Pope Francis speaks Indigenous languages while participating in Lac Ste. Anne pilgrimage

Pope Francis spoke in three First Nations languages at a sacred pilgrimage site hours after his public mass in Edmonton was called a missed opportunity for not including Indigenous culture or traditions.On Tuesday, Francis joined thousands of people at Lac Ste.

Anne, northwest of Edmonton, and during a church service, wearing a red Metis sash around his neck, said hello in Nakota, Cree and Blackfoot.“Aba-wash-did!

Tansi! Oki!”Many cheered.The site has been important to Indigenous people and Catholics for generations. The Archdiocese of Edmonton estimates about 10,000 people attended on Tuesday.Francis blessed the lake, smiling broadly, and used a traditional wooden tool with a brush on the end to flick some of the water at outstretched hands in the crowd.The Pope’s liturgy included thoughts on the Roman Catholic Church’s past and future relationship with Indigenous Peoples, as well as the important role of Indigenous women in their communities.“Dear Indigenous brothers and sisters, I have come here as a pilgrim also to say to you how precious you are to me and to the church,” Francis said.“I want the church to be intertwined with you, as tightly woven as the threads of the coloured bands that many of you wear.”It was a stark contrast from the earlier mass in front of thousands at Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium.

Pope Francis holds open-air public mass at Edmonton football stadium There, Francis did not address Indigenous Peoples, cultures or traditions much during the event, despite having delivered an apology a day earlier for abuses at Catholic-run residential schools.“I just don’t know what they were thinking,” Daryold Corbiere Winkler, a priest in Ottawa who is Anishinaabe, said about the Edmonton service.“For me,.