Canadian Catholics push for Indigenous voices at Rome conference
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/10/2024 (711 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
ROME — Ken Thorson hopes a final report from a month-long theological conference highlights the need for Canadian Roman Catholics to engage with Indigenous people.
“I hope it prioritizes and invites churches to be open to Indigenous people and their concerns,” Thorson, head of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate in Canada, said as the Synod of Synodality wraps up this week in Rome.
For him, that could mean seeing churches integrating Indigenous spirituality and practices into their liturgy and prayers. “If Indigenous people can see themselves in the liturgy, it can be healing,” he said.
Pope Francis arrives for his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square, at the Vatican on Wednesday. (Andrew Medichini/The Associated Press)
The church in Canada should also involve Indigenous people more in discernment and decisions about issues that impact them, Thorson said.
“We need to create more ways to continue and advance reconciliation,” he said, adding it should involve all levels of the church — bishops, priests, lay people and members of religious orders. “Through many small steps, we can move conversations forward.”
The synod, with its emphasis on inclusiveness and listening, can aid in that process by encouraging Catholics to “widen our circles to include more Indigenous voices, especially younger Indigenous people,” he said.
Thorson sees a role for the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops in this area.
“The bishops have a significant role to play to make sure reconciliation happens, to help people listen and make space for Indigenous voices,” he said. “We have a lot to learn from Indigenous people.”
Bishop William McGrattan, president of the conference and member of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Calgary, said reconciliation involves walking and listening together.
This includes raising money for the Indigenous Healing Fund, which helps Indigenous people reclaim their culture and language. So far, the fund has received more than $17 million in donations for 180 projects to promote reconciliation. They hope to raise a total of $30 million.
“We are doing what we promised Pope Francis we would do,” McGrattan said.
Joe Gunn’s job is to learn how the church can serve marginalized people, including Indigenous people across the world.
Pope Francis arrives at St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday. The Catholic Church’s Synod of Synodality wraps up this week in Rome.
“The goal is to come up with ideas for how to better listen to the cry of the poor,” said Gunn, a member of a synodal study group that will also listen about how climate change is affecting the earth.
Gunn, formerly the director of Centre Oblat-A Voice for Justice in Ottawa, said he’d like to see the conference create a national gathering of Catholic Indigenous leaders.
“Let’s use the synodal process to help us keep going forward,” he said.
Delegates gathered this month to discuss the future of the Catholic Church during the Synod of Synodality.
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‘Losing the next generation’ of women
ROME — Canadian Catholic women are disappointed there will be no discussion at the Synod of Synodality in Rome about the ordination of females as deacons.
Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez announced Monday Pope Francis said the matter of female deacons in the Roman Catholic Church “is not mature at this time.”
Louise Dowhan of Winnipeg had been hoping and praying there might be a breakthrough about the role of women in the church at this synod. She said the decision sends a worrisome signal to younger Catholic women.
“In many parts of the world the Catholic Church is losing the next generation, and the church is either oblivious or does not care, neither of which is in keeping with a synodal church,” she said.
Catholic women around the world supported the synod in good faith, believing it would address the topic, Dowhan said. “Can the Vatican say it was doing the same?” she asked.
Calgary’s Jeanie McKibbon is calling on the church to add more women to the fold.
“The only way to change the decisions that the church makes is to change the decision-makers,” McKibbon, who is a member of Catholic Network for Women’s Equality, an organization that advocates for an inclusive and accountable Roman Catholic Church.
Sister Veronica Dunne of Winnipeg said this is nothing new. Catholic women, she said, have experienced rejection in the Catholic Church for hundreds of years.
“I understand this matter as being about sexism and the underlying power relationships that constitute sexism,” she said. “There has to be a transformation of the relationship and the power dynamic for something new to really emerge, which is what I understood the synod was trying to do.”
— John Longhurst
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Donate now to support our reporting on religion.
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