This morning, after tidying my apartment prior to the arrival of W.W. for house cleaning I Googled Al Jazeera, actually on a Kentucky Derby investigation. What I found was appalling, absolutely appalling. It concerns the country of my birth – Canada – and the cursed Roman Catholic Church. Utterly appalling, and that is a tame word. Pope Francis, it appears is an evil man. Two hundred and fifteen children are found buried and forgotten at a church run school and he does not even express and apology. Excuse me Pope what does one have to do to get an apology from your church.
“Pope Francis has expressed his pain over the discovery in Canada of the remains of 215 Indigenous children forced to attend a church-run boarding school, but did not offer the apology sought by survivors of the system that a commission of inquiry said amounted to “cultural genocide”.
In his customary Sunday noon remarks to the public, Pope Francis said he was “following with pain the news that arrives from Canada about the upsetting discovery of the remains of 215 children”.
What exactly does expressing his pain mean – is it rather like a bowel movement? The tragic tale continues: “More than 150,000 First Nation, Métis and Inuit children were forced to attend over 130 residential schools across Canada from the 1870s to the 1990s, in a campaign to assimilate them into Canadian society. Physical, mental and sexual abuse was rampant at the schools and students were beaten for speaking their Indigenous languages, among other rights violations.” The school was Canada’s largest such facility, with 500 students attending at its enrollment peak, and was operated by the Catholic Church between 1890 and 1969. The government later took over until the school was closed in 1978. Trudeau on Friday blasted the church for being “silent” and “not stepping up”, and called for a formal apology and for the church to make amends for its prominent role in the residential school system.
“We’re still seeing resistance from the church, possibly from the church in Canada,” said Trudeau, who in 2017 also made a formal request for a papal apology.”
There is some heartening news. “Chief Rosanne Casimir of the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation in British Columbia – which discovered the remains at Kamloops residential school after decades of work – has said her nation wants a public apology from the Catholic Church.” What is heartening is that a woman is the Chief of a First Nation tribe in Canada. Do let us examine two opposite words and situations: Appalling and Heartening.
Appalling describes Pope Francis: causing shock or dismay; horrific. Used in a sentence: The cat suffered appalling injuries during the attack. Another definition is very bad; awful, used in a sentence. His conduct was appalling. Here are some of the synonyms: dreadful, very bad, awful, terrible, frightful, atrocious, disgraceful, deplorable, shameful, hopeless, lamentable, substandard, ina; rotten, woeful, crummy, pathetic, pitiful, useless, lousy, godawful, shocking, abysmal, dire, the pits; duff, chronic, pants, poxy; hellacious. There are more to come: horrifying, horrible, terrible, awful, dreadful, ghastly, hideous, horrendous, frightful, atrocious, abominable, abhorrent, outrageous, hateful, loathsome, odious, gruesome, grisly, monstrous, nightmarish, heinous, harrowing, dire, vile, shameful, unspeakable, unforgivable, unpardonable; abject; disgusting, revolting, repellent, repulsive, repugnant, sickening, nauseating;
All of these words describe Pope Francis and the Roman Catholic Church’s stance on this genocide. But my favorites have to be godawful, hellacious, heinous and repulsive and repugnant.
The UN has called for an investigation according to Al Jazeera.” United Nations rights experts have called on Canada and the Catholic Church to carry out thorough investigations after the remains of Indigenous children were found at a former residential school, as the Canadian prime minister blasted the church for ignoring its past crimes.” “We urge the authorities to conduct full-fledged investigations into the circumstances and responsibilities surrounding these deaths, including forensic examinations of the remains found, and to proceed to the identification and registration of the missing children,” nine UN human rights experts said in a statement on Friday.They called on the Canadian government to conduct similar investigations into all of the country’s former residential schools, which were set up to forcibly assimilate Indigenous children.” Perpetrators and concealers who may still be alive should be prosecuted and sanctioned, the UN experts said, adding that it was “inconceivable” that Canada and the Vatican would leave such “heinous crimes” unaccounted for and without redress.”
Prime Minister Trudeau, the Wimp, did not exactly step up to the plate. “He warned that his government was prepared to take “stronger measures,” possibly including legal action, to obtain the documents demanded by victims’ families if the church failed to comply.” Excuse me Justin you should be ordering a criminal investigation into any and all Residential Schools.
Wimp, by the way, is a weak and cowardly or unadventurous person. Its synonyms definitely define Trudeau: weakling, namby-pamby, mouse drip, sissy, weed, snowflake, mama’s boy, milksop, doormat, wuss, jellyfish, crybaby, scaredy-cat, chicken; wet, big girl’s blouse, jessie, chinless wonder, cream puff, yellow-belly; candy-ass, cupcake, pantywaist, milquetoast, nebbish, pussy. If an election were called the opposing party could label Trudeau as a candy-ass, a wuss and a cream puff. I cannot qualify as a President in these United States as I was born in Canada. But I could be a Prime Minister in Canada. But two factors would stand in the way: 1) I am 78 years old 2) Canada is probably not ready for me.
More from Al Jazeera: Danielle Morrison, a lawyer and member of the Anishinaabe Nation, told Al Jazeera that the Canadian government was expected to take action against the church at this point. She said that there had been calls for decades to compel the Roman Catholic Church to release its archives, and identify and convict any living suspects who had committed crimes against Indigenous people.“At this point, given the fact that the world is watching, they [the government] really don’t have a choice but to either take legal action or denounce the Catholic Church,” she added.Canada has been convulsed by the discovery of the remains at the school, especially as there were only 50 deaths officially on record there.”
What is extremely heartening not only is a woman a Chief of a British Columbia tribe but also the the tribe’s attorney, Danielle Morrison, is a woman. So take heart as you read these synonyms: cheer, raise someone’s spirits, encourage, comfort, reassure, console, boost, buoy up, perk up, ginger up; invigorate, revitalize, energize, animate, rouse, revivify, exhilarate, uplift, elate; buck up, pep up, give a shot in the arm to.
It is too difficult for me, at the moment, to reveal my connection to this troubling issue – but I shall at a later time. This was to be a cheerful blog – full of good news but this horror got in the way. But here is the tip of the iceberg, contained in an email from Computer Guru.
He: Hi Alexis, Its ok, I edited it today.. i’m not surprised you’re a bit fatigued with it all, you’re up to 1133 posts to date, that’s honestly some pretty amazing consistency..Take it easy.. Chris (Mac Guru)
Me: You are so sweet! 1133 posts! Hells bells! Love to Clare.
Later, I applied my horrible math skills – usually each blog contains at least 1,000 words – it means that I have written over a million words since that fateful day in January of 2017. It does, in the words of Joo Kim Tiah:
He: You inspire me to do more.
Me: Oh my goodness! Thank you.
He then went on to propose the building of Alix Residences in Malaysia but bankruptcies have most certainly stalled its completion date of 2023.
Photographs of two flower arrangements done yesterday before reading about these horrors. I may not have the strength to be creative today.
