The Sins of Our Fathers tagged: , , , , , , ,

The Sins of Our Fathers

Posted by Claire Connelly in Politics, Religion

On the 25th of May, the Irish television program Questions and Answers addressed responses to the Ryan Commission Report which detailed decades of known incidences of sexual abuse covered up by the Catholic Church.
Michael O’Brien, a victim of the Church and former councilor and Mayor of Wexford asked the panel whether the government ought to freeze the assets of religious orders.

The panel consisted of:
Noel Dempsey, Minster for Transport and the sponsoring minister of the Ryan Commission report, Leo Varadkar, FG spokesman on Enterprise Trade & Employment, Fergus Finlay, Chief Executive of the Barnardos organisation, Sarah McInerney, political reporter at The Sunday Times, and Noel Whelan, barrister and political commentator.

A warning to sensitive viewers, the content of the program is quite upsetting:

The YouTube clip only covers five minutes of the program, I encourage you to watch the full episode as Mr O’Brien’s comments makes a lot more sense in context.

Unfortunately, I do not have permission to embed the entire episode on here, so you will need to follow the link below in order to access the full show, (preferably in a new tab/window):

http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0525/qanda_av.html

A little background information:

On the 20th of May, the Irish coalition government Fianna Fáil published a report (following a nine-year investigation) detailing decades of rape, humiliation, and beatings at Catholic Church-run reform schools for Ireland’s “castaway” children.

The 2,600-page report uncovered previously secret Vatican records of known pedophiles that dated all the way back to the 1930s.

Victims of the abuse, who are now in their 50s to 80s, lobbied for years for an official investigation, and for all its incredible detail, the report does not reveal the most important facts of the investigation —the names of their abusers.

Though a public apology was offered by the Catholic religious orders (that ran more than 50 workhouse-style reform schools from the late 19th century until the mid-1990s), their religious leaders continued to protect the identities of clergymen and women accused of abuse.

The offending men and women were never reported to police, and instead were permitted to change jobs and keep hurting children.

In 1999 A government-appointed panel paid 12,000 survivors of church-run organisations approximately $90,000 each on the condition that they surrender their right to sue either the church, or state.

The Irish government apologized for its role in permitting decades of abuse, establishing the commission to discover the full extent of abuse that took place under the supervision of the Catholic church; the government has tried to use the money to bring closure to the victims.

In 2001 a controversial deal was struck between the religious order and the government whereby the government capped the churches contribution of “$175 million” that contributed to a into a rehabilitation trust funding physical and psychiatric care for victims of abuse, in exchange for immunity from prosecution.

The real figure however, wasn’t anywhere close to that number.

It was revealed in the report, and again by the panel, that the church only parted with $40 million – not that it should matter, it is utterly disgraceful that the government let the Church buy their way out of prosecution.

(As an aside, how can the government expect us to take internet censorship or any other initiatives designed to protect children from pedophiles seriously, when they’re still protecting the names of hundreds if not thousands of offenders within the Catholic Church?)

In 2004, the Christian Brothers (which ran several boys institutions and harbored serial child molesters and sadists), successfully sued the commission to keep the identities of all of its members, dead or alive, unnamed in the report.

No real names, whether of victims or perpetrators, appear in the final document.

Despite all this, The Christian Brothers insist it cooperated fully with the investigation.

The report found that molestation and rape were “endemic” in boys’ facilities run by the Christian Brothers order.

“A climate of fear, created by pervasive, excessive, and arbitrary punishment, permeated most of the institutions and all those run for boys. Children lived with the daily terror of not knowing where the next beating was coming from,” – Ireland’s Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse concluded.

Christine Buckley grew up in a Dublin orphanage until she was 18, during which time she and the other children were forced to manufacture rosaries.

They were humiliated, beaten, and raped whether they achieved their quota or not.

“I do genuinely believe that it would have been a further step towards our healing if our abusers had been named and shamed,” said Christine, now 62.

It would have taken but one law suit to completely bankrupt the Catholic Church, instead they have actually turned a profit from this agreement, and off the backs of victims in a fraudulent publicity stunt designed to pacify the general public in attempt to restore the credibility and authority of the government, and the Church.

To add insult to injury, the government claims that the decision was struck in order to spare victims the trauma of testifying at trial.

In reality, as both the report, and the program will show, in order to claim the “benefits” of this agreement – psychiatric rehabilitation, and so on, victims had to meet with a panel of judges and barristers to “prove” their case.

They were made to answer questions, often for hours, that were designed to discredit the testimonies of abuse victims.

Some victims (like Mr. O’Brien), were even told that they were “making it all up” in order to “make money.”

The passive acceptance displayed by the audience regarding the lack of legal access for abuse victims to prosecute their abuser is almost terrifying and perhaps the most upsetting part of this program.

At least with this report, the government can no longer allow themselves to be held over a barrel by the religious order.

Surely the “discoveries” revealed by the commission nullifies any previous agreements with the Catholic Church.

I hope (though sincerely doubt) that the government, and the church will be forced to make a new deal that sufficiently addresses the needs of its victims.

Nothing the government or the Church can do can make up for the years of pain and suffering these victims have been through, but at least something can be done to rectify the morally bankrupt bargaining that took place between the church and state.

Anyway I hope that you will watch:

http://www.rte.ie/news/qanda/