They came with a list of names: All are priests. All have ties to Ireland. All are accused of sexually abusing children in the United States. Yesterday, a Waltham-based group that has been chronicling the US clergy sexual abuse scandal released the namesof 60 to 70 accused priests it says were born in Ireland or are of Irish descent who came to the United States and were reoffenders.
Boston Globe
I watched with glee, while your kings and queens, fought for ten decades for the gods they made.
Good for them. Surely the next step is for the catholic church to trace all the places all over the world to where those accused priests were transferred.
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"To be is to do"-Socrates; "To do is to be"-Sartre; "Do Be Do Be Do"-Sinatra
Thanks for this interesting post, Andrew. Goodness, it really puts into perspective the crap that we were taught in the "Christian Brothers" school, when we heard lessons about "Ireland's spiritual empire" and were encouraged to write essays about it. Even then, as a child, I wondered what was good about empires of any kind, the British sort that involved putting other countries and peoples under their control, or the Irish missionary kind that was a kind of substitute given that we couldn't manage to do the same as the Brits.
Now we can see how much harm our missionaries caused as parasites on the back of the English colonial beast.
Can't understand why some of the clerical abusers could not be named in the Murphy Report for "legal reasons". Were these "legal reasons" to protect the abusers or the abused?
.. along with the 800 abusers identified in the Ryan Report - all unnamed. The reason the names were withheld was to protect the abusers.Originally Posted by Phinaeus
I watched with glee, while your kings and queens, fought for ten decades for the gods they made.
Actually I believe the names were withheld because of prosecutions pending. Naming the accused could jeopardise the cases against them. I would prefer to see them locked up than to walk away on a technicality, even if it means not naming them...yet.
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"To be is to do"-Socrates; "To do is to be"-Sartre; "Do Be Do Be Do"-Sinatra
Disgusting. Almost every day I stumble upon something related to the church that makes my stomach turn and feel pitty for the ones who have to depend on its idea because they cannot find an understanding of the universe.
Good on them for calling on Cowen. I can't see it happening, but by calling on him, they have extended this whole crisis, outside the church.They also called on Prime Minister Brian Cowen of Ireland to recognize his country’s responsibility to inform the American public of all child-molesting clergy from Irish dioceses and religious orders who have immigrated to US dioceses.
The hurt of one is the hurt of all, the honour of one is the honour of all.
Native American Indian Traditional Code of Ethics
Not correct, Andrew.
They were not named for a myriad of reasons:
1) Some are currently the subject of prosecutions or may be as more information is gathered. The belief was that including their names could fatally compromise prosecutions. I'd much rather names were kept out if it meant even one of these animals at some stage in the future ends up in gaol where he belongs.
2) A lot of abuse victims don't want their abusers named because they have not revealed the details of the abuse to friends or family as it is still too horrible to have to explain over and over as people asked questions. They are afraid that if X is named at an abuser, and the report reveals he abused in parish Y in the 1950s, then kids who grew up in that parish, and who are parents or grandparents now, may have gossip going around about them, and what happened, etc. I know one explained to me once that more than anyone else he never wants his grandchildren to find out. His childhood was destroyed. His adulthood was wrecked. All his children saw the effects of what happened on him. He really wants to have a chance to have a 'normal' relationship with his grandchildren, one that doesn't involve having to answer painful questions or having himself looked on as a victim. I can understand his concern, his wish that led him to say "please let me have one set of normal relationships with someone in the family without having people feel sorry for me".
3) Given the length of the report it is always possible that an error may crop in that could accuse the wrong person, that in preparing the text someone may accidentially type in Fr Pat Bloggs instread of Fr Joe Bloggs. Given how common certain names are, there are parishes where there have been a couple of priests called Murphy, or O'Brien, or Riordan, or whatever. The wrong Murphy or O'Brien or whatever could slip through the editing process (in long documents errors are effectively impossible to avoid). At best they could accuse a totally innocent man of the crimes committed by someone with a similar name. At worst an innocently accused person could end up suing as they would be perfectly entitled to do, with the error costing a fortune.
The names aren't in to avoid compromising later prosecutions, because some abuse victims wanted it (though others wanted the names used), and for fear of a typo landing the state in a major legal accusation. It is not to protect the abusers. Ultimately it is to protect the chance of prosecuting them, and to protect some victims.
"Irish citizens . . . on ratification of the Treaty could be forced to become Euro soldiers." Sinn Féin claim on Maastricht in 'Democracy or Dependency' p.6. in 1992.
The catholic church is a charade whose sole purpose is to take money from fools. It should be treated in the same manner as Scientology and The Moonies is treated. A scam run by men who like to abuse power and kids. Shut it down.
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