Ireland reform schools abuse brought to light...

[icerose]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_ireland_catholic_abuse

This is really heartbreaking and I think a good illustration of what happens when you give any group of people complete immunity from their actions. Had this been dealt with on a case by case basis as soon as it was known, you would have a handful of victims. Instead there are thousands upon thousands.

I hope everyone can learn from this in the future that if someone, anyone is doing something wrong they should be brought to task for it and not have their actions covered up and the shuffle commence.

[MattW]

Rome would be wise to shine a harsh light on the activities of all orders and institutions.

If the Irish develop a distaste for Catholicism, the Church as a whole is left with a much smaller base for priests and nuns.

[citymouse]

This is the reason so many of my friends describe themselves as recovering Catholics.

I was wondering how long the abuse of children, both sexual, spiritual and psychological, at the hands of nuns, as well as priests would come out.

My sister, brother and I were extruded through the Catholic school system.
I personally was never sexually assaulted. I guess none one fancied me.

That said, I and many of my classmates were subjected to, humiliation, bullying and physical harm. By far the humiliation at the hands of women we were expected to revere as 'brides of Christ' was the the most harmful. My parents were complicit in this in that they too held an exalted idea of Sister Mary Heart O'Stone and her ilk.

It wasn't until my sister came home from school with slap mark across her cheek that my parents relented and let her switch to a public school. by this time I had long since graduated from high school.

I went into school devout and I left it devout, yet with a spirit badly, dare I say hideously, marred. My devotion to the Lord remains firm but I have to say his choice in women sucks.
C

[icerose]

I'll keep my personal opinions out of it as I'm not a catholic. How horrible. I hope you are dealing well with this, I can't imagine dealing with that from someone in the positions these people take. Like I said before though, immunity is a very bad thing to give people. Many will abuse it.

[Fran]

I was raised Catholic and went to Catholic school, but the teachers weren't nuns or priests. Citymouse, your experiences sound horrendous and I hope you have or can recover from it.

The abuse of these children was insidious, and covered up at all levels of the heirarchy. Particularly reform schools, where girls could be sent just for 'flirting'. To traumatise these children by abusing them was hideous enough, but to then cover it up is an absolute disgrace. If anything was ever done, and it wasn't usually, the priest or nun would be moved to another diocese where they were then free to traumatise and abuse another set of children.

The Catholic Church undoubtably has a crisis of recruitment and attendance in the West, and is it any wonder when sickening things like this were allowed to carry on unchecked? I don't believe for a minute that there is any serious or organised attempt to remove these abusers from their positions of power, (even the current Pope is implicated in covering up sexual abuse and protecting accused priests) and until there is it's extremely different for me to embrace the Catholic Church as a force for good.

[euclid]

The report that the Commission on Child Abuse has published took years to prepare. It names none of the perpetrators of physical, psychological and sexual abuse. Not one. The victims feel betrayed (all over again).

What worries me is that everyone seems to think these abhorrent practices all happened years and years ago, before colour photography. Nothing to worry us today. In fact, I am sure that people like these are still in our midst and still abusing children, using the same methods of intimidation to keep their actions secret and continuing. These people are monsters. They seem to be incapable of understanding the harm that they are doing, or of reform. A lot of them (probably the majority) think that they are doing nothing wrong.

We need better, smarter systems to make these activities impossible. These systems are nowhere on the horizon, and the authorities seem incapable of taking decisive, effective action to develop them.

Lest anyone think, btw, "Thank heaven this is all happening in Ireland, and not here," let me assure you all that this is not just an Irish problem. It is a world-wide phenomenon. And I believe it is growing.

[citymouse]

Recovering just fine thank you yet I can still feel every cut as if it was inflicted this morning. In all my books my MC was/is a devout Catholic with a healthy sense of self that shoulders away the hurt. I guess this is my catharsis.

As the priest said to Dominick the altar boy / offertory collector, "Dominick go frisk 'em." You have to be of a certain age to get that one! :)

C

There is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still. ~ Corrie Ten Boom

[icerose]

The report that the Commission on Child Abuse has published took years to prepare. It names none of the perpetrators of physical, psychological and sexual abuse. Not one. The victims feel betrayed (all over again).

What worries me is that everyone seems to think these abhorrent practices all happened years and years ago, before colour photography. Nothing to worry us today. In fact, I am sure that people like these are still in our midst and still abusing children, using the same methods of intimidation to keep their actions secret and continuing. These people are monsters. They seem to be incapable of understanding the harm that they are doing, or of reform. A lot of them (probably the majority) think that they are doing nothing wrong.

We need better, smarter systems to make these activities impossible. These systems are nowhere on the horizon, and the authorities seem incapable of taking decisive, effective action to develop them.

Lest anyone think, btw, "Thank heaven this is all happening in Ireland, and not here," let me assure you all that this is not just an Irish problem. It is a world-wide phenomenon. And I believe it is growing.

No, I don't believe that. I do believe, however, that those in power and those within the catholic church in power, had they acted as they should have and not covered this up, but instead taken care of the problem as soon as it came to light there wouldn't be nearly the volume of victims we see and I strongly believe that there are many more victims that have yet come out.