A retired Canadian bishop has challenged claims that hundreds of indigenous children died and were buried in unmarked mass graves at “residential schools” administered by the Church.
He has charged his fellow bishops to do more to defend the Church’s record.
“Why is the Catholic Church not asking the federal government for proof that even one residential child is actually missing?” asked Bishop Emeritus Fred Henry, the 80-year-old former Bishop of Calgary.
Speaking last week, he called upon the Canadian bishops to repudiate the “lie” that Catholic institutions had engaged in massive human-rights abuses, and to reject a federal report that places blame on the Church.
Bishop Henry has conceded that there were problems with residential schools and acknowledged a need for reconciliation with indigenous people, but said that he made his views public last week because he had not received a response to an initial email he sent to his fellow bishops six weeks ago.
On 26 June, Henry asked the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) to reject the interim report from Kimberly Murray, the federal justice minister’s special advisor on missing children and unmarked graves associated with Indian residential schools. Bishop Henry said the CCCB’s failure to respond was like an ostrich with its head in the sand.
Archbishop Richard Smith of Edmonton and Archbishop Don Bolen of Regina, two of the Church’s spokesmen on the issue, said they are waiting for the final report from Murray before commenting on it.
They said that once the process has finished the conference “will be in a better position to assess it overall and make whatever statements might be necessary”.
Murray has previously said that it should be a criminal offence to deny the claim that hundreds of indigenous children died of neglect and abuse at the residential schools.
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