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.
Reflections from the pastoral ministry of an Evangelical Catholic Priest.
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.