The latest development was a proposal at Keewatin's synod this summer by some Native members to separate from the Northern Ontario and Manitoba diocese. In all three issues, it is easy to simplify these highly complex matters. It keeps people from having to wrestle with the past to discern what was good and what was not. But no amount of pretending one side is all right and the other all wrong will advance the situation. Church guilt is present in spades in these issues.
Guilt can be a motivator to seek justice but it can also be an impediment to a just solution.
Secular guilt seems virtually absent and critics who note the lack of a social conscience in Canada have increasing data to show we are all failing Native Canadians badly. The residential schools issue is the one that has church officials most worried. Their concern is threefold. There is reason to feel guilty. There was physical, sexual and emotional abuse.