The upcoming Synod of Bishops for the Amazon will challenge Canada regarding its own relationship with indigenous peoples and the environment.

"In this case, however, we may need to allow this fire to keep burning," Bishop Lionel Gendron of Saint-Jean-Longueuil, Quebec, said.

In the wake of a June 15 ruling affecting the proposed law school at Trinity Western University, the bishops issued a statement that said they were " deeply concerned" and warned of "serious implications" and "negative repercussions" for individuals and institutions.

An estimated 75-100 pro-abortion advocates, some wearing black bandanas over their faces, screamed chants and waved signs, halting the National March for Life until marchers turned around and took a different route through the streets of downtown Ottawa.

The new law, which takes effect Feb. 1, establishes a 50-meter, no-protest zone around eight abortion facilities in Ontario.

“We are standing on an abyss of a revolutionary change on how religions have operated in Canada.”

Bishop Lionel Gendron of Saint-Jean-Lonueuil, Quebec, said a possible papal visit was not a major topic at the bishops' plenary gathering Sept. 25-29, but reconciliation with indigenous people remains high on the conference's agenda.

The Canadian cardinal, who serves as the Vatican's prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, told Canadian bishops the document does not signal "changes to doctrine or to sacramental discipline," but represents a pastoral approach that takes into consideration "the good of the person," according to his or her circumstances.

To celebrate Canada's 150th birthday and to mark the 70th anniversary of its consecration to Mary, Canada's three cardinals led the nation's bishops in a ceremony Sept. 26 to re-consecrate the nation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

An estimated 7,000 men, women and children, primarily Haitians, have entered Canada over the summer since U.S. President Donald Trump ended a program offering temporary asylum to Haitians displaced by that nation's 2010 earthquake.