Pope Francis will be making a trip to Canada this summer but he won’t be stopping in Kamloops, or British Columbia.

The Vatican says he will make stops in Edmonton, Quebec City, and Iqaluit between July 24 and July 30. The visit comes after the Pope’s historic apology last month for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in residential schools in Canada.

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops said the three cities were selected based on the length of the trip, the vast size of Canada, and the health of the 85-year-old pontiff who has begun using a wheelchair and has a pronounced limp.

Archbishop Richard Smith of Edmonton, the general coordinator of the trip for the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, says the three cities who so chosen because they are spread out and give Indigenous people across the country more opportunities to see the Pope.

Edmonton is home to the second-largest number of Indigenous people living in urban centres and there were 25 residential schools in Alberta. Lac Ste. Anne, an important site for Indigenous people and the location of a large religious pilgrimage each July, is also nearby.

Iqaluit on Baffin Island in Nunavut is home to the highest population of Inuit people, while Quebec City is also near Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupre, another important pilgrimage site.

Many Indigenous leaders had called for Pope Francis to visit Kamloops, where the discovery of unmarked graves at a former residential school spurred initial calls around the world for justice and transparency. During a visit to the Vatican, Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Kukpi7 Rosanne Casimir handed Pope Francis a handwritten invitation to visit her territory.

“It would be deeply meaningful to welcome the Holy See, Pope Francis, to Tk’emlups te Secwepemc, as our heart wrenching news was the first of the wave of confirmations of unmarked graves with thousands more lives lost coming to light,” she said in November last year, while making a similar request.

“It’d be a historic moment for Kamloops Residential Indian School Survivors and for our community [which] continues to navigate the impacts following the horrific confirmation of the missing children.”

Smith says the Pope’s mobility limits where he can go, but it is expected he will travel to a former residential school site, calling it “another important step for healing and reconciliation.”

The visit would make Francis the second Pope to come to Canada, after Pope John Paul II spent 12 days in the country in 1984, landing in Quebec City before making his way west to Yellowknife.

Three years later, he also stopped in Fort Simpson, N.W.T. for one day, and again returned in 2002 for World Youth Day in Toronto.

Support services for residential school survivors in British Columbia:

* The KUU-US Crisis Line Society provides a 24-hour, provincewide Indigenous crisis line for Indigenous peoples in B.C. Adults, call 250 723-4050. Children and youth, call 250 723-2040. Toll-free: 1 800 588-8717

* First Nations and Inuit Hope for Wellness Help Line for Indigenous people across Canada toll-free 1 855 242-3310 or chat online: https://www.hopeforwellness.ca/

* The Métis Crisis Line for Métis people in B.C., available 24 hours a day at 1 833 MétisBC: 1 833 638-4722

* Tsow Tun Le Lum for Indigenous peoples in B.C., phone: 1 888 403-3123

* Indian Residential School Survivors Society, phone: 1 800 721-0066 or 604 985-4464

* 24-Hour National Crisis Line for residential school survivors and others affected: 1 866 925-4419

– With files from The Canadian Press

His Holiness #PopeFrancis will make an #ApostolicJourney to #Canada from 24 to 30 July 2022 pic.twitter.com/WmYxmHFuu3

— Holy See Press Office (@HolySeePress) May 13, 2022