Did Pope Francis save a Canadian cat named Finn? Here’s how a mackerel tabby in Ontario just may be living out his remaining eight lives thanks to the Holy Father.
It started when a friend of mine, Kyle, posted an innocuous message online that the family’s cat Finn was not doing well. They had tried everything, spent a fortune at the vets, and nothing was working. He was sick for weeks. They even feared it was feline leukemia, but nobody was sure.
He sent me a picture of Finn. The photo broke my heart. I too have a rough-and-tumble mackerel tabby named Burt who we adopted from the streets of Red Deer.
The photo of Finn compelled me to do something I had never done before, for anyone.
As I told Kyle to hang in there, I decided to go to the top. The very top.
I Googled Pope Francis’ email address and then emailed him, asking him to pray for Finn. I know, maybe it was a naïve thing to do, but every word in that message came straight from my heart.
Days later I received an email from the Vatican. They instructed me to write a letter and mail it to the Holy See in Rome, which I did. (I also included a little cat-related keychain toy for His Holiness as a gift.)
I never did hear back from the Pope, and I don’t know if he ever saw my letter. He probably gets thousands of requests for help, and not about pets.
But, to our collective shock, Finn made a miraculous recovery, regaining his health as if nothing had ever happened. Kyle also credits a change in Finn’s medicine, but the recovery was so quick and complete that even they were shocked.
Finn today lives a great, happy life, perhaps not knowing that God’s right hand on earth may have saved him.
Dave Makichuk
Calgary
In her July 26 column “We can only love by facing the truth,” Jenna McDonald writes about “the discovery of the residential school mass grave sites several weeks ago.” But the truth is that the site was known for some time and it was not a mass grave.
The distinction has serious implications. Misrepresentations by the secular press in their quest for sensationalism and the muddling response by the churches do not advance the quest for reconciliation but instead enflame unproductive emotions on both sides.
J.W. Liutkus
Richmond
(Jenna McDonald alerted us to the incorrect wording after we went to press. The wording has been changed in the online version of the column. We regret not catching it during the editing process. — Editor)
No doubt the British cultural residential school institution and European colonization clashed with and badly hurt the Indigenous people and societies. But seeking the truth is a difficult task. I get irritated when watching the media accuse Catholics of crime, hiding “mass graves,” and child abuse, chastising the Church and the Pope for refusing to apologize.
The mainstream media are mainly interested in sensationalism, ratings, and money. Do they check the facts? Clearly not. Instead they act as prosecutors, judges, and executioners of the Church, without mentioning how general Canadian society behaved and often misbehaved toward Indigenous people.
The truth is that the Catholic Church has been engaged in reconciliation and healing with Indigenous people for 30 years. Catholics at many levels have made sincere apologies not long after the sombre issue of residential schools became known. In 2009, then-leader of the Assembly of First Nations Phil Fontaine with delegates visited the Vatican and Pope Benedict. Both parties highly praised this meeting and committed to reconciliation.
With this renewed flareup a serious question must be asked: how many apologies are enough? Catholics have revealed our conscience and pain many times but it seems the apologies have not taken hold. Why not?
One hardly hears about the good things our Church did in the past, or the millions of dollars from the Church to help Natives as a result of residential schools and poverty.
We can’t expect to take our society back 150 years and change the course of history. And our contemporary, secular world is not exactly a panacea, with its own serious moral challenges and failures, anger, hate, persecution, conflicts, and wars.
Still, in order to challenge many unsubstantiated accusations we need to search for the truth. What truly happened in the residential schools? Why did Indigenous children die? Did they live and die unloved, as a burden and not worth a simple blessing and Sign of the Cross? What good and untold kindness happened? What role did overall society play in building good relations with the Indigenous people?
Anton (Tony) Gazdik
Campbell River