Readers Speak Out: May 15, 2022

Indigenous liturgy

I want to compliment Michael Swan on his April 17 article “Still a way to go on Indigenous liturgy.”

It is surprising that, as Swan points out, there are “no official  Indigenous translations (of) the Mass in Inuktitut or Cree or Squamish.” I have heard of a lot of personal effort by some Oblates of Mary Immaculate in Canada to capture and translate the entire Mass into Indigenous languages. Since the Oblates have devoted over 180 years of missionary service across Canada, this would make sense.

I encourage The Catholic Register to explore this aspect for a future article. 

Arnie Francis

Mississippi Mills, Ont. 

Leading news

The lede was buried in The Catholic Register’s April 17 article “Year after fire, faith life carries on.”

The miraculous survival of the image of St. Kateri Tekakwitha amidst the utter destruction of everything else in the fire at St. Teresa Point Church in central Manitoba on Easter Sunday is the story. It proclaims to the world that the residential schools and the Canadian missionaries brought to our Indigenous brothers and sisters the Good News of the true God and His only begotten Son and united their many spirits under the Holy Spirit in the Holy Trinity.

St. Kateri is an Indigenous saint who provides the force that binds the Indigenous people to God in Christianity. This is the truth that is lost in the current residential school narrative.

John Killackey

Mississauga, Ont.

Light a candle

The recent letter to the editor, “Going Dark,” stated The Catholic Register should “think twice” about printing letters on the “divisive issue” of COVID-19 and that “governments are responsible for citizens’ well-being.”

Two thousand years ago, a minority called Christians were tortured and executed because they followed Jesus’ truth, which the emperors believed was merely “alternative truth.” Christians dared to voice their “fantastic misinformation” and to “pass on fairy tales to everyone.”

Divisive issues should be debated, discussed and tested. Free speech, the most treasured gift in democratic societies, if denied, will cause Canada and the world to indeed “go dark.” 

Canadians must never surrender their Charter of Rights. Our soldiers paid a heavy price to keep Canada glorious and free.

Anne Marie Manna-Peter

Toronto

Fruitless effort

The Russian military crime in Ukraine is in terrible conflict with The Ten Commandments and all four Gospels.

The Pope should tell Patriarch Kirill to cancel his blessing of the war and convince Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop it. If the Patriarch disagrees, then the Pope should proclaim Good News to all Russian Orthodox and stop 10 centuries of fruitless ecumenism between the Catholics and the Orthodox.

Jesus Christ ordered His apostles to make all humanity Catholics, not one billion of Catholics and seven billion of others.    

Mile Pletikosa

Scarborough, Ont.