At Regis St. Michael’s Faculty of Theology (RSM), responding to the Calls to Action set out by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) remains a guiding priority in how the school prepares people to serve the Church, its Indigenous communities, and to understand the damage it has caused many of its members. RSM’s new strategic plan positions truth and reconciliation as a top priority in the Faculty, with Indigenous spirituality along with the legacy of residential schools and the Church’s role in that system gradually being woven into RSM’s curriculum.
“Regis St. Michael’s has been very intentional about its commitment to truth and reconciliation, particularly the call for churches, religious orders, and academic institutions to address how the Church was complicit in the residential school system. We’re educating our students but also finding new ways we can contribute to reconciliation and supporting Indigenous students,” says Prof. Jaroslav Skira, Dean of RSM.
Faculty discussions have guided curriculum development, focusing on how to meaningfully integrate Indigenous voices, creatively present the material, and build sustained relationships with Indigenous communities. RSM has also committed to this work through public lectures, and financial support for students, along with a grant from Lilly Endowment’s Pathways for Tomorrow that will significantly advance this priority.
This work was done to respond directly to the TRC’s Call to Action No. 60, which calls on Church leaders and theological schools to work with Indigenous spiritual leaders and residential school survivors to develop curriculum that respects Indigenous spirituality and addresses the legacy of residential schools.
“We call upon leaders of the church parties to the Settlement Agreement and all other faiths, in collaboration with Indigenous spiritual leaders, Survivors, schools of theology, seminaries, and other religious training centres, to develop and teach curriculum for all student clergy, and all clergy and staff who work in Aboriginal communities, on the need to respect Indigenous spirituality in its own right, the history and legacy of residential schools and the roles of the church parties in that system, the history and legacy of religious conflict in Aboriginal families and communities, and the responsibility that churches have to mitigate such conflicts and prevent spiritual violence.”
– Truth and Reconciliation Commission no. 60
RSM continues to deepen its engagement with truth and reconciliation, with 20 to 30 courses directly addressing TRC-related themes. Among these are many of the foundational courses for RSM’s degree programs, including the Introduction to the New Testament, Catholic Spirituality and Education, and Education and Liberation.
A course offered by Prof. Cynthia Cameron, Associate Professor of Religious Education and the Patrick and Barbara Keenan Chair in Religious Education at the Faculty of Theology, titled Catholic Residential Schools addresses the residential school system and the Church’s role in it directly.
“This course looks primarily at the theological question of Residential Schools, rather than the historical question. So, we look at why Catholic religious orders became involved in the running of Residential Schools, at the theological assumptions that led these religious orders to support and perpetuate the abuse and cultural genocide. And we look to contemporary theologies that can undergird a more just relationship with Indigenous people, in schools, in ministry, and in wider Canadian society,” explains Cameron.
Learning in Indigenous-Led Spaces
RSM’s growing roster of experiential learning courses also incorporates truth and reconciliation, giving students the opportunity to encounter Indigenous spirituality firsthand in Indigenous-led spaces.
Retreat in the Streets, an experiential learning course, which began in 2025, seeks to find God in the people and places that one encounters in Toronto. Part of the course includes a site visit to UofT’s First Nations House. Another summer experiential course, Interfaith in the City takes students to visit different houses of worship all over the city, includes a visit to an Indigenous community centre to understand and explore Indigenous spiritualities and notions of the sacred.
This past summer, Food/Justice, Farming and Eco-Theology in the City, taught by Prof. Hilda Koster, Director of the Elliott Allen Institute for Theology and Ecology at RSM, took students on a tour of Toronto Metropolitan University’s Indigenous Foodways Program. The visit combined theological and ethical perspectives with Indigenous knowledge and community initiatives to address a range of social justice issues related to food.
Walking in Service: Building Long-Term Relationships
Efforts to engage Indigenous communities in relationships of learning, reconciliation, and shared wisdom will continue to deepen through the Walking in Service initiative. Funded through the Lilly Endowment’s Pathways for Tomorrow Initiative, it seeks to develop educational resources and programs to support the community-based formation of congregational leadership in Catholic Indigenous communities in Canada.
Offerings will range from professional development workshops, Windows on Theology continuing education courses, to newly developed credit courses. Adjunct faculty and community-recognized Elders with competencies in Indigenous pedagogies, ways of knowing, cultures and history will be hired to teach, mentor students, and support curricular development.
Initiative director, Prof. Trevor Scott, SJ, notes that this project has been developed in support of the formation of Indigenous congregational leaders within the Roman Catholic Church in Canada. It is rooted in the healing journey that has begun to emerge in the wake of Pope Francis’s 2022 Penitential Pilgrimage, affirming reconciliation as a shared spiritual and social task, including amongst theological faculty and students. This initiative addresses the pressing need for contextualized, trauma-informed theological education that seeks to respect Indigenous self-determination, incorporates land-based and culturally relevant pedagogies, and prepares leaders for their needed presence as catechists, lectors, and acolytes.
A pilot program of this initiative took doctoral students on a research retreat held at the Anishinaabe Spiritual Centre in Espanola, a training centre for Anishinaabe Catholic leaders, originally established by the Jesuits and now run in partnership between local Indigenous members and the Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie.
Students from the retreat will be speaking on a panel marking National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (NDTR) on September 30 at St. Joseph Chapel at Regis College.
Marking National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
The University of St. Michael’s will also take part in a number of events in observance of NDTR. St. Michael’s Campus Ministry team will take a group of students to the Indigenous Legacy Gathering Sunrise Ceremony at Nathan Phillips Square. See the Gathering’s full schedule. St. Michael’s College Student Union will host a Truth and Reconciliation Gathering with speakers and community conversation in the COOP.