Centre for Truth and Reconciliation to release names of residential school priests

By Canadian Press on May 30, 2025.

OTTAWA — The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation says it will soon release the names of 140 priests or brothers who worked in residential schools.

Along with their names, the centre says it will also post online their personnel files and the names of the schools where they served.

The list was developed with the Oblates of OMI Lacombe Canada, which the centre says played a “fundamental role in Canada’s residential school system.”

The centre says the records are a “vital” resource for families and communities as they research survivors and those who never made it home, and that the names of the priests and brothers will be “updated on an ongoing basis.”

Raymond Frogner, head of archives and senior director of research for the centre, says the files tell the story of the schools.

He says they are “creating a central source to examine, understand and heal from one of the longest serving and least understood colonial programs in the history of the country.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 30, 2025.

Alessia Passafiume, The Canadian Press