Readers Speak Out: October 10, 2021

Incomplete apology

We can be grateful that the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops has finally issued an apology for the Church’s role in residential schools.

However, the apology is seriously incomplete. There is no acknowledgement of the bishops’ own failures, e.g., not apologizing for their refusal to implement the TRC calls to action directed at the churches and spending huge sums on lawyers to avoid accepting responsibility for the residential schools.

It is much easier to apologize for wrongdoings committed by others in the past than those for which the bishops are personally responsible.

John Williams,

Ottawa, Ont.

League tribute

Re: Faith in Action magazine (Sept. 12):

What a beautiful tribute to the Catholic Women’s League of Canada.

Thank you so very much for the so well illustrated history of the League. It must have been quite a job of research and setup. Much admiration.

Thea Hanrath,

Cayuga, Ont.

Restore dignity

The attached poem was written in August of this year as my humble attempt  to put my concerns in writing with respect to our Indigenous brothers and sisters and how they have been (mis)treated, not only in the past, but in the society of today as well.

EMPATHY AND RESOLUTION

To be desecrated, defiled and dishonoured
Cast into the shadows of history…
To be coerced and cheated and conquered
Completely bereft and in misery.
To be ignored, isolated and impoverished
Stripped of your land, language and traditions…
To be vilified, vandalized and vanquished
While enduring abject submission.
These results of our scornful colonization
Seems void of any compassionate worth.
Your humiliation and mortification
Have been our folly since your Ancestors’ births.
Our professed goodwill was needless arrogance
Many have recounted occurrences.
Now shame and scandal pervade our conscience…
It behooves us to prevent recurrence.
Yes with faith to direct us and trust in the Lord;
We’re compelled to own this sorrow we’ve caused.
With penitent hearts we must move forward
To repair the burden of grief imposed.
The ‘New Commandment’ we are to uncover
Should resonate through your anguish and pain.
Jesus says: ‘as I have loved you…love one another.’
To reconcile should be our refrain.
Our unworthy deeds demand resolution
To restore any lost dignity.
Seeking to set right our transgressions
And live out our days in affinity.

Al MacLeod,

Barrie, Ont.