Orange Shirt Day - and Silence

Every word has consequences. Every silence, too. - Sartre

 

September 30th was Orange Shirt Day in Canada. On this day Indigenous people were remembering the cultural genocide and abuse that took place in the Indian Residential Schools that were operated by Catholic and other Christian denominations on behalf of the Government of Canada to "take the Indian out of the child.” (Sir John A. Macdonald)

At an Orange Shirt Day event in downtown Peterborough on Saturday, one of the organizers acknowledged the presence of some civic and political leaders, and police officers, who came, not to speak, but to listen. To my mind, that is a good silence, a silence that begets good consequences.

I was also aware of the conspicuous absence of any mention of representatives from Christian churches in Peterborough, notably for me, the Catholic Church. That silence was deafening - and severely consequential.

#everychildmatters

Anticipated Papal Apology - Canada 2022

 

Image credit: https://i.cbc.ca

Different people have emphasised different elements and narratives if the coming, long awaited apology from Pope Francis this month of July, 2022, is to have any hope of acceptance from Indigenous Peoples in Canada, and especially from survivors and others impacted by forced residential schooling which the Catholic Church so enthusiastically and vigorously implemented on behalf of the Canadian Government in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; even before we get to recalling the sexual and other abuses that went on for so long and were covered up by complicit hierarchy for decade after decade.

The 'apology' will surely be comprised of the entire pontifical visit, from landing to takeoff, and not just the 'words of institution', as it were.

I am of the opinion that the Catholic residential schools debacle is just one, albeit a very major one, of many 'sins' for which the Catholic Church needs to publicly repent. Consider all the unjust wars, slavery, persecutions, murders, rapes, pillage, theft and imperialistic colonizing that took place subsequent to, and enabled and condoned by what is now called The Doctrine of Discovery. If you don't know what this is, or to refresh your memory, please see this one or two minute read: https://doctrineofdiscovery.org/dum-diversas/

For those who think that sincere and humble words should be enough, consider the following story from Father Mxolisi Mpambani told by Antjie Krog in Chapter 10 of her book, Country of my Skull, which deals with the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission post apartheid.

Once there were two boys, Tom and Bernard. Tom lived right opposite Bernard. One day Tom stole Bernard's bicycle and every day Bernard saw Tom cycling to school on it. After a year, Tom went up to Bernard, stretched out his hand and said, "Let us reconcile and put the past behind us."

Bernard looked at Tom's hand. "And what about the bicycle?"

"No," said Tom, "I'm not talking about the bicycle - I'm talking about reconciliation."

True reconciliation requires remorse, repentance, restitution, reparation, reform, unbounded respect, and acceptance of the fact that forgiveness might still not be forthcoming in our lifetime.

The scandalous minutiae of clericalism

 

The other day, the first reading for mass of the day was the giving of the "Ten" Commandments from Exodus. I was reminded of a day-dreaming moment in class in grade 9 (who knows what subject?) when I wondered why God decided upon THOSE ten commandments. Testosterone driven, I considered how much more fun and how much less guilt I would have if certain commandments simply weren't there. In my understanding, the Ten Commandments were arbitrarily decided upon by an all powerful God. And then there was the Church: the priest and catechism teachers who put an even stricter interpretation on an already restrictive set of "Thou shalt not's".

It was not until adult years that I came to appreciate the beauty and desirability of the Ten Commandments in terms of love, happiness and the Two Great Commandments phrased by Jesus. But the more I have grown in that appreciation, the more I have been confounded and frustrated by certain people in the Catholic Church (clerics and laity) who appear preoccupied with the minutiae of "churchy" stuff that sometimes appears to run counter to Christ's Law of Love. I think of issues such as the "correct" way of celebrating the sacraments, Latin or vernacular language, the role of women in the Church, the place of LGBTQ+ Christians, Pro-Life versus pro-life issues. Then there are the scandals that have been met with defensiveness instead of humble acknowledgement and repentance: the scandal of child sexual abuse over a century or more by priests and other Church representatives and, more recently, the freshly resurrected scandal of the Catholic Church's role with Indian Residential Schools.

From boyhood through to adulthood I was taught to defer to the priests in everything concerning doctrine, faith and spiritual practice because the priests knew best , having spent 7 years or more studying theology. Prior to Vatican II lay people were discouraged from reading the Bible because "only the priest knew" the correct way to interpret the Sacred Scriptures. These are the hallmarks of clericalism - defined as "an expectation, leading to abuses of power, that ordained ministers are better than and should be over everyone else among the People of God." 

In the past, bishops saw avoiding scandal as taking priority over protecting victims of abuse by priests. This was blatant clericalism and ultimately resulted in even greater scandal. Clericalism still happens today, in my opinion, when Catholics, lay or clergy, become defensive over the role of the Church in the Residential School scandal, when we hasten to point out that other denominations also ran residential schools, that it was a government program, that not all the graves are those of children, that most of the children likely died of disease such as tuberculosis, that "the pope has already apologised." Clericalism is defensive and ultimately arrogant and self-serving. Its defeat has to include humble acknowledgement, repentance and restitution.

Fortunately the Holy Spirit is God's self-giving gift to the whole Church - not just the clergy. Fortunately, also, we have a pope who is calling everyone, clergy and laity, to take a stand against clericalism.