I should be inured to this by now, but the parade of atrocities just goes on and on and on.
Nearly 2,400 allegations of sexual abuse across hundreds of Ireland’s religious-run schools have been documented in a new report, marking the latest grim revelations to emerge from the country’s historic Church-State entanglement.
The report, released Tuesday, documented 2,395 allegations of historical child sexual abuse, involving 884 alleged abusers in 308 schools across the country.
Most of the allegations were reported from the records of 42 religious orders that currently run or previously ran schools in Ireland. The scope of the allegations ranges from 1927-2013. More than half the men accused – which include teachers and priests – have died, it said.
Ireland’s Minister for Education Norma Foley said Tuesday that the level of abuse detailed in the report was “truly shocking – and so is the number of alleged abusers.”
She called the report a “harrowing document, containing some of the most appalling accounts of sexual abuse.”
There's more at the link.
Needless to say, the usual suspects are making grave noises about how sorry they are that this happened, and that the Catholic Church will do everything it can to ensure it never happens again . . . but they won't do the one thing absolutely necessary to prevent that - namely, change the way the Church is governed. As long as what amounts to absolute power is in the hands of a very few "organization men" (and women, when it comes to female religious orders), and delegated to parish priests and other subordinate managers, for just so long this atrocity will continue, because there are few if any practical checks and balances on those in the system.
I should know. I was a part of that system until the child sex abuse scandal forced me to confront reality, and led me to leave my priesthood and the Church. That decision has caused me more pain and angst than any other I've ever taken . . . but I felt then, and still do, that I had no moral alternative. I formally complained to my Bishop that every measure the Church was instituting to fix the problem was no more than pious window-dressing, and would do nothing to resolve the problem. I was told to shut up and obey orders (in rather stronger language than that). I was ordered to tell my congregation that they could trust the Bishops to do the right thing, and lead the Church out of this mess, and all would be well in future. Since I could see with my own eyes that that was a lie from start to finish, it left me with a stark choice; obey the powers that be, or obey my conscience. I was not alone in making that decision.
Today, almost a generation after the scandal broke, the situation has not improved to any great measure. Prelates and priests are still being exposed as pedophiles, some of them of the grossest kind, active in their sin for decades. They were not exposed until one or more of their crimes broke through the veil of silence and became public knowledge, and even then, many of them have remained relatively unpunished - even defiant, as if their activities were not wrong or evil in any way. I have no idea how they can square that with the Gospel warning. I daresay they'll find out one day whether they were right.
I said, when this all blew up, that we'd see Church officials suggesting that most of the problem was in the past, and no longer relevant to today's Church. Sure enough, a generation later, I'm seeing precisely that defense made. It's already being raised about the Irish report - "Yes, but most of those cases are decades old, and the perpetrators are dead!" Doesn't mean that the damage they did has not continued, and permeated into Irish society to a horrifying extent. How many of those abused kids went on to become abusers themselves, or emotionally so shut-in that they made their spouses' and childrens' lives a misery? Far too many, I'd think . . . those are known consequences of such abuse. What's more, there are enough current cases of abuse to give the lie to the claim that "It's all historical!".
I can only suggest to Catholic parents, in the strongest possible terms, that they should be very cautious indeed about entrusting their kids to the "care" of the Church, particularly without constant supervision they can trust. They certainly can't put their faith in the Church's definition of "trustworthy supervision"!
I did not sleep well last night, after reading that report. I don't see how any believer can, particularly Catholic clergy - unless they write it off as yet more anti-Catholic spite and propaganda, that can be ignored.
Peter
21 comments:
"[B]ut they won't do the one thing absolutely necessary to prevent that - namely, change the way the Church is governed."
Or banish the genophobic, gnostic hell that is mandatory celibacy for its leaders.
I've taken flack for saying so, but there's little doubt in my mind that there wouldn't be nearly as many instances of sexual abuse had those men been allowed to marry so they'd have the natural outlet for their God-instilled desires. Repressed sexuality rarely produces anything good.
The requirement of celibacy for the Catholic clergy dates far back in history, at least to the 800s.
My admittedly cynical reading of this was that the purpose was to accumulate land and property from the second sons of baronial and noble families, as the practice of the time was to have the eldest son inherit the title, the second son went into the Church, and the third to the Military. Churchmen outlived knights and military members, and so, inherited. On their death, their property went to the Church.
John in Indy
While I agree that celibacy shouldn't be a requirement for clergy, children are far more likely to be abused by parents or other family members than by clergy: https://www.statista.com/topics/5910/child-abuse-in-the-united-states/. Of course, it's a horrible crime no matter who commits it, but marriage doesn't fix the problem.
Manaic, are you trying to say that married men aren't/can't be pedophiles: I think Epstein's Island proves otherwise.
It is the massive deceit and hypocrisy involved in these sex and abuse scandals around the world, which have been ongoing for the great majority of my life, that is directly responsible for my leaving the Catholic Church. As the latest example in the long history of sexual, political and financial scandals which have defined the Church for centuries (look up Cesare Borgia for an example) and I have lost all trust in institutional religion in general and the Church in particular.
I am still a religious individual, and believe in the word of God as written in the bible, but I put no trust or faith in a Church which is more interested in political power and wealth, than in the teachings of Christ.
In the USA, the public schools are at least as bad as the Catholic schools at their worst. Due to these scandals, the Church has lost some of its power to suppress the problem and has, under great public pressure, slowly and reluctantly instituted what sound like some real reforms. The US teachers unions, on the other hand, still have immense power, and still use it to protect pedophiles.
Given the woke agenda sweeping Ireland, I would be surprised to learn that Irish public schools are less of a horror show than the Church schools have been demonstrated to be. I hope I'm wrong.
Thank you Peter. Your observation about the down line abuse by the abused is spot on. "Abuse, the gift that just keeps on giving". The timeline of abuse is why only God can forgive sins. We do not possess the power to claw back the evil destruction sin creates over time. As a down line victim of an older brother abused by clergy I know whereof I speek. My own capacity for aggressive violence is shocking.
Due the family moving around, I went to 5 separate public high schools in the '80s over a 4 year period. In every one there were teachers abusing students or in sexual relationships with students. Every single school.
I knew as soon as I saw this that the usual pedo supporters would be chiming in with there usual "some other group is worse". Can any of them point out to me where in the Bible (any version) it says "as long as you are raping fewer children then someone else you are good"?
If the Priests just converted to Islam, the Authorities would look away.
Its a misapplication of what Paul said in Corinthians that It is good to remain single as he was.
During my child raising years, even though I'm not Catholic, I sent my kids to an American Catholic school, and made it a point to get to know all the priests. I became friends with several of them, and had them over to my house for dinner a few times.
I managed, somehow, during those dinners to mention my firearms hobby, and how a neighbor's dog once attacked a child of mine, and how I knocked on the neighbor's door and told him "I have a shotgun and I know how to use it."
My children were never molested by priests.
As it turns out, after one of them died, there was a list published of offenders. He was on the list, from multiple parishes. Later, I received confirmation of this from my own sons. While they were left alone, they had friends who were groomed by this priest. A fact they only discovered years later.
I had another non-priest friend who was a groomer, which I only found out after his death. He was the most talented singer/actor/dancer I knew. He was careful enough to only befriend boys, and wait until after they turned 18 to begin a "relationship".
I wonder if anyone has done a comparable study of madrassas, Hindu schools (if they exist), Sikh schools (likewise), and so on?
TXRed
I read a report a long time ago that the forced celibacy in the priesthood proved to be an attractive place for homosexuals to hide out in before coming out of the closet. The report claimed that half of the priests in the Catholic church in the 1960s were homosexuals. Many did not believe in God but just went through the rituals. I found the report hard to believe at the time but now am wondering if it is true.
Not to excuse or minimize it in any way, mind, but...2400 incidents across a span of nigh on a hundred years? How might that stack up with the numbers across the general, non-Catholic population, I wonder?
Having grown up Catholic, and still consider myself Catholic even though I attend a Baptist church with my wife, I have been around many priests. There was one that was removed under scandal that didn’t surprise me at all, for I always got a bad vibe from him, though I never saw anything actually wrong. There were two others that were accused that shocked me. The one admitted to a relationship with a parishioner, and the other was dead by then and unable to defend himself.
Of course, here in little ol’ Fargo we’ve had several school teachers and administrators end up in sex scandals the past few years. So it’s not like any of the schools, religious or otherwise, have any moral authority. As parents, we need to watch out for our children and not let anyone abuse them, regardless of their position.
The motivation you describe seems to fit the incentives.
The Catholic schools get bad press for this, as well they should.
Would be nice if the media pushed half as hard with the abuse that goes on in Islamic, Jewish, and public schools as well.
@Mike Hendrix: Agreed, Mike, that's a good question - but remember that those 2400-odd incidents are only those that they know about. Many others were never reported prior to the death(s) of the victim(s); others were alleged, but not enough evidence could be found to merit including them in the list that was made. Needless to say, the "establishment" (both within the Church, and within Ireland's government) had and still have a vested interest in keeping the lid on such things.
Forget where I read it, but a prominent Western Communist bragged that they put a thousand Commies into the priest hood back in the 30's to "fundamentally change" the church. Those rascally rascals screw up (pervert) EVERYTHING. I'm sure most are atheists and have no idea they work for Satan. It was late in life that I figured out Satan was a Commie, but it does explain a lot.
No child should be put into the unsupervised care of anyone. It doesn’t matter if it is a priest or a teacher or a neighbour. Trust no one.
I recall there was once a website, it might still exist, I lost track of its name where every published news item involving child abuse perpetrated by educators was posted. The website’s author believed that there as many if not more educators involved in child abuse than priests.
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