Re “First Nations deacon hopeful about B.C. Indigenous rights law” (B.C. Catholic, Dec. 9):
It is time for Canada to affirm the Universal Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People and combat the genocide waged against fellow citizens. Ottawa has given hollow assurances, causal ruminations, and unclear promises to victims’ families. They should look to Washington for inspiration and collaboration over a shared tragedy. U.S. President Donald Trump enacted his executive order “Operation Lady Justice” featuring “aggressive measures to make tribal communities feel safer.” It outlines investigative protocols and security measures. There, Indigenous women are 10 times as likely to be murdered as their peers.
In Winnipeg, “safe houses” are provided, locations where Indigenous youth can go for help or gather in friendly environments.
Canada suffers extreme racism and misogyny. The criminals behind this genocide of the girls and women long exploited this. Intergovernmental collaboration would tighten the noose and provide closure. Perhaps, Canada will have earned reconciliation and fulfilled Christian duty.
Christopher Mansour
Barrie, Ont.
The opinions expressed in Gerlinde Elsbett’s letter to the editor “Case review report ‘a start’” and Sister Nancy Brown’s article “’Culture of peace” is the answer to abuse crisis” (Dec. 9) come from two very different points of view. Ms. Elsbett is squarely on the side of prevention (changing sexual behaviour through Church teaching), while Sister Brown and the archdiocesan Case Review Committee are more narrowly focused on mitigating the consequences of this terrible evil by bringing justice to the victims.
Sister Brown’s “culture of peace” is a lofty and noble aspiration, one that we all long for in every aspect of social life, but one that will remain an illusion unless it is based on truth. To quote the oft-quoted St. Augustine, “peace is the tranquility (harmony) that comes from right order.”
But what kind of right order? The only one that makes sense is a society ordered by virtue, specifically the cardinal virtues of prudence (right judgment), justice, fortitude (courage) and temperance (self control).
Chastity is the relevant virtue of self control for directing our sexual desires to their proper end, which is a happy and fruitful marriage between one man and one woman. The failure of society to embrace and practice this virtue is a significant root cause (though not the only one) contributing to the loss of proper respect for sexuality and fertility with its inevitable outcomes: divorce, broken families, sexually confused and abused children, limitless pornography, unwanted pregnancies and countless abortions.
The general failure of the Church to proclaim this unpopular virtue to its own members and to the larger society (“Go teach all nations”) has only allowed the situation to worsen. I’ve been attending Sunday Mass for over 65 years; that’s over 3,000 homilies, and I can confidently count on the fingers of one hand the times I heard any clear and relevant teaching on chastity. No wonder so many Catholics are vulnerable to the spirit of the age on this issue. No input, no output: this also applies to “spiritual physics.”
Sister Brown cites “clericalism” as the main cause of sexual abuse in the Church; I see it more as a cover for abusers looking for targets of opportunity and a failure of those in authority to deal effectively with priests and religious who should have been removed long before they had the opportunity to exercise their unchaste and perverted inclinations.
Dealing justly with victims of sex abuse is indispensable; but if we confine ourselves to this limited approach to prevention, I’m afraid all we’ll have are laws, regulations, and codes of conduct.
If the Church could once more become the leaven in society by teaching chastity, the possibilities would be amazing.
Mark Ruelle
South Delta
