Children’s Graves Discovered at Roman Catholic Schools in Canada

Childrens Graves Discovered at RC Schools in Canada, PDF format

Children’s Remains Discovered at Former Roman Catholic School
  In May this year, the remains of 215 children were discovered at a former residential school in Canada.  The school, the largest of its kind, had been run by the Roman Catholic institution between 1890 and 1969.  The children had been buried in what appeared to be unmarked graves, and it was unclear how they had died.

The graves were of “Indigenous” children: those who used to be called American Indians, but are now variously called Native Americans, First Nations people, Amerindians, etc.  Being called “indigenous” is somewhat problematic, as although one definition of the word is “the people who are the earliest known inhabitants of a region, or their descendants”, another meaning is “native to an area”, in which case all those born in Canada are indigenous to it.  For those of us not living in North America, trying to keep up with the ever-changing politically-correct language is an impossibility, and we are not interested in observing PC “rules” anyway.  For convenience’ sake I will simply refer to them as “First Nations” people or – considering at least one of the schools is called an “Indian Residential School” – as Indians.

From the late nineteenth century to the mid-1990s, approximately 150,000 “First Nations” children were sent to Canada’s residential schools, and most of these schools were operated by the Roman Catholic institution.[1]  Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which operated from 2008 to 2015, estimated that 4000 to 6000 students died as a result of neglect or abuse in Canada’s residential schools.  Indian children and those of other communities were separated from their families and placed in residential schools, the purpose being to achieve their forcible assimilation and enculturation.  The housing and facilities were poorly built, poorly heated and unsanitary.  Many students had no access to trained medical staff, and they often suffered harsh and abusive punishments.  In 1945 the death rate for children at residential schools was almost five times higher than other Canadian schoolchildren.  As late as the 1960s it was still double that of children elsewhere.

The Commission found that 51 children had died at the Kamloops Indian Residential School.[2] Clearly, as there were 215 graves this number was greatly under-estimated.  In its many recommendations the Commission called on the pope of Rome “to issue an apology to survivors, their families, and communities for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in the spiritual, cultural, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis children in Catholic-run residential schools.”[3]  In 2017 the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, invited the pope of Rome to Canada and raised the possibility of a papal apology.[4]  And after the bodies were discovered even the Romish archbishop of Ottawa-Cornwall “apologised” for the role of the Roman Catholic institution in administering Canada’s residential school system, and requested that Francis I issue a formal apology.[5]

Now please understand me well: I am not advocating this modern, liberal nonsense of prominent figures issuing “apologies” for things which happened long ago, and were not committed by them personally.  One can only apologise for what one has personally done.  One cannot apologise in proxy for what one’s ancestors or predecessors did.  Therefore, issuing an “apology” in this case would simply be stupid and worthless.  If the Roman Catholic institution is guilty, an “apology” would achieve absolutely nothing.  It would be far better that the entire evil religious system was simply exposed for what it truly is.

This discovery caused a huge outcry in Canada.  Trudeau said he was “deeply disappointed” at the lack of a formal apology by the “Church” of Rome, and called on it to release all relevant records, adding that the Canadian government had “tools” to apply if the “Church” did not release the records.  Trudeau is a self-serving, extremely sleazy politician and no sensible person would pay any attention to anything out of his mouth.  He was only aiming to score points with the “First Nations” population.  Toronto’s archbishop, the Romish cardinal Thomas Collins, called Trudeau’s remarks “extremely unhelpful” and “uninformed” and said the school’s records are available at the Museum of British Columbia.[6]  It was a case of an untrustworthy politician and an untrustworthy religious leader squaring off, both trying to score points with their respective constituencies.  We should not believe anything either one says that cannot be backed up by solid evidence.

Don’t Jump to Conclusions: Wait for All the Evidence to be Analysed
  But before proceeding, in all fairness something needs to be made very clear.  The following is from Barbara Simpson, a well-known Roman Catholic journalist:[7]

“The issue that is getting the headlines is the ‘discovery’ of graveyards on the grounds of some of those now-closed Canadian schools and the so far unproven accusation that they are the burial grounds of hundreds of Native children.

“The implication is that the children were mistreated and that any deaths were the result of that and perhaps even intentional killings.

“The reaction to the news of the burial areas has elicited accusations ranging from deliberate killings to outright genocide.  Comparisons to Hitler are rampant.

“That there is no proof of those accusations at this point seems to make no difference to most of the news coverage…. The gauntlet has been thrown at the doorstep of the Catholic Church, and no one, least of all leaders in Canada, have sought to make any corrections.”

She is correct.  The accusations have not as yet been proved.  Implication is not evidence.  Western governments and news media are now anti-Christian by default, and although Roman Catholicism is not Christian they wrongly believe it is; so whenever they are able to damage the reputation of any church or perceived “church” they are always eager to do so, and to throw any dirt they can in the hope that some of it will stick, even if in time the accusations are revealed to be false.

Simpson went on:

“The original purpose of the schools was to teach the children the ways of the outside world to help them assimilate as well as to teach them the language.  The children were taken from their families and housed in these often-overcrowded schools.  It’s clear from records that it was often a difficult life for them.  Money was scarce, and they had no family to console them.

“Health was an issue for the children as well, as it was for everyone in those days.

“Tuberculosis was rampant and deadly, as were influenza, Yellow Fever and Typhoid Fever – to name just a few of the common killers.  There were no effective medicines nor were there any immunizations.  Everyone was a likely target – adults and children – and death was common.”

She makes some important points.  Death from disease was far more common in the late nineteenth century and well into the twentieth century than today, and medical care was nothing like it is now.  All too often people today project the world they live in onto earlier periods of history.  This is a mistake.

She continued:

“It should be noted that despite the deaths from illness, the Department of Indian Affairs refused to pay for the shipment of bodies back to the home villages of the deceased.  As a result, the schools had no choice other than to bury the dead nearby.  The burial was no proof of how or why the person died.

“What has caused the recent headlines and fire horrors was the revelation that ‘graveyards’ have been discovered on the grounds of a number of those schools.  There are reports that ground radar was used to learn of the burial grounds, but left out of any of those news reports is actual proof about who is buried there and how they died.

“There are also reports that many of those graveyards are actually community graveyards and that originally there were wooden crosses on the graves, but they have since deteriorated.

“Adults in the area support these allegations, but since no one has taken the time or effort to look further into who is buried there, the rumors and hate continue to fester – the result being more than 47 churches destroyed or vandalized.”

Certainly it would be right to wait until all the facts are in before jumping to conclusions.  The problem, of course, is that all informed Bible Protestants know what was once common knowledge throughout the West – that the Roman Catholic institution has been guilty, over and over again, of terrible atrocities against children and others.  Mass graves have been found elsewhere in very recent years – see two previous articles of mine, A Mass Grave of Babies and the Lie of “Limbo” and Another Mass Grave of Babies Who Died Under the “Tender” Care of Nuns;[8] children born to nuns, the offspring of elicit sexual relationships with priests, have been “disposed” of in hideous ways; etc.  Such occurrences are facts of history.  So we naturally find it easy to believe that these things may very well be true in Canada as well.  But even so we must only go by real evidence.  And what do we have so far?  Graves of children.  That is all.  How they died, or why they were buried there, are still mysteries at this stage.  In time all will be revealed.  Until then we should be slow to jump to conclusions.

The Roman Pope Blames European Colonisation
  In June the Roman pope Francis I said, “I follow with sorrow the news from Canada about the shocking discovery of the remains of 215 children, pupils of the Kamloops Indian Residential School in the province of British Columbia.  I join the Canadian bishops and the whole Catholic Church in Canada in expressing my sympathy to the Canadian people, who have been traumatized by the shocking news.”[9]

He went on: “The sad discovery further increases our awareness of the pain and suffering of the past.  May Canada’s political and religious authorities continue to work together with determination to shed light on this sad event and humbly commit themselves to a path of reconciliation and healing.”  Many would be fooled by his “humble” words – but if indeed it is found to be true that these children died from abuse, his words will cause many to forget or overlook the fact that it is the Roman Catholic “Church” in Canada which is to blame!

“These difficult times are a strong call for all to turn away from the colonizing model, and even the ideological colonisations of today, and walk side by side in dialogue, mutual respect, and recognition of the rights and cultural values of all the daughters and sons of Canada.”  Wait just a moment! – how is it that the pope of Rome managed to deflect attention away from his false “Church” onto the favourite present-day target of the politically correct and the “progressive” radicals – European colonisation?  If any institution is guilty it is his “Church” – but smoothly and without missing a beat he shifted the blame to those nasty, racist whiteys who came across the ocean and “destroyed” and “oppressed” the poor, innocent Indians.  What a diabolically clever move!  He was implying that if the pale-faces had never come, none of this would have happened – as if pre-colonial America was some kind of Edenic paradise of gentle, loving souls who never hurt anyone.  And of course he conveniently overlooked the historical fact that the priest-missionaries of his own vile “Church” crossed the ocean with those colonisers, spread across America and befouled it with the religion of Roman Catholicism.

Just in passing, note also another subtle nod to the PC brigade: saying “daughters and sons” instead of “sons and daughters”.  A small point, many would argue, but actually yet another shift from the accepted language of centuries towards a pro-matriarchal society, dominated by Amazons in which men are effeminate wimps.  With Rome’s emphasis on its goddess (Mary-worship) and its effeminate and massively homosexual priesthood, it has always been a feminised religion, so it finds it easy now to cater to the PC-brigade in this way.

“Commending the Children’s Souls” to God?
  Francis went on: “We commend to the Lord the souls of all the children who have died in Canada’s residential schools and we pray for the grieving families and communities of Indigenous Canadians.”

Oh, where to start in showing the utter falsehood of this one sentence?  But let me try, at least briefly.  “Commending to the Lord” the souls of those who have already died is a very Roman Catholic thing, but it is certainly not biblical.  For “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb. 9:27).  At death the eternal fate of every person is sealed.  It is too late for prayers to be offered then.  They cannot be helped by the prayers of the living – to say nothing of the fact that the prayers of Roman Catholics are not acceptable to God anyway.  Also, if the souls of the dead should be “commended” to God so long after they died, this raises the question of where those souls were before the Roman pope and his minions knew about them to pray for them?  If they were already in heaven (remember, this is just for argument’s sake – Romanists are not true Christians) then there is no need to “commend” them to God.  And if they are in hell, will “commending” them to God now cause them to be transferred from hell to heaven?  If so, this means they suffered in hell only for a time, not for eternity – they just needed the pope of Rome to pray for them.  Or if they are in purgatory (that Popish invention), they can only leave there – according to Rome’s own theology – after they have suffered for an unknown period of time; so again, “commending” them to God will simply not help them.  These are just empty words, meaningless phrases, which fall from the pope’s lying lips.

The Absurdity, Emptiness and Impossibility of Issuing an “Apology”
  Francis issued no formal apology.  Responding to requests for such an apology, the Romish archbishop of Toronto, Thomas Collins, said that a papal apology would need to happen on a papal visit to Canada, which would require “a number of steps from both government and church leadership as well as significant logistical, financial commitments and other considerations.”[10]  What utter nonsense!  Again let me be clear: any “apology” from the pope or anyone else who was not directly involved in committing the crimes is a meaningless gesture.  But since the Papacy believes in issuing such “apologies” when it suits it to do so, what is to stop Francis from immediately issuing one from the Vatican?  Why does he have to make a special trip to Canada before he can do so?  An apology can be given in a moment, and anywhere.  It does not require the physical presence of the Roman pope on Canadian soil. This was nothing but Rome attempting to wriggle out of a corner.

Then Collins said: “Pope Francis has encouraged the bishops to continue taking leadership and assuming their proper role in pursuing their pastoral engagement and reconciliation efforts with Indigenous peoples, including ongoing conversations among the bishops and elders.  This work builds on past apologies, dialogue and the desire to move forward together.”  Past apologies?  Yes, Roman Catholic organisations and leaders had already “apologised” for the past abuses in the system, which included a formal “apology” and even financial payments to survivors by the Romish religious order, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, which operated the Kamloops Indian Residential School for over seventy years.

So essentially this archbishop was saying, “We’ve said sorry before, so we’re not going to do so again now.”  Except that although they were “apologising” for abuses in the past, the children’s actual remains were only discovered this year!  All this shows just how empty and stupid an “apology” would be, for even if men who did not personally commit the crimes could apologise for them (and they cannot), an “apology” is clearly not repentance.  It is no better than when a parent says to a naughty boy, “Say sorry!” and the boy says, “I’m sorry.”  He is not sorry, he feels no remorse, he is not repenting, and the only reason he says it is to avoid punishment.

The Reaction: Roman Catholic Church Buildings Set Alight
  There followed violent reactions to the discovery of the children’s bodies.  In June two Roman Catholic church buildings in the same region of British Columbia burned down in suspicious circumstances.   One was at Penticton Indian Band, the other at Osoyoos Indian Band.  Both of them served Roman Catholic Indian families.  Investigators were considering whether the attacks were the work of arsonists.  “Possible motives could include someone targeting the Indigenous communities, or someone angry at the Catholic Church after the discovery of the undocumented graves of 215 Indigenous children at the grounds of a former Catholic-run residential school in Kamloops, British Columbia,” said a Roman Catholic article.[11]  The first “possible motive” should be dismissed.  Both the timing and the location of the two burnings were just too obvious: mere days after the remains of the children were discovered, two Roman Catholic church buildings in the same region were burned!  That this was the reason for the fires was also shown when other Roman Catholic church buildings were burned as well.

Many people were very angry after the discovery.  This was admitted by Penticton Indian Band Chief Greg Gabriel, who condemned the burning but added that there was “anger across Canada” at the discovery of the graves.  “Myself, I’m very angry,” he said.

The priest of the Roman Catholic parishes of Penticton, Sylvester Obi Ibekwe, announced there would be a candlelight vigil, “during which we will honour and pray for the repose of the souls of the 215 children”, he said.[12]  Here we go again: the Romish heresy of “praying for the repose” of the dead.  See above.  He asked people to bring teddy bears or children’s shoes to place on the steps of two Roman Catholic church buildings.  We assume these items were not intended for the poor dead children, so perhaps they were intended for some children’s charity.  But in light of Rome’s doctrine of salvation by works, this looks very much like an attempt to somehow “atone” for its past crimes: we were cruel to children before, so now we’ll give children toys and clothes.  What a tragedy.

More Remains Found – and More Burnings of Roman Catholic Buildings and Other Acts of Vandalism
  Then in June came yet another shocking discovery: this time, 751 unmarked graves were discovered in Saskatchewan on the grounds of the former Marieval Indian Residential School.[13]  This school, also, had been operated by the Roman Catholic “Church”.

  Soon thereafter, as stated above, two more Roman Catholic church buildings were burned – again under “suspicious circumstances”, again on British Columbia Indian reserves.  These were the Chuchuwayha Indian Reserve and the Lower Similkameen Indian Band.

Chief Keith Crow of the latter reserve said, “We’re in for more hurt now…. When all the rest of the residential schools start doing testing, there’s just going to be more and more pain that comes out.  The 215 was just a start.”  And Perry Bellegarde, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, Canada’s largest organisation representing the Indian reserves, said, “A lot of survivors, my relatives, they’ve been saying this for years and years – that there was a lot of death, there’s a lot of unmarked graves.  But nobody ever believed the survivors.”[14]

A few days later in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, a church building was spray-painted with anti-Roman Catholic graffiti.  A couple of days afterwards another Roman Catholic church building, this one on tribal land in Alberta, Canada, was found to be on fire, which according to the preliminary police investigation was deliberately set.[15]  And a statue of the Roman pope, John Paul II, at a Roman Catholic church building in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, was vandalised with spray paint, with red handprints being made on the statue.[16]

A day after the discovery of the further 751 graves, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, always quick off the mark to score political points, again asked the pope of Rome to visit Canada and “apologise” to Indian Canadians on Canadian soil.[17]

Next, in late June at St Paul’s Co-Cathedral in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, vandals spray-painted the words “We were children” and made red handprints in paint on the doors.[18]

And the protests spread to engulf statues of Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II as well.  Protesters toppled statues of the two British queens in Winnipeg, Canada, while chanting, “No pride in genocide”.  When the Queen Victoria statue was toppled to cheers, the crowd kicked it and danced around it, and daubed it in red paint hand prints.[19]

A statue of British explorer Captain Cook was also destroyed.[20]

Protests also occurred in Toronto, a #CancelCanadaDay march was held in Ottawa “in support “of the victims and survivors of the residential school system, and vigils and rallies were held across other parts of Canada as well.

In Alberta, Canada, more than ten church buildings were vandalised in a single day – Canada Day, the country’s national holiday – mostly with red paint.[21]  Most of the buildings were Roman Catholic, but not all: at least one belonged to the African Evangelical Church, consisting mostly of refugees from Africa who had fled to Canada from their own countries often because of anti-Christian madness there, including the burning down of church buildings.  Now they found themselves suffering a similar fate in Canada – supposedly a law-abiding western country still with some remnants of religious freedom.

Supposedly.  But not actually.

The criminality spread beyond Canada, to the United States.  In Denver, Colorado, a Roman Catholic church building was vandalised with graffiti in late June, in what may have been a reference to the discovery of the graves in Canada.  The number “1323″ was painted in large red figures on the outer wall.  It is believed this number may have cited an article about the number of bodies that had been found in unmarked graves at the sites of the schools in Canada up to that point.[22]  But this was not certain.  That this vandalism was definitely linked to the Canadian revelations could not be confirmed, but given the timing it is highly likely.

There were plenty of other incidents in the U.S. as well, in the wake of the discovery of the children’s graves.  An idol of the Popish “Mary” was split in half in a Roman Catholic parish courtyard in Queens, New York.  A monstrance (the vessel used for the holding of the consecrated wafer in the Popish mass) was stolen from a Roman Catholic church building in the Bronx, New York.  An image of “Jesus” in front of a Roman Catholic church building in Asheville, North Carolina was vandalised with red paint.[23]  There were various other incidents as well.

Hostility towards Romanism on the Increase: Black Lives Matter Destruction – and Now Destruction in Canada
However, vandalism of Roman Catholic places of worship had been going on for some time, long before the first 215 bodies were discovered, as documented in my article, The Destruction of Roman Catholic Images and Buildings During the BLM Revolution.[24] I wrote:

“The Black Lives Matter movement is Communist and therefore at heart it is utterly anti-Christian.  And although Roman Catholicism is not Christian, Communists are under the delusion that it is the greatest manifestation and representation of “Christianity” in the world.  Thus, in seeking to vent their hatred on Christianity, they target Roman Catholicism because they perceive it to be Christianity.

“We live in an era of rapidly growing hostility towards Christianity all over the world.  As man rebels against all moral restraints and shakes his feeble fist at the God of heaven, he vents his hatred on those who profess to be followers of Christ.  And to the man in the street, influenced by secular humanism, liberalism, Socialism, Marxism, etc.,  these are Roman Catholics more than anyone else, simply by virtue of the fact that the Roman Catholic institution is the largest religious body on earth which claims to be Christian (even though it is not).

“Romanism is also very visible, which makes it an easy target.  Its buildings are often large and ornate and easily identified; its images are prolific; its priests are instantly recognisable; so it presents a very convenient target for Communist and other revolutionaries.  Protestant places of worship are usually less ostentatious, and their leaders blend in with the general population.

“Lastly, but most importantly in the present BLM revolution, the revolutionaries target Roman Catholic places of worship because BLM promotes an anti-white agenda.  To these black revolutionaries and their white fellow travellers, Roman Catholicism represents everything that was most terrible about European Colonialism in centuries past.”

Conclusion
  Some of these more recent incidents are doubtless connected to the ongoing BLM madness; but many of them are now also directly linked to the discovery of the graves in Canada.  As time goes by more details will become available and the picture will become clearer.  For now, the Canadian Roman Catholic “Church” most definitely has a case to answer: why are there hundreds of children’s bodies lying in graves in the grounds of at least some of their schools?

August 2021

Shaun Willcock is a minister, author and researcher.  He runs Bible Based Ministries.  For other articles (which may be downloaded and printed), as well as details about his books, audio messages, pamphlets, etc., please visit the Bible Based Ministries website; or write to the address below.  If you would like to be on Bible Based Ministries’ email list, to receive all future articles, please send your details.

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ENDNOTES:

[1]. The Western Journal, republished by WND, June 27, 2021.  “Another pair of churches go up in ‘suspicious’ fires.”  www.wnd.com.

[2]Catholic News Agency, June 24, 2021.  “Police investigate after two Catholic churches burn on British Columbia tribal lands.”  www.catholicnewsagency.com.

[3]. Catholic News Agency, June 6, 2021.  “Pope Francis expresses sorrow after Indigenous children’s graves found at Church-run school.”  www.catholicnewsagnecy.com.

[4]Catholic News Agency, June 6, 2021.

[5]. Catholic News Agency, June 24, 2021.

[6]Catholic News Agency, June 7, 2021.  “Toronto archbishop responds to papal apology requests for Church-run school abuses.”  www.cathlicnewsagency.com.

[7]. WND, July 16, 2021.  “47 churches burned or vandalized – and leaders are complicit.”  www.wnd.com.

[8]. A Mass Grave of Babies and the Lie of “Limbo” (2009), and Another Mass Grave of Babies Who Died Under the “Tender” Care of Nuns (2017); go to “Articles Archive – Rome: Drawing Aside the Purple Curtain” on our website: www.biblebasedministries.co.uk.

[9]. Catholic News Agency, June 6, 2021.

[10]. Catholic News Agency, June 7, 2021

[11]. Catholic News Agency, June 24, 2021.

[12]. Catholic News Agency, June 24, 2021.

[13]. The Western Journal, republished by WND, June 27, 2021.

[14]The Western Journal, republished by WND, June 27, 2021.

[15]. Catholic News Agency, June 30, 2021.  “Historic Denver church vandalized, motive unclear.”  www.catholicnewsagency.com.

[16]. Catholic News Agency, June 30, 2021.

[17]. The Christian Post, June 28, 2021.  “Justin Trudeau demands apology from Pope Francis after 751 more graves of indigenous children found.”  www.christianpost.com.

[18]. Catholic News Agency, June 30, 2021.

[19]. Daily Maverick, 2 July 2021.  “Statues of Queen Victoria, Queen Elizabeth II toppled in Canada.”  www.dailymaverick.co.za.

[20]. Breitbart, 3 July 2021.  “Ten Churches Vandalized in Single Day as Anti-Christian Church Burnings Surge in Canada.”  www.breitbart.com.

[21]. Breitbart, 3 July 2021.

[22]Catholic News Agency, June 30, 2021.

[23]. Catholic News Agency, July 7, 2021.  “Statue outside NC parish restored after vandalism.”  www.catholicnewsagency.com.

[24]. The Destruction of Roman Catholic Images and Buildings During the BLM Revolution, by Shaun Willcock.  Available as a free download from our website: www.biblebasedministries.co.uk.  Go to “Articles; Drawing A side the Purple Curtain” and find it there.