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>Tuesday Pillar Post

>Wednesday readings

Only the Pillar can take us on a trip to the future!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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Pls note each day that you are providing only daily readings for Novus Ordo Masses, and treating TLM as non-existent or irrelevant.

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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/

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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.

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