To say this is a challenging summer for Catholics and their Church in Canada is putting it mildly. But where there is challenge, there is also opportunity and it’s vitally important that it is seized.

OTTAWA -- Reconciliation between Canadian society as a whole and Indigenous communities is possible two new Indigenous leaders say.

Even as ordinary Canadian Catholics and dioceses roll out plans to raise money and recommit to reconciliation, Indigenous Catholic Deacon Michael Robinson continues to feel the community anger over residential schools.

How would you describe the state of your faith in God in these challenging times?

Following more than a month of gut-wrenching developments, the winds of change are starting to blow across Canada, bringing with them fresh energy and commitment to reconciliation.

Over the last five years retired Ontario Superior Court Justice George Valin has asked three different Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops’ presidents why the bishops can’t simply, unanimously and open-heartedly invite Pope Francis to apologize on Canadian soil for the long, sad history of Catholic-run residential schools. He has yet to receive an answer.

In 2018, American Catholics experienced their “summer of shame” — first the revelations about Theodore McCarrick and then the Pennsylvania grand jury report on priestly sexual abuse. Given the media reach of the United States, the shame spread around the world. Soon Pope Francis announced a global summit on sexual abuse for February 2019. From that emerged some key reforms for episcopal accountability.

A renewed effort is underway to make up for the failed Catholic “best efforts” campaign to raise $25 million for healing and reconciliation projects across Canada.

A national lay effort to raise funds and awareness for reconciliation is rising up out of the grassroots of the Catholic Church in Canada.

The Catholic bishops of Saskatchewan have begun accepting donations to its province-wide fund-raising appeal among Catholics for support of residential school survivors and their communities.

OTTAWA -- The appointment of Mary Simon as Canada’s first Indigenous Governor-General is being hailed as a meaningful step towards reconciliation.

“Education got us into this; education will get us out of this.” Though those words were first spoken and repeated often by Truth and Reconciliation Commission chair Sen. Murray Sinclair, they’ve become the personal motto of St. Mary’s University Elder in Residence Casey Eagle Speaker.

For educator Vanessa Pinto, the discovery of unmarked graves outside of residential schools has only strengthened her resolve to raise awareness of Indigenous history, culture and perspectives in the classroom.

STE.-ANNE-DE-BEAUPRÉ, Que. -- At the annual First Nations Sunday Mass, Cardinal Gérald Lacroix acknowledged that the revelations and realizations surrounding unmarked graves at former residential schools run by Catholic communities “have brought to light a very dark page in the history of our country. Decisions and behaviours, both by the government and the churches,” have contributed to the suffering “of our brothers and sisters.”

The shortest night of the year allows only a few hours of darkness in which to set churches on fire. It was time enough for two Catholic churches to be burned to the ground before dawn on June 21, 2021, National Indigenous Peoples Day.