Pope Francis’s visit to Canada will offer him an opportunity to apologize for the harms of the Catholic-run Indian Residential Schools.
(AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Francis’ visit concerns all Canadians. It’s about our relationship to history and the construction of a state that marginalized Indigenous people and tried to assimilate them.
A key question we should be asking during his upcoming visit is: How will an apology contribute to healing, or will it just deepen distrust in the church?
(AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis, file)
Pope Francis and the Catholic Church must make a plan with Indigenous Peoples, not for us, in order to walk the path of reconciliation. Some initial suggestions of what a plan might include.
A 4-month-old baby girl is tended by her grandmother inside a church in Duekoue, Ivory Coast, in 2011.
AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell
The fundamental issue at stake in abortion debates is personhood, which is viewed differently around the world, an anthropologist writes.
Research shows that short spacing between childbirth and another pregnancy comes with heightened health risks.
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Many people do not realize they are delivering at a Catholic hospital, and others may not have a choice. But where one receives care has a profound impact on the birth control options they’re offered.
A 19th-century engraving shows a cleric doing an exorcism against an evil spirit.
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A scholar of constitutional law and American religious history explains how the abortion issue has been historically rooted in religious beliefs, giving a moral certainty that law cannot provide.
Representatives from the First Nations Inuit and Metis communities, in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, after their meeting with Pope Francis, on April 1, 2022.
AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino
A Catholic theologian writes about why papal apologies can be meaningful, even when some may see them as mere words.
Gerald Antoine, Northwest Territories regional chief and Assembly of First Nations lead delegate to Rome, is flanked by Natan Obed, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, left, and Cassidy Caron, Métis National Council president, in St.Peter’s Square in Rome, after their meeting with Pope Francis on April 1.
(AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
As a theologian who studies church apologies for historical wrongs, I understand why the Pope was moved to speak this week, but I hope this was not his definitive apology.
Pope Francis presides over a special prayer in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican on March 25, 2022, before heading out to Malta for a two-day visit.
AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File
Malta’s St. George Preca was canonized in 2007. Pope Francis’ visit to Malta renewed attention on Preca’s life and work and how it could provide guidance for the welfare of refugees.
The historic centre of Lviv has been listed as a Unesco world heritage site since 1998.
AlexelA | Alamy Stock Photo
The west Ukrainian city has long been both a symbol of Ukrainian identity and an effevescent, multicultural hub.
Pope Benedict XVI acknowledges the crowd during an audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on Oct.24, 2007. A January 2022 report faulted his handling of several sex abuse cases.
AP Photo/Plinio Lepri
Pope Benedict XVI’s many years of wrestling with the abuse crisis highlight the Catholic Church’s broader challenges addressing it.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI sits in St. Peter’s Basilica Dec. 8, 2015. A long-awaited report on sexual abuse faulted his handling of four cases.
AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia
A German report accused retired Pope Benedict XVI of mishandling several cases of sexual abuse in the 1970s and 1980s. Here are a few of our related articles on the Catholic Church’s crisis.
The number of women religious leaders is growing, but the 2018-2019 National Congregations Study, which surveyed 5,300 U.S. religious communities, found that only 56.4% of these communities would allow a woman to “be head clergy person or primary religious leader.”
AP Photo/Young Kwak
Barcelona’s fabled basilica recently celebrated the completion of its first tower with a giant star. But as at every stage in its history, not everyone is pleased.
The Feast of the Bean King, painted by Jacob Jordaens around 1640-1645.
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
We tend to romanticise the Christmas season, that time of year when we gather with friends and family, feast and be merry. But for most of its history Christmas has been a time of sordid behaviour.
One page fragment was found in West Germany in a shop adjacent to stalls selling spiced wine and cuckoo clocks in a busy Christmas market.
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500 years after his death, we’re reflecting on the man who became a cardinal at just 13 – but he had made neither priest nor bishop before he was elected pope.
Pope Francis incenses the altar as he celebrates Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, in November 2020.
(Vincenzo Pinto/Pool via AP)
A papal apology, if done in ‘a good way,’ could help remove barriers to transforming harmful relationships between Indigenous Peoples and the Catholic Church.
People stand on Parliament Hill alongside a memorial for children who died at Indian Residential Schools.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
Indigenous people and communities are not monolithic. How they react to and deal with tragedy will be different. Acknowledging that will help us all heal.