Readers Speak Out: September 4, 2022

Genocidal infection

Time will tell whether Pope Francis’ declaration of “genocide” is an existential threat to the Church. His admission, however, was an “existential” challenge to me. Francis’ penitential pilgrimage forced me to examine those remote, ignored and unacknowledged “reserves” in my soul that nurture the concealed attitudes and forbidden affections that are insidious infections from which “genocide” spreads.

Do I secretly believe conquest, colonization and settlement of Canada by my British ancestors was willed and blessed by God? Do I covertly regard the Indigenous peoples as akin to the Canaanite tribes of the Bible, destined to be displaced or assimilated into the “dominant” culture? Do I diminish “new Canadians”, especially those of non-European heritage, as being less Canadian than me?  Am I enthusiastic in welcoming asylum seekers from the war zones of Europe but fearful of an open refugee policy for the “horde” of “others” pleading for safety?  Is my religiosity and devotion infused by the “spirit of the world” lusting for a Church that is institutionally politically and culturally influential? Am I guilty of “genocide” when I choose Barabbas, rejecting a thorn-crowned Christ whose kingdom is not of this world? The first will be last and the last will be first.  

Michael Chard

Toronto

Wider guilt

Articles in the July 24 Catholic Register about the Indian Residential School system could lead readers to a conclusion that the Catholic Church was the only Canadian institution involved in the crimes committed upon Indigenous people. The consequences of those crimes must be addressed by all Canadian institutions that were deaf, dumb and blind to them. Each should be charged for the damage it has done, and Canada must ensure such crimes will never be repeated.

As well as Catholics, all Canadians have to know the whole truth about the school system.  

Mile Pletikosa

Scarborough, Ont.

Sin transformed

In his Aug. 21-28 edition column, Charles Lewis asks how God can bring good out of evil.

One source for examining this question is The Revelations of Divine Love by the recluse Julian of Norwich (d. c. 1423). She was perturbed almost to despair by her own suffering, the state of the world and the inevitability of sin on the part of weak human beings.

She entered into intense prayer in which she was given insight into the love of God for His children and His predisposition to rescue, heal and save. Yet she still worried about sin. Eventually, she came to realize God is so great that He even transforms confessed sins into an advantage for those who repent.

Lise Anglin

Toronto

Death commodified

Like all formes of seducton, the “compassion campaign” uses langua that hides teh final objective while playing on human weaknesses. Advocates of medically assisted dying are now using advertising strategy to sell death as a desirable commodity. Under rationale of ending pain and suffering, the process will end the life of vulnerable people. Nobody wants pain and suffering but they are realities of life. Suffering is not ncessarily physical, mental pain can be worse. These are alarm signals that something is not right wheter in body or in spirit. It motivates us to reflect and realize our helplessness, our poverty of spirit and abiliites, that are not in control of life. The realization moves us to seek God. For Christians, “dying with dignity deprives people of the opportunity to seek and fulfill the will of God in suffering just as the suffering of Christ has a purpose.

Rufino, Ty,

Brampton, Ont.