Pope Cancels Visit to Canadian Outpost

Pope John Paul II’s projected visit with Canadian Indians at an outpost in the Northwest Territories this summer has been ruled out, according to Catholic officials.

Robert Wonderly of the U.S. Catholic Office for Information in Washington said Friday that the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops had announced that the stopover, which was tentatively scheduled before the Pope lands in Miami on Sept. 10 to begin a nine-city U.S. tour, will not occur. But the pontiff has indicated that he will return to Canada “by 1989, probably on a single-country visit,” Wonderly said.

During a 1984 trip to Canada, foggy weather forced the Pope to postpone a visit with several thousand Indians in the remote community of Fort Simpson in the southeast Alaska panhandle. Late this January, John Paul reportedly made a commitment during an audience with Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney at the Vatican to reschedule the Fort Simpson visit at the time of the U.S. tour.