Recent discoveries at former Catholic residential schools have opened old wounds. How are Catholics, who love their Catholic faith, supposed to respond a generation after?
For additional information mentioned in this video, see the four links below.
1) Fr Cristino’s Interview:
https://globalnews.ca/news/7993681/indigenous-priest-family-residential-schools-catholic-church/
With the most recent discoveries of unmarked graves at residential schools in Canada, and the burning and vandalism of churches across the country, Fr Cristino Bouvette said he couldn’t feel more pulled in two directions.
“I have gone on my own personal roller-coaster of emotions in these last number of weeks, as I have, at various other times in our painful history, as our country confronts this,” he said.
“It’s not clear to me yet still, how I am supposed to try and bridge that gap. I’m one person in the Catholic church, and I’m one person among so many Indigenous people in Canada.
2) Bishop Henry’s letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as reported by the Calgary Herald:
https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/pompous-posturing-calgary-bishop-fred-henry-accuses-trudeau-of-deflecting-blame-on-residential-schools
In the correspondence written on Catholic Pastoral Centre letterhead, the typically outspoken Henry quotes the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada in highlighting Ottawa’s culpability in the national disgrace of the residential schools that forced 150,000 First Nations children from their homes.
“The federal government never established an adequate set of standards and regulations to guarantee the health and safety of residential school students. This failure occurred despite the fact that the government had the authority to establish those standards,” Henry quoted the report.
“The failure to establish and enforce adequate standards, coupled with the failure to adequately fund the schools, resulted in unnecessarily high residential school death rates.”
3) Brian Holdworth Video: Catholic Churches are Burning Down:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zv9PWTrs9g
4) Canadian Conference of Bishops statements on Indian Residential schools and Truth and Reconciliation (TRC)
https://www.cccb.ca/indigenous-peoples/indian-residential-schools-and-trc/
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