Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
All faiths were involved in those schools or the wholesale kidnapping of indigenous children off reserves to then place them within 'so-called' devout homes to some degree. Not just Catholic.
this is often overlooked, people are too quick to blame the Catholics for all the crimes committed. I note the United church was also involved, a far cry from todays liberal United Church
Apologies for past actions when those apologizing were not even part of the activities are meaningless. Pure fluff. Todays people are not at all guilty for past misdeeds, any more than the relatives of today's criminals are responsible for the behavior of the criminals.
That's your opinion, it isn't a statement of fact.
Apologies are acknowledgements at the very least.
.
I believe that's why they're being sought after so stridently. It's a way of airing the dirty laundry so to speak so that it can't be shuffled into the bottom of some drawer in storage.
If governments have any grasp of consequences being very costly they should think twice before allowing/enabling/supporting such egregious stuff in the future.
We're hearing now that the $10m offered up by Ontario to search for any and all possible grave sites over the next three years won't be near enough. Absolutely terrible.
The investigation, which will be called the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, will identify past boarding school sites, the locations of known and possible burial sites near the schools, and the identities and tribal affiliations of children taken there.
Quote:
In the early 19th and mid-20th centuries, Christian missionaries and the U.S. government established boarding schools for Native American children in order to eradicate Native cultures. The children were forcibly separated from their families, stripped of their cultures and punished for speaking their own languages as part of their forced assimilation into white Anglo-Saxon Protestant culture, according to the National Museum of the American Indian. The experiences led to low self-esteem, alcoholism and high suicide rates among Native communities, even long after the schools closed.
No, the church and government are both responsible and the families of those affected clearly want some form of apology/acknowledgement from the church, so I think it's fair.
There’s been a demand for Pope Francis to visit Canada and apologize for the maltreatment of indigenous children in residential schools. While churches bore much responsibility for the problems, it seems the government is trying to deflect blame from itself since it gave the churches the responsibility of running those schools. Has anyone wondered what some of Canada’s beloved politicians of the past knew and when they knew it? Since the Catholic Church is in a weak position in Canada, what’s stopping the pols who are beating their breasts in shock and anger from bleeding the Church dry?
The atrocities against children were horrible. If you think what happened with "Catholic Churches" in Canada is bad, then just look at the atrocities during colonization by Spain. There is a long video about Colonial Spain's treatment of indigenous people in the early days by a historian on YouTube. His handle is "BadEmpanada". The Spanish government actually put a scalp bounty system to kill off indigenous people. An Apache child's scalp was worth about 25 pesos around the 1830s-1840s in Mexico. Ironically, indigenous people were often blamed for scalping when the practice was done by Colonial Spain and Mexico to kill off indigenous tribes on their northern boundaries near the Gilva River, Four Corners, and Texas. This led to fierce resistance by Apaches, Navajos, Comanches and Kiowas which impeded Spanish colonization.
As for me, I am indigenous and Catholic. My view is that I separated the people from the religion when things like this happened. Although the atrocities are horrifying, they were done by people who were NOT adhering to the general teaching of the Catholic Church. Since I am Catholic, I do believe in karma. Decades later, the "sins" are now being exposed. Hence, the outrage is present - especially involving children.
I have experienced racism in modern Catholic communities. I went to a Catholic University where white supremacy in sports and academics was a problem in SOME BUT NOT ALL students. I also experienced racism in dating. As Catholics, we are generally expected to date and marry other Catholics. But many Catholic women (white or minority) PREFER WHITE MEN. I have seen that many times. There was a scene in the film "The Craft" where a blonde white teen treats a black female student very badly. That film is fictional, but in reality there can be racial tension like that at a Catholic school with affluent teens from white-flight suburbs and minorities from the inner cities - especially in the midwest (Chicago). There were Catholic women like that. But like I said, I see it as the act of individuals and do not blame the religion itself. To be fair, there are also many Catholics who are NOT RACIST.
However, I am still Catholic. When I experienced racism, I blame it on the individuals or groups of individuals and not on the ENTIRE CATHOLIC CHURCH or ITS PRINCIPLES. With that said, there is a more constructive way to discuss the horrible treatment of indigenous children during that era. I am confident that many modern, progressive Canadians empathize with it and are as outraged as any indigenous person. So, I don't agree with the churches being burned down. As for the arson perpetrators, they likely will be caught at some point. I watched a documentary a few days ago about Albert Johnson and how the RCMP and indigenous scouts ultimately caught him with the help of an early bush pilot. His real name was unknown though, but he got caught eventually.
In my childhood Catholic Parochial School, the Catholic Nuns were great teachers and deeply respectful of indigenous people and cultures. They actually encouraged us to preserve our language. One of the Nuns taught me algebra well enough that I excelled in AP Calculus and passed the exam. I now have multiple master's degrees. I attribute that success to the encouragement and teaching of the Catholic Nuns of parochial schools in early childhood which contrasted the local public schools on the reservations.
Last edited by grad_student200; 07-02-2021 at 10:13 AM..
This is awful! I’m Muslim, but burning down places of worship in general is wrong! I swear, the heat must be getting to people’s heads! I really hope no one’s hurt.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
