In April of 2024 Archbishop Linda, Archbishop Chris and I wrote a letter to the federal government asking that the day school settlement agreement be re-opened. Marvin Underwood, member of this diocese, has shared with me how traumatizing and unfair this process has been for him and for all the other claimants.
It was not until November 2024 that we received a response to our letter and it was, in short, disappointing. I shared the letter with Marvin and while all of it was frustrating to him, he was especially chagrined by the claims in the letter that mental health supports are available in communities across the country. This is not in fact the case. Marvin also shared with me how frustrating it is to him that the whole process, of compensating individuals for abuse suffered, fails to acknowledge the intergenerational trauma of abuse suffered at day schools.
Marvin’s claim for abuse suffered at day school has been done through forms and letters exchanged with the government and with Deloitte (the accounting firm contracted to adjudicate claims). The process has lacked compassion, understanding and grace. The process has leaned heavily towards the transactional (this amount of money if you can check these boxes for types of abuse and frequency of abuse). No transaction can compensate for abuse and dehumanization. What is needed is transformation, of people, of systems, of institutions.
As we begin the year 2025, we mark the feast of Epiphany and we remember how we are called, like the wise men, to resist the empires of the world and to return home by another road. If the wise men had simply done what they were told by Herod, the Christ child would have been killed. Salvation would not have come. May we too discern those times that we might be called to resist the empires of the world so that God’s love can break into the world, transforming us into instruments of love and compassion.
