The University of St. Michael’s College recognizes the seriousness of sexual abuse reports regarding certain members of the Congregation of St. Basil as recently reported in the media. Our thoughts go out to all who have suffered due to clerical abuse, whether in Canada or around the world.
While the Congregation of St. Basil (along with other congregations) was instrumental in the founding and growth of our university, the University of St. Michael’s College is an independent legal entity separate from the Congregation of St. Basil and St. Michael’s College School. Our institution is a provincially-chartered university fully federated with the University of Toronto since 1910. Our educational mission includes a commitment to addressing social injustice, including the issue of abuse. To that end, our university sponsored a colloquium in 2019 titled The Wounded Body of Christ: Listening and Responding to Abuse in the Church, which included panel discussions with survivors from across Canada. This semester, our Faculty of Theology is offering a course called (Sexual) Abuse in the Church, one of the first of its kind to be taught in Canada.