Liberals don’t think there’s a war on anything. They’re just tired of hearing about this **** happening on your watch, and the enormousness and widespread mode of operation of the crimes begs the question: what are the guidelines that these institutions must adhere to, and why do they end up with the same protocols if they are not being instructed or allowed to by the church? Surely it’s not a religion, to question authority in the face of overwhelming evidence? Every action requires an equal and opposing reaction.
The findings prompted the new Archbishop of Westminster, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols, to say that it took “courage” for those clergy involved in child sex abuse to confront their actions.
In an interview to be broadcast tonight on ITV News at Ten, he said:
"I think of those in religious orders and some of the clergy in Dublin who have to face these facts from their past which instinctively and quite naturally they’d rather not look at. That takes courage, and also we shouldn’t forget that this account today will also overshadow all of the good that they also did."
The report found that molestation and rape were “endemic” in boys’ facilities, chiefly run by the Christian Brothers order, and supervisors pursued policies that increased the danger. Girls supervised by orders of nuns, chiefly the Sisters of Mercy, suffered much less sexual abuse but instead endured frequent assaults and humiliation designed to make them feel worthless.
Over the past decad
e Ireland has published five investigations into the church’s** serial cover-up of crimes by pedophile priests
in the Dublin Archdiocese and two rural Catholic dioceses; the sexual, physical, and psychological abuse of tens of thousands of children consigned to state-funded industrial schools since the 1930s; and now, as a final piece of that puzzle, the Magdalene laundries.
In response to the furor aroused by the media reports, the Irish government commissioned a study which took nine years to complete. On May 20, 2009, the commission released its 2600-page report, which drew on testimony from thousands of former inmates and officials from more than 250 church-run institutions. The commission found that Catholic priests and nuns had terrorized thousands of boys and girls for decades and that government inspectors had failed to stop the chronic beatings, rapes and humiliation.
The report characterized rape and molestation as “endemic” in Irish Catholic church-run industrial schools and orphanages**. In February 2002, 18 religious institutes agreed to provide more than €128 million in compensation to the victims of child abuse.** Most of the money was raised from church property transfers to the State.
Chapter Overview:
Witnesses reported being physically, sexually and emotionally abused, and neglected by religious and lay adults who had responsibility for their care, and by others in the absence of adequate care and supervision. Many of the 216 named settings were the subject of repeated reports of abuse. In excess of 800 individuals were identified as physically and/or sexually abusing the witnesses as children in those settings. Neglect and emotional abuse were often described as endemic within institutions where there was a systemic failure to provide for children’s safety and welfare.
The Conclusions on sexual abuse which are outlined at Paragraph 7.549 were that sexual abuse of boys in Artane by Brothers was a chronic problem. Complaints were not handled properly and the steps taken by the Congregation to avoid scandal and publicity protected perpetrators of abuse. The safety of children was not a priority at any time during the relevant period.**
Dear Missluckie: Admittedly, a good many bad deeds have been committed by members of my Church, and sometimes by people in our leadership roles. And a lot of equally bad things have been done by atheists. Such things don’t speak to the core beliefs and higher aspirations of either group. None of us are good every minute of our lives and no one is bad every minute of their lives. We are just people, and like the source from which we came, we are growing and learning as we go. The question should be, what can people do to make things better without regard to what we might believe? I belong to a faith that has a set of dogmas, and you belong to a faith with dogmas as well. Atheism is full of materialist dogma and has it’s own high priests, such as Richard Dawkins. But surely, the capacity for love and the desire to thrive is the same in both of us. So, the question insofar as I can reason is what do we do about that collectively? How can we love and thrive and grow together without regard to the contexts we are wrapping around reality with our theologies?
If you are looking for someone to admit that some in our Church have done some very wrong things, then I will admit that. So now perhaps we should ask where we go from here. What do we do about the “now” that we are living in, and the future we’d like to help materialize? None of us has to believe in anything to love each other and to look for ways to make our lives fuller. I bet the only thing either of us wants is to find some happiness, and respecting one another’s core values is a good place for us to start. It doesn’t matter if I follow Jesus or someone else follows Krishna or the Buddha, or if you follow your own heart with no belief in God whatsoever. We can still use our lives to fulfill what we sought, which are the same basic things - love, security, creativity and a sense of mutual well-being.
