Would it be possible for you to do some explanation on the issue of the Canada residential schools and the role of the Church in the unindentified graves ? I am having trouble understanding what is exactly that the Church did wrong: was it the indoctrination of indigenous people ? was it the burial in unmarked graves of indigenous children ? The lack of notification to parents of the deceased ? I wonder if the reasons for the unmarked graves have been investigated thoroughly, as if it was negligence or just the only thing the religious communities could do due to the situation. If it was the indoctrination, isn't that part of the process of Evangelization, while performing it with charity? Perhaps it was done with force and that is the issue ? Or was it the lack of notification to the parents ? Was it allowed to communicate with them due to the Canadian government regulations on residential schools ? I am just puzzled, and knowing how the conversion of indigenous people in Mexico was done, I guess I am missing a lot of information on how it happened in Canada. Please, if you can, write about it to inform the uninformed like us. And apologies if someone is offended by this comment, but I really don't have all the information to make a good judgement and understand the issue at hand. Thank you.
Editor's note: The Hagar reading, which I initially identified as being for today, is actually for tomorrow. I can not competently read a calendar this morning, it turns out.
Once again the comments that have been posted reveal a level of anger aimed at Pillar! Pillar is simply an added resource to our daily reading/discovery. I pray no one is expecting Pillar to be the FINAL/DEFINITIVE source for any issue! Ladies and Gents step back, breath, pray, explore all available avenues!!! Mercy!
re: The residential schools: A horrible situation where reconciliation is needed.
But my teeth get set on edge with statements like theses; ''The Oblates released a statement in May voicing distress and regret at news. The statement said the Oblates promise to “listen deeply and learn from indigenous communities” as they move forward.'
As well-intentioned as that statement is, it sounds too much like a "woke" "struggle session" where the victims "teach" the "oppressor". No question, the Church and her religious orders who once ran these schools, need to seek reconciliation. But that smacks of ceding too much, reducing the Church to just another social organization. I just with the Oblates had worded their statement differently.
Dan Lipinski is on target. Sectarianism is a great descriptor of American politics. I’ve never affiliated myself with either party, trying to vote as the Gospel calls us. But it’s getting more and more difficult and acrimonious. I fear for our future. The Church too is sharply divided. But at least she has the promise of Christ’s presence. She will endure. Hell will not prevail. She’s been in similar situations before. At one time it seemed the Arian heresy would destroy her. It didn’t. The revolution of the “reformers” did not destroy her in the sixteenth century. The USA has no such assurance. Our Lady Immaculate, pray for us!
This is an excellent summary of historical residential school cemeteries. It offers a more realistic view of the real travails of life 120 to 140 years ago.
Thank you for sharing this, it would have been nice to see this kind of information in the article. I had started wondering what child mortality rates and conventional burial practices were at that time and realized this might be a case of modernity projecting itself onto a time that had none of the conveniences we currently have (and some details left out with specific language intentionally used).
iIt is important to do our homework, and it s important that the real women summation document be shared widely. Our country is being bashed internationally (and now Catholic churches are being burned down) based on uneven reporting of events and the fuller history. Consider how many non-aboriginal cemeteries have fallen into disuse, their pine crosses disintegrated. Consider grinding poverty, vast distances in this nation, the great depression, the horrific years of drought on the prairies in the 30’s. We must stop applying 21st century privilege to 19th and early 20th century Cdn actual living situations. To do so is a disservice to real history - and to further divide us. Can we see a pattern here?
And, once more, the Pillar disappoints. Your wholesale acceptance of the officially approved narrative of Indian Residential Schools in Canada just adds to the evidence that you have no more curiosity or analytical ability than the rank and file of today's communications specialists (used to be known as reporters and then journalists). The story is a very complex one and unquestioningly adopting and spreading the myth that everyone involved in running the IRS were hell bent on "taking the Indian out of the child" or the unsupported conclusion that "newly discovered" burials are proof of mass murder is an offense against truth and the human dignity of the religious men and women who served in the schools and the children who believe they benefitted from them. One issue raised by Deacon Nahanee that could use a bit of pushback, too, is the notion that the Mass liturgy should be translated into Indigenous languages. How many languages? And who, exactly, would do the translations? And does he know, or does the writer care to ask, if the Catholic missionaries of the past, who were so dedicated to wiping out Indigenous culture, translated hymns and prayers into the languages of the people they served? I know of at least one diocese in Canada where such materials are archived.
Hi, thanks for making this point, because it gives me the opportunity to make one about journalism.
This story is about one particular thing: What do "reconciliation and healing" mean to the parties to the conversation? Reporting about that does not imply a wholesale acceptance of anything, and "mass murder" was never mentioned in our story. This is reporting: We have a question, and here's how people have answered it.
There is a tendency to believe that all journalism should be one-sided propaganda, and when it's not -- when it lets other people offer their perspectives, because they're relevant to the conversation at hand -- that's perceived to be editorializing.
But really, this is reporting: here's what they said and what they think. Make your own judgments about that, because we've made it a point to keep our own judgments from defining the story. We think that's fair to the reader, and to the parties at hand.
Except that isn't what the Pillar promised. There is no in-depth reporting or analysis. And I can get this kind of reporting anywhere, without paying for it.
In defense of The Pillar, I'm seeing reporting of Catholic stories and explanations and analysis of many things Catholic not covered elsewhere on the Catholic web outside of highly partisan sites (pro-trad/anti-Francis or pro-Francis/anti-trad).
I think that JD and Ed are making a good-faith effort and doing a fine job!
>Tuesday Pillar Post
>Wednesday readings
Only the Pillar can take us on a trip to the future!
oops/
If it's any consolation, I trust your reporting so much that for a solid minute I thought it really was Wednesday.
Wow! Don’t believe everything you read, I guess! :-)
Would it be possible for you to do some explanation on the issue of the Canada residential schools and the role of the Church in the unindentified graves ? I am having trouble understanding what is exactly that the Church did wrong: was it the indoctrination of indigenous people ? was it the burial in unmarked graves of indigenous children ? The lack of notification to parents of the deceased ? I wonder if the reasons for the unmarked graves have been investigated thoroughly, as if it was negligence or just the only thing the religious communities could do due to the situation. If it was the indoctrination, isn't that part of the process of Evangelization, while performing it with charity? Perhaps it was done with force and that is the issue ? Or was it the lack of notification to the parents ? Was it allowed to communicate with them due to the Canadian government regulations on residential schools ? I am just puzzled, and knowing how the conversion of indigenous people in Mexico was done, I guess I am missing a lot of information on how it happened in Canada. Please, if you can, write about it to inform the uninformed like us. And apologies if someone is offended by this comment, but I really don't have all the information to make a good judgement and understand the issue at hand. Thank you.
Sure.
Ditto... few if any of the news reports describe what actually happened, and that's essential if there's to be a real healing.
Editor's note: The Hagar reading, which I initially identified as being for today, is actually for tomorrow. I can not competently read a calendar this morning, it turns out.
Please forgive me.
Once again the comments that have been posted reveal a level of anger aimed at Pillar! Pillar is simply an added resource to our daily reading/discovery. I pray no one is expecting Pillar to be the FINAL/DEFINITIVE source for any issue! Ladies and Gents step back, breath, pray, explore all available avenues!!! Mercy!
re: The residential schools: A horrible situation where reconciliation is needed.
But my teeth get set on edge with statements like theses; ''The Oblates released a statement in May voicing distress and regret at news. The statement said the Oblates promise to “listen deeply and learn from indigenous communities” as they move forward.'
As well-intentioned as that statement is, it sounds too much like a "woke" "struggle session" where the victims "teach" the "oppressor". No question, the Church and her religious orders who once ran these schools, need to seek reconciliation. But that smacks of ceding too much, reducing the Church to just another social organization. I just with the Oblates had worded their statement differently.
Dan Lipinski is on target. Sectarianism is a great descriptor of American politics. I’ve never affiliated myself with either party, trying to vote as the Gospel calls us. But it’s getting more and more difficult and acrimonious. I fear for our future. The Church too is sharply divided. But at least she has the promise of Christ’s presence. She will endure. Hell will not prevail. She’s been in similar situations before. At one time it seemed the Arian heresy would destroy her. It didn’t. The revolution of the “reformers” did not destroy her in the sixteenth century. The USA has no such assurance. Our Lady Immaculate, pray for us!
Pls note each day that you are providing only daily readings for Novus Ordo Masses, and treating TLM as non-existent or irrelevant.
This is an excellent summary of historical residential school cemeteries. It offers a more realistic view of the real travails of life 120 to 140 years ago.
https://realwomenofcanada.ca/jumping-to-conclusions-without-the-facts-in-the-indigenous-residential-schools-question/
Thank you for sharing this, it would have been nice to see this kind of information in the article. I had started wondering what child mortality rates and conventional burial practices were at that time and realized this might be a case of modernity projecting itself onto a time that had none of the conveniences we currently have (and some details left out with specific language intentionally used).
iIt is important to do our homework, and it s important that the real women summation document be shared widely. Our country is being bashed internationally (and now Catholic churches are being burned down) based on uneven reporting of events and the fuller history. Consider how many non-aboriginal cemeteries have fallen into disuse, their pine crosses disintegrated. Consider grinding poverty, vast distances in this nation, the great depression, the horrific years of drought on the prairies in the 30’s. We must stop applying 21st century privilege to 19th and early 20th century Cdn actual living situations. To do so is a disservice to real history - and to further divide us. Can we see a pattern here?
And, once more, the Pillar disappoints. Your wholesale acceptance of the officially approved narrative of Indian Residential Schools in Canada just adds to the evidence that you have no more curiosity or analytical ability than the rank and file of today's communications specialists (used to be known as reporters and then journalists). The story is a very complex one and unquestioningly adopting and spreading the myth that everyone involved in running the IRS were hell bent on "taking the Indian out of the child" or the unsupported conclusion that "newly discovered" burials are proof of mass murder is an offense against truth and the human dignity of the religious men and women who served in the schools and the children who believe they benefitted from them. One issue raised by Deacon Nahanee that could use a bit of pushback, too, is the notion that the Mass liturgy should be translated into Indigenous languages. How many languages? And who, exactly, would do the translations? And does he know, or does the writer care to ask, if the Catholic missionaries of the past, who were so dedicated to wiping out Indigenous culture, translated hymns and prayers into the languages of the people they served? I know of at least one diocese in Canada where such materials are archived.
Hi, thanks for making this point, because it gives me the opportunity to make one about journalism.
This story is about one particular thing: What do "reconciliation and healing" mean to the parties to the conversation? Reporting about that does not imply a wholesale acceptance of anything, and "mass murder" was never mentioned in our story. This is reporting: We have a question, and here's how people have answered it.
There is a tendency to believe that all journalism should be one-sided propaganda, and when it's not -- when it lets other people offer their perspectives, because they're relevant to the conversation at hand -- that's perceived to be editorializing.
But really, this is reporting: here's what they said and what they think. Make your own judgments about that, because we've made it a point to keep our own judgments from defining the story. We think that's fair to the reader, and to the parties at hand.
Thanks again for your comment.
Except that isn't what the Pillar promised. There is no in-depth reporting or analysis. And I can get this kind of reporting anywhere, without paying for it.
Well, thanks for the feedback. Please keep us in your prayers!
In defense of The Pillar, I'm seeing reporting of Catholic stories and explanations and analysis of many things Catholic not covered elsewhere on the Catholic web outside of highly partisan sites (pro-trad/anti-Francis or pro-Francis/anti-trad).
I think that JD and Ed are making a good-faith effort and doing a fine job!