Explainer: Why did the Catholic Church cooperate with the Canadian government’s abuse of Indigenous children?
The discoveries of unmarked burials have left many wondering what motivated Catholics to participate in a colonial system that would be responsible for the loss and violation of thousands of Indigenous children.
www.americamagazine.org
After watching a "60 Minutes" report on the Canadian indigenous childrens' residences which were largely run by Roman Catholic religious communities in Canada, I did a huge amount of internet research and found the linked article, which seems to tell exactly the same story.
For those too lazy to read it, the story is basically as follows: The Canadian government made a value judgment that its indigenous people were being held back by their primitive culture, customs. lifestyles, and values. Let's call it 1850. The government called upon certain religious communities (basically, communities of nuns) to run childrens' residences with the objective of integrating the children into Canadian society. Accordingly, they were taught English, converted to Catholicism, and encouraged to move away from their own native cultures. Living in these residences was apparently compulsory when one was available.
Recently it has come to light that large numbers of the residents died while in residence, and those deaths were neither formally recorded or reported to their families. THousands of unmarked graves have been found and it is assumed that many more remain to be found.
People who lived in these residences (now basically retirement age) report various sorts of abuse, some of it rather horrific, and demand formal apologies from the Church, and various agencies that were involved. They feel that their heritage was stolen from them, resulting in all sorts of later problems in life that are well documented and known.
This very disturbing history and its recent reporting raises a lot of questions, at least in my mind.
- Why aren't these reports taken with even a microscopic amount of skepticism?
- Isn't it convenient that not a single person who was on the staff of these residences is still alive to be questioned to at least see another point of view?
- Why is no consideration given to the fact that these residences were under-funded, and hence not able to deal effectively with the kinds of diseases that were prevalent at the time, especially for people who are living in close quarters?
- The comparisons of death rates are between indigenous kids in the residences, and non-indigenous kids in the general population. This is irrelevant. The appropriate comparison is between kids in the residences and indigenous kids who were living in the indigenous communities.
- While institutions like this have always been a magnet for perverts, the main authorities were communities of nuns. I have a hard time believing they would tolerate large scale sexual abuse of the kids. They just don't operate like that.
Someone could do a better job of it.
