The Catholic Church will probably not admit to anything that will directly affect their reputation

BY STEVEN KASZAB

“Ring the bells that can still ring.

Forget your perfect offering.

There’s a crack, a crack in everything.

That’s how light (truth) gets in.”

Leonard Cohen

Pope Francis will be coming to Canada this summer. We are told the purpose of this visit is to show penance for the treatment of Canada’s Aboriginal Community within the Residential School system, many of which were managed by the Catholic Church, The Anglican Church and various governments.

Is Pope Francis coming to Canada to act as a fixer of the situation, an apologist for the church, or as an honest Ambassador of Christ’s compassion? Will His Holiness admit to the church’s historic wrongdoing, and also the systematic church led actions to deny the Aboriginal Communities and Canadian Governments demands for full transparency? Will Pope Francis straight out admit to the historically destructive contrarian actions committed against the Aboriginal community?

The church has been acting just as it did when historic accusations of sexual improprieties against church members by the clergy and religious have happened. They:

• Receive information of impropriety, and then do nothing about it
• Say they are investigating the accusations, and play the waiting game (diversion)
• When forced to admit possible improprieties offer insufficient solutions to problem (see if they can get away with it)
• Clergy will go to special classes for adaptive training, (sex addiction…whatever)
• Offer a small sum of funds as restitution while admitting nothing

Pope Francis will not fall upon his sword of morality. He will probably not admit to anything that will directly affect the church, admitting to only bad things that happened in the past. The $30 million offered by the church will probably not be paid, but offers will be given.

Why is Pope Francis coming to Canada? He has been told to do so by the church hierarchy as a face-to-face meeting, a diversion from what the church should be doing. The Canadian Catholic Church is worth over $2.5 billion dollars, and it is quite possible that the Aboriginal community, or the Canadian Government will lay multiple lawsuits against the Church. This can happen, and if it does there is a chance for Aboriginal communities all over the world to follow suit.

Members of the church have behaved badly in Africa, Australia and also elsewhere. If these religious pilgrims arrive without a cheque in hand, and pound their breasts loudly in penance, while not having a plan of restitution, it will not go well.

The Church takes care of itself and its foot soldiers (clergy) just like any other “boys club.” The Aboriginal community may expect the Papacy to act in accordance to their wishes, by providing clarity, transparency and being accountable for all historic wrongs. Will this be enough for the Aboriginal community?