'We were Children! Saskatoon Catholic cathedral covered with paint after discovery of 751 unmarked graves

The doors of a Roman Catholic cathedral in downtown Saskatoon were splattered with paint Thursday afternoon after the discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves at the former Marieval Indian Residential School. Video of the event posted to social media showed a woman painting and splattering red paint on the door and the sign of St. Paul's Co-Cathedral. Photos of the aftermath show the words "We Were Children" scrawled on the church door.

 

The Catholic Church has been criticized for its role in the residential school system, especially for its reluctance to provide records relating to burial grounds. On Thursday, the Cowessess First Nation announced the preliminary discovery of 751 unmarked graves at the former residential school. The announcement caused shock and outrage across the country. The findings further come after another discovery at the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation in B.C. which announced the discovery of a burial site adjacent to the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. Preliminary findings indicate the site contains the remains of 215 children.

 

 

 

 

Father Stefano Penna, the priest at St. Paul's Cathedral, said this was the second time this has happened to his church after the discovery of the remains of people at residential schools. He said he understands the anger Indigenous people are feeling. "My heart is broken at what was done in the name of Christ, but what was done actually more by acquiescing to a kind of government and social policy that sought to to 'civilize and colonialize' people by taking who they were, out," he said, "And this is an expression of that."

 

 

Penna said he would like to sit down with the group that staged the event and listen to what they had to say. "We have to stop seeing people as ideas, but to see people as people," he said. That's what happened in the residential schools ... These weren't children and families with faces when the police came in and took them away." However, he said he does not agree with the actions.

 

 

"This objectively is a crime. This is vandalism. This shouldn't be done to any crosswalks with the rainbow flag or any mosque or any synagogue," he said. "We don't ever solve anything that was hateful in the past by continuing to hate."

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