The great 19th-century Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky declared that beauty will save the world. Some years earlier, Our Lord anticipated — and no doubt inspired — Dostoyevsky by teaching us the necessity for salvation of experiencing the world and expressing our faith through the beauty in children’s eyes.
Never was a single sentence more longed for. In 40 years since survivors began to speak out, 16 years since the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement and seven years since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada delivered its final report, nations and peoples have waited for a Pope to speak.
Vancouver Archbishop Michael Miller says Pope Francis has set in motion a “pilgrimage of closeness” between the Catholic Church and Canada’s First Nation, Metis and Inuit peoples with his historic apology.
Read the full text of Pope Francis' April 1 final audience with the Canadian Indigenous delegation that travelled to the Vatican.
Inuit seek Pope’s help in bringing alleged abusive priest to justice
By Michael Swan, The Catholic Register
After being greeted individually at the door of the papal library by Pope Francis, Inuit delegates proceeded to light the qulliq they had brought with them — a soapstone lantern that burns blubber, and a symbol of warmth and life in Inuit culture.
Hard truths and deep prayer marked the Metis delegation’s hour with Pope Francis, said bishops who were in the room when nine Metis elders and residential school survivors spoke with the Pope.
1493 papal bull casts long shadow over Church-Indigenous relations
The world doesn’t just feel like a more dangerous place since Russian troops entered Ukraine, it is a reality.
Survey: Readers oppose Pandemic Day, want COVID commemoration
By Michael Swan, The Catholic Register
When COVID is over most Catholic Register readers just want to move on, but those same readers overwhelmingly would like their parish to mark a Pandemic Day.
VANCOUVER -- In a society more comfortable with cancel culture than counterculture, Pope John Paul II’s 1990 call for Catholic universities to speak “uncomfortable truths” that may challenge public opinion can be a daunting task. But for the incoming president of St. Mark’s and Corpus Christi colleges in Vancouver, it’s job one.
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If the Church needs the thinking power of a Catholic university, St. Michael’s is readier than ever to fill that bill, University of St. Michael’s College president and vice chancellor David Sylvester told The Catholic Register in an interview.
St. Mary’s program marries Catholic theory, social justice
By Quinton Amundson, The Catholic Register
St. Mary’s University’s four-year Bachelor of Arts in Social Justice & Catholic Studies sprouted from a desire to offer students a program instilling them with passion and equipping them with the knowledge to become societal change makers.
Canadians among those conversing with Francis on synodality
Last year one international student living just outside Beijing, China, would get up at 3 a.m. to virtually attend an afternoon seminar at the University of St. Michael’s College, recalls Mark McGowan.