The tomb of St. Kateri Tekakwitha and the faith of Mohawk Catholics

It’s been 12 years since St. Kateri Tekakwitha ("The Lily of the
Mohawks") was declared a saint by the Catholic church, in October
2012. She was a Mohawk/Algonquin woman who lived in the late 17th
century in present-day New York and Quebec, declaring herself a
virgin for Christ. Her sainthood has sparked both pride and
soul-searching within and beyond Canada’s First Nations. St.
Kateri’s earthly remains are entombed at the National Saint
Kateri Tekakwitha Shrine, in St. Francis Xavier Mission Catholic
Church in Kahnawake, on the banks of the St. Lawrence River near
Montreal.


The church is not far from the Kateri school and Kateri Memorial
Hospital—visible reminders that she lived here, or nearby, in a
Catholic community before her death at age 24.


Faith Full is a Catholic podcast hosted by Tony Ganzer. In this
episode we are not retelling St. Kateri’s life story, but rather
we’re bringing you voices from a few members of the present-day
Catholic community in Kahnawake: Beverly Anna Sky Dolormier, a
volunteer named Marian, and Fr. Richard Saint-Louis.


Visit our website: https://www.faithfullpod.com/ 
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https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/faith-full-podcast/id1363835811

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/34sSHs8hHpOCi5csuTtiIv


Before we explore St. Kateri, we need to be transparent: there
are many serious issues that may cloud discussions involving the
Catholic Church that we won’t fully be able to explore. The
Church has a complicated history and present here. Jesuits, known
as the Black Robes, evangelized as European powers colonized
North America. Over centuries, the systems put in place to govern
these territories have wrested ancestral lands, water rights, and
more, from the indigenous peoples. Church-affiliated residential
schools separated children from their families and culture in the
name of assimilation. Despite public apologies from Pope Francis,
the reports of abuses committed at those schools have left
societal wounds that, for some, may never fully heal.


But for some Catholics, faith bears witness to their resilience.