Write to The Editor:

First steps

Your March 22 editorial “Look to Rome” states your commitment to “reconciliation between Canada’s First Nations and its, shall we say, later arrivals.” Cheeky! But overlooking Indigenous beliefs that they always existed on the land, and that “settlers”  were not simply later arrivals but a deceiving, destructive, endless throng that led to extreme social dislocation and loss of life, land and culture? Read Thomas King, Bob Joseph or Jesse Wente for detail.

Pompous Peter

What is Peter Stockland afraid of? After reading his rather pompous and self-opinionated April 3 column, I was disappointed in his lack of knowledge and compassion.

Backlash whiplash

The meeting of Indigenous representatives with Pope Francis makes me reflect on the relationship of Church and State in Canada, their partnerships in the residential schools and in State funding of Catholic education.  The media has made clear the responsibility of the Church regarding residential schools, but not so much that of the State. The Church is left holding the bag for many unfortunate things that transpired because of her role as the teacher of morality and spirituality.  

Listening hearts

I have never been more proud of the Catholic Church than when I heard Pope Francis’ response last week to our Indigenous community in Canada. It was not so much what he said, but an acknowledgement that he had listened.

Antidote to war

Re: War and the Cross (Editorial, March 13):

In the anti-war film Oh! What a Lovely War patriotic hymns are sung, and a pastor tells his congregation theirs is a righteous cause against a dastardly enemy. The scene then cuts to the other side and their pastor. It brilliantly clarifies the nature of war: a mass psychosis.

Real common good

Douglas Naus writes in a March 3 letter to the editor that, “The common good should always be weighed with the individual good, with the individual good taking precedence according to the teachings of the Catholic Church. […]”

Dyed in green wool

I am a proud, dyed-in-the-wool Patrician — school, college, church, parish and then Canada — so St. Patrick’s feast day is personal. It falls right in the middle of Lent so may reflect his charism of joy rising out of resilience.

Huzzahs for Sr. Burns

Kudos to Sr. Helena Burns for her defence of faith and morals.  The Church is constantly under attack from outside and within. 

Unnecessary Act

I concur with your Feb. 20 editorial “Damaging Lies” in its non-partisan criticism of the Prime Minister’s “political lies” directed at the trucker “Freedom Convoy” protesters in Ottawa. He mendaciously called them a “fringe minority” of violent “racists.”  Many politicians, including two Liberal MP’s, voiced their disapproval of his “divisive and stigmatizing” comments.

Theology of me

Sr. Helena Burns’ Feb. 13 column “ Divide and Conquer? Never in Canada” raises the question of whether, in her world, the democratically elected government is the enemy of freedom. Is the sight of a military-style convoy of massive intimidating trucks, each one representing just one person, flying dual flags, blasting any opposition with their air horns, and illegally occupying and thwarting everyone else’s freedom really “glorious” to her?