A call to decolonize the Congrégation de Notre-Dame to better participate in the humanization of the world.

The Sisters of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame are meeting for an International Forum under the theme: A call to decolonize the Congrégation de Notre-Dame to better participate in the humanization of the world. The event will be held from August 24 to 31, 2024, at the Sheraton Hotel in Dorval.

Some 200 sisters, associates and friends of the Congregation are expected to participate in conferences and workshops exploring the following themes:

– CND schools – Colonial education

– The Church and colonialism – The issue of race – Coloniality of power

– Racism – White privilege – North-South relations – Racism and white privilege

– Interculturality – Intersectionality – Intergenerationality

Why a Forum?

The year 2020 marked a turning point in the life of the world as the COVID-19 pandemic revealed a great vulnerability and inequality in access to healthcare. We were also confronted with the scourge of systemic racism. We heard the pleas of George Floyd – “I can’t breathe,” and we learned of the death of Joyce Echaquan, a young Indigenous woman from Quebec. These events became a call to action for the Congregation. We are called to face the reality of racism, to educate ourselves and to respond to the call to be transformed.

In February 2021, the Congregation committed to a process of reflection and dialogue led by Mrs. Jeanne-Marie Rugira on discrimination, racism and colonialism. The inspiration for this Forum came from the desires and hopes expressed in the discussion groups to continue this process: the transformation of the Congregation that we envisage cannot take place in isolated groups. We need time together to dialogue and to face our personal and congregational histories of racism, discrimination and colonialism, and to reconcile for the Life of the World.

Objectives of the Meeting

• • Open spaces for discussion where all the voices that form our community are heard.
• • Reflect on and create new answers together that our world needs for inclusion, peaceful coexistence and the fight against all forms of discrimination and dehumanization.
• • Create conditions for a dialogue that is frank and allows us to truly discuss our intercultural and intergenerational practices.
• • Ask questions together and find new ways of living together that reject all forms of exclusion, discrimination and colonization.
• • Welcome for our world, in a renewed way, the prophetic inspiration that comes to us from the Nazarene.

We will be accompanied throughout the Forum by our facilitators and speakers: Jeanne-Marie Rugira, Catherine Larochelle, Nicole O’Bomsawin, Ismaël Moreno, Bénigne Kangaj, IHM, Leila Celis, Samuel Huard, Maïka Sondarjee, Aly Ndlayea and Amel Zaazaa; Sisters and staff from the congregation will also lead panels and workshops, while Father Kevin Kelly, s.j., will celebrate the opening and closing Masses.

This meeting to deepen reflection and dialogue on discrimination, racism and colonialism marks an important step in the process undertaken by the Congregation. We do not know where the Forum will take us, but we are moving forward with hope. Thank you for your prayerful support during the last week of August.