I hadn’t expected Archbishop Ivan Jurkovič to be as forthright as he was. He described the shock of arriving in Canada during the residential school crisis and finding flags at half-mast for months and irresponsible statements being made. My interview with Canada’s Apostolic nuncio appears here. For him, the key to preventing what we’ve seen...
Tag: residential school
Bishop Mark Hagemoen, Archbishop Emeritus James Weisgerber, and former National Chief Phil Fontaine (l-r) spoke about reconciliation and relationships at a diocesan “Continuing the Walk” adult faith dessert night April 18, 2024 in Saskatoon. (Photo by Kiply Lukan Yaworski, Catholic Saskatoon News)
Former National Chief and retired Archbishop share insights into their journey of reconciliation
By Kiply Lukan Yaworski A former National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations and a former President of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops spoke together in Saskatoon April 18, reflecting on their part in the history of Truth and Reconciliation in Canada, as well as their personal journey in becoming adopted brothers. Former...
A death certificate for a Vicky Stewart, who died of meningitis at an Edmonton hospital. Her death is playing a role in a class action launched against the Archdiocese of Edmonton, one of its priests and his missionary order. Photo courtesy of Province of Alberta
Child’s death certificate muddies Edmonton class-action allegation
An alleged murder that is part of a class action suit against the Archdiocese of Edmonton was actually death from meningitis, a government record obtained by The Catholic Register affirms. In court filings last February, lead plaintiff Sphenia Jones says she witnessed fellow student Vicky Stewart dying “after being hit in the head with a wood implement...
Undated photo of Father Jean-Marie-Raphael Le Jeune’s grave at the Oblate Cemetery in Mission. The Archdiocese of Vancouver and the Kamloops Indian band discovered a mutual respect for Father Le Jeune, which will be acknowledged on Easter Sunday at a reconciliation event in Kamloops. (B.C. Catholic Archives)
Vancouver Archbishop signs Sacred Covenant with Kamloops First Nation
Almost three years ago, reports of underground anomalies near a former Kamloops residential school caused a firestorm of media mistruths about mass graves, which became a focus of Pope Francis’ visit to Canada in 2022. Now, the Church and the Kamloops First Nation are about to acknowledge historical and recent painful experiences and continue “walking...
Protesters in Toronto after reports of unmarked graves found at the former Kamloops Residential School in 2021. The new book Grave Error: How the Media Misled Us (and the Truth about Residential Schools), examines the truth behind the assumptions that followed. (Michael Swan/The Catholic Register)
Media buy-in drove graves’ social panic
Media buy-in drove graves’ social panic BY ANNA FARROW Montreal Correspondent In the newly published Grave Error: How the Media Misled Us (and the Truth about Residential Schools), C.P Champion and Tom Flanagan have assembled 18 essays that delve into the truth behind the widely adopted assumptions that followed the so-called May 2021 “discovery” of...
Twenty years after Philomena Fraser collected residential school stories for Amongst God’s Own, the Enduring Legacy of St. Mary’s Mission, she was able to revisit her work and find additional stories for the book’s republishing as St. Mary’s: The Legacy of an Indian Residential School. (St. Mary’s: The Legacy of an Indian Residential School.)
20 years ago, lines of people came to tell their stories for B.C. residential school book
“People had never divulged what happened to them” at St. Mary’s Indian Residential School, chronicler Philomena Fraser says in an interview with The B.C. Catholic. “They had kept it secret, and I learned a lot.” Twenty years after collecting stories for a history of the Mission residential school entitled Amongst God’s Own, the Enduring Legacy of...
Acclaimed residential school history gets a new lease on life
In the story of residential schools, “Catholics are victims too,” says author Terry Glavin. “The people who suffered in residential schools were Catholics.” Glavin spoke those words during an interview about the republishing of his 2002 book St. Mary’s: The Legacy of an Indian Residential School, which recounts the history of the former St. Mary’s Residential School...
Former Calgary Bishop Fred Henry, shown in 2005 talking with then-Pembroke Bishop Richard Smith, wants Canada’s bishops to address the narrative of large numbers of missing residential school children. (B.C. Catholic file photo)
Retired Calgary bishop demands proof for ‘missing children’ claims
Retired Calgary Bishop Fred Henry summoned the energy to publicly break the silence around what he considers the prevailing “lie” about missing Indian residential school children.