Pope Francis blessing crowds at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton during his 2022 visit to Canada. Curtis Haigh/Dreamstime

By Eli J. Ridder

SMILE SUNDAYS

Pope Francis was humble and present during landmark trip, Alberta priest says

Apr 21, 2025 | 2:33 PM

A Medicine Hat-born Catholic priest, who was charged with a crucial role when Pope Francis made a rare visit to Canada three years ago, says the late pontiff was thoughtful, humble and took care to be present in the moment.

Rev. Cristino Bouvette, a priest with the Diocese of Calgary based in Strathmore, was charged with coordinating the pope’s liturgies and ceremonies as a go-between the Vatican and Canada’s bishops.

As the national liturgical coordinator for only the fourth-ever visit of a pope to Canada, Bouvette was part of Francis’ close papal entourage and spent some time with him over five days.

“He’s very quiet, he’s very pensive, he has a lot on his mind,” Bouvette said Monday from inside the Holy Family Parish sanctuary in Medicine Hat.

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“But at the same, very humbly and very present to the people who were encountering him which was most meaningful for those of our Indigenous people who were given opportunities to have interactions with him.”

During that landmark visit, Francis apologized for the legacy of Canada’s residential schools, one of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action.

Roughly 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend residential schools over a century, and the Catholic Church ran about 60 per cent of the institutions.

Many Indigenous people said the apology was necessary, but some said he didn’t go far enough because Francis didn’t name the crimes and abuses that happened in the facilities.

He said was sorry that some members of the Catholic Church participated in the abuse, cultural destruction and forced assimilation of many Indigenous Peoples.

Bouvette, who heard Francis died when an Italian relative called him early Monday, said Francis’ trip to Canada was a pilgrimage focused on penance with the aim of extending an “olive branch of reconciliation.”

Father Cristino Bouvette says he hopes the next pope doesn’t try to copy Pope Francis and instead has confidence in his own leadership abilities. Eli J. Ridder/CHAT News

“There was a very different feel to the reason that he was here in 2022 than I would say any real other papal visit anywhere in the world, let alone the previous ones to Canada,” the priest said.

“The impact that he made by visiting here was a culmination of the impact he was having on the life of Catholics around the world and here in Canada, where we were taking his message of healing and unity and reconciliation very seriously.”

Bishop William McGrattan of Calgary, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, helped plan that tour, and he said Francis continued to ask for updates on the Church’s progress on reconciliation in the years that followed.

“He was very much current with our Canadian church because of his visit. And so he was very keen to ask questions when I was in his presence,” McGrattan said on a video call from his office in Calgary.

Francis, who was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, was named head of the Catholic Church in 2013. He was the first pontiff from the Americas and the global south.

Pope Francis greets Rev. Cristino Bouvette in 2022. Courtesy/Rev. Cristino Bouvette

Cardinals, including five from Canada, will now descend on Rome for a period of mourning and to attend Francis’ funeral before electing his successor.

Bouvette said the next Holy Father shouldn’t feel pressured to fit the mold of Francis.

“I would hope that the next pope would feel as though he is able to bring the gift of whatever it is that has formed him into the man and the Catholic leader that he already has become by being a cardinal and that he can serve the church in that way,” he said.

Speaking from a sanctuary still decorated with flowers and bright colours for Easter, Bouvet said Catholic believers mourning Francis should also look towards the future.

“Although we’ve lost our Holy Father, it’s happening inside of this season of Easter in a jubilee year,” said Bouvette.

“Pope Francis has given us as a gift, referring to it as the Jubilee Year of Hope.”

— With files from The Canadian Press

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