Indigenous Reconciliation

After two and a half years of work, Independent Special Interlocutor Kimberly Murray has released a two-volume report at the Oct. 29-30 National Gathering on Unmarked Graves in Gatineau, Que. that focused more on reparations and denialism than the identification and protection of unmarked graves.

Vancouver Archbishop Raymond Roussin, SM, called the residential school system “deeply flawed” when in 2008 he made an historic apology on behalf of the Archdiocese of Vancouver.

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.

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.

Canada’s Catholic bishops deserve full credit for sticking with their commitment to, as Edmonton Archbishop Richard Smith has framed it, walk the whole long path of Indigenous reconciliation.

Reconciliation between Indigenous peoples and entities of the Catholic Church will be a long road to travel. Dr. Natasha Duquette has taken some steps along this road by recently offering an academic course called Indigenous Writers of North America.

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.