Well, you got your wish, Jack. They're burning down Catholic churches in Canada. What good does that do, to make people of the current age suffer for the sins of their ancestors? And do we even know how the Native school children died? Was there malfeasance? I'm guessing that the kids lived in dormitories, as I did in a Catholic seminary in the 1960s. Epidemics spread like wildfire in dormitories. People didn't know how to deal with epidemics a century ago, and COVID-19 makes it clear that we STILL have a lot to learn about dealing with epidemics.

I'm sure there was some malfeasance, but how widespread was it? I'm also sure that there was a lot of harm done by well-intentioned people of European ancestry, who thought they were doing the right thing by imposing European culture on indigenous peoples. We need to probe all this deeply and have excruciatingly honest discussion, so we can come up with honest answers.

So, what's the answer? Certainly, not burning churches and punishing the great-grandchildren who were responsible for the wrongdoing.

-Joe-


https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/04/canada-burned-churches-indigenous-catholicism