Pope has fun, security frets, as pontiff takes wheelchair detour

Pope Francis greets faithful outside the church after a meeting with indigenous peoples and members of the Parish Community of Sacred Heart in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada July 25, 2022. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane

Pope Francis had some fun on Monday and made Canadian security sweat when he asked a Vatican aide to push his wheelchair close to people waiting outside a church instead of going to his car as planned.

Francis had just finished a visit to the Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples in Edmonton, the capital of Alberta, which followed a trip to Maskwacis, where he issued a historic apology for Catholicism's role in the country's notorious residential school system.