Special Collection for a Healing and Reconciliation Fund for Residential School Survivors
The Bishops of Canada have pledged to raise 30 million dollars for a healing fund for Indian Residential School survivors. In this sense, a special collection will take place in all the parishes of the diocese, on May 6 and 7, 2023.
Development and Peace—Caritas Canada is beginning a new campaign cycle this year. Taking off from our Orientation Assembly in June 2022 and inspired by Pope Francis's October 2021 address to the World Meeting of Popular Movements, we have chosen "Create Hope" as our guiding theme for the next five years.
To create hope in this first year, we will Stand for the Land in solidarity with our sisters and brothers who are defending their territories in the Global South by protecting their lands and waters, the environment and human life.
"That We May Walk Together"—Series of Pastoral Letters on Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples
On 8 February 2023, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops issued four pastoral letters on reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples. Intended as a framework for local engagement with Indigenous Peoples, the letters are the fruit of many months of listening, encounter, and dialogue with them, including through Listening Circles, the Indigenous Delegation to the Vatican in April 2022, and Pope Francis' Apostolic Voyage to Canada in July of the same year.
We are starting a new venture in our parishes that have an Anglophone language connection working on our own, and at times with the Francophone connection parishes in the Diocese of Edmundston.
Launch of "Horizons of Hope: A Toolkit for Catholic Parishes on Palliative Care"
An expert panel will introduce you to the key features of the free-of-cost toolkit and show you how to download it so that you can facilitate meaningful conversations on palliative care in your Catholic communities.
I, Fr. Gilbert, have many people asking about the shocking news about the graves of indigenous children. I was sent this report and it helped me to have an understanding... It helped me and I hope this will help you. The pain and suffering of the First Nation People must be unbearable because all of us suffer when a child dies.
Dr. Scott Hamilton was asked by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to find and locate the graves of indigenous children... This was in 2015. Dr. Hamilton submitted his report in 2015. For some reason little was used about this report, now it is on line posted by the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. This report is a good, but sad, history of events.
Let us remember to pray for the children and their families.
Launch of the New Canadian Reporting System for Sexual Abuse or Cover-up by a Catholic Bishop
The Bishops of Canada have launched a national, bilingual service for reporting situations of sexual abuse either committed or covered-up by a Bishop. This service furthers their commitment to responsibility, accountability and transparency in matters of clergy sexual abuse and their commitment to facilitate healing and justice for victims-survivors.
