Pope Francis is heading today, Friday, to the Arctic, the final stop of his trip to Canada to meet the Inuit who are also awaiting an apology for the mistreatment they experienced in residential schools, but they also hope to hear important words regarding “sexual abuses.”

In Quebec City, before heading to Iqaluit, the capital of the Nunavut region and its largest city, Pope Francis (85 years old) met in the morning with the Jesuits and then with a delegation of Indigenous people.

He said, “Now, in a way, I also feel like a member of your family, and it is an honor for me,” pointing out that he returned “more enriched” from the meetings that “affected him.”

Pope Francis told Indigenous leaders on the last day of his visit to Canada that he feels pain for the Catholics’ support of “oppressive and unjust policies” against them.

He added, “I came as a brother to directly discover the good and bad things carried by members of the local Catholic community over the years... I came with a spirit of atonement to express my deep sorrow for the wrong done to you by a number of Catholics who supported oppressive and unjust policies against you.”

The pope was referring to the residential schools where more than 150,000 Indigenous children were separated from their families and moved there between 1870 and 1996. Religious groups, mostly Catholic, managed these schools on behalf of governments at the time to implement cultural assimilation policies.

Children were subjected to starvation or beating for speaking their native language, and many were sexually abused in a system described by the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission as “cultural genocide.”

The pope continued, “I came as a visitor, despite physical limitations, to take further steps with you and for you.”

He continued saying, “I do this so progress can be made in the search for truth, so the healing and reconciliation processes can continue, and so seeds of hope can be planted for future generations, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike, who wish to live together in harmony as brothers and sisters.”

The Supreme Pontiff is expected to arrive at 15:50 (19:50 GMT) in Iqaluit, located in the Arctic Archipelago, which can only be reached by plane and whose name means “place of fish,” where about seven thousand people, mostly Indigenous, live.

In the streets of Iqaluit, consisting of small colorful houses built on rocky cliffs extending to the sea, the residents closely followed the initial stages of the “repentance” journey embarked upon by the Supreme Pontiff.

In the city, he will meet Indigenous people who were enrolled in a local residential school and deliver his final speech to them.

Between the late 19th century and the 1990s, about 150,000 Inuit, Métis, or First Nations people were forcibly registered in more than 130 of these institutions, thus isolating them from their families, language, and culture.

Many were subjected to physical or sexual abuse, and thousands of them never returned, having fallen victim to diseases, malnutrition, or neglect.

But in Iqaluit, many are also waiting for specific answers from the pope regarding Father Jean Rivoire, who has become, for many, a symbol of the impunity of sexual abuse perpetrators under the protection of the Church.

This French priest, who spent three decades in northern Canada, has an outstanding arrest warrant against him but no action has been taken so far. He left Canada in 1993 and lives in Lyon, France.

The spiritual leader of 1.3 billion Catholics visited western Canada and then Quebec on this trip. He moves in a wheelchair due to pain in his right knee.