It just isn’t going to end as the almost daily revelations continue-this unfettered beast that is the Catholic Church has wreaked absolute havoc in every corner of the globe where it has set foot-from slavery, torture, executions, war, the theft of children, rampant sexual abuse, collusion with the Nazi’s and their involvement in assisting escapes to South America, you name it-nothing so hideous they wouldn’t partake of it.
Always with some bloated pampered “spokesman’” said to be wearing the shoes of the fisherman, or maybe it’s Dorothy’s red slippers, sitting upon the throne in absolute opulence, and cradle to the grave believers making excuses, apologies, and inane defenses.
It is inexplicable to me that after centuries of well know abuses any among our own would count themselves among the faithful. As illustrative an example of acculturation as has ever been seen.
There should be no place for this “church” on the rez or in any of our lives, and they should be told to leave-centuries later and they are still attempting to co opt the nations. What peace or salvation is to be found built upon the bones and blood of our own? By what metric will any of us measure the value of a thing?
If on the other hand all that is required is some bogus Vatican apology how is that the same standard isn’t applied to “official” governmental ones?
Can it be that words, an apology, can never atone for a rabidly brutal past? So while some will defend and accept the words that emanate from the belly of the beast that is Rome how is it they won’t, and with just cause, entertain a governmental apology? What a convoluted and unreasoned approach.
Does saying sorry, my bad, make amends for a single child murdered, tortured, or sexually abused at the boarding schools or one of their “churches”?
Does saying that was then this is now when then and now are interchangeable make a difference? If a little money is thrown around does that make it alright?
If Creator has a place for you in the afterlife no person, no entity usurps that-no one has the authority, the power, to excommunicate another, much less an evil empire covered in the blood of the innocents and wallowing in it’s riches.
A culture cannot survive without it’s language and traditions-to accept the language of the Missal and the traditions of this merchant of greed and abuse contributes nothing to the survival of the nations, it only facilitates the demise-and that has always been the goal.
This so called church has nothing to offer but hypocrisy and a crafted fear mongering that creates purgatories, the threat of excommunication, and a belief that one must sit in a box “confessing” to seek absolution.
The Creator is accessible-no brokered deal requiring a middle man is necessary-and he sure as hell isn’t asking any for their money or to bow and kiss a ring-we don’t bow to any man, neither do we kiss rings or asses.
The Catholic Church as invaders and conquerors of our culture and people have an abhorrible history that spans hundreds of years, in the decimation of our indigenous people on this planet we call Mother Earth. Any apology from the Vatican or the governments, I believe, are empty words. Nothing can atone for the history of injustice and torture; the murders and sexual/physical abuse, ordered through the Catholic hierarchy of kings and Popes, to their pawns of the Inquisition and the Crusades, descending throughout the years to the sexual and physical abuse by priests and nuns to innocent children in boarding schools, and is still prevalent today. The English Puritans, who were also under religious persecution, should have learned something from all of this. What did they do? They also turned on the Eastern Tribes. Without the knowledge and support of the Wampanoags, they would have never survived. But that’s another side of the same coin, for another time. The tribes on the Eastern coast of Turtle Island were subjected to the forced conversion in some cases, and the brain-washing of the Jesuits during the 1600′s. On the other hand, for some of the smaller bands of Algonquins, their only choice of survival, was to seek refuge with the missionaries. I find it hard to believe there are still people of our Western Tribal Nations, who fail to understand, that the Eastern Nations tried their best to hold our oppressors back. We took the brunt of the storm, so to speak, and some of our people were nearly wiped out, yet we continue to be subjected to lateral racism by some; being referred to as a people who have lost our culture. We are an indigenous Nation of many tribes, with our own cultural and spiritual teachings, who have always had a direct connection with the Creator. May that be an inspiration for all of our Nations to come together in acceptance of our cultural differences, and if we are willing to reach out, will provide a personal healing and comfort for many. As you have stated, we don’t require a middle man, nor do we have any need whatsoever to “confess” our human flaws and frailties in a box. Our church will never have four walls.
it is a sad and inglorious history one that has driven a wedge between
the nations as the result-”believers” and “savages”-both red but
separated in many ways by that of a foreign cultural belief system
and one indigenous to the people.
A belief system that is anathema to everything we know that
sustained and allowed us to flourish in our own way and in our own time.
No weapons or armament are pointed in our direction in this time,
no steel to impale or wound us, now it is that we would live at the
expense of an erosive assimilating surrendering not only of our individual
soul but the collective one of the nations.
No nation in this hemisphere has escaped suffering and bleeding, it
does not matter or make a discernible difference the time line or if at the
hands of single shot muskets or repeating rifles and Hotchkiss canons-no
nation in this hemisphere has escaped a continuation of suffering-if nothing else
the commonality of a shared and familiar misery should create a bond that looks
beyond tribes.
Death and suffering are not a competition-losses and numbers are
not things to compare or bestow bragging rights over,for in the end whatever
the numbers the loss was the same for all and the impact no less devastating.
Poverty, oppression, and deprivation are not an entitlement owned by
any nation-they have been, and continue to be a shared experience.
Entire nations have been eradicated-others pushed to the brink and it is a sad
thing that they haven’t the remembrance and notoriety of those advanced by
Hollywood or youtube videos.
The genocide and the resistance began on the eastern shores-to forget that or
fail to honor it is a betrayal of all that the nations have been-of every sacrifice
ever made by any indigenous person-it is a fool’s game I will have no part of.