Any question raised about the mass graves involving indigenous people in Canada immediately generates the accusation of someone being an apologist for the Catholic Church and what it did, or worse, a racist and imperialist. To be clear, the Catholic Church did operate schools and there is no denying abuses took place. It was therefore correct that the Pope apologised profoundly for this abuse against a people harmed on their own land.
But that cannot change the fact that mystery surrounds the 215 unmarked graves apparently discovered in 2021 near the Kamloops Residential School in British Columbia, a catalyst for the pilgrimage undertaken by Pope Francis. As Jane Stannus wrote in the Spectator, the anthropologist who made the discovery - Sarah Beaulieu - found 215 areas which showed soil disturbance which could be graves (or other excavations) although later revising “the number down to 200 because stones, metal content and roots indicated other possible causes.” In the late 1990s a child’s rib had apparently also been found, followed by a tooth in the 2000s.
