Michael Swan

Half the country is mad and three-quarters of Canadians are depressed by the discovery of 215 children in unmarked graves on the grounds of the former Kamloops Residential School.

Adding 180 new long-term care beds and a whole new building to Unity Health’s Providence Healthcare site is just the beginning of the Catholic hospital’s plans for seniors in Toronto’s east end.

As the country continues to wake up to the truth that there has been little or no reconciliation with Indigenous people, Catholics are also questioning their Church’s record.

While the work toward a formal apology from Pope Francis is ongoing, a clear majority of Canadians hold the Catholic Church primarily responsible for the damage done by residential schools, according to a Leger poll conducted June 4- 6.

When news of the 215 unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Residential School landed in Edmonton, an elder in the Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples wanted to put out a statement in Cree. The problem is that survivors of the residential school system lost their language when they were children in the schools.

In morning headlines and evening newscasts the 215 unmarked graves on the Tk’emlups te Sewepemc First Nation are a scandal and a tragedy. While Catholics certainly know this to be true, the Church must also confront its theological failures, several theologians told The Catholic Register.

Catholics should be “openly scandalized” by the “horrific act of hatred” that saw a Muslim family of five run down on a sidewalk because they were identifiably Muslim, said the director of the Cardus Religious Freedom Institute Deacon Andrew Bennett.

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.

When it came time to officially endorse the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Guadalupe Circle chose to focus on what UNDRIP could mean for defending and revitalizing endangered languages.

After a year of Zoom classes, Catholic colleges and universities across Canada are more than hoping for a fresh, in-person start this fall. As vaccinations roll out, they’re planning for it.