A week of spiritual diplomacy between Pope Francis and three Canadian Indigenous delegations will begin with hope, Assembly of First Nations Northwest Territories Regional Chief Gerald Antoine told an international press corps gathering on Zoom March 24.

As this issue of The Catholic Register reaches readers, our colleague Michael Swan will be packing his bags for Rome to cover Pope Francis’ meeting with Indigenous delegates from Canada. Given Swan’s reportorial industry, our upcoming issues will no doubt be heavily weighted with stories on who said what to whom and, most crucially, what it all meant. Against two years of pandemic, and now the horrors in Ukraine, the sessions that begin in Rome March 28 mark a historic moment for speeding up the snail’s pace process of reconciliation between Canada’s First Nations and its, shall we say, later arrivals.

1493 papal bull casts long shadow over Church-Indigenous relations

Without grassroots Catholics, Indigenous-Church relations won’t move forward

Toronto, Hamilton pledge to pay one-third of healing fund

Phyllis Googoo is ready to share her story with Pope Francis. She’s been wrestling with her memories of Shubenacadie Indian Residential School for more than 60 years.

Windsor’s historic Our Lady of the Assumption Church has been declared “saved” by the National Trust for Canada. But for the 294-year-old parish the road to salvation begins with reconciliation.

Critics across the Church spectrum habitually accuse Canada’s Catholic leadership of ducking what “must” be done — must inevitably being defined by what a given critic wants.

A new, independent registered charity created to disburse $30 million Canadian Catholics will raise over the next five years is a chance to forge new relationships between the Church and Indigenous Canadians, according to Odawa/Ojibway elder Rosella Kinoshameg.

More than two dozen Indigenous delegates, accompanied by a handful of Canadian bishops, are once again on their way to meeting Pope Francis in the last week of March.

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops has formally established its new registered charity to support and advance healing and reconciliation with Canada’s Indigenous peoples.

Be careful with words spoken in a hyper-sensitive age

Edmonton musician Chaka Zinyemba still remembers the moment his quest began to become a vessel for unity and reconciliation through Black African music.

Canadian bishops and religious orders are cheering a new, Indigenous-led transitional committee that will push Ottawa a little closer to answering the 94 Calls to Action from the 2015 final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Repeated comments from bishops, priests and highly placed Catholics minimizing damage caused by the residential school system risk torpedoing efforts at reconciliation, warns a high-profile Indigenous scholar and former judge.