Tag Archives: Catholic Church


There has been some sympathy expressed for Redemptorist priest Father Tony Flannery (above) in light of the Vatican’s attempt to silence him over his support of women’s ordination and Church teaching on sexuality.

A voice of enlightenment from the priesthood supporting teh wimmin and teh gays, you say?

What does he have to say about clerical abuse victims?

The common assumption today is that the experience of sexual abuse does almost irreparable damage to a child, which will impact on their whole life. It would appear to be classified as the worst form of abuse. But can we be sure of that?How does one measure the damage done to a child by one form of neglect or abuse more than another?

Oh.

Does it strike anybody that it is a bit strange that we are devoting so much time, money and energy to inquiring into the abuse of children half a century ago when there is so much that is unsavoury in the lives of children today?

Ah.

The other obvious anomaly, beginning to be highlighted by some commentators, is that all the inquiries are into the behaviour of Catholic Church institutions and people, even though their abuse, dreadful as it was, is only a tiny fraction of all the abuse of children that happened in the past.

Well, two out of three ain’t bad.

Rite and Reason and Reality. Tony Flannery C.S.S.R. Redemptorist (Marie-Thérèse O’Loughlin, Goldenbridge39)

(NYT)

More than 70 per cent of the brothers in the St John of God order are suspected child abusers and Sydney Archbishop George Pell should immediately shut the order down, says a psychologist employed by the order to meet with its scores of abuse victims.

Almost 200 victims have sought compensation after alleging they were abused in special schools and homes run by the brothers in Victoria, New South Wales and New Zealand.

Last week, a Melbourne inquiry into child abuse heard allegations that brothers had drugged and pack-raped boys at their facilities in Victoria.

 

Pack raped.

Pell Urged To Close Order Over Abuses (TheAge)

PM Announces Abuse Inquiry (TheAge)

Thanks Mark Geary

Oh.

And that’s just Melbourne.

[Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Professor Des Cahill] told the [Australian] parliamentary inquiry [into clerical sex abuse] that 14 of 378 Melbourne priests were convicted of child sexual abuse, and church authorities had admitted that another four who had died were also abusers.

But the actual figure was much higher when under-reporting was taken into account. “One in 20 is a minimum. It might be one in 15, perhaps not as high as one in 10,” Professor Cahill said.

Professor Cahill said the Church hierarchy was incapable of resolving abuse issues because of the way the institution operated with a “clerical caste system” that made protecting the church’s reputation and priests more important than caring for victims. Bishops who did want to put victims first were prevented by the Vatican.

It operated by canon law rather than civil law, “but canon law has nothing to say about the rights of child victims”.

 

One In 20 Priests An Abuser, Inquiry Told (The Age)

Same stuff.

Different continent.

In a “scathing” submission [to a government inquiry into the church’s handling of clerical child abuse] Victoria’s police commissioner today listed the number of ways the criminal justice process was being hindered by the Catholic Church.

It says the church dissuaded victims of sexual crimes from reporting them to police,  and alerted suspects of allegations against them ”which may have resulted in loss of evidence”.

And, of course, it is accused of moving – from parish to parish –  known or suspected sexual offenders

The submission also includes this scene:

“Father [George] Pell was in the room when the victim told another priest what happened. Both times the victim tried to tell his story he was badly beaten, though not by the now Archbishop of Sydney, the submission says.”

 

Father Pell, now Cardinal Pell, is the most senior Catholic in Australia.

Police Slam Catholic Church (The Age)

Thanks Mark Geary

What the Doctor ordered:

“In addition, I wish to apologise for my own previous lack of understanding  of the sinister and recedivist nature of the child abuser, and the life-long damage that this destructive behaviour has on victims. 
Most of all – whilst I did notify the civil authorities at the time of these complaints – I profoundly regret and apologise for moving the priests concerned to different parishes thereby placing others at serious risk.
Both these parish changes occurred in the early to mid-1990s before the 1996 publication of Child Sexual Abuse: Framework for a Church Response, the first Catholic Church guidelines for the handling of abuse issues. 
Whilst no further abuse has been reported, this act was a grave mistake on my part.  I operate very differently now and will continue to do so in the future.”

Bishop of Clonfert, Dr John Kirby

Child Protection Reports Live (RTE)

Lars Biscuits writes:

Brendan Smyth’s extradition controversy brought down the Albert Reynolds’ government in 1994.  It was one of the biggest news stories of that year after the World Cup and the IRA ceasefire. How Bishop Kirby can say he did not understand “the recidivist nature of the child abuser” lacks all credibility when Smyth’s crimes were so well publicised.

 

Listen here: Bishop Thought Paedophilia Was “Friendship That Crossed Boundary Line”(Newstalk.ie)

Some 15,000 abuse victims are expected to receive compensation from the State’s Residential Institutions Redress Board with the bill expected to reach €1.47billion.

Under an indemnity scheme, and following proposals from the 2009 Ryan Report, the Government has been pushing for the cost to be split between the State and the 18 offending religious orders, on a 50:50 basis.

However just one of the orders has accepted this.

Last Friday, at the unveiling of a memorial for victims of clerical sex abuse in Dublin, Education Minister Ruairi Quinn said the pace at which congregations were signing up to a 50-50 contribution with the State in compensating abuse victims was “very unsatisfactory”.

Patsy McGarry, of the Irish Times, noted: ” (Quinn) had no “desire to bankrupt” the congregations, “all of which are ageing”, but noted that “they do have substantial health and educational structures” under their control.”

This morning The Irish Examiner, reports that the orders are €400 million short.

And as has already been reported one of the obstacles facing the State is that the church has been placing assets into trusts.

In April of this year Katherine Donnelly, of Irish Independent, wrote: “Mr Quinn now wants the orders to hand over the deeds of schools and medical facilities to finally settle the deal on compensating victims of abuse in residential institutions.
However, it may prove difficult to implement the handover of deeds as many schools controlled by the orders have been placed in trust and are no longer in the ownership of the orders. Trusts are complex legal entities, and NUI Maynooth law lecturer Neil Maddox said that the Government was facing a “legal headache” on this front.”

In May of this year, Carl O’Brien, of Irish Times, wrote:“In order to address the shortfall, Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn is seeking to negotiate the transfer of school infrastructure owned by 18 religious orders to the State.These talks are ongoing. However, religious congregations have moved many schools into trusts, making it difficult to transfer them into State ownership.”

Which is what is getting the Quinn family into so much trouble.

In 2009, a study, headed by NAMA Boss Frank Daly, found the 18 congregations had assets worth €3.7billion.

Ain’t life grand?

“It would have been no different if he had taken a gun and shot him, it just took longer.”

 

A horribly familiar and genuinely frightening story broadcast this evening in Australia of child sexual abuse and the Catholic Church in Ballarat, Victoria.

The abuse involved “many children, committed over several years” and is believed to have lead to 40 suicides in the state

But “the most alarming revelation is the fact that the Church turned a blind eye to [one of the] the priest’s crimes…despite clear evidence of abuse, the Church allowed him to move from parish to parish, apparently without alerting the police.”

The programme reveals that “even now the Church will not admit the full extent of what it knew.”

Watch here

Thanks Mark Geary

Robert Clancy (above) writes:

Two weeks ago I sent the following email to my Bishop;

To: Bishop John Kirby, of the Clonfert Dioceses.
I write expressing exclusive interest in revoking my membership of the Catholic Church. I no longer attend mass, haven’t for quite some time. I am a happy and proud homosexual living with my partner and do not hold strong many of the beliefs and interpretations that the Catholic Church still holds. While I do not disrespect your beliefs I strongly disapprove of the Catholic Church’s involvement in politics, the stance on Gay Rights, the secrecy, the lack of justice brought forward on those responsible for the disgraceful acts carried out on innocent children and the attitude of Cardinal Sean Brady on the matter.  My partner and I intend to adopt someday. Upon their 18th birthday they will be given the option to chose a religion should they wish to do so. That will be their choice, however, given the very evident lack of care, forward thinking and self preservation stances of the Catholic Church I find it quite unlikely that any informed individual would consider membership in such an organisation. I hereby denounce my faith, I denounce my member ship of the Catholic Apostolic Church, Denouncing all sacraments to this point, Baptismal, Confessional, Communion and retracting Confirmation.

Sincerely,

Robert Clancy
Parish of Ballymacward

I received the following response

Dear Robert,
I have received your email two weeks ago and I regret the delay in replying to your request. I have written to Fr Sean Slattery, P.P. asking him to include in your entry in the baptismal register that you have revoked your membership of the Catholic Church.
I wish you well.
Criost Linn,
Bishop John Kirby

Now, thinking that this was job done, I posted to Facebook the above. My friends, however, inform me that, according to the website countmeout.ie, Canon Law is changing to say that I may not be able to revoke my membership in the Catholic Church. That defecting may no longer be possible. If so, what exactly has been done by me writing that email to my Bishop? Will anything be done? Or are we democratic citizens bound to be registered as Catholic no matter what we do?

A BBC investigation has uncovered fresh revelations about the role of the Catholic primate of all-Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady, in the failure to protect children from child abuse.

The investigation centres on a secret church inquiry in 1975 when a 14-year-old was questioned about abuse.

Sean Brady’s role in the affair was exposed in 2010, when he was forced to admit that he had been present when the abused boy was questioned.

What Cardinal Brady failed to tell anyone in 2010 was that Brendan Boland [the 14-year-old victim] had also given him and his colleagues the precise details of a group of children who were being abused by Smyth.

Cardinal Brady did interview one of them and swore him to secrecy.

None of the children’s parents or the police were told, leaving one boy, his sister and dozens of other children exposed to Smyth’s sex attacks for a further 13 years.

 

New Claims Over Cardinal Brady’s Role In Sex Abuse Inquiry (BBC)