Two Catholic churches destroyed by fire on First Nations reserves in Canada
The fires, which occurred hours apart, happened on National Indigenous Peoples Day – and come nearly a month after the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation found what they believe are the remains of 215 children in unmarked graves at the site of a former residential school.
Police have not said the fires were arson, but a local fire chief said his team found liquid accelerant outside the charred remains of St Gregory’s.
The church burnings come amid growing calls for the Catholic church to formally apologize for their role in Canada’s residential school system, including from the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation.
For over a century, more than 150,000 Indigenous children in Canada were forced to attend Christian schools as part of a broader strategy to assimilate them into Canadian society. The schools, where physical and sexual abuse was rampant, were run by a number of churches and funded by the federal government.
According to historical records, the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate ran half of Canada’s residential schools, including the one in Kamloops – the largest in the country. The Oblates have so far refused to release their records to help identify the remains found.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/j...n-reserves
The fires, which occurred hours apart, happened on National Indigenous Peoples Day – and come nearly a month after the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation found what they believe are the remains of 215 children in unmarked graves at the site of a former residential school.
Police have not said the fires were arson, but a local fire chief said his team found liquid accelerant outside the charred remains of St Gregory’s.
The church burnings come amid growing calls for the Catholic church to formally apologize for their role in Canada’s residential school system, including from the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation.
For over a century, more than 150,000 Indigenous children in Canada were forced to attend Christian schools as part of a broader strategy to assimilate them into Canadian society. The schools, where physical and sexual abuse was rampant, were run by a number of churches and funded by the federal government.
According to historical records, the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate ran half of Canada’s residential schools, including the one in Kamloops – the largest in the country. The Oblates have so far refused to release their records to help identify the remains found.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/j...n-reserves
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"