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Did Pope Francis’s Visit Advance Reconciliation?

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September 23, 2022
12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
To register please click here.

 

As part of larger groups, Peter Bisson, S.J., and Donna Naughton, Executive Director of the Kateri Native Ministry of Ottawa, participated in the papal visit events in Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré and Edmonton, respectively. They will share how they experienced those parts of Pope Francis' visit, their impressions of the other parts they watched online, and then reflect on the visit as a whole.

Their reflections will focus on the positive (healing) and negative (colonization) aspects of the overall event.

 

Biographies

Peter Bisson, S.J., is a Jesuit priest in the Canadian Jesuit province. Based in Ottawa, he currently serves as the assistant to the Jesuit provincial for justice, ecology, and Indigenous relations. He also participates in Kateri Native Ministry in Ottawa. From 2009 – 2015 he represented the Jesuits at meetings of the parties to the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Donna Naughton is an Ojibway and Cree woman from the Biigtigong Anishnabek Territory in Northern Ontario. She currently resides in the City of Ottawa where she works as the Executive Director of the Kateri Native Ministry of Ottawa.

Donna has a Master's degree in Social Work and over 30 years of experience working with Aboriginal people.

The primary focus of her work with the ministry is to emphasize healing and reconciliation for Aboriginal peoples through two distinct pillars. The first is healing and the second is training. Please visit their website at www.katerinativeministry.ca.

Her passion in life is the restoration and reclamation of our identities as Indigenous Peoples and the bringing together of a deeper understanding of Indigenous spirituality. A strong proponent of learning on the ground, she was honored to create a program launched in 2021 called Kindaasawin: How we learn.

Donna's greatest accomplishments are: 

  • The "Kendaasawin: How We Learn" land-based learning project.
  • The founding of a grassroots organization called "The Orillia Native Women's Group" located in Orillia, Ontario.


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