Tweet
A roadside holy well and grotto at Mamore Gap, Inishowen Peninsula, County Donegal, Ireland. Photo by IrishFireside on flickr
In Ireland these days it is almost dangerous for a priest to walk down the street, and with good reason. From the Magdalene asylums, to the current pedophilia scandals the Catholic Church has been rocked to its core.
How and why did the Church cover up such horrible crimes – and in doing so perpetuate them for decades?
This scandal has reached to the highest levels of the Catholic Church:
DUBLIN — Pope Benedict XVI’s unprecedented letter to Ireland apologizing for chronic child abuse within the Catholic Church failed Saturday to calm the anger of many victims, who accused the Vatican of ducking its own responsibility in promoting a worldwide culture of cover-up.
The pope, who himself stands accused of approving the transfer of an accused priest for treatment rather than informing German police during his 1977-82 term as Munich archbishop, suggested that child-abusing priests could have been expelled quickly had Irish bishops applied the church’s own laws correctly. He pledged a church inspection of unspecified dioceses and orders in Ireland to ensure their child-protection policies were effective.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/20/pope-slams-irish-church-o_n_506942.html
Ireland on edge as church sex abuse report nears
THE bucolic peace of County Donegal, in the north-west of Ireland, is about to be shattered by a report into the paedophiles, both clergy and laity, who abused children for decades.
An investigation into clerical sex abuse in the Catholic diocese of Raphoe, in County Donegal, is about to report its findings, which are expected to be damning. New evidence has also emerged from victims of a parallel paedophile ring operating in the same Gaelic-speaking corner of the republic.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/ireland-on-edge-as-church-sex-abuse-report-nears-20110830-1jk1v.html
Archdiocese Must Release Files of Priests in Sex Abuse Cases: Settlement
Chicago – It’s a new protocol that can have an affect on abuse dating back to the 1950s. Under a legal settlement, the Archdiocese will have to release files about 35 priests accused of sexual misconduct and how the cases were handled.
The lawyer for 12 abuse victims said when a priest is found to be credibly accused, the priest and Archdiocese will now have 60 days to object to releasing the files.
Magdalene asylum
Inquiry into child abuse
In May 2009, the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse released a 2000-page report[10] recording claims from hundreds of Irish residents that they were physically, sexually, or emotionally abused as children between the 1930s and the 1990s in a network of state-administered and church-run residential schools meant to care for the poor, the vulnerable, and the unwanted. The alleged abuse was by nuns, priests and non-clerical staff and helpers.[11] The allegations of abuse cover many Catholic (Magdalene), Protestant (Bethany) and State-run Irish Industrial schools.
The Commission stated:
There were two types of inquiry, one drawing on contested evidence (Investigation Committee) and the other on uncontested evidence (Confidential Committee), which reported to the Commission. Between them the Commission received the evidence of over 1,500 witnesses who attended or were resident as children in schools and care facilities in the State, particularly industrial and reformatory schools.[12]
Abuse endemic in Irish boys schools, says independent report
By Cian Molloy
Catholic News ServiceDUBLIN, Ireland (CNS) — Physical and sexual abuse was endemic in Irish institutions for boys run by religious between 1940 and the late 1970s, said an independent commission report.
A report released May 20 by the Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse said a climate of fear created by pervasive, excessive and arbitrary punishment permeated most of Ireland’s institutions for children and all those run for boys. During the period examined, more than 25,000 children were in the care of these institutions, where they lived with the daily terror of not knowing where the next beating was coming from, said the report.
15 Comments
Given Ireland’s historically staunch support of Catholicism and the fact that the church was deeply embedded in its culture, it is amazing to see how that power has eroded over the past 20 or 30 years and how a much more open society has taken its place.
I should add–I was there in the 70′s and if I recall correctly birth control was illegal then, including condoms.
This could dent the Church industry as nothing else has.
Does the church endorse condom use when abusing a child ?
Inquiring minds would like an honest answer.
I agree. This is just too big, too pervasive and too completely contrary to what (supposedly) the Church stands for.
IMO – the Catholic Church needs to do two things, to really move forward:
1. Allow women to be ordained
2. Allow priests to marry
I was raised to be a Catholic, but I haven’t been a practicing Catholic since I became a teenager.
“How and why did the Church cover up such horrible crimes – and in doing so perpetuate them for decades?”
Perpetuate for decades. Institutionalized raping of children.
“more than 25,000 children were in the care of these institutions, where they lived with the daily terror of not knowing where the next beating was coming from, said the report.”
Living with daily terror. Institutionalized torture on children.
This is not the work of Dawg. Nor is covering for these things. This is the work of the “other guy”.
The Catholic church no longer has anything to do with religion. It’s a nest of pedophiles and should be treated accordingly.
While certainly not the majority there are even some Catholics that still believe the Earth is the center of the universe. This rigid adherence to infallibility of doctrine is, IMO, part of the culture that covered up the abuse crimes.
I remember when the first stories of child sexual abuse by priests started coming out of America. The Vatican’s response was to blame it all on the gay-rights movement in the US.
Then other victims in other nations started coming forward. And of course it wasn’t just boys, and it wasn’t just within the past forty-odd years of the gay rights movement, as the Magdalene asylums (the majority of which were founded in the 19th century) show.
One one thing …
3. Get rid of the Vatican
Gawd made them do it.
And more than a few of those sit in Judgment of us on the Supreme Court.
Why would anyone care what happens to the roman cult one way or another, except to spped it’s demise.
Religion is the enemy. Religion is humankind’s greatest tragedy,
It’s time to create laws and regulations that forbid priests, imams, preachers, rabbis, mullahs or pastors near children under any circumstances.
It’s time to criminalize cult interference in civil affairs.
It’s time to arrest der Papenfuehrer, the college of cardinals, bishops and archbishops as accessories to rape and child molestation and appoint a Special Prosecutor attached to the World Court to arrest and prosecute cult members and leaders who are accessories to rape.
It’s time to confiscate all the wealth of the roman cult to compensate their victims.
It’s time to criminalize cult interference in civil affairs, like marriage, adoption, divorce and etc.
It’s time to secularize their schools, colleges, medical and ‘charitable’ venues to prevent rape.
Not to diminish the high crimes of the RCC but Please examine the Jehovah’s Witnesses who go door to door and come on our property.
Jehovah’s Witnesses pedophiles.
Many court documents and news events prove that Jehovah’s Witnesses require two witnesses when a child comes forward with allegations of molestation within the congregation. Such allegations have customarily been treated as sins instead of crimes and are only reported to authorities when it is required to do so by law, (which varies by state).
It has also been shown that child molesters within the organization usually have not been identified to the congregation members or the public at large. These people engage in a door to door ministry, possibly exposing children to pedophiles.
The Watchtower corporation has paid out millions in settlement money already.
– Danny Haszard abuse victim
http://www.dannyhaszard.com