An opportunity to consider relationships with First Nations communities

Chief Cadmus Delorme of the Cowessess First Nation will be the first speaker of the 2022-2023 season of the King’s Campus Ministry Veritas Series for Faith and Culture. Chief Delorme will present on “Truth and Reconciliation: What We Inherited, and Actions We All Must Take” as part of the President’s Lecture, sponsored by the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada, on September 15, 2022, at 7 p.m. Prior to the lecture at 11 am, local elders, Dan Smoke (Seneca Nation) and Mary Lou Smoke (Ojibway Nation) will gather our community at the Reflection Circle on the King’s Green, to welcome Chief Delorme, to listen and learn from each other, and to share a simple lunch.

The theme of the 2022-2023 Veritas Series is “Listening for Truth.” 

“This year, we listen for ‘A Still Small Voice’ or ‘a sound of sheer silence’; those moments when we perceive truth and the presence of something greater that unites rather than divides. In a polarized world, the loudest voices are not always the most truthful voices. And often, in the most challenging times, a simple, truthful voice can emerge. Our speakers this year will guide us in listening and thinking about the ways we inhabit our world and build communities of mutual respect and understanding,” says Jim Panchaud, Director of Campus Ministry.

Chief Delorme, a Cree and Saulteaux, is the Chief of the Cowessess First Nation. In 2021, Chief Delorme faced one of the hardest moments as Chief when the Saulteaux and Cree First Nation made international headlines with the discovery of as many as 751 unmarked graves near the former Marieval Indian Residential School.

Panchaud says welcoming Chief Delorme to King’s is an “opportunity to meet and think about the quality of our relationship with local First Nations communities, which is why we’re gathering earlier in the day at the Reflection Circle to listen to each other, to learn, and then to share food together. What is the next small step we can take together to move into a more hopeful future?”

The Veritas Lecture Series engages speakers from a variety of backgrounds to explore the depth of human experience and to articulate truth - the fullness of humanity - to which we aspire. The Catholic intellectual tradition welcomes and embraces this exploration as participation in the common good that enhances the world we inhabit.

The word “veritas” comes from the Latin word meaning “truth.” It is taken directly from the College motto: “Christus est Via, Veritas et Vita” (Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life). The pursuit of truth is at the centre of our mission.

“These speakers will help us consider how we share our stories, how we confront bias and racism, and how we think about ourselves in relationship to the rest of the world. All of these begin with listening for that small, truthful voice that invites us to become more fully human. I think that’s what we’re about at King’s,” says Panchaud.

Other speakers in this year’s Veritas Series:

• Meghan McKenna - Public Lecture: Dreaming into the Future through Storytelling - October 27, 2022, 7 p.m.
• Daniel P. Horan, OFM, PhD - Christ the King Lecture: Look Again - A White Catholic’s Guide to Racism and Privilege - November 17, 2022, 7 p.m.
  • Lunchtime Faculty Book Study: Catholicity and Emerging Personhood - pre-registration required through Campus Ministry. Limited to 20 participants. Book provided. 
• John Meehan, SJ - Public Lecture: Called to Listen, Serve and Heal: How to be a Catholic University in a Distracted, Polarized World - February 9, 2023,7 p.m.

For more information, including how to view the event via live-stream/ non-interactive Zoom, visit www.kings.uwo.ca/veritas. You can register for the President’s Lecture, the first in the series, at https://veritas-delorme.eventbrite.ca/.