“The current strategy of letting the ‘Indigenous’ voices have their unexamined, uncritiqued (and) unquestioned platform has been a colossal failure.”
“As he lay in a Calgary hospital bed in late July, retired Bishop Fred Henry summoned the energy to publicly break the silence around what he considers the prevailing lie about missing Indian residential school children.
“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 demanded in an e-mail.
“…Bishop Emeritus Henry apparently went to Catholic media because he has not yet received a response to an initial group e-mail he sent to his brother bishops six weeks ago.
“On June 26, using the subject line “Lockjaw”, Henry asked the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) 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.
“As part of her report, Kimberly Murray recommended creating the criminal offence of “denialism” that could be applied to those who dispute ‘Indigenous’ {sic} accounts related to residential schools. Then Justice Minister David Lametti indicated he was amenable to drafting such legislation. In his June e-mail to the bishops, Henry compared the CCCB’s non-response to an ostrich with its head in the sand and its tail in the air…
“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.
{Canadian Aboriginals are ‘Indigenous’ to Siberia and Mongolia.}
“Yet even hospitalized at age 80, “Red Fred” – as he became popularly known during his active ministry – expresses a sense of urgency for having what he regards as the whole truth told about Indian residential school history… 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? Obviously, (it means) these thousands of missing children were murdered by Catholic priests and nuns and clandestinely buried in unmarked graves. 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, who visited Canada this spring but had ‘no time’ to meet with the CCCB.
“Would it help ‘Indigenous’ people across Canada to better lives if the Catholic Church did go so far as to take responsibility for the murder and clandestine burial of thousands of residential school children in the name of reconciliation?”
Henry asks.
“No, it wouldn’t. It wouldn’t improve the lives of ‘Indigenous’ people one iota if that monstrous libel against the Oblates, the Sisters of St. Ann, the Grey Nuns et al were to become the accepted ‘truth’ in Canada.”
“In his e-mail, the bishop who served the Diocese of Calgary for almost 19 years and who has been a priest for 55 years, wonders whether his fellow clergy simply don’t see the implications of allowing that “truth” to stand.
“If so, it’s not because those pushing the ‘genocide’ (of ‘Indigenous’ people) narrative haven’t made it clear where things are headed. It’s not the federal government that’s going to be held responsible for Canada’s murder and clandestine burial of thousands of missing children. It’s the Catholic Church.”
“Henry notes an additional confusing factor is his inability to get any kind of answer about the existential questions he’s been raising, especially given the “synodal listening process” the Church is undertaking.
“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.”
…
“…Calgary’s former bishop is no ‘Henry-come-lately’ to challenging the accepted wisdom around Indian residential schools, nor is he a “denier” of the very real wrongs done to ‘Indigenous’ people by that 19th- and mid-20th century system. While still leading the diocese, he wrote a stinging 2016 letter to Carolyn Bennett, then federal minister of aboriginal affairs and northern development, taking factual issue with her public comments that placed full responsibility for the debacle on the Catholic Church…
“…The Church’s moral obligations are being met on an almost daily basis. I wish I could say the same for the government and the legal system. I would strongly suggest you take the plank out of your own eye before you attempt to take the splinter out of anyone else’s”,
he told Bennett.”
–‘Bishop demands ‘proof’ for missing children claims’,
PETER STOCKLAND & QUINTON AMUNDSON, THE CATHOLIC REGISTER,
August 9, 2023
https://www.catholicregister.org/item/35774-bishop-demands-proof-for-missing-children-claims
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
“On the Feast of St. Jean Baptiste, Calgary’s Bishop Emeritus Fred Henry sent out a characteristically feisty e-mail with the subject line “LOCKJAW”. It urged the executive of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops to “immediately issue a formal statement” rejecting the recent bombshell report on missing children and unmarked graves associated with Indian residential schools.
“His stated rationale for spreading the word to about 70 recipients on his e-mail list, including The Catholic Register and “a couple of politicians”, was that media criticism of the report has broken the seal of silence on the more questionable claims around the whole issue of ‘Indigenous’ unmarked graves.
“The June 16 call by Kimberly Murray, special advisor to ‘Justice’ Minister David Lametti, for legislation criminalizing so-called “denialism” of grave sites, missing children and residential schools as ‘genocide’, apparently prompted his e-mail missive. But Henry, though retired since 2017, has been active behind the scenes in clerical circles almost since the “discovery” of such graves was made public in May, 2021. He has been a champion of independent researcher Nina Green, who, on a regular basis, meticulously challenges claims made by the more extreme ‘Indigenous’ political voices, and largely echoed unquestioned by mainstream media.
“Murray’s overreach report, which got a disturbing head nod of support from Lametti, has only brought into public view the sharpness of Henry’s disagreement with his fellow Catholic churchmen over their conciliatory approach.
“The current strategy of letting the ‘Indigenous’ voices have their unexamined, uncritiqued (and) unquestioned platform has been a colossal failure. When an ostrich buries its head in the sand, it also exposes another part of its anatomy for public viewing and it is not a pleasant sight. It is time for our leaders to lead”,
he wrote.
“…He is not without allies within the bishops’ conference. They might lack his public pugnacity but agree with the general sentiment that at least some aspects of the ‘Indigenous’ reconciliation effort have crossed the line of political shakedown.
“At The Register, we have argued that the CCCB has acted prudently and charitably to date with efforts such as the $30 million ‘Indigenous’ Reconciliation fund. Given the moral imperative, not to mention the massive secular forces ranged against it, the Church in Canada has had no ground, or reason, to do other than seek forgiveness and make restitution for its acknowledged wrongs.
“But there comes a time, as Henry’s e-mail says, that outright falsehoods must be deftly contested without progress being lost…”
–‘Editorial: Bishop Henry’s line in the sand’,
CATHOLIC REGISTER, June 29, 2023
https://www.catholicregister.org/columns/item/35688-editorial-bishop-henry-s-line-in-the-sand
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
“Bishop Emeritus Henry quite properly directs his urgent urging to his brother bishops, calling on them to stand up to the federal government for its political refusal to challenge what he sees as evident untruths about the fate of children at Indian residential schools.”
“The contemporary political and cultural mood demands recall of what would normally be a blinding statement of the obvious in a liberal democracy:
expression is not automatically endorsement.
“The paramountcy of this axiom elevates it above even a consideration as vitally import as free speech. It must be ‘über alles’, so to speak, because without recognizing it as our first principle, we simply can’t proceed, however haltingly, toward the truth…
“We’re aware, as well, that reporting in this issue of The Register on the appeal of Calgary’s Bishop Emeritus Fred Henry for a change in direction by his brother bishops vis-à-vis ‘Indigenous’ {sic} issues will be understood as code for accepting, endorsing and advocating his position…
{Canadian Aboriginals are ‘Indigenous’ to Siberia and Mongolia.}
“We are reporting Bishop Henry’s deep concern not because we endorse on its face each and every word. We are doing so because we believe what he’s saying is an essential element on Church-‘Indigenous’ reconciliation that has been too long ignored, if not subordinated to strategic considerations. Put simply, what he’s saying is that the high good of reconciling the Church’s historic wrongs against ‘Indigenous’ people must not overwhelm its ultimate obedience to Truth. We can agree. We can disagree. But the expression must occur for discussion to ensue.
“…Archbishops Richard Smith, of Edmonton, and Don Bolen, of Regina, say they are not allowing any such thing to happen. Their comments quoted in The Register make clear their approach is one of optimum timing. In essence: Now is the time to listen, which can actively open the possibility of future challenge, if necessary.
“Context being key, it’s crucial to take into account the causality of Bishop Henry’s urgency. As we’ve editorialized with a healthy measure of admiration previously, he has lived a public life of clerical outspokenness gusting to provocativeness, but always out of honesty and personal integrity, invariably non-ideologically despite his nickname of ‘Red Fred’. More concretely, after 55 years of service as a priest, almost 19 of them as pastoral leader of Calgary’s Roman Catholics, Henry is an octogenarian in failing health. As noted in our story, his remarks that we quote were e-mailed from hospital prior to admission to respite care. Most crucially, they were made for the sake of, in his words, “the Church that I love”.
“…From his sick bed, Calgary’s Bishop Emeritus is refusing to “stand idly by” when what he understands as a call to service is upon him. It is not axiomatic, carte blanche endorsement of his understanding to admire its courage, report its particulars, and amplify its essence as part of the search for Truth in the Reconciliation process.
“Bishop Emeritus Henry quite properly directs his urgent urging to his brother bishops, calling on them to stand up to the federal government for its political refusal to challenge what he sees as evident untruths about the fate of children at Indian residential schools. We would hope, however, that the spirit of his message extends beyond clerical bounds. It should, in the end, serve as a broad reminder that the pursuit of truth, begun with the best intentions, fails the instant it begins to automatically endorse strategic falsehood, however culturally and politically strategically convenient.”
–‘Editorial: We’re sticking to the facts’,
CATHOLIC REGISTER, August 10, 2023
https://www.catholicregister.org/columns/item/35776-editorial-we-re-sticking-to-the-facts
See also:
‘Senator Beyak: For The Record’ (Senate Speech) {February 5, 2018}:
“Honourable Senators… I want to present a somewhat different side of the residential school story…”
https://endracebasedlaw.wordpress.com/2018/02/05/senator-beyak-for-the-record/
‘Residential Schools: Myths vs. Evidence’ {Sept.03, 2019}:
“Canadians are constantly being told that the Indian residential school system is at the root of the many dysfunctions in ‘indigenous’ {No, aboriginal} society today. Alcoholism, violence, poverty and poor educational attainment are all blamed on these schools, the last of which closed in the 1990s.
“Here are some myths and some facts:
“Myth: residential schools robbed all native kids of their childhoods.
Fact: the average stay was only 4.5 years and the vast majority of aboriginal youth never attended such a school...”
https://endracebasedlaw.ca/2019/09/03/residential-schools-myths-vs-evidence/
‘Blown Out of Proportion’ (Residential Schools) {Aug.29, 2019}:
“My great uncle was a Catholic priest teaching at a far north residential school in the 1960’s. I can tell you, this man had integrity, and would never have been involved in abuse, or even tolerated it around him. I believe a few cases of such abuse have been multiplied and blown out of proportion, to obtain settlements and perpetuate victimhood by some aboriginals. But not all. We don’t hear about the ones who had positive experiences in residential schools, do we? Why?”
https://endracebasedlaw.ca/2019/08/29/blown-out-of-proportion/
‘Hate, Combined With Ignorance’ {Aug.16, 2023}:
“Barbara Kay announced the creation of a new website dedicated to finding the truth about Residential schools: https://irsrg.ca
“She was deluged with hate from the simple-minded and indoctrinated – all of whom basically claimed to be ‘fighting hate’.”
https://endracebasedlaw.ca/2023/08/16/hate-combined-with-ignorance/
‘Teacher Cancelled For Telling The Truth’ (Abbotsford) {Nov.9, 2022}:
“Canadian teacher gets cancelled for teaching truth about residential school deaths.”
(Video interview)”
https://endracebasedlaw.ca/2022/11/09/teacher-cancelled-for-telling-the-truth/
‘Cancelling Bishop Grandin’ {Sept.9, 2022}:
“‘City of Edmonton’ is removing murals depicting the residential school system from the Government Centre LRT station and removing the reference in the LRT station’s name to Bishop Vital-Justin Grandin, an advocate for the residential school system…”
https://endracebasedlaw.ca/2022/09/09/cancelling-bishop-grandin/
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