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Church in the WorldChurch fails to apologise over residential schoolsCanada Sabitri Ghosh - 21 June 2008The Catholic Church has been criticised for failing to join in a chorus of apologies over the treatment of aboriginal Canadian children sent to church-run residential schools. On 11 June, Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivered an official government apology in Ottawa's House of Commons to the 87,000 aboriginal Canadians who were forcibly sent as children to the schools. But no sooner had the apology been delivered than many were asking why the Catholic Church had not issued an official apology as the other parties, including the Anglican, Presbyterian and United Churches, had done. "The Canadian Government has apologised," Katherine Sorbey, a former residential-school student, told Canadian Catholic News. "The Pope hasn't, has he?" Archbishop Gerard Pettipas, who represented 49 Catholic groups along with his own archdiocese of Grouard-McLennan in Alberta in an earlier 2006 Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, said that there had been a steady flow of apologies from Catholic orders and dioceses for their involvement in the residential-schools programme, beginning with the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in 1991. Still, he acknowledged, the widespread perception of an unrepentant Catholic Church does concern Canada's Catholic leaders as they prepare to take part in the nationwide Truth and Reconciliation Commission examining the history and legacy of the residential schools. |
 In this week’s issueMaking markets moral Iron and velvet Love in a Catholic climate Someone to talk to A good Lent takes planning South American surprise Can the Church support abuse victims on its own terms? Elena Curti Is the Church too slow in recognising that academies are the future for Catholic schools? Christopher Lamb Goodwin the scapegoat Elena Curti The pain of being a coeliac Catholic Sr M, guest contributor The Church's moral obligation to victims of clerical sexual abuse Speeches from this week's conference in Rome This week in Rome bishops and religious superiors met at the first Vatican-backed symposium devoted to forging a global response to the crisis of clerical sexual abuse that has disgraced ... Archbishop voices 'shame and sorrow' after priest's abuse trial Longley to visit parishes 'damaged' by Walsh Today, Tuesday 7 February, Bede Walsh, who served as a Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of Birmingham, has been convicted by a jury, following a 10-day trial at Stoke-on-Trent ...
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