When Pope Francis came to Edmonton for the WEF-Kenney-Trudeau reunion photo op, all of my friends who survived horrific abuse in Catholic residential schools were less than impressed with Pope Francis’ so called apology. .Given that Pope Francis did not intervene in the dismissal of Swiss Guardsmen who refused to be vaccinated as a matter of conscience when they refused to submit to Vatican vaccine mandates, his failure to understand basic human rights and human dignity makes perfect sense. .In the general wording of the Pope Francis’ so called apology there was no clear acknowledgement of the depths of the depravity to which various Catholic priests and brothers had sunk and the brutality and torture that they inflicted on innocent children for their own amusement. For Pope Francis to simply acknowledge “evil committed by so many Christians against indigenous people” provides no specific recitation of the specific evils committed by Catholic clergy against innocent children and completely downplays the role of the Catholic Church hierarchy and the Vatican itself in covering up the Catholic Church’s role in these horrific crimes and abuses. Catholic clergy that I have spoken to following the Papal visit share my concerns in this regard. .A further concern of indigenous people in Canada and world wide is the Pope failing to openly apologize for and rescind the “Doctrine of Discovery” of the Catholic Church which held that indigenous people were soulless savages, no better than animals and accordingly, incapable of owning land or property. This doctrine justified enslaving indigenous people and justified the colonial legal concept of “terra nullius” or vacant land that allowed for the appropriation of indigenous lands by force, without compensation or agreement. .I have personally spoken to residential school survivors who, as children, had their hands wired together over a steam pipe in the basement of a residential school, and who, while hung from a steam pipe were brutally flogged and sodomized by a Catholic cleric whose abuse was well known to Church leaders. .I personally know dozens of First Nations people who were raped and tortured as children. The degree to which this has caused them to struggle with alcohol, drugs and PTSD related issues including depression and suicidal thoughts and tendencies is overwhelming. Every time I hear a residential school abuse denier equate rape and torture with having their knuckles wrapped by a nun with a ruler, I feel a boiling anger at the ignorance that continues to pervade our society. This ignorance is not in any way alleviated by Pope Francis muddying the waters by evading responsibility in a carefully worded, so called, “apology” that blames “Christians” generally for the evils of the Catholic Church hierarchy who to this day shield child rapists behind the walls of the Vatican. .The well documented church strategy for dealing with deviant priests and brothers was to simply ship them further and further away from civilization every time that their abuse was threatening to come to light. What became apparent was that exactly like Kurtz in Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”, the further these deviant clerics were shipped from the supervisory gaze of their bishops and the overwhelming majority of their fellow nuns, priests and brothers who would not have tolerated the abuse of children; the worse and worse the abusers became. .In the context of the, crushing, present day, poverty inflicted on Canada’s indigenous people by successive Liberal and Conservative Governments, the Vatican mantra, “out of sight, out of mind” remain the watch words of the day. .To me it is not surprising that the more isolated a school was the worse the abuse that was suffered by the children in that school. It is also not surprising to me that the Catholic Church in the person of Cardinal Turcotte succeeded in having Jean Chretien agree to provide the church with a multi-billion dollar bailout in the form of the Residential School Settlement Fund which was ultimately approved by Stephen Harper. Were it not for that bail out, Catholic Cathedrals across Canada would have been seized, sold and turned into nightclubs to pay survivors. Thanks to Jean Chretien and Stephen Harper, the Catholic Church got away with only having to make “best efforts” to raise $25 million and were let off the hook by Saskatchewan Justice Gabrielson (a Harper appointee) after only paying $1.2 million. Apparently “best efforts” in raising money didn’t include the sale of any real estate including cathedrals in every downtown metropolitan area in Canada. This ruling was not appealed by Justin Trudeau who also has all appearances of supporting the tax-payer supported bail out of the Canadian Catholic Church. .Let’s also remember that the Chretien-Harper-Trudeau Catholic Church residential school bail out program literally paid survivors pennies on the dollar. Compare the paltry individual residential school payouts to the $10 million paid to Omar Khadr who was properly forwarded to the detention barracks at Guantanamo Bay, after his murder of US Service personnel with a hand grenade. When non-indigenous people are alleged to have been sexually assaulted by junior hockey players or others the settlements paid are typically in the millions. The woman who alleges that Cardinal Ouellet ran his hand over her buttocks will likely receive a settlement larger than most residential school victims. .One is right to ask if the paltry settlements paid to indigenous abuse survivors are rooted in racism and the prevailing Canadian tolerance for the pain and suffering of Canada’s indigenous people. .As bad or worse than the Catholic Church’s bad faith efforts in repaying abuse victims, to this day the Pope has not excommunicated posthumously or otherwise any clerics involved in the rape, torture or sexual abuse of children. .Under Canon Law the Pope has clear authority to excommunicate anyone who “excites hatred or contempt against religion or the Church”. What could be more inciteful of hatred or contempt against the Church than raping or torturing innocent children entrusted to your care? .A further ground of excommunication under Canon Law can be applied to “a person who otherwise does not obey a legitimate precept or prohibition of the Apostolic See … and who persists in disobedience after a warning”. This was the provision of Canon Law that was applied to excommunicate African Bishops several years ago for the grave sin of disobeying the Pope and allowing adult male priests to marry adult women. .Just a humble suggestion to Pope Francis: .“Dear Pope, .Maybe its high time that you issue a “warning” to all Catholic brothers, nuns and clergy that they will be permanently excommunicated in the event that they torture, rape, sexually abuse or cover up the abuse of a child”. .On a related note don’t hold your breath for Pope Francis to do the right thing when it comes to human rights abuses committed by the Catholic Church. Pope Francis socialist world view and support for the WEF Agenda 2030 that sees all of us “common” folk as extraneous consumers of food, energy and producers of CO2 is evident in his every pronouncement. .Pope Francis won’t even enforce the clear Canon Law mandate that requires the excommunication of Catholics engaged in the procurement of abortions. As a matter of strict doctrine, Canon Law specifically requires excommunication of any Catholic engaged in the procurement of abortions. Rather than excommunicating Joe Biden, Pope Francis is alleged to have helped cover for Joe Biden while the Secret Service arranged for a change of Joe Biden’s clothes and diaper. It is unlikely that Trudeau or the Catholics in his government will face excommunication any time soon notwithstanding the fact that being pro-life disqualifies a person from running for the Liberal Party of Canada and openly supporting the procurement of abortions is a requirement of office under the Leadership of Justin Trudeau. It is also unlikely that Pope Francis will excommunicate members of the Canadian Medical Protective Association, AHS, CPSA and other members of the Canadian medical establishment who are now engaged in openly encouraging or assisting in procuring abortions in Canada for abortion refugees from the United States. .Regardless of your views on this matter, like Justin Trudeau, its very hard to respect, follow or obey a leader that thinks that the law only applies at their whim or who thinks that the laws that apply to commoners don’t apply to them. Jeffrey Rath is a constitutional, indigenous and human rights lawyer
When Pope Francis came to Edmonton for the WEF-Kenney-Trudeau reunion photo op, all of my friends who survived horrific abuse in Catholic residential schools were less than impressed with Pope Francis’ so called apology. .Given that Pope Francis did not intervene in the dismissal of Swiss Guardsmen who refused to be vaccinated as a matter of conscience when they refused to submit to Vatican vaccine mandates, his failure to understand basic human rights and human dignity makes perfect sense. .In the general wording of the Pope Francis’ so called apology there was no clear acknowledgement of the depths of the depravity to which various Catholic priests and brothers had sunk and the brutality and torture that they inflicted on innocent children for their own amusement. For Pope Francis to simply acknowledge “evil committed by so many Christians against indigenous people” provides no specific recitation of the specific evils committed by Catholic clergy against innocent children and completely downplays the role of the Catholic Church hierarchy and the Vatican itself in covering up the Catholic Church’s role in these horrific crimes and abuses. Catholic clergy that I have spoken to following the Papal visit share my concerns in this regard. .A further concern of indigenous people in Canada and world wide is the Pope failing to openly apologize for and rescind the “Doctrine of Discovery” of the Catholic Church which held that indigenous people were soulless savages, no better than animals and accordingly, incapable of owning land or property. This doctrine justified enslaving indigenous people and justified the colonial legal concept of “terra nullius” or vacant land that allowed for the appropriation of indigenous lands by force, without compensation or agreement. .I have personally spoken to residential school survivors who, as children, had their hands wired together over a steam pipe in the basement of a residential school, and who, while hung from a steam pipe were brutally flogged and sodomized by a Catholic cleric whose abuse was well known to Church leaders. .I personally know dozens of First Nations people who were raped and tortured as children. The degree to which this has caused them to struggle with alcohol, drugs and PTSD related issues including depression and suicidal thoughts and tendencies is overwhelming. Every time I hear a residential school abuse denier equate rape and torture with having their knuckles wrapped by a nun with a ruler, I feel a boiling anger at the ignorance that continues to pervade our society. This ignorance is not in any way alleviated by Pope Francis muddying the waters by evading responsibility in a carefully worded, so called, “apology” that blames “Christians” generally for the evils of the Catholic Church hierarchy who to this day shield child rapists behind the walls of the Vatican. .The well documented church strategy for dealing with deviant priests and brothers was to simply ship them further and further away from civilization every time that their abuse was threatening to come to light. What became apparent was that exactly like Kurtz in Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”, the further these deviant clerics were shipped from the supervisory gaze of their bishops and the overwhelming majority of their fellow nuns, priests and brothers who would not have tolerated the abuse of children; the worse and worse the abusers became. .In the context of the, crushing, present day, poverty inflicted on Canada’s indigenous people by successive Liberal and Conservative Governments, the Vatican mantra, “out of sight, out of mind” remain the watch words of the day. .To me it is not surprising that the more isolated a school was the worse the abuse that was suffered by the children in that school. It is also not surprising to me that the Catholic Church in the person of Cardinal Turcotte succeeded in having Jean Chretien agree to provide the church with a multi-billion dollar bailout in the form of the Residential School Settlement Fund which was ultimately approved by Stephen Harper. Were it not for that bail out, Catholic Cathedrals across Canada would have been seized, sold and turned into nightclubs to pay survivors. Thanks to Jean Chretien and Stephen Harper, the Catholic Church got away with only having to make “best efforts” to raise $25 million and were let off the hook by Saskatchewan Justice Gabrielson (a Harper appointee) after only paying $1.2 million. Apparently “best efforts” in raising money didn’t include the sale of any real estate including cathedrals in every downtown metropolitan area in Canada. This ruling was not appealed by Justin Trudeau who also has all appearances of supporting the tax-payer supported bail out of the Canadian Catholic Church. .Let’s also remember that the Chretien-Harper-Trudeau Catholic Church residential school bail out program literally paid survivors pennies on the dollar. Compare the paltry individual residential school payouts to the $10 million paid to Omar Khadr who was properly forwarded to the detention barracks at Guantanamo Bay, after his murder of US Service personnel with a hand grenade. When non-indigenous people are alleged to have been sexually assaulted by junior hockey players or others the settlements paid are typically in the millions. The woman who alleges that Cardinal Ouellet ran his hand over her buttocks will likely receive a settlement larger than most residential school victims. .One is right to ask if the paltry settlements paid to indigenous abuse survivors are rooted in racism and the prevailing Canadian tolerance for the pain and suffering of Canada’s indigenous people. .As bad or worse than the Catholic Church’s bad faith efforts in repaying abuse victims, to this day the Pope has not excommunicated posthumously or otherwise any clerics involved in the rape, torture or sexual abuse of children. .Under Canon Law the Pope has clear authority to excommunicate anyone who “excites hatred or contempt against religion or the Church”. What could be more inciteful of hatred or contempt against the Church than raping or torturing innocent children entrusted to your care? .A further ground of excommunication under Canon Law can be applied to “a person who otherwise does not obey a legitimate precept or prohibition of the Apostolic See … and who persists in disobedience after a warning”. This was the provision of Canon Law that was applied to excommunicate African Bishops several years ago for the grave sin of disobeying the Pope and allowing adult male priests to marry adult women. .Just a humble suggestion to Pope Francis: .“Dear Pope, .Maybe its high time that you issue a “warning” to all Catholic brothers, nuns and clergy that they will be permanently excommunicated in the event that they torture, rape, sexually abuse or cover up the abuse of a child”. .On a related note don’t hold your breath for Pope Francis to do the right thing when it comes to human rights abuses committed by the Catholic Church. Pope Francis socialist world view and support for the WEF Agenda 2030 that sees all of us “common” folk as extraneous consumers of food, energy and producers of CO2 is evident in his every pronouncement. .Pope Francis won’t even enforce the clear Canon Law mandate that requires the excommunication of Catholics engaged in the procurement of abortions. As a matter of strict doctrine, Canon Law specifically requires excommunication of any Catholic engaged in the procurement of abortions. Rather than excommunicating Joe Biden, Pope Francis is alleged to have helped cover for Joe Biden while the Secret Service arranged for a change of Joe Biden’s clothes and diaper. It is unlikely that Trudeau or the Catholics in his government will face excommunication any time soon notwithstanding the fact that being pro-life disqualifies a person from running for the Liberal Party of Canada and openly supporting the procurement of abortions is a requirement of office under the Leadership of Justin Trudeau. It is also unlikely that Pope Francis will excommunicate members of the Canadian Medical Protective Association, AHS, CPSA and other members of the Canadian medical establishment who are now engaged in openly encouraging or assisting in procuring abortions in Canada for abortion refugees from the United States. .Regardless of your views on this matter, like Justin Trudeau, its very hard to respect, follow or obey a leader that thinks that the law only applies at their whim or who thinks that the laws that apply to commoners don’t apply to them. Jeffrey Rath is a constitutional, indigenous and human rights lawyer
