Articles like this one are the reason so many church folks are cynical about this entire reconciliation process, concluding that it's little more than a cash grab. I do not share this opinion. But if First Nations leaders keep moving the goal post as to what constitutes the fulfillment of the Church's responsibility for the Residential Schools scandal, they will lose a lot of good will among we Catholics who are sympathetic to their legitimate grievances. The TRC calls for the Pope to apologize to our First Nations here in Canada. Clearly this is going to happen. It serves no meaning purpose if Native aims are indeed something more than the reconciliation between the First Nations and Canada as laid out in the TRC Report. Calls for the imprisonment of people responsible for instituting a program that started 140+ years ago and ended 50+ years as the current AFN Chief is demanding isn't reasonable nor possible given its architects have been dead for many decades already.
Good will to all men? Not from the grumpy atheists! (Thank God not all atheists are grumpy but there sure seems to be a lot of them)
Why is it that so many in the atheist community cannot bring themselves to get past their anger whenever they engage in discussions? The language of many of their contributions in public debate is laced with invective and dripping with sarcasm and bile. There are exceptions of course, but they tend to fall more into the category of being the 'exception that proves the rule' when compared to the hostility of many of today's atheist posters. Comment offered by the theists in the public square is often depicted as being 'malicious' or 'venomous' and intended to enslave the 'feeble minded and weak' by those who post. Nothing could be further from the truth. Venom is something that is oriented to death. Christians are oriented in a 180 degree different direction. We speak not to the culture of death that grips our world but rather for the culture of life and light which ends with the gift of eternal life. For example, the Catholic Church in its hum...
The Catholic Church needs to apologize and not hide behind the fact that it was up to the local diocese and orders that ran the schools to apologize as they are separate corporate entities. That is legally true, but morally evasive. They also need to pay the compensation that was agreed on and not claim they cannot afford it. And the last residential school in Canada closed in 1996 and if there is anyone who is accused of a crime that is within the statute of limitation then they should be brought to justice.
ReplyDeleteThe main thing is that this never is allowed to happen again.