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.

The Season of Creation, on Sept. 1 through to the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi Oct. 4, has the wholehearted support of Canada’s bishops, said Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops spokesperson Lisa Gall.

Canadian delegations of First Nations, Métis and Inuit people will meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican Dec. 17-20.

While the work toward a formal apology from Pope Francis is ongoing, a clear majority of Canadians hold the Catholic Church primarily responsible for the damage done by residential schools, according to a Leger poll conducted June 4- 6.

A meeting between Pope Francis and a delegation of Canadian Indigenous people at the Vatican is being planned and expected before the end of the year.

With the legislation already forwarded to the Senate for study and third reading in the House of Commons expected within days, Canada’s bishops and religious orders have come out strongly in support of Bill C-15, a law that would implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).