Fr. Joshua Roldan commends the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops for meeting today’s young Catholics where they are at in a new normal shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic.

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.

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops got a hot scolding last week from the Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec for what the FPJQ called a “deplorable” decision to bar journalists from this week’s plenary meetings.

After two years of elaborate, COVID-enforced Zoom calls, Canada’s bishops will see each other face-to-face again at this year’s plenary meetings Sept. 26 to 29 in Cornwall, Ont.

Like millions of Canadians who came to see their history in a new light, Canada’s Catholic bishops were galvanized and spurred to action by the discovery of graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School one year ago.

CCCB Easter messasge 2022

Finalizing a “framework” for a five-year “campaign” to “fundraise” for a cause are hardly the whiz bang motivational words most of us need to roar out of the blocks for 2022. Set alongside, say, “sprinkling pixie dust to miraculously end the pandemic,” they might even appear a little, well, beige.

Rescheduling the Indigenous delegations’ visits with Pope Francis in Rome in the midst of the Omicron-fuelled global COVID resurgence is not going to be easy, but the parties are committed to moving forward.

A message from the CCCB President on Christmas and New Year’s Day

Bringing together a trove of newly available documents, the most complete record of how Catholic residential school operators ultimately ended their obligations under the historic 2006 Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement is now online.

Canada’s bishops have developed a new palliative care toolkit to educate and empower caregivers and those facing a terminal illness.

As apologies go, the one issued by Canada’s Catholic bishops to Indigenous peoples marks a significant step in this long, long reconciliation journey.

OTTAWA -- The future of the Catholic Church in Canada emerged as a main theme as Canada’s bishops gathered online for the second year in a row for a virtual plenary assembly Sept. 21-24.

Graydon Nicholas accepts the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops’ apology for more than a century of wrongs by Canadian Catholics in residential schools and hopes it will lead to a papal apology on Canadian soil.

OTTAWA -- Canada’s Catholic bishops have “unequivocally” apologized for the Catholic Church’s role in the residential school system and have raised the possibility of a visit by the Pope to Canada as part of the “healing journey” between Canada’s Indigenous peoples and the Church.