Over the last few years, there has been a lot of news coverage about the Catholic Church and Indigenous and First Nations people. While this has highlighted the essential need for work to be done to unveil the truth and seek reconciliation, this work has been in progress for many years. This work has been happening at the level of the Vatican, nationally, and also in our own Archdiocese of Halifax- Yarmouth. We are wrestling with the hard truths of our past. Our history with the local Mi’kmaq people is rich and varied. (To learn more about our shared history with the Mi’kmaq Community in Nova Scotia, please visit halifaxyarmouth.org/mikmaq-community.) In Nova Scotia, we also wrestle with our own questions about the Shubenacadie Residential School. As Pope Francis shared in his pastoral letter to Canadians, ‘That We May Walk Together’: “Although Christian charity was not absent, and there were many outstanding instances of devotion and care for children, the overall effects of the policies linked to the residential schools were catastrophic. What our Christian faith tells us is that this was a disastrous error, incompatible with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” 

As humans, our relationships are often imperfect. We hurt each other. We turn a blind eye to harms being done. Even as a people redeemed, we can reject the clear voice of the Holy Spirit and choose sin. When we sin, we can seek the incredible gift of reconciliation. We can seek forgiveness and do acts of penance. But our act of reconciliation shouldn’t be confined to the confessional. The gifts of the Sacrament of Reconciliation should burst forth with us when we leave the confessional, leading us to make amends to those we’ve harmed and to be reformed by the Holy Spirit to help us choose God’s will instead of sin. 

That’s true both on the individual level and on the greater level of the Church. When those who acted on behalf of and in the name of the Church sin, we can invite the Holy Spirit to infuse our actions, guiding us through healing and reconciliation with those who were harmed. While you and I as individuals may not have participated in the individual harms, as the Body of Christ in the Church, we are called to join in the work of penance.

But we know that penance cannot just be words. Those words need to be matched with real action. The harms done to the Indigenous and First Nations people have had generational consequences. Systems of injustice cannot be broken without resources. To that end, in 2021 the Canadian Council of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) pledged $30 million dollars to the Healing and Reconciliation Fund. 

The goal of this fund is to contribute to locally determined reconciliation and healing projects. This Indigenous Reconciliation Fund provides grants with the goals of
• Healing and reconciliation for communities and families, • Culture and language revitalization,
• Education and community building, and
• Dialogues for promoting indigenous spirituality and culture. 

You can learn more about this fund at irfund.ca. This fund represents a critical step in guiding us towards real opportunities for reconciliation and healing. 

To learn more about this issue, I reached out to the Honourable Graydon Nicolas, the 30th Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick, born into the Maliseet people of the Tobique First Nations Reserve. Hon. Graydon Nicholas has been participating in the conversation of the CCCB, the Catholic laity, and Indigenous and First Nations people for over 30 years. He generously took the time to send me valuable resources and shared his thoughts. 

“There is no doubt that all parishioners need to know the amount that each Bishop pledged for their Diocese,” he said. “The Bishops have to share this message with all of the priests and lay people of the Diocese, especially the pastoral councils. It is great to have an annual collection, but it must be an ongoing effort. I would strongly suggest that the Bishop suggest to each parish to form a group of interested persons to engage in discussions that I mentioned above to document on an ongoing basis. It will take people of good faith and commitment to fulfill the journey of reconciliation.” 

He also shared this beautiful quote from Pope Francis’ July 2022 message to those assembled at Lac Ste. Anne, which reminds us of the graces God wants to pour over us as we seek reconciliation and healing: 

Yes, Lord, we entrust ourselves to the intercession of your mother and your grandmother, because mothers and grandmothers help to heal the wounds of our hearts. At the dramatic time of the conquest, Our Lady of Guadalupe transmitted the true faith to the indigenous people, speaking their own language and clothed in their own garments, without violence or imposition. When looking at the indigenous peoples and thinking of their history and the pain that they endured, what do I do for indigenous peoples? Do I merely listen with curiosity, horrified by what happened in the past, or do I do something concrete for them? Do I pray, meet, read, support them, and let myself be touched by their stories?

We hope and pray that our works of penance will be used by the Holy Spirit to bring about a great healing of the wounds we as a Church have inflicted and that our shared desire for healing and reconciliation may be realized.