Outstanding coverage, difficult subject
The Catholic Spirit’s presence at, and coverage of, the Tekakwitha Conference July 19-23 were outstanding. My own attendance, motivated simply by a desire to learn about American Indian Catholics, immersed me in the historical and present-day injustices suffered by my fellow American Indian Catholics and my own complicity in them by my ignorance, forgetting and inaction.
The injustices included territorial dispossession by national legislation, military battles, and unfulfilled treaties. Then, American Indian Boarding Schools to separate Native American children from their families and assimilate them by suppressing their language, appearance, and religious and cultural practices. Researchers have not yet gotten the full facts of these boarding schools and speakers suggested that some reluctance to provide records on the part of religious bodies has been an obstacle. We do know that over 500 children died and were buried on the grounds of the boarding schools. Of the more than 400 U.S. boarding schools, 87 were run by the Catholic Church.
As Catholics, we face a huge challenge, very clearly pointed out by Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart, professor of psychiatry at the University of New Mexico. In the name of our Savior, who taught us to love one another as he loved us, we must begin the task of healing. Brave Heart outlined the framework for this healing: 1) confront the trauma, 2) understand the trauma, 3) release the trauma, and 4) transcend the trauma. This is ours as Catholics because our Church was, and still is, part of the harm. We must be part of the healing.
Even this will not complete the healing. Still to be faced are the trafficking of American Indian children and the great number of missing and murdered American Indian women. We must find ways to see Christ suffering in our American Indian fellow Catholics.
Richard Podvin
St. Odilia, Roseville
No end to learning
What a delightful testimonial in the “Why I am Catholic” (Carol Rusinko), July 13 edition. Something in it caught my eye that is critical to our personal growth as functional Catholics: “I realized as an adult that I had to fully learn my faith when my oldest daughter asked me a question … I knew the answer but couldn’t fully explain it to her.”
Our Catholic faith (philosophy of life) is like any study. Engineers don’t work with eighth grade science. Journalism professors don’t teach with eighth grade information. As we progress through life, we grow mentally. That increased capability demands more study to satisfy the attendant curiosity and results in a deeper understanding of the subject matter.
Where are our adult education materials? There should, at the very least, be a copy of the “United States Catholic Catechism for Adults” (USCCB) in every Catholic home. As we progress through our evangelization efforts, let us remember an old salesman’s adage: It’s easier to retain present customers than to recruit new ones.
Art Thell
St. Joseph, West St. Paul
