In the 40-minute news conference that the Pope held on his return flight to Rome from Canada on 29 July, Francis talked about his own future, as well as the remarkable journey he had just completed.
Earlier that day, the last stop on his “penitential pilgrimage” had taken him to the town of Iqaluit in Nunavut, built on permafrost 200 miles from the Arctic Circle. There he apologised again to survivors of Canada’s residential schools, the majority Catholic-run and government-funded, and said it was his hope to “shed light on what happened and move beyond that dark past.” The “evil” system, aimed at forcibly assimilating Indigenous children into Christian culture, had pulled children from their parents and grandparents, Francis told several thousand people outside Nakasuk School in Iqaluit, speaking in his native Spanish, with translation to English and Inuktitut.
On the plane, an Indigenous reporter asked why Francis did not use the word genocide while in Canada. “It's true, I didn't use the word because it didn't come to my mind, but I described the genocide and asked for forgiveness, pardon for this activity that is genocidal. For example, I condemned this too: taking away children, changing culture, changing mentality, changing traditions, changing a race, let's put it that way, an entire culture. Yes, genocide is a technical word. I didn't use it because it didn't come to my mind, but I described it… It's true, yes, it's genocide. You can all stay calm about this. You can report that I said that it was genocide.”
On how his health issues will impact his foreign travel – the acute pain in his knee meant he needed a wheelchair throughout his visit – Francis said: “This trip was a bit of a test” to see how much he could handle and how much of what was considered a standard part of a papal trip was really necessary. “Perhaps we will have to change the style a bit, reduce a bit,” he said.
But Francis said he still hopes to visit Kyiv, Ukraine – “we'll see what's possible” – as well as Kazakhstan in September for an interreligious meeting. “I have all the good will” to keep traveling, the Pope said, “but we'll have to see what the leg says.” He said he wants to reschedule his postponed ecumenical trip to South Sudan with Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury and the Revd Iain Greenshields, moderator of the Church of Scotland.
On the possibility of his retiring, Pope Francis said: “The door is open. It is one of the normal options, but up to now I haven't knocked on that door.
“I haven't felt like I needed to consider this possibility, but that doesn't mean that the day after tomorrow I won't start thinking about it. Stepping aside would not be a catastrophe. You can change Popes, no problem.”
He explained that he would not have surgery on his knee because, he said, he reacted badly to anaesthesia in July 2021 when he had colon surgery.
Another Canadian reporter asked Pope Francis about the “Doctrine of Discovery,” papal teachings rooted in the fifteenth century that blessed the efforts of explorers to colonise and claim the lands of any people who were not Christian.
Pope Francis said it always has been a temptation for colonisers to think they were superior to the people whose land they were colonising.
“This is the problem of every colonialism, even today,” he said, pointing to modern forms of “ideological colonialism”, which use requests for foreign assistance to force poorer countries to adopt policies that go against the values that their people hold dear.
Speaking on Sunday after the Angelus, the Pope thanked all those who had made his penitential pilgrimage possible, including civil authorities, heads of the Indigenous peoples and the Canadian bishops. He also thanked everyone who had accompanied him with their prayers, and said he would speak at length about his visit during Wednesday’s General Audience.
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