Angry at Pope's non-apology

Pope's apology too late

Words little solace for aboriginalsWhen Karen Chaboyer saw the news from the Vatican yesterday of Pope Benedict XVI expressing his "sorrow" over the long-term suffering and abuse of thousands of aboriginal Canadians in the residential schools run by the Roman Catholic Church, her first emotion was one of anger.

It was, in fact, her first and only emotion.

And it remains a constant.

"Why did the victim have to go to the offender to get his apology?" she asks. "Why did Phil Fontaine (Grand Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, and himself a residential school survivor) have to cross an ocean?

"Why did the Pope not come to us? We're here, not there. And here is where it happened."Could it be because the Pope wasn't that sincere about apologizing?

The article continues:Chaboyer scoffs at the rhetoric.

"It's so easy to say, isn't it?" she says. "What he didn't say, though, was why now? And why it took so long?"

Within minutes of the Pope's message being posted online, Chaboyer was also reading the mostly anonymous comments tagged on various websites and blogs, many of them so vitriolic and hurtful that she had to pause to regain her strength.

"You've read them, the hate and the racism being tossed at us," she says. "We're being called whiners. We're being told to 'get over it,' to 'move on.' I'd like for them to walk in our shoes for generations, and then have to read those kind of comments.

"There is so much ignorance out there, and so much intolerance," she says. "It continues to amaze me how so many people are able to know so little."Comment:  Good points, but Chaboyer didn't ask the question I would've asked. Namely, why "sorrow" but not "I'm sorry"?

This isn't the first time Pope Benedict and his Vatican have been less than fully sensitive to Indians. For more on the subject, see 13 Grandmas Accused of Idolatry, Pope Doesn't Admit Guilt, and Pope Insults Indians.

Below:  "I forgive you, my ignorant children, for worshiping your heathen idols rather than the one true God."