Members of the Sts’ailes First Nation at Holy Rosary Cathedral last year for the first Mass to integrate a First Nation language. A Cardus report presents the voices of Indigenous Canadians speaking about their faith and distinguishing it from the traditional spirituality they’re often associated with. / Photo courtesy Nicholas Elbers, 2022
Vancouver, Canada, May 17, 2023 / 14:15 pm (CNA).
A groundbreaking report published by the Ottawa-based Cardus Institute has given voice to Indigenous Canadians who are frustrated by secular society’s unawareness of — or unwillingness to accept — the fact that almost half of them are Christian.
“I find that insulting to Indigenous people’s intelligence and freedom,” Catholic priest Father Cristino Bouvette said of the prejudice he regularly encounters.
Bouvette, who has mixed Cree-Métis and Italian heritage and now serves as vicar for vocations and Young Adults in the Diocese of
Statistics Canada reported last year that the 2021 census found that 850,000, or 47%, of Canada’s 1.8-million Indigenous people identify as Christian and that.
Bill C-11, one of the most hotly debated pieces of legislation in recent Canadian history, received royal assent and became law on April 27. Als.
Cardinal Thomas Collins. / Daniel Abel/cc 2.0Edmonton, Canada, Jan 1, 2023 / 14:00 pm (CNA).Tributes for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI have poured in from leaders of the Canadian Catholic community following the former pontiff s passing on Dec. 31 at his residence at the Vatican s Mater Ecclesiae Monastery.Cardinal Thomas Collins, the archbishop of Toronto, hailed the former pope as a model of inspiring discipleship and theological wisdom."Throughout the Archdiocese of Toronto, we join in mourning the loss of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI," Collins wrote. "We give thanks for his years of faithful, thoughtful, and inspiring service to the Church. As a priest for more than 70 years and in his time as bishop and supreme pontiff, Pope Emeritus Benedict offered each one of us a personal example of fidelity and of what it is to be a devoted disciple of Jesus."As a theologian, he followed in the footsteps of the great St. Augustine in offering to us profound insight into the mys