A pope’s plight and an ‘apology tour’
Re: Francis’s Plight, July 16; and Pressure on Catholic dioceses to pay up, July 19
The Pope’s upcoming trip to Canada shouldn’t be viewed as a recruiting tour for future Roman Catholics to join the church, or even for present Catholics to somehow feel heavenly blessed, but rather as an apology tour acknowledging the church’s sins of the past.
The Pope is often treated like a rock star when he travels, but this should be a shame tour, where he asks for forgiveness and clearly voices the idea that the church has failed miserably. Regrettably though, the church’s dismal reality will probably be lost in the artificial celebrity glow of the Pope’s halo that has been carefully and historically created over millennia. The only true way for the Catholic Church to survive and attract new converts is to come clean and then rebuild and start anew, instead of continually sweeping everything under the rug.
Douglas Cornish, Ottawa
Catholic Church entities had promised to use their best efforts to fundraise $25 million to compensate survivors of residential schools, but claimed they were able to raise only $4 million.
The Church then used the “best efforts” clause in the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement to renege on its promise. A Saskatchewan judge agreed the Church could indeed walk away. The reneging was legal, but not moral.
The Church’s priorities are wrong. As one example, the Saskatoon diocese raised $28.5 million for a new cathedral, but only $34,650 for survivors of residential schools. Best efforts, indeed! No wonder some Catholics stop attending mass or have left the church. Reiner Jaakson, Oakville, Ont.
Your story on the decline of the Roman Catholic Church was accompanied by a photo of a nearly empty St. Michael’s Cathedral on a Good Friday during the pandemic. Why you used the picture is a mystery. Of course St. Michael’s was empty during the pandemic. There were severe restrictions on the number of people who could attend. Most of us ended up watching services online. The same would be true of most mainstream churches.
The picture was utterly misleading. I suspect you used the picture you did to make a point about the “dying church.” Those who don’t bother reading photo captions would get the impression that St. Michael’s is a miniature ghost town.
During non-pandemic times St. Michael’s is packed on Sundays as well as during feast days. I attend St. Michael’s for noon services during the work week and there are hundreds in attendance.