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	Bishops Agree to Truth Hearings National Catholic Reporter February 6, 2008 http://ncronline.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2008a/020808/020808c.htm TORONTO — Catholic bishops in Canada have agreed to take part in a commission on abuse that occurred in church-run Indian schools. The bishops, whose participation was in doubt until now, said the hearings will provide "balance" to a decades-old controversy that pitted Christian churches against the schools. "Certainly, mistakes were made and we're open to acknowledging that and being responsible but, most of all, we're hoping that the story is really ... balanced," said Archbishop Sylvain Lavoie, one of seven northern Canadian bishops who met Jan. 29 in Ottawa with Phil Fontaine, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations. From the 1870s to about the 1970s, Canada's federal government, together with the Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian and United churches, removed aboriginal children from their villages and sent them to some 130 residential schools for training in Christianity and Western ways. Thousands of former students have alleged they were beaten, neglected and sexually abused. They have also charged that their native tongues and cultures were brutally suppressed. Last year, the government approved a $1.9 billion compensation deal for the estimated 80,000 surviving students of the school system. Compensation would come from the Ottawa government and the churches. But the Catholic church did not agree to the deal. Instead, it said it would pay $25 million toward a healing and reconciliation fund, open the church's archives, and provide counseling and other services to survivors. Part of the out-of-court settlement was the creation of a "Truth and Reconciliation Commission," which will hold public hearings across Canada. The bishops made no promises to apologize for wrongdoings or to bring the perpetrators to justice.
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