Catholic Aboriginal Council for Reconciliation Distributes More Than $100,000 in Healing and Reconciliation Grants

Wednesday, October 18 2006

CCCB – Cornwall … In its annual report presented at the 2006 Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops Plenary Assembly, the Catholic Aboriginal Council for Reconciliation (CACR) highlighted that they have distributed more than $100,000 in grants in 2006.

The Fund for Reconciliation, Solidarity and Communion – administered by the CACR members and financed by the dioceses and other Catholic organizations – was able to finance six reconciliation projects. The lions share, $75,000, was granted to Returning to Spirit, a program created to help heal the wounds left behind from the residential schools. The program reunites First Nations persons and members of religious communities or other participants who have in some way experienced the conflict related to Indian residential schools.

The program is made up of three parts. In Part 1, a five-day intensive process, First Nations participants are led through an examination of the ways they bear their own suffering and recreate it in the present. In Part 2, “Church” participants follow the same process. Those who wish to do so move on to the third part, in which both groups are guided toward reconciliation by engaging together in the same searching conversation.

In addition to Returning to Spirit, the Council provided more than $30,000 to the following six projects:

Established in 1998 by the Bishops of Canada, the Council encourages Aboriginal leadership in the Christian community, supports healing and reconciliation between Aboriginals and non-Aboriginals, and advises the bishops on Aboriginal questions. The Council is made up of eight Aboriginals from across the country as well as Most Rev. Albert LeGatt, Bishop of Saskatoon and Most Rev. Bertrand Blanchet, Archbishop of Rimouski.

In December 2005, the Council published a pastoral letter, available on the CCCB’s website, for the Day of Prayer for Aboriginal Peoples. It focuses on the importance of prayer and solidarity among Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Peoples and calls for systemic change regarding the current situation in Canada for Aboriginal Peoples; including the disproportionately high levels of poverty in Aboriginal communities in comparison to the rest of the population, the availability of adequate housing, general public health, as well as substance abuse.

The Council is proud to have served the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops for the past nine years and looks forward to supporting new projects in the future.

For more information contact:
Sylvain Salvas
Director, Communications Service
Tel: (613) 241-9461
Fax: (613) 241-9048
salvas@cccb.ca