A call to condemn the most recent arson attack on a Christian church — Feb. 9 at Blessed Sacrament Church in downtown Regina — failed to gain unanimous approval in the House of Commons.

A suspected arson struck at Blessed Sacrament Parish in downtown Regina Feb. 9.

According to the Catholic Civil Rights League’s (CCRL) database, at least 85 Catholic churches have been set ablaze or vandalized since the unproven discovery on May 27, 2021, of 215 suspected unmarked graves near the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.

The Calgary Police Service (CPS) is on the hunt for a man who deliberately started a fire and assaulted two men at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Calgary.

A massive fire that began on the afternoon of May 25 and burned for two days inflicted extensive damage to a historic former monastery in Montreal that itself once provided shelter for those left homeless after the Great Fire in 1852.

Although St. Francis Xavier Church in Attawapiskat in northern Ontario tragically burned to the ground in April 2021, it remains the centre of faith and devotion in the mostly First Nation town.

After over a year of feeling numb from sadness and shock over the fiery destruction of their beloved parish church, parishioners of St. Jean Baptiste in Morinville, Alta., now have their gaze fixed on the future.

Some Catholic leaders have joined the Coptic Orthodox Church in mourning the 41 people -- including 18 children -- who died in a fire in Egypt's capital, Cairo.

It’s been a full year since the members of the St. Theresa Point First Nation watched heartbroken as their beloved church burned to the ground on Easter Sunday.

In light of the unmarked graves found at residential school sites across Canada this spring and summer, different groups have sought apologies and atonement from the Catholic Church for its contribution to residential schools.

Could this most troubling of summers for the Catholic Church across Canada spark its resurgence as a vital participant in the country’s public life? Call me a sun-addled optimist, but I carry a conviction it can so long as we avoid thinking of a phoenix rising from ashes and instead heed the Gospel call to commit ourselves to the long, hard, patient work of building Christ’s Church.

First it was grief, then it was anger, then it was destruction.

While the rash of arsons and acts of vandalism perpetrated on churches across Canada has lightened considerably compared to the volume of incidents that occurred between late June and mid-July, it’s not gone away.

With 20 churches across Canada — mostly Catholic — torched by mid-July in the fallout of the discovery of unmarked graves at former residential schools, the silence from political leaders has been deafening, says Deacon Andrew Bennett.

The Catholic Civil Rights League (CCRL) has condemned the rash of church fires and vandalism that has taken place across Canada, particularly in the west, since the discovery of graves at former residential schools.