Saturday, April 02, 2022

Unambiguous?

Various indigenous leaders have reacted to the pope's statement, and a fair number of them think it is "too little too late." I can see their point -- they want meaningful action to correct the harm done to them by the Catholic church over the last 600 years. They certainly deserve recompense, but it was never going to be included in the apology that other indigenous leaders have been asking for a long time.

No action taken by the Catholic church will satisfy all the descendents of those harmed, or the living victims of the residential schools. They are individuals with different experiences and different values.

A more serious complaint is that even though the pope said he was sorry and asked for forgiveness -- good things to do -- he blamed the abuses on people within the Church, ignoring the role of the institution in creating the residential school system.

1 comment:

SB said...

For that matter "a number of Russians" have committed violence in Ukraine. No need to mention that they were sent there on orders from the Kremlin, equipped with Russian military gear and wearing Russian military uniforms.

His Holiness is trying to distance the Church from these abuses by attributing them to a few bad apples who just happen to be Catholic.