Hidden and Forgotten
African Absence in the Consciousness of the Catholic Church in Canada
by Iheanyi M. Enwerem

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Catholics of African descent have been in the Catholic Church in Canada since Canada's pre-independent days, and yet there has been and still is a poverty of pastoral outreach to them. In a richly researched yet enjoyably readable study, Father Enwerem posits that the recent arrival of African missionaries is a good sign for the rejuvenation of Catholicism in Canada, but he suggests that the Church’s continuing silence on the presence and contributions of Africans in the historiography of Catholicism in Canada betrays a subtle racism. Compelling and utterly convincing, Hidden and Forgotten addresses the urgent need to correct this incomplete, and therefore false, history of Catholicism in Canada.

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In an interesting and all-encompassing way, this book by Fr. Iheanyi Enwerem draws the reader into an important part of our Canadian history, revealing, page by page, a reality that is unknown or not understood by many of us. (Most. Rev. Albert Thevenot, M.Afr., Catholic Bishop of Prince Albert Diocese) This book is a remarkable balance of the secular and spiritual ministry to the Catholic Church in Canada. (Professor Peter Paolucci, Department of English, York University, Canada). Dr. Iheanyi Enwerem has done the Catholic Church, in general and particularly in Canada, an invaluable service not only by his many years of ministry there but also with this his seminal treatise - a must read not only for Catholics but for all people of goodwill. (Chieke Evaristus Ihejirika, PhD., Professor and Chair of History and Political Science Department, Lincoln University, Pennsylvania, USA.) What a wonderful and captivating expose! A must-read book! Therein, Iheanyi Enwerem presents an evolving and profoundly thought-provoking assessment of the evangelisation strategies of the Church in Canada. He has merely scratched at the issues at stake ... the cog in the wheel of the Church's mission program. (Rev. Fr. Dr. Udoka Chris Nwosu, Chancellor, Archdiocese of St. Boniface, Manitoba, Canada)

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After attending seminary in Nigeria and getting a PhD in Social and Political Thought from York University, Toronto, Canada, Iheanyi M. Enwerem, O.P. has spent more than twenty years of priestly ministry as a seminary and university professor in Nigeria and Canada as well as a pastor in four different dioceses in North America, three of which are in Canada. He now serves as priest in the Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

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Iheanyi M. Enwerem