So read the headline published in the GLOBE AND MAIL, Monday, April 5, 2010 written by Doug Saunders.
As a Survivor of Canada’s former Indian Residential School (IRS) system namely 13 years in Grollier Hall, a Catholic-run residence for students of the Western Arctic in Inuvik, NT, the Catholic Church never has and will not be near to my heart; in fact, it is virtually non-existent. While there were some positive experiences such as meeting other Aboriginal kids, competing in various sports, and learning my ABCs, it was the “church” experience that I was appalled with and continues today with a legacy of memories all too negative.
The word in the headline, “defiant” can describe part of my thoughts on the Catholic Church and all it represents. While that word and ‘silent” relate to how the current Pope Benedict and his sub-ordinates have handled all the reports of sex abuses recently even to the point of regarding it as “petty gossip”, it’s incredible how the Catholic church remains to exist. Especially when, according to my experience, it offers absolutely no spiritual enlightenment. Instead, the church has a fundamental flaw, instilling guilt within members. And, I guess, that what keeps members going back.
I'm fortunate enough to finally understand after many years in leaving the Church,...I'm not the guilty one.
My defiance with the Catholic Church comes through experience. As said above, 13 years of a regimented lifestyle run by hypocritical Nuns and Priests; non-loving beings full of hatred towards us exemplified by physical and sexual abuses. Furthermore, not once did they enlightened me to the need for an understanding of rituals, prayers, rosaries, kneeling, standing, sitting, genuflections, etc. Their attitude, instead, was, “you do this or you do that or ELSE!”
The physical and sexual abuses of the Catholic Church will always continue. Its doctrine and structure demands it.
For us in Canada, we Aboriginal people are thankful for the apology of Prime Minister Harper in June, 2008 in regards to the government’s former IRS. Since 1999, the Aboriginal Healing Foundation has allocated over 400 million dollars to Aboriginal communities across Canada to address the healing needs of the legacy of the abuses and now, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is about to embark on a public process regarding the IRS.
The Canadian public will know through the stories of all involved that all the abuses are not simply “petty gossip.”
