As three separate Indigenous delegations head to Rome for meetings with Pope Francis on March 28, March 31 and April 1, Canada’s Oblate Fathers have announced a deal with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation to make more residential school records available, including material that may be archived in Rome and Paris.

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

When ground-penetrating radar revealed 54 possible gravesites near the former St. Phillip’s and Fort Pelly residential schools, the Archdiocese of Regina and the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate had already reached out to the Keeseekoose First Nation to make records available and offer assistance in the search.

Be careful with words spoken in a hyper-sensitive age

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.

Catholic Register columnist Glen Argan failed. To his credit he admitted it. After writing a gravely inaccurate column on the residential schools issue, he corrected the facts in his next one.

VANCOUVER -- Rousing applause sounded as Cree elder Don Tourangeau embraced Fr. Pierre Ducharme at St. Joseph the Worker Parish in Richmond, B.C., on Canada’s first National Day of Truth and Reconciliation.

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.

In our examination of the issues related to residential schools, we looked last issue at the problems of state power in evangelization. But what about evangelization itself?

VANCOUVER -- The personal accounts of residential school survivors will be a key part of an investigation into the former St. Paul’s Indian Residential School.

What is the role of the state — the civil power, be it the crown or another form of government — in evangelization?

An investigation is going ahead at the former site of St. Paul’s Indian Residential School, roughly where the parking lot sits at St. Thomas Aquinas Regional Secondary School in North Vancouver.

As Catholics across Canada scramble to make up for the failed “best efforts” fundraising campaign of 2007 to 2013, they’re now answering questions about their “in-kind” contributions to the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement — a stream of compensation that Catholic residential school operators over-fulfilled by at least $5 million.

There are now a number of Catholic initiatives to raise money for residential school survivors and Indigenous communities. The Catholic bishops of Saskatchewan have launched a fundraising drive and there is a lay-led initiative to do the same. At least two dioceses which never operated residential schools — Calgary and Toronto — have announced that they will be raising funds.

Teresa Rojo Tsosie’s Catholic faith is one of the most important parts of her life, but she has often felt that as a Native American Catholic, her voice wasn’t being considered or heard by the Church as a whole.