Catholic Church must educate members on TRC calls to action: Dene National chief

The Dene Nation's national chief is calling on the Catholic Church to take time during Sunday services this week to explain their response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's calls to action.

• N.W.T Catholic Bishop responds to Truth and Reconciliation call to action

Earlier this week, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops said that they rejected 15thcentury documents and laws that justify the seizure of land from indigenous peoples.

In their response to Call to Action 48which asksall faith groups in Canada to formally adopt and comply with the principles, norms, and standards of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples they also publicly supported the UN declaration.

But Bill Erasmus, the national chief of the Dene Nation, says that the church needs to make clear to its congregation what exactly that response entails.

"The bishops and different church entities need to explain what they mean by not supporting the Doctrine of Discovery, because many people don't know what that is," says Erasmus."Many people don't understand what the United Nations Declaration on the right of indigenous people is."

"They need to get on the pulpit,not only once, but continuously,so they can hear it, and absorb it, and appreciate what this means."

In their response to the Call to Action, theCanadian Conference of Catholic Bishops also called onall its members to make eight commitments to indigenous peoples including working with Catholic educational institutions to tell the history and experience of indigenous peoples and supporting the national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women.

In the Northwest Territories,Bishop Mark Hagemoenof the Roman Catholic Diocese of MackenzieFort Smith saidthat the church has already started to lay the groundwork to implement the changes.

Erasmus says that reconciliation will likely be on the agenda for the next DeneNation leadership meeting, which is scheduled for later this month.