Canadian Catholics push for Indigenous voices at Rome conference
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Monthly Digital Subscription
$1 per week for 24 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $4.00 plus GST every four weeks. After 24 weeks, price increases to the regular rate of $19.00 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
Monthly Digital Subscription
$4.75/week*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $19 plus GST every four weeks. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Winnipeg Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
*$1 will be added to your next bill. After your 4 weeks access is complete your rate will increase by $0.00 a X percent off the regular rate.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/10/2024 (321 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.
faith@freepress.mb.ca
The Free Press is committed to covering faith in Manitoba. If you appreciate that coverage, help us do more! Your contribution of $10, $25 or more will allow us to deepen our reporting about faith in the province. Thanks! BECOME A FAITH JOURNALISM SUPPORTER
John Longhurst has been writing for Winnipeg's faith pages since 2003. He also writes for Religion News Service in the U.S., and blogs about the media, marketing and communications at Making the News.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
‘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
The Free Press is committed to covering faith in Manitoba. If you appreciate that coverage, help us do more! Your contribution of $10, $25 or more will allow us to deepen our reporting about faith in the province. Thanks! BECOME A FAITH JOURNALISM SUPPORTER
John Longhurst has been writing for Winnipeg's faith pages since 2003. He also writes for Religion News Service in the U.S., and blogs about the media, marketing and communications at Making the News.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Related Articles
Catholic Church’s lengthy journey to the future coming to a close Synod ends, Pope says document ‘can be a guide’
Advertisement Advertise With Us
Advertisement Advertise With Us
The Free Press acknowledges the financial support it receives from members of the city’s faith community, which makes our coverage of religion possible.