Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), Canadian Religious Conference (CRC), Canadian Catholic Aboriginal Council Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace

A Catholic Response to Call to Action 48 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission: Recommendations by the Commission for Justice and Peace of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops “Walking Forward Together”

1. Introduction: The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
2. Respecting Indigenous Spiritual Practices
3. Publicly Supporting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Conclusion

While there is not a corporate policy common to all Catholic dioceses, institutes of consecrated life, societies of apostolic life and lay organizations, we the undersigned reiterate the teaching of the Catholic Church on the universality of human rights, particularly the right to freedom of religion and belief.

Walking Forward Together

1. Continue to work with Catholic educational institutions and programs of formation in learning to tell the history of Canada in a way that is truthful, ensuring proper treatment of the history and experience of Indigenous Peoples, including the experience of oppression and marginalization which resulted from the Indian Act, the Residential School system, and frequent ignoring or undermining of signed treaties.
2. Work with centres of pastoral and clergy formation to promote a culture of encounter by including the study of the history of Canadian missions, with both their weaknesses and strengths, which encompasses the history of the Indian Residential Schools. In doing this, it will be important to be attentive to Indigenous versions of Canadian history, and for these centres to welcome and engage Indigenous teachers in the education of clergy and pastoral workers, assuring that each student has the opportunity to encounter Indigenous cultures as part of their formation.
3. Call upon theological centres to promote and continue to support Indigenous reflection within the Catholic community, and include this as part of the national ecumenical and interreligious dialogues in which the CCCB is involved.
4. Encourage partnerships between Indigenous groups and existing health care facilities to provide holistic health care, especially in areas where there are significant health needs.
5. Encourage initiatives that would establish and strengthen a restorative justice model within the criminal justice system. Incarceration rates among Indigenous people are many times higher than among the general population, and prisons are not sufficiently places of reconciliation and rehabilitation. Such initiatives include the renewal of the criminal justice system through sentencing and healing circles and other traditional Indigenous ways of dealing with offenders where appropriate and desired by Indigenous Peoples.
6. Support the current national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls and work with others towards a healthier society where just relations flourish in families and communities, and where those most vulnerable are protected and valued.
7. Support Bishops and their dioceses and eparchies, as well as superiors of institutes of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life, together with lay Catholic organizations, in deepening and broadening their relationships, dialogue and collaboration with Indigenous Peoples; in developing programs of education on Indigenous experience and culture; and in their efforts to continue to move forward with renewed hope following the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Final Report and its Calls to Action, especially those that address faith communities.
8. Encourage Bishops, as well as the superiors of institutes of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life , together with lay Catholic organizations, to invite a greater acquaintance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in their dioceses and eparchies, in their parishes and educational institutions, and in their communities and pastoral work, thus fostering continuing reflection in local contexts on how various aspects of the Declaration can be implemented or supported.

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