Irish abuse victims express anger with Pope

[anglicanmale]

Irish abuse victims express anger with Pope

Written by Cian Malloy, Catholic News Service ,

Irish bishops hold a press conference at Vatican Radio Feb. 16 following their two-day meeting with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican. Victims have expressed anger the church will not take full responsibility for covering up the abuse. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
DUBLIN, Ireland - Victims of clerical child sexual abuse in the archdiocese of Dublin said they are close to despair because the church will not take full responsibility for covering up the abuse.

catholicregister.org/content/view/3907/849/

 

[NPC]

At this stage - in Ireland at least - this is old news. The hype that the media was generating has died down, aided in no small part by the recent resignation of four high-profile public representatives (including two government ministers). There has been very little focus on this story for at least the past week - so either this story is no longer encouraging higher readership or else certain reporters are “digging”. Either is possible; many people wouldn’t say it for fear of being branded as insensitive towards victims’ suffering, but I feel that people are growing very weary of how this is all being played out in the media.

As to the CR article itself, it says that the victims were “outraged”. They made that abundantly clear. However, it seems that they fail to see the visit to Rome as one step in a long process - a total of about 10 hours spent with the Pope was hardly going to solve our problems which are the result of decades and decades of abuse and mismanagement of the Church’s affairs. Maeve Lewis continues to affirm that the only bishop who seems to accept the findings of the report is Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin - this is clearly not the case and the bishops have issued individual statements in which they outline their views on the report, what happened in the Archdiocese, and how they are determined to safeguard children in their own dioceses. Marie Collins refers to Archbishop Martin passing on their “concerns” to the Pope - this refers to a letter which she, Mr Madden (another victim) and Ms Lewis sent to the Pope ahead of the Bishops visit to Rome. Interestingly, before the bishops departed, Ms Collins, Mr Madden & Ms Lewis were referring to the contents of the letter as “demands” - now they are “concerns”. Before the visit, the language was that of bullies, now it’s more appropriate and befitting a wounded victim (mere “concerns”).

I have clarified many times on CAF that I most certainly DO favour justice for victims of abuse. However, a small group have really played the media, and the media have played along with them to really distort the truths of the Murphy Report. One victim wrote a letter to the editor of a national newspaper last week in which he spoke of how disgraceful that certain victims have used the media in the way they have. What the newspapers don’t tell us, for example, is that the Church’s safeguarding children policies are actually more effective than the state guidelines. One diocese in particular - Ferns - which was notorious for abuse is now being held up as a model for how both Church and state can go about implementing effective child protection policies.

 

[ChadS]

Irish abuse victims express anger with Pope

Written by Cian Malloy, Catholic News Service ,

Irish bishops hold a press conference at Vatican Radio Feb. 16 following their two-day meeting with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican. Victims have expressed anger the church will not take full responsibility for covering up the abuse. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
DUBLIN, Ireland - Victims of clerical child sexual abuse in the archdiocese of Dublin said they are close to despair because the church will not take full responsibility for covering up the abuse.

catholicregister.org/content/view/3907/849/

I don’t mean to sound harsh, but don’t we hear this all the time. In the US victims’ groups were always talking about “this is a start” or “we have a long way to go” or “this doesn’t make up for the years of …” When the news conference gets to the part where they say “we’d like to see” or “they should …” the list of demands or requirements that follow are nearly impossible to satisfy, or in any other legal situation would never be considered or even sound reasonable and often times ask for sanctions and punishments that deprive people of basic civil rights. In some instances “full responsibility” would basically mean dismantling the Catholic Church as an organization and a force for good in society.

I don’t know much about the particulars of the Irish case but I wonder if some of these demands on the Irish bishops aren’t following similar patterns seen elsewhere.

ChadS

 

[Sonny1954]

“Old News” perhaps. But the wounds are still fresh and will be for the forseeable future. Saying “I’m sorry” doens’t take away the pain one has caused. Stories such as these are relevant as long as victims still suffer. One cannot slip out of their repsonsibility by going through the motions of contrition.

 

[NPC]

“Old News” perhaps. But the wounds are still fresh and will be for the forseeable future. Saying “I’m sorry” doens’t take away the pain one has caused. Stories such as these are relevant as long as victims still suffer. One cannot slip out of their repsonsibility by going through the motions of contrition.

Sorry - I didn’t mean that in any sort of flippant manner; I was merely relating to the news story, not the suffering of victims which, of course, is ongoing. I have said it in many posts here of CAF that I am in no way against justice for victims, the Church has a long way to go in the process of bringing healing, but unfortunately some victims have greatly used the media to advance arguments which actually have no basis in truth in the Murphy Report which they themselves are admonishing us to accept.

 

[Layman]

This issue is a stick used by the Devil and his minions to beat the Church with.

Forget that it’s the Church involved. Imagine it’s the BMA.

Now imagine victims and their supporters constantly demanding radical changes to the BMA and perennial apologies. It just wouldn’t happen. Settlements would be made and that’s that.

The guilty men have been found and tried. Bishops made mistakes in not enforcing canon law and in listening to ‘therapists’ who said perverts were ‘cured’. These bishops have resigned.

What’s left?

Also, I’ve read that the Bishops couldn’t summarily unfrock the perverts. There would have to have been an enquiry which would have created ructions and more distress to the victims, I dare say.

You see a lot of hot air on this matter and then you read a short paragraph here and there which explains succinctly why this has come about.

Another reason given is that, post-Vat II, the idea of a Bishop dealing harshly with dodgy priests went out the window. I guess it might be the ‘love the sinner’ mentality that thought these men were redeemable(?)

Another thing I don’t understand is that pederasty and pedophila are illegal, aren’t they? So why bang on at the Church? With any other institution the first place you’d go is the Garda station. You wouldn’t expect a secular institution to police itself well. That’s naive. You go to a third party.

I’ve also read that people abused in state-run institutions find that any actions against said institiutions are vigorously defended; no hand-wringing or apologies, there.