The editorial director of Vatican News writes that during his visit to Canada, the main message of Pope Francis has been a “request for forgiveness for the disasters wrought by the colonial mentality that sought to eradicate traditional cultures.”


Andrea Tornielli writes that colonizers “became worldly,” and “Imposed their own cultural models.” He says that the Pope realizes that “this attitude dies hard, also from the religious standpoint.”

During his stay in Canada, the Vatican spokesman says, the Pope is advancing a vision of the Church “that seeks to adhere more and more to the Gospel and which does not have a set of ideas and precepts to impose on people.”