Pope Francis will visit Canada as part of a “process of reconciliation” amid mounting criticism of Catholic Church’s role in the abuse, rape and deaths of children at former schools for indigenous people. The Vatican said in a statement on Wednesday that the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops had formally invited the pope to the country “also in the context of the long-standing pastoral process of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.”

Francis “has indicated his willingness” for the trip on a date to be “settled in due course,” the Holy See’s press office said in a statement.

In May, investigators reported finding more than 600 unmarked graves at the site of a former residential school for Indigenous children, and 215 bodies in another. The discoveries renewed calls for the pope to make a formal apology, including from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

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From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend state-funded Christian boarding schools with thousands dying of disease. Thousands more were subjected to abuse, rape and malnutrition in what the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015 called “cultural genocide.”

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A third of the 130 residential schools were run by Roman Catholic missionary congregations. Others were run by the Presbyterian, Anglican and the United Church of Canada, currently the largest Protestant denomination in the country, which have apologised for their roles in the abuse.

The residential school policy and abuses also prompted a formal apology from the Canadian government in 2008. The Canadian bishops also apologised in September.

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Francis had agreed to meet the survivors in December. The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops had said the pope would separately meet three delegations at the Vatican during their December 17-20 visit. Francis will then preside over a final audience with all three groups on December 20.

(With inputs from Associated Press)