3 week ago i went to the police and i hope he go’s to jail and may be i can put it to the back fo my mind and get on with my life .
i thank you so much as i needed this to move on .

kevin

On that day we could reveal a big monument on Petersquare in Rome. This will assist the Pope to practice the holy virtue of Humility when he looks out of his window.

The Catholic Church cannot handle the truth.

The truth is: the Church cannot, will not and shall not seek to admit the depth of the collective sin of Bishops, Priests, and those in power. Instead, the power of sin, and the death in which it brings to the very depth of the Body of Christ sings in every Mass.

This Body is in sad, sad shape, and denies that a killing off of souls took place. Until truth can be read, be spoken with accountablity, men shall make stupid decisions that pour salt into wounds and wipe the pus from their filthy hands.

Nothing is hidden from God. Not today, not tommorow, and not ever.

The “Year of the Priest” too, shall end. Then what? The “Year of the Raped?”

Speak all you want…say what you can, and never be silenced.

God help us all, even the wretched.

Kelly Mathews
Marquette Diocese Clergy Watch

Marquette, MI USA

Does anyone there, ( or anyone visiting your website ) know the current story about Oliver O’Grady, the paedophile priest featured in the film “Deliver Us From Evil”? I mean his whereabouts, whether he’s associating with children, and whether he’s being monitered by police. According to the Sunday Tribune’s online edition he was last seen in Dublin in April, having just returned from the Netherlands. Is any state service, such as the gardai, keeping an eye on this character?
Regards,
David Chapman.

Is it too late for me to do something ? I would like the church to pay for my misery and help my children who tolerated my personality and still love me.
I have had many years of councelling but the pain is still in my heart.

I was once told by a counciller the catholic church is an evil force. How true.

BRIAN COWEN GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF THE TROUGH AND WAKE UP !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Same_sex_marriage_map_Europe_detailed.svg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Status_of_same-sex_marriage

Saw a man in black with a collar
Didn’t see no child but I think I heard him holler
Saw a man of God in denial
A broken family, a lawyer and a case to trial

You don’t need a middle man
When you kneeling down to pray
You don’t need a middle man
Showing you the way

Saw a man of shame, so respected
Drink a little more than maybe you expected
Saw the church door close as he was leaving
Outside a homeless man, it’s 10 below he’s freezing

You don’t need a middle man
When you kneeling down to pray
You don’t need a middle man
Showing you the way
You don’t need a middle man
When it’s time for you to pray
You don’t need a middle man
You just say what you gotta say

Saw a man in chains with a bible
And a prison cell awaiting his arrival
Saw the Pope, a smiling politician
And a mother cry for the innocence her baby’s missing

You don’t need a middle man
Showing you the way
You don’t need a middle man
When it’s time for you to pray
You don’t need a middle man
You just say what you gotta say

Andre James Verazzo

I see no offence of your reply to Colm. Nor can offence be levelled at your lightweight insipid response to the gravity of the issue`s highlighted by Colm which appear to fly past your head.

Your misguided perception of the church in 2010 as being the safest place for a child to be , fill`s me with dread, in that after ten hard year`s of unrequiting press coverage to the effect that the most dangerous place for a child, is in effect the church, which you robustly attempt to defend.

The mere fact that you point to Damien Thompson, and John Allen indicates to myself your lack of knowledge, understanding, and indeed your total and misguided faith in such biased and bigoted attempts by the above named journalist`s to attempt a defence of the church , which in reality does not exist, given the horrendous exposure`s of the past ten year`s , starting in America, then Ireland, and now a Global epidemic of mind staggering proportion`s which now amount to a systemic assault on the world`s children by catholic paedophile priest`s, bishops, archbishops, cardinal`s, and now right up to the Pope`s front door . If he had nothing to fear, then he should avail himself to the International Criminal Court for examination, as suggested by Geoffrey Robinson , an eminent UN Judge and noted QC who has called for the arrest of the Pope.

Marie, how can your church function when bedevilled by malfunction as presently seen by many notable world figure`s as mired in corrupion. One example of it`s current problem`s concern`s Cardinal Sean Brady, who publicly admitted the part he played in allowing and assisting the notorious paedophile priest Brendan Smyth to continue raping children, in that he failed to act when confronted by admission`s of Smyth committing such crime`s and taking ownership of these crimes. The Cardinal`s remit was to silence the children, thereby failing to protect them, and by implication left other children prone to the admitted predation of Smyth. Such an act of omission by the Cardinal surely merit`s his resignation. This give`s rise to further problems for the church and hierarchy, if the Pope call`s for Cardinal Sean Brady`s resignation, then such a move by the Vatican signal`s that Cardinal Brady may be open to criminal prosecution, if the Vatican does not call for his resignation, then by implication they too, ie, the Pope lose`s credibility to rid his church of the filth which he say`s permeate`s it, will resemble`s hollow word`s. The present Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin, cannot and would not be expected to work alongside Cardinal Sean Brady following his public confession to covertly silencing two children who had been abused by Smyth. And it is this present predicatment of the Pope, Vatican and hierachy Marie where you should be addressing your concern`s, it is a mess of their own making.

Yesterday there was a call by Dukes for all Bishop`s in Ireland to stand down, this gentleman has got it about right, so has Andrew.

While I understand your angst at the present status of your church Marie, unfortunately I can tender no sympathy for you,

Catholicism finished for myself at the tender age of ten, as I entered an Industrial school in Ireland and thereafter suffered many rape`s conducted by religious men, including a Priest.

There will be no recovery for your church Marie, until such time as criminal accountability is rendered through the Court`s for the crimes committed against, an on, innocent children by this church you attempt to defend.

You must look to your Pope for the answer`s Marie, for therein lie`s the solution, he must sack all those involved in the commission of such act`s, and those responsible for covering up such barbaric act`s which in reality amount to Crime`s Against Humanity.

As for meeting the Pope, quite frankly Marie, a drink with the Devil would be preferable.

I am truly ashamed to call myself a Catholic. Words escape me for the indignity you faced coupled with the lies and wall of silence put up by this religion. The last time I felt ashamed to call myself a Catholic was when the film “The Magdalene Sisters” was released.

I am even more ashamed now.

Best wishes to you Colm for having the courage to speak out against what is nothing more than a dictatorship.

Jacqueline, UK

Once again thank you for sharing what happed to you despite the raw pain.

Steve

My own blog on the issue produced great discussion here in Canada and a deathly hush, yeah, even hushing response from Irish friends and colleagues. I am made painfully aware of what courage it takes to speak out when there remains a culture of silence. Even now.

What First Nations peoples here (who were the first to break the silence on sexual abuse in church facilities) say is you have to speak out first, even before trying to understand. Then you have to listen to each other and sit with the sadness and despair, the losses. When you have done so long enough, something opens, old ways of protecting fall away and one can begin to take in what may transform you, your community and your culture.

Here’s the link to the blog on “Inphallability? I prefer Spirit to Papal Abuse of Power”. When I’m in Ireland this May, I will listen deeply.
http://eimearsjourney.blogspot.com/

Marie, I acknowledge completely that the abuse of children happens in all parts of society and we all have our part to play in the protection of children, either as parents, aunts, uncle, teachers etc.
I believe the reason for the focus on the RCC is because of the moral authority and power that has been part of the culture of the church within our societies and our lives. That is part of the problem, the position of power that lay within the church and that many are still clinging to, for fear of what they or their lives might be like to be ‘powerless’.

‘Powerlessness’ is something that I and many victims/survivors know only too well.

John 8: 31-38 Jesus speaks to the CHILDREN of Abraham.
Jesus said ” If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know truth, and the truth will set you free.”
That statement, ” the truth will set you free” has been significant in my own personal journey. It has been in the naming and speaking my truth that has set me free, in so many ways.
It is my belief that, if those in positions of responsibility and power in the RCC would hold to the teachings of Jesus, then they would know truth and the truth would set them free, and they then would be true disciples of Jesus.

Yes, the TRUTH is painful, as we all know, but what is the alternative?? A return to the ‘good oul days’. It was in the ‘good oul days’ when the culture of secrecy, power and abuse was at it’s worse. I was abused in the mid 1990’s and to me that was not that long ago! In the case of Cloyne in 2008, that’s frightening after all the reports, so I disagree that the church in 2010 is the safest place for a child.

So, I thank the God I believe in, for people like Colm (and others) who have had the courage to ” speak the truth”,(with such integrity) as painful as it has been, so that people like me, no longer feel alone, isolated, shamed, dirty, wanting to kill myself – you get the picture I’m sure.

What we see and hear in the media is only a fraction of the full TRUTH. It would be interesting, and I’m sure very sad, if we could put a figure on the many people like me who for whatever reason feel they can’t or don’t want to speak out about their experiences of abuse by men and woman who represented the ” love and compassion” of God.
That is why the abuse by clergy and religious is so devastating, as it goes against all the core values and beliefs about all that we believe about love, compassion, beauty, goodness, truth and justice. And that was what I was brought up to believe in – and that has been a big loss in my life and why I struggle with being a part of the RCC – not a witch-hunt or any other agenda.

Get real. In spite of all the evidence about the vile, anti-Christian behaviour of some priests and the vile, anti-Christain behaviour of bishops, the Vatican and the Pope in protecting those priests, you still try to defend them or mitigate their culpability. For God’s sake, as well as destroying the lives of young children, this organisation has for years been condemning gay folks, contraceptive users, divorcees to hell. Jesus never said a word about these folks. The Catholic Church has openly supported right wing, fascist dictatorships in Europe ( eg Franco) and South America ( eg Pinochet) in repressing their poor ( Catholic) populations. Worst of all, it actually claims to somehow exclusively know how Jesus of Nazareth wants us to behave! Maire and John, reflect on how deeply you were indoctrinated in your formative years – think of the life- destroying nonsense that is hell, heaven, mortal sin, the sacraments, holy pictures, marble-hearted powerful ‘holy’ men – and the fear and repression of that almost unmentionable: sex. If Jesus was here today I shudder to think what he would make of the patriarchal, misogynistic, obscenely wealthy institution that is the Catholic Church. It is the anthesis of everything that Jesus stood for.

I too am angry and mostly despair of the church’s response to clerical child rape but instead of just shouting at the tv and inspired by you I have just mailed the following letter to the Pope. By the way, I totally agree that it is no excuse for the vatican to keep bleating on about abuse happening elsewhere – as I say in my letter, one child rape is one child rape too many:

20 April 2010

Dear Pope Benedict XVI,

I hope you received my well thumbed copy of Alice Miller’s “The Drama Of Being A Child”? May I also recommend her other books to you and anyone who is concerned with bringing child rape and cruelty to an end? Her titles give a flavour of her philosophy:
“Thou Shalt Not Be Aware”; “For Your Own Good” and “Breaking The Silence”.

I sent you my copy of the book along with my poem/prayer “May All The Children In The World Be Safe And Free”, in response to your letter to the church in Ireland. I have read this letter a number of times and have been following the impassioned debate in the press and on the internet with interest.

When I read your letter, I read it as a plea for help and I wanted to make a constructive contribution to the debate. I hope that you can agree that one child rape is one child rape too many. The public outrage and demand that you accept your responsibility in these matters is valid. However, child rape is a global problem. I hope that everyone, apart from child rapists, wants an end to child rape and I would like to suggest that all people of all religions, races, classes, political persuasions, genders, sexualities and abilities use the ensuing debate as a catalyst to work together to end all cruelty to all children. It is rare to find a subject like this that we can find global agreement over.

So, how can I best make a contribution to this debate? What can I say that has not already been said?

I am part of the Irish Catholic diaspora and have been affected by both a clerical child rapist and a father who raped me repeatedly when I was a child. When Michael Hill, my old parish priest, was being convicted earlier this century, I was deeply affected, but all I felt able to do was shout at the television as Cormac Murphy O’Connor gave his pathetic excuses for colluding with and enabling this criminal. How can any bishop, who surely must have read:

“But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” (Matthew 5)

and

“It would be better for you if a millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea than for you to cause one of these little ones to stumble” (Luke 17:2).
and
“Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of my bretheren, ye have done it unto me” (Matthew 40),

claim ignorance as an excuse for not handing clerical child rapists over to the police? Also, in this context, I wonder how you can urge these rapists not to despair of God’s mercy.

Your letter has prompted me to re-visit my experience of having a paedophile for a priest. I feel nauseous at the thought of taking communion from hands that have done the things his hands have done. One of his victims told me in detail what he has suffered at the hands of this man. I wept with impotent grief all night after listening to his account.

Along with reading Alice Miller, I take my inspiration from all the heroic survivors of child rape who have told their stories and dedicated their lives to healing themselves and others and campaigning for an end to child rape.

When possible, of course it is important to seek legal justice for both rapist and victim. This is not always possible and the current punishments inflicted by judges, prison officers, fellow prisoners and their local communities have failed to deter offenders. Also what about all of us who were affected by crimes against others? I wonder if there are other people like me who wish to meet with Michael Hill or their paedophile priest? I would like to tell him how his crimes have affected me.

I know this because the single most empowering moment of my life was when I confronted my own father. In retrospect I realise that I was ill advised to do this without support but I was lucky, he did not hurt me again and he admitted to raping me, which allayed my fears that I might have imagined the whole thing. I would therefore like to propose, in addition to legal proceedings, that we find a way to set up something along the lines of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In the cases of clerical child rape, I suggest this might be a good start in the healing of the church as a whole.

The second most empowering experience of my life was when I performed my play about how I survived child rape to sex offenders in a prison. Some of the men cried. The post show discussion was franker than at any other performance and two child rapists, who had hitherto insisted that their crimes were not wrong, admitted to understanding why what they had done was wrong.

I also think it important to point out that there are still many survivors of clerical child rape who will never seek justice. They may not want the risk of social notoriety and shame. They may fear that they will be seen as at risk of raping children. This is a common myth promoted by the media. Whilst many convicted child rapists say that they were in turn raped when they were children, it does not logically follow that all survivors of child rape go on to rape children. As I have said before many of us have told our stories and dedicated our lives to healing ourselves and others and campaigning for an end to child rape. The shame of these crimes does not belong to the victims.

I find I have so much to say on the subject that I might never finish writing this letter. I would like to take you up on your invitation to meet and talk about so much more, for instance: how the hierarchical structure of the church contributes to clerical child rape since, as we all know, rape is about domination and abuse of power; how the church’s attitude to sex and dislike of sex education has affected victims of clerical child rape. And so I will conclude by accepting your invitation to pray with you:

May all the children in the world be safe and free.
May we never live in fear and misery.
Cherished and respected,
Nourished and protected,
May all the children in the world be safe and free.

May all the children in the world be safe and free.
But if any suffer rape or cruelty,
May we believe them when they tell us,
May we rage and demand: “JUSTICE!”.
May all the children in the world be safe and free.

May all the children in the world be safe and free.
But if you violate our freedom or safety,
May we be heard and supported,
Empowered and comforted.
May all the children in the world be safe and free.

May all the children in the world be safe and free.
And if anyone has violent tendencies,
May you choose to stop before you act
And get your kicks down other tracks.
May all the children in the world be safe and free.

May all the children in the world be safe and free.
May we never live in fear and misery.
Cherished and respected,
Nourished and protected,
May all the children of the earth be safe and free.

by Bríd Wyldearth 2008

In trusting belief that we can end child rape,

Bríd Wyldearth

I would very much love to acknowledge that the Church is the safest place for a child to be but I cannot. Even here in Ireland that is simply not the case. The church’s own Safeguarding Board found that child protection in the Diocese of Cloyne was “inadequate” and “dangerous” as recently as 2008. Equally you will no doubt be aware of the issues arising out of efforts to audit child protection practice across the church nationally here in Ireland. It is certainly not the case that the catholic Church is one of the safest places for a child to be in Ireland today. At the most basic level how could it be given the ongoing institutional denial by the Vatican of the nature and prevalence of child abuse within the church and its systemic cover up of crimes against children?

If things have progressed here so much then where is the leadership of integrity that ought to challenge some of the more blatant lies and distortions by the Vatican in recent weeks? Where was the Irish Church leadership that represents such a sea change in attitudes and practice when it came to condemning and rejecting the vile and deceitful statements by the Vatican number two and Secretary of State Cardinal Bertone last week when he said that homosexuality caused paedophilia? What did they have to say about his blatantly deceitful assertion that the Church had never impeded investigations into clerical crimes? The Catholic Bishops in the UK seemed able to make a statement rejecting the linking of homosexuality and paedophilia, why not the Irish Bishops if they have truly learnt the lessons of past failures?

In relation to the principle of a person standing down if there is a child protection concern, this is accepted best practice. It has been the norm within any organisation I have ever worked with for many, many years. The issue is, as we saw in Cloyne in recent years, that approach is not universally practiced within the Irish church.

You are quite right to point out the enormous flaws in child protection standards in other parts of our society. I have done a lot of work over the years to address this and will continue to do what ever I can in the future. However, the Catholic Church is unique in that it has been found to have had a deliberate and willful policy to cover up child abuse and to allow abusers to carry on raping and abusing children with near impunity. That this is the case is now an established fact post the Ryan, ferns and Murphy Reports. Given the extraordinary power that the Church has had here in Ireland, and the fact that it was until very recently almost entirely unaccountable to either the public or the law, the focus on its role in covering up abuse is surely entirely understandable and appropriate?

We must ensure that we continue to work towards greater child protection standards across society, but that does not mean lessening the focus on the crimes and failure of the institutional Catholic Church at the global level.

And it is the global nature of the Catholic Church that is the greatest concern. You say that the Church is the safest place for a child to be? Do you really believe that to be the case in Nigeria, or Brazil, or the Philippines or in so many other countries? How do you explain the gross failure of the current Pope to introduce mandatory child protection policy across the global church? Surely our concern for children must extend beyond our local area…that is if we have any real commitment to the notion of a global humanity and our mutual duty of care to all peoples?

I have read with great interest much of what John Allen has to say on the issue over the years and will continue to do so. On a final note, I certainly do not agree that the Telegraph online has demonstrated much objectivity in its approach to this issue. I have read, and continue to read extensively to ensure that I both challenge and inform my views. That includes reading and engaging in an open minded way with people who hold very different opinions to my own.

And Andrew, with all due respect, a sweeping statement that every bishop is now proven to be complicit in cover-up is not, in fact, proof: it is simply a sweeping statement.

NSPCC reveals 53 children are sexually abused every day

• Figures show only small proportion of all offences
• Victims range from babies and toddlers to teenagers
The scale of child abuse in England and Wales was revealed today when figures showed that 53 children a day are subjected to sex crimes.

The victims range from babies and toddlers to teenagers and the offences from indecent exposure to rape and serious sexual attacks. But the statistics highlight just a small proportion of the total number of sex offences carried out against children because a third of child victims do not tell anyone that they have been abused, according to research. The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children collated the figures by issuing freedom of information requests to all 43 police forces in England and Wales. The figures show that 20,758 children reported sexual offences to the police last year, including rape, gross indecency and incest. The number of sex crimes recorded against girls was six times more than against boys.

In nearly one in four cases over the last 12 months the victims who reported sex crimes to the police were 10 or under, 859 under-fours were subjected to sexual offences, 163 victims were infants aged just one and two and 7,622 – more than a third – were aged between 13 and 15.

The offences included stranger attacks and abuse carried out by parents or other family members.

The Home Office does not collect these figures, and police forces only record them on an individual basis. More than 10 years ago the government was advised that these records kept by individual forces should be systematically examined, in order to provide valuable information on the incidence of child sexual abuse in the country. But this was never done.

As a result the number of child victims of sexual offences are not detailed in the Home Office’s annual crime reports, which mix adults and children’s statistics and fail to provide a clear picture of offences against children.

The NSPCC today called for the government to publish annual data showing the number and ages of child sex victims.

Phillip Noyes, director of public policy for the charity, said the figures were shocking. “Even one-year-olds are at risk. It’s a grim picture but this is only a snapshot, as our research indicates there are many more abused children whose suffering never comes to light.

“If we are able to get these details every year it will start to build a more accurate picture of what is happening and we can make more concerted efforts to protect children.”

The deputy children’s commissioner for England, Sue Berelowitz, welcomed publication of the figures: “We all need to be extremely vigilant to protect children and keep them safe from harm. Any measures that provide information on patterns of abuse are welcome.”

Home Office data shows there was a total of 53,540 sexual offences in 2007-08, but their figures only list broad age ranges as defined by the recorded offence, such as “sexual assault on a female child under 13″. Detailed age breakdowns of victims are not passed on to the Home Office.

Thanks for that. I appreciate it. And your English is very good, better than my Spanish anyway!

Colm

God?

Priests abused whoever they had access to (and obviously still do). Access to boys was much more frequent which is why there is many more male victims than female.

Just a little more reading and an open mind could have saved you looking like such a bigoted fool.

Nobody with half a brain would deny that what has happened within the church is appalling, (though really there are no words), and even though priests only make up a small number of abusers, even one abusive priest is too many. And I think any fair minded person would also recognise that the way things were dealt with 30 years ago – not only by the church, but by other relevant bodies – was dreadful, however much it was of its time. And, indeed, the way the church has handled the whole fall-out also leaves a lot to be desired.

But show me any group of people or institution that comes under constant attack that doesn’t drawn in on themselves and protect themselves: we all get defensive when we feel under attack, warranted or not. The Church will change, but in its own time, in its own way and as a result of internal pressure. And while there is still a lot to do, and the words coming out of the Church fall far short of the mark, there is no recognition of the fact that today, 2010, the Church (in Ireland, at least – I cannot comment on the rest of the world) is probably the safest place for a child to be – do actions not count for anything any more? The Church will not change in response to a hysterical media, or a secular world that is using this scandal to promote other agendas, and make no mistake, that is happening as well. And nothing they say or do will ever be enough, even the Popes head in a noose. Because then something more would be required, and more, and more and more. And why is there no relentless spotlight being turned on the secular authorities – the HSE, the Gardai – who in many instances knew about abuse going on at the time, and yet chose to do nothing? There have been occasional articles, certainly, but hardly anything amounting to a campaign. A journalist friend of mine who has written about the appalling track record of the HSE in child protection told me it’s because the HSE is such a faceless bureaucratic monster that it would be virtually impossible to allocate responsibility (or, as the media prefer, apportion blame) so nobody bothers trying. And children in its care still die, as recently as 2009.

I am a committed Catholic, feeling battered and bruised by all of this, even though I am lay and female. I have been made to feel that I am somehow deficient in choosing to stay in the Church, because I am lay and female, and that by staying I am somehow condoning what has happened. I have to work very, very hard not to feel defensive, and there are times when I feel that what has happened (in terms of how it’s all been handled as well as the actual abuse) is indefensible, but I love the Church, and I worry that if people like me (I would consider myself a moderate, or indeed, liberal) then we leave her in the hands of those who would batten down the hatches against any progress. And if we do leave, then we will have to bear some responsibility for such an occurrence.

I am not suggesting that the Church not be held to task for what it has done, or failed to do. But the tone of the criticism can only be described for the most part as hysterical, vindictive and in some cases hate-filled. And why would anyone on the receiving end of that even listen to it, let alone act on it? I wouldn’t. Would you?

Evidence and informed debate seem to have no effect. Who is it that advises the catholic elite I wonder ?

The whole gay thing is to an attempted to pass the blame on to the enemy within, as they see it, and excuse such acts of criminal abuse as explorations or acting outs of emerging sexuality !

Its seems clear the church sees itself as the victim and always has ?

As for guidelines – they should be called the rules?

If a judge would grant a warrant under international law to arrest the Pope for crimes against humanity? It would send a powerful signal to the Vatican that it was time to change or die. But I suspect no such warrant would or could be gained !

You are all doing a good job there.

Paula

NO is not! have u read ‘The Nature and Scope of the Problem of Sexual Abuse of Minors
by Catholic Priests and Deacons in the United States’? more than 80% were teenager BOYS 11 TO 17 years old and the ‘Dublin Archdiocese Commission of Investigation Report’ the same thing.

Dublin Archdiocese Commission of Investigation Report
http://www.dacoi.ie/

Fr Maguire
16.5 In 1997, he admitted to the following abuses: Before he became a priest: one boy; he also admitted to having sex with a boy of his own age while a teenager and to having groomed two other boys. 1963 – 1966: three boys in Japan; he also groomed others. 1967: six or seven boys while in Ireland. 1968 – 1972: two boys. 1973: ten boys in Ireland and ten in Japan. 1974/75: eight boys in Ireland. 1976 – 1979: eight boys and one girl; he also admitted that he set up a network of victims and families where he could abuse. 1984: three boys. 1984 – 1989: two boys; he also continued his relationship with other victims and families. 1992- 1994: a vulnerable adult (21 years old). 1996: grooming.
He told the Commission that this list is not complete.
16.6 In 1998, he described his activities up to 1985 as being “hands-on” with some children while encouraging others to bathe with him or be naked in his presence.
Page 218.

‘The Nature and Scope of the Problem of Sexual Abuse of Minors
by Catholic Priests and Deacons in the United States’
http://www.usccb.org/nrb/johnjaystudy/

No, women alone are not the answer. Women in the church abuse also. The problem is a church with its organizational head in the sand at all times, whether it involves women OR men.

Here in the USA, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious has proven just as obstinate and uncooperative toward police investigations of nuns abusing kids as the bishops have proven toward the priests. The entire idea that nuns are innocent of this is ridiculous and insulting to those of us who suffered under them.

Tom Barnes

You point out that Pope Pious V issued an order with regard to abuse of children within the Church. The order was issued in 1568. It was obviously a serious issue then, as it remains to this day.

The abuse of children has a long history, and given the ways in which the Church and State have been interlinked as Powers over people down through the ages, one has to ask : just how deep does this rabbit hole go?

The ‘defence’ of the indefensible goes on….. this putrid essay appeared in the New York Times recently….

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/28/opinion/28allen.html

It is of course all lies. Spin. The current Pope himself directly oversaw the official cover-up…. and most, if not all Governments have been extremely sluggish in coming to the aid of those who have suffered….

I see very little difference between the actions of The Vatican and those of the US and UK Governments in terms of what the children at the receiving end of their ‘policies’ experience… 1/3rd of all ‘excess’ violent deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan are children under the age of 15!

The underlying issues are to do with Power, with how Society treats children. The Church has indeed been our tormentors, Colm, and they are not alone…

Kindest Regards

Corneilius Crowley

I have worked with vicitims of violent crime, in particular, in the last nine years of my career. Since 2001/2002 I have attempted to urge the application of restorative justice principles to cases like yours, largely with an emphasis here in the U.S. Restorative justice, especially victims-driven restorative justice which I stress, urges direct offender accountability after crimes have been committed. It also stresses the need to see crime as injury to victims, and communities. Those injuries can and should be repaired, and healed, as much as possible. Those are the basic tenets of reform of the justice system based on restorative justice.

Is this possible with the Catholic Church and victims of abuse from around the world? I think so, even today. It takes a paradigm shift but it is despereately needed. I hope to work with you and others who seek this type of healing and offender accountability.

I am attaching one article I posted last year at http://www.rjonline.org.

http://www.restorativejustice.org/RJOB/dark-charges-from-mahonys-inner-circle

Standing with you,

Lisa Rea
California
Founder, The Justice and Reconciliation Project
Rea Consulting-U.S.
Email: lrea@mindsync.com
~blogging at http://www.rjonline.org

Many thanks for your comment…and I hope you find the rest of the book meaningful.

best,

Colm

This weekend we also saw the Pope’s letter to the Irish people in booklet form available at churches throughout the country. Having read this, I deem it a scant form of apology to the victims of abuse, their families and Irish Catholics and undoubtedly done under worldwide duress.

Having grown up in the Ireland of the 80’s I too recall a land of silences and clergy autonomy.

I was educated in a convent system and have always found the nuns to be nothing but kind and affirmative role models. I also have been blessed with wonderful parents and outer family. However I have met people, like yourself, that have suffered at the hands of this silence and outrage and it can never be condoned or excused and despite how many years transpire these people must be made accountable. One life ruined is one too many!

I look forward to concluding your book as I approach chapters of your legal battle with church and state and wish you continued success and growth for you have truly earned it in your still short lifetime.

U.S. lawyer takes on Vatican over abuse cases.Jeff Anderson has filed thousands of lawsuits alleging sex abuse by priests and won tens of millions of dollars for his clients, but he has had a bigger goal in mind for nearly two decades. He wants to bring his career-long legal crusade against misconduct in the Roman Catholic Church right to the top.

As a survivor of abuse by those hellspawn. Here is my new belief:

You rise beautiful from the horizon on heaven,
living disk, origin of life.
You are arisen from the horizon,
you have filled every land with your beauty.
You are fine, great, radiant, lofty over and above every land.
Your rays bind the lands to the limit of all you have made,
you are the sun, you have reached their limits.
You bind them (for) your beloved son.
You are distant, but your rays are on earth,
You are in their sight, but your movements are hidden.

You rest in the western horizon, and the land is in darkness in the manner of death,
sleepers in chambers, heads covered,
no eye can see its other.
Anything of theirs can be taken from under their heads, they would not know.
Every lion goes out from its den,
every snake bites.
Darkness envelops, the land is in silence, their creator is resting in his horizon.
At daybreak, arisen from the hrozion, shining as the disk in day,
you remove the darkness, you grant your rays,
and the two lands are in festival,
awakened and standing on their feet.
You have raised them up, their bodies cleansed, clothing on,
their arms are in adoration at your sunrise.

The entire land carries out its tasks,
every herd rests in its pastures,
trees and plants are sprouting,
birds flying up from their nests,
their wings in adoration for your spirit.
Every flock frolics afoot,
all that fly up and alight,
they live when you have shone for them.
Boats sail north and south too,
every road is opened at your sunrise,
and the fish on the river leap at the sight of you
Your rays penetrate the Great Green.

You who cause the sperm to grow in women,
who turns seed into people,
who causes the son to live in the womb of his mother,
who silences him in stopping him crying.
Nurse in the womb, who gives breath to cause all he has made to live,
when he goes down from the womb to breathe on the day of his birth,
you open his mouth in form,
you make his needs.
When the chick in the egg speaks in the shell,
you give it breath within to cause it to live,
you have made him, he is complete, to break out from the egg,
and he emerges from the egg to speak to his completion,
and walks on his legs, going out from it.

How numerous are your works, though hidden from sight.
Unique god, there is none beside him.
You mould the earth to your wish, you and you alone.
All people, herds and flocks,
All on earth that walk on legs,
All on high that fly with their wings.
And on the foreign lands of Khar and Kush, the land of Egypt
You place every man in his place,
you make what they need,
so that everyone has his food,
his lifespan counted.

Tongues are separated in speech, and forms too -
Their skins are made different,
for you make foreign lands different.

You make a Flood in the underworld, and bring it at your desire
to cause the populace to live, as you made them for you,
lord of all they labour over,
the lord of every land.
Shine for them, O disk of day, great of dignity.
All distant lands, you make them live,
you place a Flood in the sky, to descend for them,
to make waves over the mountains like the Great Green,
to water their fields with their settlements.
How effective they are, your plans, O lord of eternity!
A Flood in the sky for foreigners, for the flocks of every land that go on foot,
and a Flood to come from the underworld for Egypt,
your rays nursing every meadow,
you shine and they live and grow for you.
You make the seasons to nurture all you mae,
winter to cool them,
heat so they may taste you.

You have made the far sky to shine in it,
to see what you make, while you are far, and shining in your form as living disk.
risen, shining, distant, near,
you make millions of forms from yourself, lone one,
cities, towns,. fields, the road of rivers,
every eye sees you in their entry,
you are the disk of day, master of your move,
of the existence of every form,
you create … alone, what you have made.

You are in my heart, there is none other who knows you
beside your son Neferkheperura-sole-one-of-Ra.
You instruct him in your plans, in your strength.
The land comes into being by your action, as you make them,
and when you have shone, they live,
when you rest, they die.
You are lifetime, in your body,
people live by you.
Eyes are on your beauty until you set.
All work is stopped when you set on the west;
shine, and strengthen (all for) the king.
Motion is in every leg, since you founded the earth,
you raise them for your son who come from your body,
the king who lives on Right, lord of the two lands,
Neferkheperura-sole-one-of-Ra,
son of Ra who lives on Right, lord of Risings,
Akhenaten, great in his lifespan,
and the great king’s wife whom he loves, lady of the two lands,
Neferneferuaten Nefertiti, eternally alive.

Colm, I don’t know how you feel about God and the Church but I pray that you and all the other victims do not lose your faith. These individuals do not and never did represent God. You will win your battle with these despicable people and they are suffering a bit of the penalty right now with the whole world looking on. I will enjoy every moment of their shame and will not be praying for them.

Has anyone/organisation/group made inquiries as to how many cases did not proceed because of TIME DELAY.

You are a true Hero. I have admired you courage and honest for many years. My Mom who’s in her 80’s and has been such a devout Catholic all her life back in Ireland feels such dismay/betrayal. My cousin, a priest in LA, CA who married a nun was correct when he said to me that the Church had become a normal ABNORMAL. Saying that there are some wonderful individuals who seek to do good within the priesthood. Pope Benedict XVI should step down. The leaders have become politicians where power and money have become a priority over truth. We need to get over sexuality issues and allow those who enter the priest/sister hood to experience the physical love that all humans were blessed to experience, weather they are gay, straight or anywhere in between. The Irish State needs to step in and prosecute all those who comitted all such crimes of humanity, irregardless of religious stature, political favor, issues and money. Otherwise the issue of Child abuse will never end. I feel sorry for Eamonn Casey who they made an example of during my time at NUIG during the early 90’s

Thank you for a clear, concise and empathic response to the Pope’s overly guarded (not to say mealy-mouthed) apology to the Irish victims of chronic, widespread church-centred abuse.

Whist it might be considered a sincere, if under-the-breath ‘mea culpa’ from the head of the institutional church, it comes nowhere close to that church’s requirement of all its adherents to proclaim – preferably on a daily basis – ‘mea MAXIMA culpa’!

Many, many thanks for what you have written and shared in the Independent and on other occasions re abuse by priests and religious – I am with you all the way on what needs to be done by all in authority in the Church. I wish I could put it all into the hands of the Laity and Clergy for information, reflection and action.
Yesterday I sent an Appeal to the Scottish Bishops Meeting these 3 days in Edinburgh – to take seriously the wisdom or un-wisdom of the Papal Visit here in September – even appealing at least for a postponement or even cancellation so that the Church gets on with the far more important work of dealing with the issues as you and others request and be seen to be dealing with it all.

I note Archbishop Zollitsch’s words also the suggestion from the Swiss priest of a Register of abusing Clergy and Religious. I am copying the Independent articles to the Bishops this evening in the hope they will read them and be persuaded to act decisively.

Today for the first time ever I heard the personal testimony of a woman I’ve known via earlier parish appointments – of her abuse by her father and their Parish Minister (Church of Scotland) and by two unidentified others. Her abuse started at age 10 – and continued till age 15 it was said to her it was by the will of God! The detail is as you will know – horrendous. Both father and Minister are long dead; the whereabouts of the other two are unknown to her.
But she still struggles – especially in her marriage relationship; and from a husband who just cannot begin to understand her pain and her sense for long years of the absence of God. I had sent her for counselling – but that did not afford her what she needed and still needs – to let it all out – so she began bravely today. I wonder what is in place in Ireland to assist victims still suffering in these different ways – long years after? I have sent a message to our Diocesan Office asking the same! Till today I could never have imagined the utter depravity of priests and religious and the utter devastation of the victims. as a result she thinks so little of herself.

Happy to have any advice you might think appropriate.

Many thanks again,
John R

I totally agree with your opinion and would give many thanks to you for all what you’re doing and denouncing.

I hope in the next future to write you more detaily from Italy.

Sincerely yours

Tommaso Dell’Era

Thank you for your intelligence and bravery, it is an absoloute breath of fresh air at a time when we each facing up to the most terrible crimes and violations.

I feel that you have done the most fantastic and profound work, for people who cannot find their voices and have helped others to find a voice and finally shout enough, no more. How……by saying it as it is, naming the bloomin elephant in the room. I applaud your truth and integrity hugely.

Sincere and heartfelt thanks.

“It’s a really sly translation. It almost seems as if they knew they had to sneak the word sorry in there somehow. The reason why none of the Italian papers are reporting this ‘apology’ is because there is no apology. The word sorry in the English version of the letter, if it has been translated accurately like the rest of the letter, expresses sympathy and sadness. Also, his ’sorryness’ in the Italian is directly connected to the suffering ( see ‘ne’) but this is less clear in the English version. In both letters, he expresses his sadness at the victims’ suffering but he doesn’t apologise.

“The translation is generally very good but this line seems to convey a completely different meaning. I ask people to look at it again and bear in mind that using the word sorry doesn’t necessarily mean that you are apologising, as any good Vatican translator will tell you.”. Link is http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/21/pope-apology-abuse

International award winning film director Bill Maloney was brought up in the care of brutal UK authorities as were the rest of his Catholic Irish immigrant family. His passion to expose the truth and ‘tell it how it is’ led a group of courageous abuse victims to approach Maloney to tell their stories.

Pie ‘n’ Mash Films and justice4survivors are part of a chain that is strengthening and linking up throughout the world to make is a safer place for our children – because THEY are the future. Please google ‘Adam Rickwood & The Medomsley Heroes’ and find Maloney’s latest video report about abuse at St Peter’s Approved School on YouTube: ‘St Peter’s Child Abuse Advert’.

We’re with all abuse victims who just want to hear “You were NOT liars, we’re sorry and WE WILL bring the perpetrators to Justice”.

At the Global Atheist Convention just held in Melbourne, Australia. Prof. Richard Dawkins compared many of the beliefs and practises of the Roman Catholic Church as “Pythonesque”. I was at that Convention.

I am looking for no more than truth, justice and a commitment to act to properly protect children from this point forth.

And that’s not about me at all. I have done what I needed to do to address my experiences of rape and abuse at the hands of man ordained by a church who knew he was a paedophile. I have done so in the face of at times aggressive refusal on the part of that same church to be answerable for their failures and negligence. In the end I succeeded in forcing an admission of negligence from the Diocese of Ferns, whilst the Vatican used their statehood and invoked diplomatic immunity to dodge truth and accountability.

So I got on with it, with the support of my family, my friends and many others, I did what I needed to do in order to heal the impacts of the crimes I was subjected to.

You are right when you say that no amount of words will suffice, or at least not words alone. Actions are what matter.

Take a look at the actions the Pope feels are an appropriate response to the issue of clerical child sexual abuse and its cover up by the institutional church.

I now invite all of you to devote your Friday penances, for a period of one year, between now and Easter 2011, to this intention. I ask you to offer up your fasting, your prayer, your reading of Scripture and your works of mercy in order to obtain the grace of healing and renewal for the Church in Ireland…I am confident that this programme will lead to a rebirth of the Church in Ireland…

He then goes on to say that he will initiate an Apostolic Visitation to some Irish diocese…a visit by Vatican enforcers who will bring Irish church leaders back into line with adherence to Church Law. The same church law which has been used as an excuse for the failure of bishops to report crimes against children to the police.

Nowhere in the letter does the Pope issue a simple instruction that all cases of allegations, concerns or suspicions of the abuse of children by priests are to be handed over the police or civil authorities. Nowhere does he pledge action on his part, as Supreme Pontiff and head of the global church to bring in new laws which will require church personnel and managers to place child protection at the top of their priorities in responding to clerical sexual abuse.

I have no desire to see the destruction of the Roman Catholic Church. I strongly believe in the right of all people to be free to express and celebrate their personal religious beliefs and in my professional life I work to defend that and all other human rights.

However, I think that the actions of the leaders of the Church, up to and including especially the Pope are in truth the greatest threat to its survival.

best,

Colm

This week we have heard a Professor of Canon Maw tell us that for Cardinal Sean Brady to report crimes against children would have been a breach of canon law and a betrayal of his office. In the past we have heard bishops assert that they did not have the power or means to control abusing priests.

Fr Tom Doyle and many other experts are clear in their view that many aspects of canon law are obsessed with secrecy and the prevention of scandal as opposed to the protection of children.

I didn’t say that Canon Law also provided means through which errant and abusing clerics could be controlled, rather that bishops and other church leaders had asserted that they did not have the power to limit the activities of offending priests and prevent abuse.

Colm

This post was mentioned on Twitter by MacPsych: RT @Colmogorman: An initial response to the Papal letter to the ‘Irish Faithful’. http://bit.ly/aCEiRI...

As for Brendan J. Kelly / John Benedict Kelly…more of the same there too. The sheep are threatend and the rest of the world has an “agenda” against the church. That’s the problem!! LOL.

The sheople will follow no matter what the church does. So people like Brendan/John are best off left alone to let themselves self derstruct along with the RCC. There is no saving them. They refuse to jump of a ship that is certainly sinking. Sad indeed…

The “problem” of the sexual abuse of children, however, is not something that suddenly just hit the radar as far as church authorities are concerned.

Read through the pages of the reports and investigations that have been done here in the U.S.

Read through the pages of the 2005 Philadelphia Grand Jury Report on the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, not forgetting to read the archdiocese’s response and District Attorney Abraham’s response to their response.

They are shattering.

What the grand jury uncovered is shocking beyond belief as it what the church authorities knew, when they knew it and what they did not do to care for the “Lord’s little ones,” their parents and their families.

It broke my heart.

With much of their actions outed, church representatives played a number of cards but one of the most ridiculous was when someone claimed that the attacks on the church were an attack by people similiar to the “Know Nothings” of over a century ago.

I commented in one newspaper article I wrote that the church didn’t have to worry about any damage coming from any outsider “Know Nothings” because they had done such a good job of destroying the church’s authority and credibility from the inside!

Yes, it is a beautiful letter if one comes to it with absolutely no background in what has transpired even just these last eight years in the U.S.

Let me add a few thoughts that struck me on a first reading of the pope’s pastoral letter to the Irish people -

They are as follows:

The pope does not mention “justice” along with his proposal as in “…and to propose a path of healing, renewal and reparation.”

Where is justice? What happened to justice?

The pope distances himself from the problem when he says, “the task you now face is to address the problem of abuse that has occurred within the Irish community….”

He chooses not to place the physical, mental, psychological, spiritural and sexual abuse of those in Ireland into the church’s larger sexual abuse problems which are worldwide – that of children, young women, men, vulnerable adults and women religious, nuns in coutries around the world.

While the pope mentions “this grievous wound,” and goes on to “acknowledge before the Lord and before others the serious sins committed against defenceless children,” he does not acknowledge them as the crimes against the humanity of children which they truly are.

As far as I can find, the pope uses the word, “crime” only once in his pastoral letter to describe the sexual abuse of a child.

Nowhere does he use the word “crime” to describe the actions of the bishops.

After distancing himself by using the phrase, “your country,” the pope then attempts to place the blame on “priests and religious,” whom he accuses of adopting “ways of thinking and assessing secular realities without sufficient reference to the Gospel.”

The problem of sexual abuse was recognized and written about as early as the fourth century.

Sounds like making excuses and more passing the buck then presenting valid reasons to me.

Then he appears to blame the “programme of renewal proposed by the Second Vatican Council,” which, according to the pope, “was sometimes misinterpreted and indeed, in the light of the profound social changes that were taking place, it was far from easy to know how best to implement it. In particular, there was a well-intentioned but misguided tendency to avoid penal approaches to canonically irregular situations. It is in this overall context that we must try to understand the disturbing problem of child sexual abuse, which has contributed in no small measure to the weakening of faith and the loss of respect for the Church and her teachings.”

Talk about disturbing!

Is this another attempt to polarize groups of people who remain in the church? One wonders hows that accounts for all the documented cases of abuse that pre-date the Second Vatican Council?

It reminds me of what bishops and others, here at home as well as abroad, said in 2002.

It’s an American problem.

Santorum of Pennsylvania blamed it on the permissiveness of the New Englanders and foreign bishops blamed it on homosexual priests and promptly commenced a purge of the U.S. seminaries.

The pope goes on to talk about “the disturbing problem of child sexual abuse, which has contributed in no small measure to the weakening of faith and the loss of respect for the Church and her teachings.”

Odd, but I thought that the “weakening of faith,” “loss of respect,” etc., had a more direct cause and effect relationship to the terrible, self serving way the hierarchy mishandled the “problem.”

I could be wrong but I don’t think so.

I don’t think there will be “a clear-sighted diagnosis” as long as the real causes and the hierarchy’s responsibility continues to be mitigated.

The pope mentions, “existing canonical penalties.”

What about the failure to apply existing criminal and civil penalties, laws, while safeguarding “the dignity of every person,” as the Holy See pledged to do in its signing its name to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child?

On page 6: But what concrete steps toward accountability have actually been taken? Of the bishops especially?

Yes, it is “hard to forgive or be reconciled with the Church,” but is it not more correct to say that it is the institutional Roman Catholic Church that needs to be reconciled with the victims?

The church in the collective person of the hierarchy, needs to pursue reconciliation.

On page 8: The pope speaks of priests and religious who have abused children.

Why does the pope continue to address these perverted individuals as “priests” and “religious” in the present tense?

They should not be priests or religious.

They should be removed from the priesthood and the religious life.

To my knowledge, not one priest or religious has been denied reception of Holy Communion much less excommunicated for such grievous violations and crimes against children to say nothing of mortal sins.

And yet there is evidence of threatening victims, their parents and families with excommunication, lawsuits and the like.

Victims were shunned, dismissed from school and threatened with lawsuits themselves if they did not back off.

Victims in Philadelphia were forced to have abortions, for the love of God! It’s all there to read and my sources tell me that there was much more that never got into the report.

Again there is an excessive concern expressed about “damage” done to the institution and the public “perception of the priesthood and religious life.”

On page 12: Attempts are made once again to mitigate the responsibility of the bishops.

“Grave errors in judgment?”

Nooooooooo, crimes were committed by bishops.

These crimes are sometimes called a conspiracy to commit a crime, a felony, reckless endangerment, facilitating a crime, and a host of other terms in other jurisdictions.

“Cooperate?” How about the directing the bishops to obey the laws of the government regarding Childhood Sexual Abuse within the jurisdictions of their dioceses?

The faithful, of course, are enjoined once again to “play their proper part.”

“The lay faithful, too, should be encouraged to play their proper part in the life of the Church. See that they are formed in such a way that they can offer an articulate and convincing account of the Gospel in the midst of modern society (cf. 1 Pet 3:15) and cooperate more fully in the Church’s life and mission. This in turn will help you once again become credible leaders and witnesses to the redeeming truth of Christ.”

“Credible leaders?”

That will be a long time in coming, if ever, and that in itself may not be such a bad idea.

Never in his pastoral letter, does the pope once refer to any of the structural problems that have contributed to this “problem” as he calls it and certainly there is no mention of the systemic and endemic causes.

And so it goes.

All in all this was another opportunity to get to the crux of the problem and once again the pope, like so many of his underlings, choose not to do what he needed to do.

Sister Maureen Paul Turlish
Victims’ Advocate
New Castle, Delaware
maureenpaulturlish@yahoo.com

Did u read ‘Dublin Archdiocese Commission of Investigation Report’?

The Church’s failure to implement its own rules
1.25 The Church authorities failed to implement most of their own canon law rules on dealing with clerical child sexual abuse. This was in spite of the fact that a number of them were qualified canon and civil lawyers. As is shown in Chapter 4, canon law appears to have fallen into DISUSE and DISRESPECT during the mid 20th century. In particular, there was little or no experience of operating the penal (that is, the criminal) provisions of that law. The collapse of respect for the canon law in Archdiocesan circles is covered in some detail in Chapter 4. For many years offenders were neither prosecuted nor made accountable within the Church. Archbishop McQuaid was well aware of the canon law requirements and even set the processes in motion but did not complete them. Archbishops Ryan and McNamara do not seem to have ever applied the canon law.
page 7
http://www.dacoi.ie/

The amount of damages I was paid by the church has never been a secret. It was widely reported at the time and is a matter of public record. You could have simpy googled it if you were interested. But to save you the trouble heres a link: RTE report of the case.

I would have thought the reference to Amnesty International was pretty obvious. Its my full-time professional role. Normal enough for people to list their job in their profiles.

As for my former involvement in politics, again I am not sure what your point is. Are you of the view that a concern for human rights is political opportunism?

I have posted your comments because you seem to be trying to make some kind of sideways assertion that I have done something shadowy or wrong. I will not however post any future comments that make some sort of charge hidden in innuendo.

Colm

This is more lip service from Rome.

John Benedict Kelly

In the area where I lived in Italy there were at least two cases (since 2000) and numerous families had to complain repeatedly to the police. The therapist who helped my son told of families who settled out of court with the church over altar boy abuse in a local parish(peculiar to Ireland?). There had been another 3 cases of abuse in families in our local Primary in the last 10 years and the local bar was run by a family whose grandfather had abused the young grand daughter but did not report it for fear of losing customers – they knew the system went to the root of Italian society and could not be chalenged without ostracism of the victims.

When my son spoke out against his father at age eight after years of abuse, the local Parish priest was disapproving of our attempts to get justice – to such an extent that during my daughter’s First Communion ceremony he refused communion to me at the altar in front of the whole congregation as I stood with my daughter. he gave my daughter her communion. Despite complaining afterwards I was told that the priest had made a mistake because I was not a ‘proper catholic’. I have never recovered from the humiliation of such a public sign of disapproval and it ruined my daughter’s first communion in a very public and cruel way. On receiving an archived police file we found two years later that the police had taped the father’s phone at the time of this Communion and had been encouraging in fighting in the parish so that some parents had been discussing with the Priest whether or not my innocent daughter should be welcomed at the Communion meal with their children!!!

When we decided to return to the Uk to seek justice (the perpetrator is also a British citizen and had committed crimes on British soil) we were told by the deacon of the same Italian parish (and the man who had baptised my son) that we had made a big mistake in speaking publicly about things that should be dealt with behind closed doors.

Imagine my disgust at now seeing the Italian media coverage and also reading that there are early signs of abuse scandals in Bolzano. Bolzano? Take a look at every Italian parish and I am sure you will find a collection of abuse by clergy and fathers going back centuries.

Add to this the behaviour and attitude of the priest in my local parish here in the UK. When he asked why I was not attending church I told him of the real reasons why we had returned home and also told him that I did not trust very religious people after many parishoners in Italy had snubbed us socially and gossipped about our situation and had been encouraged by the priest and the general attitude – his reply to this was that I was ‘looking for excuses’ for not going to church. I said that I needed to see the Catholic Church take a real stand on child abuse before I could go in to a church. I was happy to speak to God at home from my own living room rather than frequent an institution that actively encourages such prejudice for victims of serious crime.
That historic day has come – or has it? it appears to be a rather half hearted attempt.
Start writing to the Italian government and demand of your Italian ambassador action in Italy for all those families denied justice. write to the Stampa newspaper and others, such as the Repubblica This is a global problem, not an Irish problem!!.

And finally when he said “I now wish to propose to you some concrete initiatives to address the situation” and then continued “At the conclusion of my meeting with the Irish bishops, I asked that Lent this year be set aside as a time to pray blah blah”, my jaw literally dropped in disbelief. The entire exercise was a waste of time, a truly disgusting, mealy-mouthed piece of propaganda.

The entire patriarchal system is based on divide and rule, keep people living in fear and pverty and ignorance, keep wars going, etc. All designed to keep the vibration on Mother Earth low, because once the love and joy vibration increase then truth and justice is seen to be done.
All will be revealed at Tara at the right time.

I never see it written about and when I called the lady said- oh people do not want to go public on stuff like that, as if we children were truly posessed for being too intelligent.

Anyway, I would like to go public to break the taboo and expose the truth of this horrendous crime against a sovereign human being.

I do wonder how many of us are there?

Are our names recorded as it appears they are- the HSE knows, How?

Then the men of god come for our children- especially girls, citing them to be witches too.

I know it sounds crazy, but it is true.