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.

Finalizing a “framework” for a five-year “campaign” to “fundraise” for a cause are hardly the whiz bang motivational words most of us need to roar out of the blocks for 2022. Set alongside, say, “sprinkling pixie dust to miraculously end the pandemic,” they might even appear a little, well, beige.

A national framework for a five-year, $30-million fundraising campaign in aid of healing and reconciliation with residential school survivors and their communities is coming in the new year, Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops vice president Bishop William McGrattan has told The Catholic Register.

King’s University College at Western University marked the sixth anniversary of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)’s final report with a participatory reading of the 94 Calls to Action Dec. 15.

A national framework for a five-year, $30 million fundraising campaign in aid of healing and reconciliation with residential school survivors and their communities is coming in the new year, Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops vice president William McGrattan has told The Catholic Register.

Rescheduling the Indigenous delegations’ visits with Pope Francis in Rome in the midst of the Omicron-fuelled global COVID resurgence is not going to be easy, but the parties are committed to moving forward.

The bags were almost packed, plane reservations made, hotels booked, schedule set. Then came the news on Dec. 7 that the long-planned, much-delayed meeting between Pope Francis and representatives of Canada’s Indigenous communities is on hold again because of COVID concerns.

Postponed, not cancelled, but still heartbreaking. The long planned encounter between Indigenous Canadians and Pope Francis in Rome is being put off while everybody learns more about the Omicron variant of COVID-19, according to a joint release from three Indigenous organizations involved in the trip and the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.

In one hour gathered in a room with Pope Francis, 13 Assembly of First Nations delegates plan to lay down heavy burdens and raise up the hope of nations.

As Indigenous elders, youth, knowledge keepers and residential school survivors prepare for their historic meetings with Pope Francis Dec. 17-20, Regina Archbishop Don Bolen is inviting Canadians to journey with them spiritually.

One month ago, Pope Francis and the Vatican announced an upcoming papal visit to Canada to foster reconciliation with the country’s Indigenous populations in the aftermath of children being found in unmarked, residential school graves.

Indigenous delegates to Rome will have at least three hours of direct, face-to-face conversation with Pope Francis spread over four days, topped off with their presence at an hour-long general audience.