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Expose on shielding paedophiles in
Church a shocking indictment
EVERY
once in a while a television programme gets the whole nation talking. Back in
the 1960s one tipsy bishop got himself into a lather because somebody's wife
admitted on the Late Late Show that she did not wear a nightie on her wedding
night. On another occasion a student from Trinity College provoked outrage by
suggesting that the Bishop of Galway did not know the meaning of
Christianity. Those programmes seem positively comical in comparison with the
devastating expose on Prime Time.
It exposed what amounted to rampant clerical paedophilia within the Dublin
archdiocese. Eight paedophile priests were actually named, and the pathetic
handling of their cases by three archbishops exposed. Cardinal Desmond
Connell was invited on the programme to answer allegations, but sent two
people to try to defend the indefensible. Colm O'Gorman, one of the
paedophile victims, erupted in righteous indignation at their performance.
"I find it offensive in the extreme," he said, "to hear the same
old excuses trotted out time and again 'we didn't know'; 'we didn't
understand'; 'we did everything we could,' and the absolute cream on that
one: 'we were trying to protect children'," "You weren't!" he told
the diocesan spokespeople. "Your were protecting your institution; you
were protecting your authority; you were protecting your power."
They
were still trying indeed, in the light of what had just been heard, they were
very trying! The suggestion that they didn't understand paedophilia is as
absurd as the utterly ludicrous idea that they were trying to protect
children. Even a half-wit should realise that the sexual abuse of a child is
wrong. Anyone in authority who pleads that he did not understand the dangers,
is not fit to hold a position of authority. Fr Tom Doyle, an American cannon
lawyer, was particularly critical of what has been happening in Dublin. "They
did know about paedophilia," he declared. "They did know about sexual
abuse. What they didn't know was that if they kept covering it up, they'd get
caught. There is no excuse for this," Fr Doyle said at another
point. "This is terrible, and then you tell me you have 400 and some
lawsuits over here. This puts Dublin right at the top of the heap. There is
something radically, radically wrong."
When Marie Collins, one of the victims of the clerical abuse, complained to
Archbishop Connell, he pleaded that he was prevented from acting by Canon
Law. But Fr Doyle, a canon lawyer, demolished that defence. "If you follow
Canon Law," he explained, "it basically tells you that these bishops
and archbishops are accomplices to the crime. They're as guilty as the
perpetrators, because they're covering them up."
The cardinal is certainly culpable, because he acted in a totally
irresponsible way, Fr Doyle added. "His own guidelines stated one thing
and yet he did not follow those." Let's face it, the cardinal should now
do the decent thing by resigning without further delay. Eddie Shaw, the
director of the Diocesan Communication Office, noted that he has already
tendered his resignation and it is now up to the Pope. The Pope's own
competence has been brought into question in elevating the Archbishop to the
College of Cardinals. If he was acting on advice, then he should get some new
advisers, too. Other than the actual victims, the people who have the right
to feel most aggrieved are the great majority of priests, brothers and nuns,
who have become victims by association, through the crass ineptitude of the
Church authorities. Those decent people who answered their vocations have
been betrayed, not so much by sick paedophiles in their midst, as by the
irresponsible behaviour of the authorities who were more concerned with
covering up the child abuse than protecting other innocent children. The
clerical culprits were quietly moved to other communities where they could
practice their paedophile inclinations until they were caught again.
Although paedophile abuse by clerics is an international phenomenon, one
finds close Irish links on a global scale. The Catholic Church in Boston,
which has traditionally had the strongest Irish links, is currently reeling
under a paedophile scandal, but it is just one of a whole series of such
scandals . In 1988 a major scandal involving the Irish Christian Brothers
erupted in Canada at an orphanage in St John's, Newfoundland. This resulted
in highly publicised trials involving 16 brothers. An ensuing television
series sparked the controversy over Fr Brendan Smyth's delayed extradition,
which led to the fall of Albert Reynolds' government in 1994.
Meanwhile, another scandal developed involving the Irish Christian Brothers
at four residential care institutions in Western Australia. There was
evidence there that at least 15 of the 175 brothers had sexually abused boys
in their care. The publicity over that scandal led to further allegations of
sexual abuse against other Christian Brothers and priests throughout much of
Australia. More Irish Christian Brothers got in trouble with the law
than men of any comparable congregation in that country. Less than one in ten
may have been involved in the abuse, but the silence of the others landed all
of them with the derisive appellation of Irish Christian Buggers.
The Church authorities have, by their inactivity in relation to the violation
of children, [..] exposed children to the horrors of paedophilia. "Fifteen
years ago, if a priest or a religious brother was accused of this, people
would be very very loath to believe that he had done it," Archbishop Pell
said this week. "Now, I think, through the revelations of the crimes and
sins which have been committed and also I think as a result of a lot of very
heavy and repetitive, and, I am tempted to say, disproportionate media
attention on the sins of the clergy many people now would be more inclined to
say 'yes, well that's just another example of what they do'."
That is the reality, and it will get worse until the Church authorities
restore confidence with a thorough house cleaning, starting at the top.
All Articles
gleaned from various web sources
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