In 1948, in a global effort to ensure that the inhumanity of the Second World War would never happen again, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)was passed and adopted by the United Nations without a single dissenting voice.
Colm O’Gorman, Executive Director of Amnesty International Irish Section, in association with RTE Radio 1’s Drivetime programme, broadcast a series of radio columns, one dedicated to each article of the Declaration, to bring this historical and foundational document to life, demonstrating how central and relevant it is to our everyday lives.
Article 29: Everyone has the responsibility to respect and uphold the rights of others in their community and the wider world
In this week’s column, Colm O’Gorman describes the scale of the abuse and misuse of aid by the government of Myanmar in the wake of the suffering caused to its own people by Cyclone Nargis and calls on the United Nations Security Council to press the military junta to cooperate so that desperately needed aid can get through.
Colm O'Gorman
An opinion piece for the Irish Daily Mail, May 26 2009
Over the past weekend senior church figures including cardinal Sean Brady and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin have called upon the religious congregations to look again at the now notorious indemnity deal they negotiated with the state back in 2002. That deal, done in the last days of an outgoing Government, fully indemnified the religious orders against all future financial liability resulting from cases taken by victims of institutional abuse. The deal saw the church contribute €127 million to the now total estimated cost of €1.3billion – less than ten percent.
The Ryan report is frank in its view of the relationship between the Catholic church and the state when it came to responding to child abuse in state-funded, Catholic Church institutions. Mr Justice Ryan describes the attitude of the department of education to the church as ‘deferential and submissive’. The department, which ought to have had a supervisory and inspection role, ‘generally saw itself as facilitating the congregations’.
If the attitude of Dr Michael Woods and former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern is any indication of how that relationship stood in 2002 when the infamous deal was struck, it appears that this may well remain the case.
In 2002, when the BBC film suing the pope was broadcast, the film where I spoke about how I had been abused by Fr. Sean Fortune, Bertie Ahern was asked if he had any comment to make on the public uproar about the cover up of child abuse in the diocese of ferns. He didn’t have a thing to offer.
‘I haven’t really been following that at all,’ he proclaimed. ‘It’s really a matter for the church; it’s not a matter for politicians. I’m not going to cross politics and religion.’
I remember being dumbstruck at the ignorance of that view. The head of our government believed that the abuse of children by priests in Ireland was not a matter for the state. That child protection and responses to such serious crimes was not the business of the state. No wonder, it seemed to me, that such abuse had been able to continue with impunity and that errant clerics were left free to rape and abuse in dioceses across Ireland. No wonder that children were so abandoned by a state whose attitude of deference rendered it submissive to an organisation it had an obligation to hold to account for the savage harm it inflicted upon children in institutional ‘care’.
Over this past weekend we saw further defence of an indefensible deal and more evidence of a blinkered, ill informed ignorance of the reality of a dark past.
The state, it would appear, was reluctant to bankrupt the church by forcing them to be properly accountable for their failures and crimes. Why?
Why should the church, like any other entity, not be held to account? If the consequence of their actions is that they become bankrupt then surely, so be it. Perhaps in order to rebuild elements of a church that has so abandoned their founding Christian values they must first be torn down. Irish society built up the Catholic Church in Ireland through financial donations, volunteering and vocations. If Ireland values a renewed, healthy reformed Catholic Church it will do so again. What gave Messers Ahern and Woods the right to make that decision for us? What gave them the right to decide that we would happily underwrite the Catholic Church and protect it from the consequences of its own actions? Isn’t that up to us to decide for ourselves? Isn’t it time that the church and the state in this country were finally truly separate entities?
The Ryan Report has achieved a lot. It has entirely vindicated the words of victims who suffered barbarism at the hands of those whose duty, and professed vocation, should have demanded tender and Christian care. What it has not delivered at all though is justice.
Justice demands accountability. It demands that the perpetrator of a wrong be held accountable for their actions and that they make reparation for the harm caused to their victims. This has not happened.
No one has been named in the report, for understandable legal reasons, though some names are beginning to emerge into the public arena through the media. Few have been prosecuted through the courts, and the evidence collected by the commission cannot now be used to prosecute those found to have committed heinous crimes against children. There has been no legal accountability, no naming of those responsible and no accountability, apart from before the court of public opinion, of the institution so responsible for these shocking atrocities.
The state, through its flawed systems and deferential attitudes, has failed victims of abuse in institutions once again.
And so we find ourselves in a position where ministers suggest that it would be helpful if the congregations were prepared to reopen and renegotiate the deal they struck with Dr Woods. Yet again the church will not be held to account but requested an agreement to offer a ‘gesture’ as Archbishop Martin put it yesterday.
Well, gestures are not good enough. Accountability is not something that ought be in the gift of the perpetrator, rather it should be ensured through the actions of a society focused on justice.
The state must put in place a new process. For a start it must carry out a full audit of the assets of all religious congregations and bodies implicated in the Ryan Report. It should determine the value of all available assets and whether there has been any transfer of assets in recent years to put them beyond the reach of the state. We need a NAMA for the church, a body to assess and then seize assets which can be used to ensure at least financial accountability by those responsible for the crimes detailed in the Ryan Report.
One other thought. Cardinal Sean Brady has called for a ‘one church response’ to the findings of the Ryan Report. Let’s hold him to that. After all, bishops are the superiors in their dioceses. They and they alone determine whether a religious order can operate within the boundaries of their individual kingdoms.
And bishops are not without responsibility for abuse in institutions. In the case of those operated by the sisters of mercy they have some direct responsibility. Until 1994 there was no national governance structure for that particular order. Instead there were twenty-six separate provinces with leadership teams who reported to their diocesan bishop. The bishop was their superior. It seems to me that it is now time to ask the bishops what responsibility they accept for abuse perpetrated in institutions under their control.
I have often been heartened by the courage and frankness of Diarmuid Martin. He has shown a capacity for bold and radical leadership. We need more of that now.
He and Cardinal Brady are in a position to do more than suggest a new approach by the religious orders. They can insist upon change as a condition of allowing those same orders to operate within their dioceses – as can their brother bishops.
And what of Rome? Where does the Vatican sit in respect of this ‘one church response’? Given the wealth held by Rome surely it’s not too much to ask that this one church to which we have sworn our allegiance every Sunday for so many years might now agree to sell off some of its art, surrender its penchant for ermine-trimmed robes and grandiose exhibitions of wealth in order to ensure redress for the crimes of those who operated in its name.
Perhaps, through such a return to the true Christian values of its founder, we might even witness a renewed and resurgent church, renewed by newfound honesty and humility – and finally able to look to the future.
Colm O’Gorman is the author of Beyond Belief, published by Hodder & Stoughton.
Well this was an interesting debate. Dr Bill Donohue of the Catholic League issued a statement in which he condemned “hysteria” over clerical sexual abuse in Ireland.
Matt Cooper at Today Fm’s Last Word asked me to come on the show and debate the issue with the good Dr Donohue. It was quite the discussion.
I never ceased to be amazed at just how blind some ‘commentators’ can be when faced with a truth which challenegs their view of the world. Dr Donohues simplistic analysis of the Ryan Report is shocking to say the least. I am always of the view that it is better to give space and time in such debates for the opposing view to undermine itself. In this case it didn’t take much time or effort on my part for that to happen.
Let me know what you think.
Listen to Colm’s first major interview about his memoir Beyond Belief with Ryan Tubridy.
This interview was broadcast on RTE Radio 1 on May 11th 2009.
Click here to hear the interview.
From The Sunday Times
Don’t look away: it’s unbelievable that we still haven’t learnt the lessons from systematic child abuse in Ireland
by Libby Purves
Understandably distracted by our own little crisis of trust, we have perhaps not taken in the apocalyptic import of a bigger one across the Irish Sea.
Perhaps it is a vague sense that we knew it all; perhaps reluctance to engage with the horrid details of the Ryan report into child abuse by Irish clerics. Perhaps some think it is old history, a 1950s horror. Maybe there is even a decorous sense that — as a new Archbishop of Westminster is enthroned here — it is tasteless to dwell on the wickedness deliberately concealed by his Church right into the 1990s. Or maybe our own child protection system now looks so shaky that we cannot bear to contemplate the toothless, deferential Irish respect for the priesthood that enabled thousands of children to be starved, raped, enslaved and beaten even as Ireland moved into its tiger economy in the new Europe.
But don’t look away. There are wider lessons. Ireland is at least looking squarely at it now, and trying to understand how history twisted its public values into obeisance to unanswerable clergy, so that cruelty and child rape became endemic. It was not only in orphanages and schools but in parishes where families dared not protest. For it was the courageous Colm O’Gorman who helped to prise this all open, when he spoke of his repeated rape, at 14, by Father Sean Fortune in his home village. He successfully sued the Church and challenged the Pope (whose nuncio hid behind “diplomatic immunity”).
The victim was accused by the Vatican of being part of a conspiracy; “Canon Law” defences were invoked and the first report — the Ferns report — ignored. “How can it be,” asks Mr O’Gorman, “that a church hierarchy who comment on a children’s film [Harry Potter] can fail to comment on a report, commissioned by this State, that found Rome culpable in the rape and abuse of Irish children?”
Now the wider, more terrifying Ryan report has met with almost equal evasion and the Church — which raked in millions from government subsidy over decades — has even managed to slough off most of its financial responsibility.
I am not exaggerating; rather the contrary. The Ryan report, merciless and forensic, finds the crimes “systemic, pervasive, chronic, excessive, arbitrary”. It speaks of the deliberate protection of priests and religious by their hierarchy; of inspectors and police backing off respectfully and senior clergy refusing to help the inquiry. It says that the order that housed the worst sadists, the Christian Brothers, made only a “guarded, conditional and unclear” apology, and cut a deal that no individuals should be named.
The children’s own testimonies are too harrowing to repeat: beaten, stripped, humiliated, hung from windows. Some got pregnant, some killed themselves. Sexual attack came not only from their keepers but visiting functionaries; one little boy who spoke of being assaulted by an ambulance driver was beaten by the nuns “to get the evil out of him”.
Enough. There is no defence, the evidence is overwhelming. It was a sickness of cruelty, exploitation, official cowardice and inward-looking hypocrisy traceable all the way to the Vatican. Catholicism has not been cleaned up, only lightly dusted. Some Irish dioceses have become properly robust, and Cardinal Seán Brady, the Primate of All Ireland, speaks of being “deeply ashamed”; but I do not notice him pointing his condemnation upwards or rejecting the culture of hierarchy and obedience, anonymity and deniability.
Our own new Archbishop, Vincent Nichols, expressed due horror, but then enraged survivors by praising the “courage” of clergy “who have to face these facts from their past”. Incredibly, in an interview on Five Live, he also observed: “it is a tough road to take, to face up to our own weaknesses. That is certainly true of anyone who’s deceived themselves that all they’ve been doing is taking a bit of comfort from children.”
Weakness? Comfort? God save us! It gives an insight into why the Church, quick to absolve, blithely moved known abusers on to fresh fields and fresh victims.
“They had their own laws that were written to ensure they were never in the wrong” says Mr O’Gorman, simply. And they covered their backs: when the former Archbishop of Dublin was told that he could be liable if abusers were returned to parishes, he did not prevent this happening. He just took out an insurance policy against financial losses from such claims.
It has been an Irish disaster, but has lessons for us all about the perils of respectful naivety. Archbishop Nichols, after his predecessor moved a paedophile priest to Gatwick, where he offended again, said that little was known about paedophilia then; well, he still knows little if he can talk about men “taking a bit of comfort from children”.
This is pure celibate silliness: we are not talking about cuddles here, but rape. I grew up with the Catholic doctrine of forgiveness of sins, I know the territory: but to forgive your own team and ignore their victims is not holy. It is corrupt.
When good people are smug and bad ones are slippery, great evils grow. When any institution slaps on a self-approving label — whether it is “Holy Catholic Apostolic” or like our MP’s, “Honourable” — and uses it to defy cynical inspection, the weak will suffer. What seems not to be fully understood by the hierarchy is how much damage this has done.
It gives me no pleasure to say so: I was raised a Catholic, and know what high ideals of gentleness it expresses, and how beautifully.
I learnt at 12 years old not to believe in the automatic holiness of the religious, in a South African convent where nuns hit us and spoke contemptuously of “kaffirs”. I then learnt not to condemn the lot, when I moved back to a kindly, intellectual English convent where they honestly tried to live the holy dream. I have always been able to believe the tales of evil without rejecting the whole shebang.
Many Catholic clergy do great good. The remarkable Colm O’Gorman, after decades of struggle, does not reject the ideal either: he says he wept for Father Fortune’s suicide and hopes that in afterlife he finds forgiveness.
Now that’s holiness for you, and without a smug label round its neck. And until the institutional Catholic Church recognises that, abases itself, pays up, allows whistleblowing and faces the unthinkable, it remains a disgrace. Until it learns humility, it has no hope at all. It is a Church living with one foot in Hell.
So now that this section of the site is up I have no choice but to actually begin to blog! Nothing like the demand of a blank page to force me to fill it.
My intention is to blog on a weekly basis so keep and eye out and let me know what you think of my musings.
best,
Colm
If you want to leave a comment for Colm please post it here. Please note that your post will be public, though your email address will not be posted.
In 1948, in a global effort to ensure that the inhumanity of the Second World War would never happen again, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)was passed and adopted by the United Nations without a single dissenting voice.
Colm O’Gorman, Executive Director of Amnesty International Irish Section, in association with RTE Radio 1’s Drivetime programme, broadcast a series of radio columns, one dedicated to each article of the Declaration, to bring this historical and foundational document to life, demonstrating how central and relevant it is to our everyday lives.
Article 27: Everyone has the right to take part in the cultural life of their community and the right to benefit from scientific and artistic learning
History has shown how economic hardship can bring out the worst in human beings. As Ireland deals with the new economic climate, Colm O’Gorman urges for a greater collective effort to work for a truly global recovery
Colm O'Gorman
In 1948, in a global effort to ensure that the inhumanity of the Second World War would never happen again, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)was passed and adopted by the United Nations without a single dissenting voice.
Colm O’Gorman, Executive Director of Amnesty International Irish Section, in association with RTE Radio 1’s Drivetime programme, broadcast a series of radio columns, one dedicated to each article of the Declaration, to bring this historical and foundational document to life, demonstrating how central and relevant it is to our everyday lives.
Article 26: Everyone has the right to education and to free primary education
Our Constitution says that the state has a responsibility to provide for education. That is to provide for, but not to provide. After attending a local school fundraiser, Colm O’Gorman asks why we don’t demand that the state lives up to a higher responsibility and ensures that every child is entitled to, and receives, the highest possible standard of education.
Colm O'Gorman
In 1948, in a global effort to ensure that the inhumanity of the Second World War would never happen again, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)was passed and adopted by the United Nations without a single dissenting voice.
Colm O’Gorman, Executive Director of Amnesty International Irish Section, in association with RTE Radio 1’s Drivetime programme, broadcast a series of radio columns, one dedicated to each article of the Declaration, to bring this historical and foundational document to life, demonstrating how central and relevant it is to our everyday lives.
23rd May 2008
Article 3: Everyone has the right to life and the right to live in freedom and safety
Imagine a world where stopping to play with a can by the side of the road can cost you your legs and your cousin his life. Colm O’Gorman speaks about meeting Soraj, a 17-year-old survivor from Afghanistan who is playing a pivotal role fighting for an international treaty to ban the use of cluster bombs.
Colm O'Gorman
In 1948, in a global effort to ensure that the inhumanity of the Second World War would never happen again, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)was passed and adopted by the United Nations without a single dissenting voice.
Colm O’Gorman, Executive Director of Amnesty International Irish Section, in association with RTE Radio 1’s Drivetime programme, broadcast a series of radio columns, one dedicated to each article of the Declaration, to bring this historical and foundational document to life, demonstrating how central and relevant it is to our everyday lives.
Eleanor Roosevelt once said that human rights begin in ‘small places’. In the first of a series of Drivetime radio columns celebrating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Colm O’Gorman introduces the UDHR and explains how our human rights begin in the home, the school, the hospital and our local community.
Colm O'Gorman
