No! to 'Duplessis orphans' (Canada).

Cap-de-la-Madeleine, PQ--After months of consultation, the Quebec bishops announced that they would neither apologize nor offer financial compensation to the 'Duplessis orphans' who were in the care of orphanages and schools run by Quebec Catholic religious orders during the Duplessis era. The surviving orphans are claiming redress, especially in being classified as "psychiatric" patients. The government paid religious institutions additional funding per child if the child was classified as a psychiatric patient rather than as an orphan. That issue is the government's responsibility, the bishops said, and has nothing to do with the Church. The religious orders did whatever they could to help the children.

In a statement released by the Assembly of Quebec Bishops on September 15, the bishops said that to apologize would be a "betrayal of the efforts of those persons who have dedicated their lives to helping the least fortunate". Bishop Pierre Morissette of Baie-Caomeau, the chairman of the Quebec Assembly of Bishops, did say that the bishops would cooperate with the provincial government's effort to create a $3-million fund to provide social services to victims and would continue to offer support to all those suffering in society.

The committee that represents the surviving orphans was outraged with the bishops' decision and called for a boycott of the Sunday collection in Catholic churches in the province.