Update
Sexual abuse was endemic in boy's institutions and a chronic problem in some residential institutions according to the report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse.
The report published this afternoon states that sexual abuse of boys in the Artane Industrial School and Letterfrack was a chronic problem
RTÉ News: Sexual abuse was 'endemic' in institutions
'A defeatist attitude now would surely lead to defeat, it primarly a question of whether we have confidence in ourselves and the dilligence and determination of our people,We can't opt out of the future.' Sean Lemass (1965)
Truly shocking report.
I was at a Christian Brothers organised concert a few weeks ago (which was of the highest quality and superbly run) and to think that this kind of thing went on under their watch is incredulous.
I hope and pray that this dark period in the Irish Church's history can be put behind us.
The Christian Brothers and the Church in Ireland should be given every support in their battle against this evil.
Its an absolute scandal
"Excesses of punishment generated the fear that the school authorities believed to be essential for the maintenance of order." - It sounds like they were running a concentration camp and these people had the nerve to lecture about the sanctity of human life.
'A defeatist attitude now would surely lead to defeat, it primarly a question of whether we have confidence in ourselves and the dilligence and determination of our people,We can't opt out of the future.' Sean Lemass (1965)
The Christian Brothers and the Church in Ireland are this evil.Originally Posted by Factorem
The best way to put this dark period behind us is to put the Catholic Church behind us. Get them out of our schools, out of our hospitals and out of our government. Permanently.
Hang on, hang on !
Are you saying the Catholic Church can just waltz its way around this as per ?
The Church is always telling us that things were bad in the past because "that's the way things were done then." But who dictated how things were done then ? Who established and preached the moral standards ? Who had control of the minds and bodies of so many people in Ireland ? Who had their paws on the levers of political and social power ?
Don't come telling us it was just a few individuals. It was an institution - the Catholic Church. And that institution is still here and still in control of many levers in our society.
It must be made to pay and not allowed to slip away by claiming that all these offenders weren't really anything to do with the nice squeaky clean church of today.
If we fall for that argument, we are fools. But much worse - we fail the victims.
Why is this thread called "Catholic Church Abuse"?
Did anybody abuse the catholic church? Did anybody take advantage of the catholic church. I don't like it when people approach the subject with terminology such as "Clerical Abuse".... B0llucks to that. Nobody abused the clerics.
Its Child Rape......child rape by clerics. Lets not pussy foot about on this and call it what it is.
I hope the report doesn't confine itself to the sexual or even physical abuse.
One of the things that most shocked me about public reaction to the original broadcast of the 'States of Fear' series was how it focused almost entirely on the sex-abuse issue.
This was - of course! - completely horrific, but anyone with eyes and ears already knew it existed, if not how severe it was. As for the sadistic corporal punishment aspects, certainly no-one of my generation or older needed that underlined. We'd seen what the Brothers could dole out in ordinary schools, and used to wonder what they did behind closed doors, in places where people had no parents to protect them.
These aspects of the matter completely dominated public discourse after 'States of Fear' was shown on RTE. But the element of the scandal that was almost entirely neglected - both then and since - is the financial one. The schools & orphanages were very well paid for taking care of those kids, as both the tv series and the accompanying book 'Suffer the Children' comprehensively demonstrated. On top of that the religious orders both ran businesses of their own - using what was (in any normal usage of the term) slave labour - and hired the kids out to favoured others who similarly abused them and made fortunes off their backs.
This whole strand of the scandal, which formed an important part of both book and tv series, was virtually written out of the story in the aftermath of publication/broadcast.
Hopefully the publication of the report will offer a second bite at that particular cherry, and maybe this very interesting (& relevant) can of works will get some attention. I wouldn't hold my breath, though. Some of those fortunes are still around today, even in these grim recessionary days, and I'd suspect that some are attached to some very respectable names.
Just a footnote to mention that Fianna Fail were in government for 82% of the time covered by this report...
You're dead right mate.
This should be chased to the nth degree. It's too late to let the religious orders fall bankrupt through being sued by their victims, as the infamous deal covers them, but the state should pursue them for the return of the money, with interest, that it paid to these orders for looking after these children. The state should use every legal means available to it to destroy, through bankruptcy, any orders involved in this evil behaviour.
A similarly robust approach should also be taken to the secular church, particularly the bishops.
Any companies or individuals who profited from this evil should be named and shamed and have as much money striped from them as possible.
"We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep." - The Tempest, Act 4, Scene 1
And they were in government for all of the 9 YEARS it took to compile this report into horrors that everybody knew about!
If they had spent 9 YEARS pursuing the perpetrators that might actually have been worthwhile. For, as we have seen countless times in the past, Government reports and their reccommendations aren't worth a damn!
C
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