One year after the visit of Pope Francis to Canada, Global Sisters Report expanded their reporting on the reconciliation efforts by women religious. Genevieve Gallant worked with the author Sandrine Rastello to members of religious congregations in Canada working on reconciliation. Introduced to the range of response, the author’s idea of one article turned into three.
The first, A year after Pope Francis’ Canada trip, sisters walk long road to reconciliation amid boarding schools’ bitter legacy, shares how the responses to the residential school repercussions resemble a mosaic of initiatives that vary in size and visibility, depending on the age, background, and personal journey of sisters. Sometimes it is just one person in a community who’s deeply committed to reconciliation, or several congregations come together to support an Indigenous-led project or form an advocacy group. Other times, reconciliation isn’t high on the agenda.
In particular it highlights ORCIE members Sr. Priscilla Solomon and Sr. Sheila Smith.
“There’s a whole debate around ‘Can this relationship be reconciled, when there really wasn’t a relationship to begin with, when it was a relation of domination?’ ” Sheila shares. “I do believe reconciliation involves our own reconciliation, looking at our own identity and who we want to be in this relationship”.
The second article For Catholic sisters in Canada, reconciliation is a mosaic of action, includes a section on ORCIE. The third article, Taking part in reconciliation: Inside the process of life-changing workshops shares experiences with Returning to Spirit.