The theologian William Cavanaugh has said “torture is a kind of perverted liturgy, a ritual act which organizes bodies in the society into a collective performance, not of true community, but of atomized aggregate of mutually suspicious individuals.” Cavanaugh holds that is the real point of torture, to create (or rather uncreate) a population of people who are paralyzed by their suspicion of each other, and hence unable to form any bonds of solidarity against the society that has tortured them.
This is held in contrast to the Eucharist, where those who are broken, beaten, and forgotten are both figuratively and literally re-membered in the body of Christ. As the oppressive state creates separation, the Church unites. In one model we no longer seek to know our neightbour, but protect ourselves from him, in the other we are commanded to serve him.
This underlying fear of the other, has been the stain that has coloured the 21st century thus far. After the attacks of 9-11 much of the public discourse has been around the themes of protection, security, the rights of the individual’s freedom from interference; our right to be left alone. This has never been the Church’s teaching; we have never promised the world to be a safe place, we have never said that bad things don’t happen to good people (our faith is based on the premise that the worst thing happened to the best person), and we have never promised loneliness in amidst the chaos that is the World.
And yet as this these whirlwinds of fear, protectionism, and loneliness gather the ideals that we once held onto as a country are being whittled away. As party to the Convention Against Torture, Canada has traditionally been a country that has honored its obligation to protect those fleeing from torture, but under the new bait-and-switch tactics of the present government, much of what has been considered “traditionally Canadian” is being refashioned. Just after passing bill C-10, that will see the construction of mega-prisons, there now stands a bill that will radically change our country’s approach to refugee rights. Bill C-31, which is presently starting to go through the Senate, would impose strict, unrealistic new timelines, denying time for refugees to understand the process and to prepare cases, a minimum 1-year detention for irregular arrivals who will now face triple punishment – by their countries, their smugglers, and Canada.
You will recall how two years ago when Sri Lankan Tamil refugees landed on our shores how we greeted them with a debate as to how we define terrorists. While that debate raged and 40 Tamil children were placed in detention for 4 months, 700 bunnies were “rescued” from the grounds of the University of Victoria. In March 2011, when the Immigration and Refugee Board ordered the deportation of one of the Sri Lankan Tamil migrants, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews called the decision "an unmitigated victory for the rule of law." Would that we would meet our Lord as we meet the bunnies; an unwanted victim coming at an unwanted hour begging for asylum.
Mary-Jo Leddy, a Catholic activist who founded the refugee shelter Romero House in Toronto, has said that while the middle class can afford the luxury to be cynical about the government, the poor cannot afford a mediocre Church. It is the Church that must speak the truth of Christ’s compassion to those in power, that must show the world through the tears of Mary bearing witness to the tortured. If we can be this uncomfortable voice in the world, then we will be honouring the charge assigned us.
