A presentation to the Regis-St. Michael’s Faculty of Theology Graduate Pro-Seminar by Kyle Ferguson, a second-year PhD studentat the University of St. Michael’s College, Toronto School of Theology, on March 1. My research involves questions related to conciliation between the Catholic Church and the Indigenous peoples in Canada. I use the word “conciliation” vs “reconciliation” as the...
This blogpost by Catherine Clifford, a theology professor at Saint Paul University in Ottawa, was originally posted to Go Rebuild My House. I will be the first to admit that when Pope Francis invited the whole of the Catholic Church to enter a process of sustained spiritual conversation and reflect together on how we experience and...
By Michael Swan Four letters and 26 promises from Canada’s bishops to Indigenous Canadians set an agenda for reconciliation that bishops like Calgary’s Bishop Bill McGrattan intend to act on before February turns into March. McGrattan has scheduled meetings with members of the Indigenous Reconciliation Fund committee in his diocese. The committee — there are...
By Michael Swan Canada’s Catholics are not done with reconciliation. Four pastoral letters from Canada’s bishops released today urge Indigenous and non-Indigenous Catholics to seek ways to journey together, build relationships, know and understand their history and end the two solitudes in the country and in the Church of Indigenous and settler societies. “We are called to...
Cardinal Collins retirement to be filled by Montreal’s Bishop Leo
On hearing that Montreal Bishop Frank Leo would succeed him as Archbishop of Toronto, Cardinal Thomas Collins immediately thought of Toronto’s first bishop, Michael Power. At a parish feast day Mass in Our Lady of Lourdes, downtown Toronto, Collins reminded the congregation how Toronto’s first bishop also came from Montreal and was also, as a...
By Susan Korah A recent UN report on atrocities perpetrated in Pakistan against girls and young women from Christian and other minority faith communities should serve as a wake-up call, and prompt urgent action by the Canadian government, say Canadian activists. They are calling on the Canadian government to put pressure on Pakistan to stop...
On Feb. 8, we celebrate the feast day of St. Josephine Bakhita, the patron saint of trafficked survivors. It is also the International Day of Prayer and Awareness of Human Trafficking. Talitha Kum International offers an online pilgrimage of prayer called Journeying in Dignity for survivors of trafficking. Through the intercession of St. Josephine, let...