Canada's Day of Apology * The Sins Of Our Fathers

This day has been building many many years. A mixture of feelings overwhelmed me as I watched and heard our country's leaders express sorrow and apology over the treatment of aboriginal children in residential schools ".... for failing to protect you" in institutions that were not properly regulated.

Since the Canadian government compensated those inflicted with life long pain, many of them have died, making their final indulgences with drugs and alcohol - too little too late in lives too painful.

My eyes spring with tears of shame and deep sadness. I've been aware many years of the travesty of children removed from their homes to be abused in Catholic residential schools.

A friend told of leaving her mother at age 5 to go to residential school. She has a framed picture of the day; innocence itself, dressed in a little plaid skirt and white blouse, patent shoes with white socks; her mother bravely holding her in their last moments. I wondered at her anxiety & strange behaviour on a trip we took together. She later told me she has trouble travelling because she gets the feeling she will never return home. She is getting better with it.

The Canadian government has apologized and paid out compensation. However I wonder along with aboriginal people who have expressed it.....

it seems that something is being overlooked ...

....WHAT ABOUT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AT WHOSE HANDS THESE CHILDREN WERE ABUSED? ..sexually, with beatings, torture, made to eat vomit and excrement - intended to 'kill the Indian' in the child.

They killed the spirits of many innocent children.

I watched some time ago as a spokesman for the Catholic Church issued an apology, which in my mind was casual, weak, not anywhere near adequate. What about accountability? It seems they've hardly been brought to task for the many horrors inflicted in various areas in addition to the residential schools.

Who brings the church to task, to accountability for the horror? For the active ongoing cover-up, including a significant document written by the current pope? This 'holy' institution it appears has only been coming 'clean' as they've had no recourse, nowhere to hide.

The shame is theirs.

"There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." -- Albert Einstein

YOUR OWN WEBSITE

Deborah Pearce is a Kelowna Business Woman & webmaster established with locals and internationals in various aspects of Interiors, Art, and Business for over 20 years. LIVING SPACES features over 140 ARTICLES on Staging, Art and Interiors.

Deborah's blog frequently features interior design, real estate, community, environmental, internet, travel, art and human interests.