UN reconciliation review skips bishops
Canada’s relationship with Indigenous people is getting a check-up and Canada’s Catholic bishops want to be part of it. Whether or not they get the chance is still up in the air.
Pastoral letters set bishops’ reconciliation agenda
Four letters and 26 promises from Canada’s bishops to Indigenous Canadians set an agenda for reconciliation that bishops like Calgary’s Bishop Bill McGrattan intend to act on before February turns into March.
Bishops put Reconciliation commitments in writing
Canada's Catholics are not done with reconciliation. Four pastoral letters from Canada’s bishops released today urge Indigenous and non-Indigenous Catholics to seek ways to journey together, build relationships, know and understand their history and end the two solitudes in the country and in the Church of Indigenous and settler societies.
Going beyond words to reconciliation’s heart
Boring, pro-forma, rote recitations of land acknowledgements before every school board meeting, at the start of every school day and at every event just annoy Arriane Chua.
Saskatoon program lives reconciliation
Calls to Action 59 and 60 in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada implore Church leaders to collaborate with Indigenous spiritual leaders on curriculum to open the eyes of congregations, theology students and seminarians about the Church role in the legacy of residential schools and the necessity of a Church apology.
‘So much’ to learn from Indigenous, Archbishop Smith says
Catholics are being called to consider how they can achieve reconciliation with Canada’s Indigenous peoples and build off the six historic days in July where the Pope visited Canada.
2022 — a year of reconciliation, a year of hope
Mere memory is not enough for the year we have just lived. Misty-eyed nostalgia would be a sin. It would fall far short of the mark.
Defeating evil by confronting our own
It has been more than four months since the end of Pope Francis’ visit to Canada to meet with Indigenous people and apologize for the Catholic Church’s involvement and acts of terror in the Indian residential school system. It’s long enough for the next steps in the journey of reconciliation to have been at least discussed. Yet, there has been next to nothing.
Celebrating Orange Shirt Day in one of Canada’s most splendid cathedrals on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation must be done with contrition and commitment to truth, Toronto Archbishop Cardinal Thomas Collins told an early morning crowd at St. Michael’s Cathedral Basilica Sept. 30.
Relations with Indigenous Canadians a top priority for Canada's bishops
At their first in-person meetings in three years, Canada’s bishops spoke about concrete steps toward reconciliation with Indigenous Canadians — concrete steps that include an $18.6 million bill for Pope Francis’ apostolic visit in July, continued efforts to raise $30 million over the next five years, easier access for residential school survivors and their families to diocesan archives across the country and forging personal relationships between bishops and Indigenous leaders.
Archdiocese of Toronto announces first annual collection for the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
The letter issued by Cardinal Collins, Archbishop of Toronto, announcing the first annual collection for the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
United in truth, reconciliation
“We want to walk together, to pray together and to work together so that the sufferings of the past can lead to a future of justice, healing and reconciliation,” said Pope Francis during his penitential pilgrimage to Canada this past summer.
Statement on Doctrine of Discovery imminent
A date for a new papal statement on the Doctrine of Discovery, promised by Pope Francis on his way home from Canada to Rome, has not been announced. But whenever it happens it will address core concerns of Indigenous people in Canada and in many other parts of the world.
Turning social doctrine into society transformed
On Sept. 17, a virtual event will launch a new Canada-wide chapter of the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice (CAPP) Foundation, established in 1993 by St. John Paul II.
Canada’s bishops eager to engage Reconciliation Council
Canada’s bishops want to engage with a new National Council for Reconciliation that Ottawa lawmakers plan to set up this fall.