Somehow a story about hundreds of unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School became a story about what Pope Francis should do, not a story about the lives lost or why Prime Minister Justin Trudeau only rushed to provide money for documenting such graves when Kamloops was in the headlines, five years after he first promised to do so.

Published in Fr. Raymond de Souza

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.

Published in Canada

Residents of my Edmonton neighbourhood are setting up front yard signs of solidarity to honour the 215 former students at the Kamloops Residential School whose remains were found outside the school. As well, demonstrations were held in some centres regarding the detection of these unmarked graves. This discovery has moved people in a way that earlier revelations about the schools did not.

Published in Glen Argan

“Sorry” is a powerful word, but it is only a start to heal the deep wound inflicted by residential schools.

Published in Editorial

As 10,000 people marched in sorrow and in anger from Queen’s Park to Nathan Phillips Square, Vivian Timmins just had to be there — because Timmins is a residential school survivor.

Published in Features

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis led hundreds of pilgrims and visitors in St. Peter’s Square in a moment of silent prayer for the Indigenous children who died in Canadian residential schools and for their grieving families.

Published in Canada

Cardinal Thomas Collins apologized during his live-streamed Mass from St. Michael’s Cathedral June 6 and honoured those who died or were mistreated in Canada’s residential schools.

Published in Canada

There’s a unique wallop in seeing your hometown linked by national and international media to the finding of a “mass grave” full of children.

Published in Peter Stockland

The “betrayal of trust” by those responsible for Canada’s residential schools must “compel us to ensure that our sins are not repeated,” said Cardinal Thomas Collins, Archbishop of Toronto.

Published in Canada

It came like a punch in the gut. The news of the discovery of the bodies of 215 children on the grounds of the Kamloops Indian Residential School have shaken us to the core. How could this happen in Canada? How could this happen under the roof of an institution run by Catholic religious orders? Despite all the stories of abuse at residential schools, despite the chronicling of horrors in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report of 2015, despite the history of systemic racism that has victimized Canada’s Indigenous people … this news rips opens wounds that have not even come close to healing.

Published in Editorial

The Archbishop of Vancouver is offering “my deep apology” to those affected by the discovery of the bodies of 215 children at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in B.C.

Published in Canada

Canada’s bishops are expressing their “deepest sorrow” and pledge to “continue walking side by side” with Indigenous people in the wake of the discovery of the bodies of 215 children buried at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C.

Published in Canada

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was long, emotional and painful, but necessary as an act of a nation’s contrition after facilitating decades of abuse at residential schools. 

Published in Editorial

EDMONTON – Betty Letendre recalls a time when Indigenous elders didn’t want to come into Edmonton, feeling tired of the discrimination and misconceptions that they faced on a daily basis. 

Published in Catholic Education

OTTAWA – A majority of Canadians oppose the government making repeated apologies for the Indian residential schools, according to a new survey that indicates the country is deeply divided on the issue.

Published in Canada