Pope Francis

While there is excitement, the trip comes with a sense of urgency. Despite a peace deal, violence along political and ethnic lines has continued and millions are in the grip of famine.

He stressed that lack of charity with one another is also a sin and added that the Catholic Church should work to put an end to laws in some countries that criminalize homosexuality.

Pope Francis asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to "stop this spiral of violence and death" and called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to "be open" to serious peace proposals.

Pope Francis, 85, acknowledged he can no longer travel like he used to because of his strained knee ligaments, saying his weeklong Canadian pilgrimage was "a bit of a test."

Pope Francis traveled to the edge of the Arctic to deliver an apology to the Inuit people for the "evil" of Canada's residential schools, wrapping up his week-long "penitential pilgrimage" to Canada.

The church is acknowledging its role in the forceful removal, assimilation, abuse and in many cases deaths of more than 150,000 children forcibly taken from their families and placed in so-called residential schools.

The pope apologized to Indigenous peoples for abuses in church-run residential schools. Canada's response suggests that reconciliation over the fraught history is still a work in progress.

Francis issued the apology years after a Canadian-government-funded report said children had been physically and sexually abused at the mostly Catholic-run schools in the country.

Pope Francis issued a long-awaited apology and took responsibility for the church's cooperation in generations of abuse and cultural suppression at Catholic residential schools across Canada.

Pope Francis began a visit to Canada on Sunday to apologize to Indigenous peoples for abuses at residential schools, part of the the Catholic Church's efforts to reconcile with Native communities.