leaders to be in Rome next month

Advertisement

Advertise with us

Phil Fontaine's trip to Rome to meet Pope Francis next month will be in stark contrast to his first visit to the Vatican in 2009, when he was national chief of the Assembly of First Nations.

Read this article for free:


or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Subscribe and receive a limited-edition Free Press branded hat or tote.

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $205*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/11/2021 (1748 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Phil Fontaine’s trip to Rome to meet Pope Francis next month will be in stark contrast to his first visit to the Vatican in 2009, when he was national chief of the Assembly of First Nations.

“We were unsuccessful in securing an apology” from Pope Benedict XVI, said Fontaine, although he noted the Pope did express “deep regret.”

The circumstances of the Dec. 14 to 21 visit “are so different,” said Fontaine, a member of the Sagkeeng First Nation in Manitoba.

Pope Francis arrives in the Paul VI Hall for his weekly general audience at the Vatican, Wednesday, Nov. 24. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Francis arrives in the Paul VI Hall for his weekly general audience at the Vatican, Wednesday, Nov. 24. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

In 2009, there had been no Truth and Reconciliation Commission report, nor had the unmarked graves of children who died at residential schools been discovered.

Now, he said, “we already know the Pope is committed to visiting Canada,” adding he hopes “the Holy Father will issue an apology” when he is here.

Fontaine spoke at a news conference hosted by the Assembly of First Nations Thursday. He has been named Manitoba’s delegate, and co-lead, for the Dec. 20 visit by First Nations leaders with the Pope.

Thirteen First Nations members from across Canada will make the trip, which is being organized and paid for by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. In addition, delegates from the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and the Métis National Council will attend. Each group will have one hour with the Pope.

Fontaine noted it has been a long journey for him and other Indigenous people.

“We are going to Rome with great expectations,” he said, noting he hopes the Pope will agree to issue an apology on Indigenous territory in Canada.

While an apology is important, Fontaine added the delegation is also focused on reparations, access to residential school records, continued searching for unmarked graves and practical efforts at reconciliation with Catholics in Canada.

“There are a number of issues,” on the table, he said, noting they can’t all be covered in the short time the delegation will meet with the Pope.

Norman Yakeleya, a regional chief from the Northwest Territories, who will be the delegation lead, said the visit “has been a long time in coming.”

It will provide “a measure of dignity and respect” to survivors and their descendants, he said, adding an apology is “absolutely required to advance reconciliation and healing.”

It is also important that such an apology take place “on our lands,” he said.

Although no locations for the papal visit have been announced, it was suggested the former residential school in Kamloops, B.C., where the first unmarked graves were found, might be an ideal place for him to visit.

“We are ground zero,” said Kúkpi7 Chief Rosanne Casimir of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation and the B.C. representative on the delegation. “It would be extra significant for him (the Pope) to visit this area.”

No date has been set for the papal visit, although it was speculated that Sept. 30, 2022, the second National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, would be appropriate.

Rosalie LaBillois of Eel River Bar First Nation in New Brunswick, a young person and inter-generational survivor, said the visit is especially meaningful since she will get to “do what my grandfather never got to do — speak his truth.”

To the best of her ability, LaBillois wants to “represent the youth perspective,” to the Pope, and come home with a message that Indigenous youth can be “proud of where we come from… we have a voice.”

faith@freepress.mb.ca

The Free Press is committed to covering faith in Manitoba through our Religion in the News project. This reporting continues because readers like you step forward to fund it.

Donate now to support our reporting on religion.

Your donation is eligible for a charitable tax receipt. BECOME A FAITH JOURNALISM SUPPORTER

John Longhurst

John Longhurst
Faith columnist & reporter

John Longhurst has been writing for Winnipeg's faith pages since 2003. He also writes for Religion News Service in the U.S., and blogs about the media, marketing and communications at Making the News.

Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.

Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.

Report Error Submit a Tip

The Free Press acknowledges the financial support it receives from members of the city’s faith community, which makes our coverage of religion possible.

More Stories

What’s open, what’s closed, what’s up in Winnipeg on Labour Day

Free Press staff 4 minute read Preview

What’s open, what’s closed, what’s up in Winnipeg on Labour Day

Free Press staff 4 minute read Friday, Sep. 4, 2026

Here's a roundup of hours of business for services and things to do on September 7.

Read
Friday, Sep. 4, 2026

U of M study shows female entrepreneurs have it tough on dating market

Jen Zoratti 6 minute read Preview

U of M study shows female entrepreneurs have it tough on dating market

Jen Zoratti 6 minute read Yesterday at 10:00 AM CDT

Xiumei Li had a friend who had been on the dating scene for a while.

He’d been seeing an impressive woman, a startup founder building a successful business. She was a good conversationalist. She was interesting.

She sounded great. So why didn’t it work out?

Some gentle prodding revealed he was intimidated by her, but also felt that “there was a gap between what he expected for a partner versus what this female entrepreneur had to offer,” Li says.

Read
Yesterday at 10:00 AM CDT

US tourism groups want to win Canadian visitors back. A testy trade war isn’t helping

Rio Yamat, The Associated Press 7 minute read Preview

US tourism groups want to win Canadian visitors back. A testy trade war isn’t helping

Rio Yamat, The Associated Press 7 minute read Sunday, Sep. 6, 2026

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Appeals from American tourism organizations seemed to be everywhere Josh Loewen looked over the last year. Billboards and banners proclaimed a state or city's love for Canada. Online and social media ads offered special deals for travelers from north of the border.

As a Vancouver resident and marketing executive himself, Loewen said he understands the conciliatory overtures. The number of Canadians traveling to the United States plunged after President Donald Trump returned to office with remarks about making Canada the 51st state. An acrimonious trade war between the two countries now is threatening to reinforce the informal boycott just as it appeared to be easing slightly.

"It’s such a big ask right now,” Loewen, 45, said of the U.S. tourism industry's attempts to woo Canadians like him back before a new president occupies the White House. “It’s just a wasted effort.”

Relations between the U.S. and Canadian governments have deteriorated sharply since their trade negotiations collapsed last month. Trump imposed import taxes of up to 50% on a range of Canadian products. Canada’s government responded in kind. Trump ordered the U.S. government to change the name of border-spanning Lake Ontario to “Lake America.” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney dismissed insults from members of Trump's Cabinet as childish and undignified.

Read
Sunday, Sep. 6, 2026

Woman died while getting wisdom teeth out; case raises questions about transparency of dental association

Nicole Buffie 5 minute read Preview

Woman died while getting wisdom teeth out; case raises questions about transparency of dental association

Nicole Buffie 5 minute read Friday, Sep. 4, 2026

The parents of a 23-year-old southwestern Manitoba woman who died after receiving a local anesthetic during a wisdom tooth extraction say they are in the dark about the investigation into their daughter’s death.

Dulaney and Victoria Blatz say the Manitoba Dental Association has been unwilling to give them information about the probe into their daughter’s death, saying the self-governing regulatory body must be more transparent with the public.

“We have pushed through various channels trying to get information, but it’s nothing but stalling and sidelining,” Victoria said Friday. “This has crashed our world to pieces and we just want answers.”

Virginia Blatz went to Boundary Trails Dental Centre in Morden on Nov. 27, 2024, to have her wisdom teeth removed, but never returned home.

Read
Friday, Sep. 4, 2026

For newcomer pizza purveyors, it’s all about crafting solid foundations

David Sanderson 7 minute read Preview

For newcomer pizza purveyors, it’s all about crafting solid foundations

David Sanderson 7 minute read Saturday, Sep. 5, 2026

A recent poll conducted by an Internet-based market-research firm determined that close to 20 per cent of people eschew their leftover pizza crust.

Some argued that the residual crust lacks flavour. Others submitted that it’s too hard or crunchy to enjoy sans toppings. Given that information, what are we to make of Crusty Craft Pizza, a five-month-old takeout spot whose owners are so confident in their European-style pizza crust that they’ve chosen to highlight it in their business moniker?

Whenever somebody informs them they don’t like pizza crust, their response is, well, they haven’t tried theirs, says Oleksii Samokvhal, who together with his wife, Iryna Mehedyn, opened Crusty Craft Pizza in early April, at 1311 Day St. in Transcona.

“It’s thin in the middle, with raised edges we hand-form ourselves,” says Mehedyn, a native of Ukraine who, like her Kyiv-born husband, relocated to Winnipeg to escape the conflict in their home country.

Read
Saturday, Sep. 5, 2026

‘We belong… and we are giving back”: Sikh celebration enlivens downtown Winnipeg

Melissa Martin 3 minute read Preview

‘We belong… and we are giving back”: Sikh celebration enlivens downtown Winnipeg

Melissa Martin 3 minute read Sunday, Sep. 6, 2026

Downtown Winnipeg came alive with vibrant sights, sounds, and scents on Sunday, as Manitoba’s Sikh community flocked to Memorial Park to celebrate its annual Nagar Kirtan procession and festival.

This year marked the 422nd anniversary of the completion of the Guru Granth Sahib, the holy scripture central to the Sikh faith. Shortly after 1 p.m., a palanquin bearing a copy of the scripture was led in parade through downtown Winnipeg, with musical accompaniment.

“This is a chance to tell the public and the whole community where we come from and who we are,” said volunteer Prabh Grewal shortly before the procession got underway. “In a community there are people from every race and every country, and our main objective is to have everybody live in peace and harmony together.”

Before, during, and after the procession, the park hummed with life. As many as 55,000 people converged on the site, with the majority dressed in festive traditional attire. Near the height of the day’s 30 C heat, families relaxed in patches of shade, enjoying plates of Punjabi cuisine dished out for free at dozens of tents sponsored by local businesses.

Read
Sunday, Sep. 6, 2026