Canadian Indigenous

With over $17.5 million raised in the two-and-a-half years since the Indigenous Reconciliation Fund (IRF) became a registered charity in March 2022, the 73 Canadian Catholic dioceses are poised to exceed the five-year $30-million commitment Canada's Catholic bishops made to the nation's Indigenous peoples.

Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) President Bishop William McGrattan today reaffirmed the Catholic Church’s commitment to reconciliation with Canada’s Indigenous peoples to mark the second anniversary of Pope Francis embarking upon his penitential pilgrimage to Canada.

The following are the Commitments to Action in the Sacred Covenant signed Easter Sunday by the Archdiocese of Vancouver, the Diocese of Kamloops and the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc.

Though Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Kúkpi7 (Chief) Rosanne Casimir has stepped back on her 2021 claims of 215 bodies found in graves at Kamloops Indian Residential School (KIRS), now referring to them as "anomalies," she said investigations to date still lead to the belief they are "unmarked burials."

Flaws will be found, objections raised, and nits picked with the Sacred Covenant made between Catholic and Indigenous leaders regarding the Indian Residential School in Kamloops, B.C.

The Sacred Covenant signed on Easter Sunday by the Archdiocese of Vancouver and Kamloops First Nation was made public on Friday, National Indigenous Peoples Day.

The $7.9 million allocated to the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation for “field work” at the alleged site of 215 unmarked graves in Kamloops, B.C. is only a small portion of the $110 million allocated to Indigenous communities to help them search and document burial sites at former residential schools.

M̓edia release from the Tkemlúps te Secwépemc (Kamloops First Nation) and Archdiocese of Vancouver on the Sacred Covenant published April 1, 2024.

How fitting that the Good News of Christ’s Resurrection on Easter Sunday should be accompanied by a trinity of good news stories about the state of our Holy Mother Church.

Though Vancouver Archbishop Michael Miller called the Easter accord between the Kamloops First Nation and two British Columbia Catholic dioceses a significant and historic “milestone,” there appear to be no plans for other Canadian bishops to immediately follow suit.