Why Catholic ethos and morality didn't prevent abuse of children

[Andrew49]

Isn't it true to say that many of these orders saw these children as being sinful, or the product of sin, and that they had to be cleansed of that sin? Weren't they just following God's example? Or is God the only one allowed to torture people?

There were two hundred and sixty-one (261) reports of emotional abuse made in respect of thirty-five (35) institutions. All witnesses who described emotional abuse spoke of being unloved, deprived of affection and feeling unwanted throughout their stay in the institution. They reported that they were told they were only there because no one in their family cared about them. The other main aspects of emotional abuse complained of were: personal denigration, family denigration, public humiliation, being subjected without explanation to fearful situations and having irrational fears instilled in them by a strong negative emphasis on religion.

[cactusflower]

I'm not religious, I'm an atheist, but if I did believe in spirits I think I would see these places as satanic. The "dark satanic mills" of William Blake's poem come to mind.

[wexfordman2]

Basically attenptin logic with the little band of Brothers (Kibarry, BertieInExile, Factorem et al) is only really a useful exercise in giving them room to show people following the discussion how nuts extreme religious beliefs can drive a person.

A collection of bitter Ned Flanders types that thankfully are dwindling pretty rapidly in Ireland.

We won't have to put up with these walking national embarrassments for much longer.

Well here is an example of the type of catholic morality that allowed it to happen.[COLOR="Red"] Kilbarry1 believes that a child is capable of having an affair with a grown adult, and has stated such on this website.[/COLOR] I also beleive he mentioned that he was at one stage or another in a religious order (not sure which one), now I am sure kilbarry1 was not invovled in anyhting himself, but for someone to believe that a child is capable of having an affair with an adult, ther morality is called into question, in my opinion.

Now, whther almanac or bertieinexile wish to keep themselves in this sort of company is thier decision, but I draw my own conclusions from that with regards their own sense of morality.

[tmesis2008]

Goldenbridge, Sisters of Mercy Order

Sr Alida
Looking back still I would have to say that I never had a feeling that I had a roomful of 150 sad and frightened children. I couldn’t say that from my heart. That doesn’t mean that there could be children very sad unknown to me. I didn’t know what was inside any child’s heart or in their head. We knew nothing at all about most of the families. Any research we did, it didn’t get us very far, their lives family wise was very bleak. I, at the time, wasn’t – didn’t take into consideration what state they were in. As teenagers or as babies. Babies you could compensate, the babies we loved and we hugged and we gave every kind of care to babies. They got the best. Any baby that came to our care, I can only say they got the best. When it came to children from 12 years upwards, I never knew what was inside their hearts or their minds

Sr Gianna
I would be very conscious of that when children came in from a family that had just lost a mother and how sad they would be. I would be very moved when I would see that because it was awful for them to come into this big school with this big crowd of children and to be just one of a group after being in a family setting.

You would be very conscious of 150 children not having the hug and the love and the care of someone who really loved them closely. You would be very conscious of that.

Those testimonies do not speak to my point, at all. Are you saying that the culture of sin and the denigration of sinfulness had nothing to do with this abuse?