Of course he did.
Pope Francis has made a "historic" apology for the abuses of the Catholic Church in Canada. This is to do with the story about dead children from Canadian Indian populations that broke a year or so ago. I put the apology in scare quotes because religious leaders apologizing for the sins of long dead people has almost become a sacrament; hardly unique or historic at this point.
I'll admit, I don't know much about that area of history. I was at the mercy of the press that talked of the scandal as the worst thing since Auschwitz, and others who insisted nothing happened, let's move on. Really. Some said it was a bunch of nothing, with the bodies found simply part of burials of children that the Church was taking care of. Given the lack of available time, and assurance that most of the Church/West would respond as Pope Francis has responded, I didn't bother doing my own research.
I'm inclined to believe the story was based on true events, but overhyped, since it led to a string of anti-Catholic arson and destruction over several weeks. Since nobody seemed to cry a river, with no governmental or media bemoaning of Romaphobic bigotry run amok (think of the regular lamenting of impending Islamaphobic violence after each mass killing by a Muslim), I couldn't help but think no matter what the truth, the story was meant to gin up more hatred for anything to do with the Christian West.
Of course Pope Francis continues what has become a defining characteristic of both modern Christianity and dying Western Culture: apologize endlessly for any and all evil ever committed ... and demanding nothing in return. Given my brush with people from various cultures over the years, and pondering some of what they have told me, I think many in other cultures more than happily approve this message.
We apologize, they don't, they demand we burn our heritage to the ground, we acquiesce and obey. Suffice to say, enjoy your next few Thanksgiving celebrations. In a few more years they, too, will be a thing of the past.
The impression I got was that it was either pre-existing graveyards that the schools were built on top of or something similar. Certainly the conditions at the schools weren't great but childhood mortality was common in even the best conditions back then. It's complicated. Certainly not any worse than what rival tribes were doing to each other before the Anglos showed up
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DeleteYeah. I don't know the details because the difference in non-MSM, conservative coverage of this and the MSM/Left was night and day. But we've reached and almost cartoon caricature of American Indians. The idea that they were too good for Jesus until the whites came is about as loony as you get. And yet it is almost the official teaching in our schools, media, and among the Left - and sadly, even in the Church.
DeleteI wish Pope Francis would also ask the government of Canada to apologize for abuses to Canadian truckers for violating their human rights ie freezing bank accounts and jailing them for protesting vaccine mandates. Its always about apologizing for the past while ignoring modern evil right in our face. Cheap grace...condemn the past ignore the modern evil.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't hold my breath. Pope Francis has loved BLM, but hated the January 6 riots. You don't usually have to do more than watch the MSM to see where Pope Francis will fall on an issue, and that's the sad part. When he does break from the narrative, it's usually in a way to suggest the differences are inconsequential.
DeleteAs a survivor of childhood sexual and physical abuse I can say that as long as our First Nations continue to look outside of themselves for forgiveness, their healing will take a very long time. Each survivor must embark on their own journey of forgiveness and peace of mind.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good insight. There's a right way and a wrong way to seek forgiveness and reconciliation. I fear our current approach is neither.
DeleteGenerally the news of graves in Canada have been found through ground radar detection. That is, they find indications of objects underground which could be bodies, and then conclude that they must be graves. Thus they might not be bodies at all. I am not aware of a single one of these stories where a body was exhumed. If they are bodies (and I'm sure in many cases they are) the investigators are generally unable to confirm that they are bodies of children. If they are children, it is impossible with the technology to determine if they were abused. Kids died on the frontier frequently for a wide variety of reasons and then they were buried. Notably I don't know of a single case where investigators claimed to find a mass grave, only bodies laid out like a normal graveyard.
ReplyDeleteThe media reporting of course gave you very little of this. The most responsible reporting talked about "potential graves" but even those stories generally surrounded the discoveries with talk of accusations of child abuse at the schools which would lead readers to assume that these are actual graves of actually abused children, even if the story never technically said that. Other stories straight up called them graves of children, and some even called them mass graves of murdered children.
And yes, this frenzied reporting did lead directly to churches being burned, and the rules of Canada generally have no problem with that.
If I ignored the media coverage and looked to certain conservative outlets, that's close to the impression I got. But the problem was, many of those sites seemed to disagree on the particulars. Meanwhile the greater media/leftwing pundit/Canadian Indian narrative was holocaust. The only reason I didn't simply assume the majority narrative was correct was that Indian activists ran amuck and destroyed and burned how many churches -and nobody cared. There was something wrong wtih that. Something almost kristallnacht about it.
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