[Sundaycommunity] A most powerful letter-LISTEN

Wed Jun 9 13:51:28 PDT 2021

Thank you for sharing.
The sun is shining just around the corner. You will get at that corner and
delight in that sun.
Best wishes,
Roberto

On Wed, Jun 9, 2021, 16:32 Randolph Haluza-DeLay via Sundaycommunity <
sundaycommunity at lists.integralshift.ca> wrote:

> Patricia and others
>
> I am a “lurker” on this list – I was included on it when I came to Toronto
> and looked around for a parish. It has been interesting to listen in (and I
> hope that you have not minded).
>
>
>
> I agree that evil catastrophes like this make me not want to be part of an
> institution that can allow this. I am disgusted beyond measure. But I do
> know a few things:
>
> 1)      I follow Jesus, not the human thing called the church (ok,
> theology of eccelesiology notwithstanding)
>
> 2)      I get sustenance from the Eucharist (pandemic starvation!) That
> means I have to go to church, unless crackers and LCBO hootch will suffice.
>
> 3)      When individuals band together they accomplish more than they do
> separately (works for ill as well as good, but that is a basic sociological
> fact).
>
> 4)      Is the church a hospice for sinners (well, yes, but maybe we
> should do a little more shunning?) or a hotel for saints (yeah, but if
> that’s the case, I’m homeless again).
>
>
>
> So I am forced to work with institutions that are flawed. This is
> particularly disgusting. Period.
>
>
>
> For further introduction – I was a university professor for 20 years,
> tenured in Sociology. Sociology actually helped me be less critical of the
> church’s imperfections. Religion (sic) is like all other human
> institutions. I don’t wholesale reject education because curriculum
> greenwashing environmental problems or reinforces white priviliege or
> abolishes indigenous history. Nor reject all politics because it tends to
> be about Power applied most contrary to my values (Canadian arms sales to
> Saudi Arabia used to attack Yemini’s, etc etc). Bleeping humans! G*ddamn
> them-why can’t they hold my views and practices. Oh, wait, see
> parenthetical comment on 4) above.
>
>
>
> SO, I am forced to work within and without to get those institutions in
> which I choose to use my energy) to do better – meaning, to be more godly.
> Oh, crum, means I have to learn to forgive as well as judge.
>
>
>
> Today I was on a webinar at St Thomas More College in Saskatoon – on
> Catholic settler responsibilities to Indigenous peoples. It was set up a
> month ago. Holy Spirit at work?
>
> I was also heartened by the Vancouver archbishop on CBC The Current a
> couple days ago.
>
>
>
>
>
> Last bit, I was a sociology prof for 18 years, tenured at a Christian
> university, and in Feb 2020 they suddenly eliminated my tenured position
> without warning, calling me “professionally diminished” and eliminating all
> recourse to appeal. Back to “bleeping Christians.” But I haven’t been able
> to move on; the past year has been a failed attempt at forgiving, and a
> year of unemployment and isolation. I know I need to forgive-that would be
> the key to my healing. I cannot imagine the agony of colonization in the
> name of Christ, but Christians DO do some crappy things. I still need to
> follow Christ.
>
> And God still acts: Alhamdulillah! The gospel passage at mass the day
> after that Cht university did this was Mark 6:11. And a couple months
> later, a Catholic Christian university reached out and gave me an
> affiliation (which I did not accept so that I could move to Toronto).
>
>
>
> The point is – GOD acts, GOD is. External to institutions like the church.
> But also internal to the Church. Religious people do poopy things, like
> non- or other-religious people do.
>
> And we can and should call our church to repentance, apology, and far more
> genuine reconciliation.
>
>
>
>
>
> *Sit nobis pax cum natura*
>
> Randolph Haluza-DeLay
>
> Now in Toronto: Social scientist at-large, cyclist, environmental justice
> advocate, former academic/always a scholar
>
> https://www.linkedin.com/in/randolph-haluza-delay-525a451/
>
> https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Randolph_Haluza-Delay
>
> **Monthly “Mind & Soul” column  for Canadian Mennonite magazine. Latest
> at: https://canadianmennonite.org/stories/majority-world-theology
>
>
>
> *From:* Sundaycommunity [mailto:
> sundaycommunity-bounces at lists.integralshift.ca] *On Behalf Of *Patricia
> Smiley via Sundaycommunity
> *Sent:* Wednesday, June 09, 2021 3:37 PM
> *To:* Welcome to the Sunday Community News Bulletin and Announcment
> Egroup. Please feel free to write messages. <
> sundaycommunity at lists.integralshift.ca>
> *Cc:* Patricia Smiley <smileypatricia76 at gmail.com>
> *Subject:* Re: [Sundaycommunity] A most powerful letter-LISTEN
>
>
>
> Thank you, Brenda, for forwarding this article/homily.  There is so much
> in it by this priest that resonates with me and my view of the Catholic
> Church, which is mostly that I don't want to be part of this anymore.  Who
> takes responsibility for this?  Well, obviously, whoever was running the
> school, even if they are long dead.  That doesn't absolve anybody else - or
> for the ongoing ignorance about the effect on indigenous peoples as whole
> to their treatment under the "settlers".  I think it has taken a very long
> time to acknowledge the humanity of our indigenous peoples, much like the
> blacks of the U.S. (and other places) who were brought there as slaves and
> still fighting for their inclusion and recognition in a white- dominated
> society.  I really pray it doesn't take us as long to recognize the
> humanity and dignity of our indigenous people as it seems to be taking in
> the U.S. past the end of slavery.  (Not that I am saying we are free from
> racism in Canada.)
>
>
>
> Past any "apologies" I would like to see real action on behalf of our
> church leadership in releasing whatever information and records they have
> about those 215 children.  Who were they?  Where were they from?  How did
> they die?  Where are their family members?  Then make this public, so we
> all know and acknowledge the ongoing effects on aboriginal communities.
>
>
>
> Read this homily and think about how the church (interesting that this
> priest really means the church as all of us, not just the hierarchy) has
> grown in its own self-determination for the laity.
>
>
>
> *Patricia Smiley*
>
> *email:  smileypatricia76 at gmail.com <smileypatricia76 at gmail.com>*
>
> *mobile:  647-517-1599*
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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>
>
> On Wed, Jun 9, 2021 at 3:06 PM Brenda Holtkamp via Sundaycommunity <
> sundaycommunity at lists.integralshift.ca> wrote:
>
>
> https://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/one-priests-message-to-the-church-shut-your-mouth-and-just-listen/
>
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