The Catholic Register, a Canadian publication, received an email from retired Bishop Fred Henry of Calgary, age 80, of Alberta, Canada.
As he lay in a Calgary hospital bed in late July, he wrote calling for proof for the residential graves.
“Why is the Catholic Church not asking the federal government for proof that even one residential child is actually missing in the sense that his (or) her parents didn’t know what happened to their child at the time of the child’s death?” he wrote in an e-mail.
On June 26, using the subject line “Lockjaw,” Henry asked the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops to publicly and formally reject the interim report of the federal justice minister’s special advisor on missing children and unmarked graves associated with Indian residential schools; however he did not receive a response.
As part of her report, Kimberly Murray recommended creating the criminal offence of “denialism” that could be applied to those who dispute Indigenous accounts related to residential schools. Then Justice Minister David Lametti indicated he was amenable to drafting such legislation.
“I have not had any response from the powers that be,” he told this the Register in a subsequent e-mail.
‘Why is the Catholic Church not asking the federal government for proof that even one residential school child is actually missing?’
In response to an inquiry from The Register, Archbishop Richard Smith of Edmonton and Archbishop Don Bolen of Regina, two of the Church’s leaders on the Indigenous file, said they are waiting for the final report from Murray before commenting on the special advisor’s work.
Bishop Henry’s health is so fragile that he replied to a Register request for his way to respite care after 11 days in hospital. He does not dispute the need for reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. He simply insists there must be boundaries, and they must begin where the truth leaves off.
“It seems abundantly clear to me (to ask what follows) if the Catholic Church… allows the lie that there are thousands of missing residential school children to become embedded in stone?" "Is the Catholic Church prepared to go that far in the name of reconciliation?” he demands in the e-mail sent to The Register.
Henry foresees precisely that outcome “rapidly happening” given recent reports from Parliament and an upcoming report to the UN in September by Special Rapporteur Francisco Cali Tzay.
In his e-mail, the bishop who served the Diocese of Calgary for almost 19 years, writes, “For some reason ‘they have eyes to see but refuse to see, ears to hear but refuse to listen,’ ” he writes. “Their silence is doing irreparable harm to the Church that I love.”
Smith and Bolen say, however, they do indeed have their listening ears open — they’re focused now on hearing the Indigenous side that has historically and tragically been ignored in Canada even by the Church.
“I would just say let the (special) interlocutor do her job,” Smith said. “It is an interim report. What we’re focused on here at the archdiocese and across the country with the CCCB is working with her.
“We made a pledge long ago as bishops to make records available to look into the truth of things, and we are happy and very ready to help the Indigenous peoples tell their story. That is our focus right now. Let’s see this process finish. Once you have a finished process, you are in a better position to assess it overall and make whatever statements might be necessary.”
“The bishops, with the churches in Canada, are moving in the directions we have moved because we recognize, as Pope Francis has articulated, that the residential school system, as a system, was catastrophic for Indigenous people. It was an outcome of colonization. There is a rightful need to apologize, to engage in projects that support Indigenous language and culture — to learn a new way of walking together,” he said.
“Good that historians are asking questions, and good that we carry out that work as a society, which is part of the work of truth telling. The bishops are rightfully focusing on the task of reconciliation, not so much on evaluating or analyzing a particular report,” Bolen added.
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