Pope Francis has arrived in Canada on what he calls a “penitential” trip. The Vatican says the trip’s theme is “walking together”. Francis hopes to reconcile with Canada’s indigenous people for the abuse indigenous children suffered at mostly church-run residential schools. Hundreds of possible grave sites have been found at the schools. Catholic missionaries are Read more
Pope Francis is scheduled to fly to Canada on Sunday for a weeklong visit to meet the country’s Aboriginal peoples who were victims of colonization and various types of abuse at Catholic-run residential schools. He has described the trip to North America as a “penitential pilgrimage”. But who exactly are these Indigenous people of Canada Read more
Scalpers selling tickets to the Mass Pope Francis will celebrate in Edmonton are trying to make a buck off a free event, say those responsible for organising the Pope’s programme while he’s in Canada. There’s also a real risk that some people might trick others into buying non-existent tickets, organisers say. “It is sad and Read more
A foundation that provides university scholarships to indigenous students across Canada has severed its ties with a group of Victoria-based Catholic nuns by returning a $500,000 donation. The Verna J. Kirkness Education Foundation announced this week that it had decided to give back the endowment, received in December 2017, to the Sisters of St Ann, Read more
The head of the Anglican Communion told a gathering of Canadian residential school survivors Saturday he was sorry for the church’s role in the “terrible crime” that was committed. The Rev. Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, visited the James Smith Cree Nation and heard stories shared by residential school survivors. “It was the church Read more
“For a long time, I have been interested in how the faith of indigenous peoples is expressed,” says Father François Paradis (75), an Oblate of Mary Immaculate (OMI) missionary in Canada. Paradis studied the traditional beliefs of the First Nations peoples for a long time before he began adding some of their elements – like Read more
The Archbishop of Canterbury will hold an informal meeting with residential school survivors next month in Brantford. The Most Rev. Justin Welby, head of the Church of England and leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion, is visiting Canada from April 29 to May 3 to highlight the church’s desire to pursue reconciliation with indigenous people. Read more
Thousands of Catholic books have been removed from school libraries in the name of “reconciliation” in Ontario, Canada. Popular French-language publications such as Tintin, Asterix and Lucky Luke are among the titles purged from the shelves. The discarded books were deemed subversive and allegedly perpetuated racist stereotypes, with illustrations or language deemed offensive to minorities. Read more
His story doesn’t begin with a stranger in shadow-black darkening the door of his log cabin, but it is the first thing he mentions. It was the day in 1955 the priest came with papers in hand and the determination to steal away Dave Rundle, 10, and his brother Lawrence, 5, from their parents and Read more
The discovery of potentially hundreds of unmarked graves near former residential schools in B.C. and Saskatchewan has prompted calls for the Catholic Church, which ran dozens of the institutions across the country, to release its records. Last week, the Cowessess First Nation announced the preliminary discovery of 751 unmarked graves at the former Marieval Indian Residential School. Read more