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Order’s silence over abuse report

Wednesday, 20 May 2009

The Christian Brothers have been accused of censoring debate about a damning major report on child abuse due to be published today.

The order has told the heads of its 97 schools not to make any comment to the media and to refer any queries to the Edmund Rice Schools Trust which now runs them.

The move was condemned last night by Barnardos chief exectuive Fergus Finlay who accused the trust of trying to “stifle” debate into the report.

The report’s five-volume catalogue running to 2,500 pages and cosing an estimated €70m, will document the scale of emotional, physical and sexual trauma suffered by innocent children by Catholic nuns and religious priests.

The report is expected to strongly condemn the Catholic Church and the Department of Education for the abuse of children in religious run institutions.

The abuse, spanning from the mid-1930s to the mid-90s, took place in industrial schools and reformatories run by the Christian Brothers and Sisters of Mercy. The Christian Brothers were accused of trying to stifle comment after the chief exectuive of the Edmund Rice Trust, Gerry Bennett, sent an email to principals and secretaries of boards of management.

It said that: “We would encourage you not to make a response from your individual school, but that you refer any queries to the Edmund Rice Schools Trust.”

The Government-appointed Commission heard testimony from more than 1,000 victims, many of whom suffered physical or sexual abuse.

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I was at an Irish Christian Brothers boarding school in England from 1960 to 1968. I was sent there when I was 11, and it was 8 years of Hell. Not all the Brothers were bad, but most were sadists. It is not The Catholic Church that is wrong but many, many men and women in it who are basically evil. Paedophiles and perverts, sadists and the corrupt have been able to hide within the establishment for far too long. The Catholic Church must ex-communicate these heretics and purge itself of all evil.

Posted by Paul Brann | 13.06.09, 18:54 GMT

what can you say. This vile organisation of Christian Brothers has learnt nothing. We must go totally on the offensive, never let up till we get the names of these people and have them before the Courts. Nothing else will suffice. The Irish Government must not be get off the hook.

Posted by Patrick Murphy | 22.05.09, 12:43 GMT

This abuse has been endemic for long before the mid 1930's. My late father was unfortunate enough to be orphaned at six and spent his formative years in a Christian Brother's industrial school in Dublin in the 1920's. He told me late in his life of the punishment beatings, the use of the 'cat' and other atrocities that I do not want to mention. Until the day he died he lived with that abuse - it never left him - that was the legacy for him will be for all those abused sinced.

Posted by Mark | 21.05.09, 09:00 GMT

Anyone who dares read the ' Ireland investigation report', and they still choose to live in 'denial' about the magnitude of sex abuse by catholic clergy and the cover-up by the church leaders, must surely be brain dead.

The catholic clergy abuse epidemic is world wide. The church leaders' system of secrets, protection from scandal, covering their own butts, and knowingly committing crimes against kids, is almost too much for my heart.

"Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests"

Posted by Judy Jones | 20.05.09, 20:23 GMT

"Is the Roman Catholic Church, on balance, a force for good in this society?"

I remember the late Malcolm Muggeridge asking that question on his BBC tea time television Sunday debate show in the early 1960's.

Had we all known about the physical and sexual abuse of children in the RC Church at that time, and for several decades before and since the 1960s, the outcome of the debate would have been different and in no doubt at all.

Posted by alwyn | 20.05.09, 19:58 GMT

Dont support the Church. Stop practicing its rituals. Let go, let God.

Posted by OKnDK | 20.05.09, 17:40 GMT

I would like to contribute something positive to the victims of abuse mentioned in this story. Who can I contact?

Posted by Norma Bork | 20.05.09, 17:39 GMT

It is an abomination that these so-called followers of the Christ who said, "allow the little chidren to come unto me, and forbid them not, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these" (Luke 18), block the children from coming to Christ by their evil deeds. Jesus also said in Mark 9:42 that "anyone who causes one of these little ones who believe in me to 'sin,' that it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck." God will judge them.

Posted by Kirk | 20.05.09, 17:27 GMT

I am angry. Being molested from as far back as 5yrs. old. I feel for those people. There lives are ruined, it is hard to let go of those feelings of shame and feelings of being alone. Although my molester was a family member, I was told not to say anything so there would not be problems in my family. As a result I drank and used drugs for 19yrs. of my life. I have had therapy and I feel better, somtime it hits me like a brick. There has to be a better way to let those men in to preist hood.

Posted by NO NAME | 20.05.09, 16:56 GMT

As a retired teacher, it is beyond me how the whole situation was allowed to happen. How men and women charged with the care and education of little children could behave in such a cruel and disgusting way. And how the Education authorities didn't act in the interests of innocent children is just unbelievable. Even more unbelievable is the fact that the perpetrators of the crimes against these children whose lives were blighted, were supposed to be men and women of God!

Posted by rosie | 20.05.09, 16:44 GMT

When will thils victilmization found within "religious" organizations internationally - end? This form of inhumanity has been going on for centuries. Witness the inquissitions and the witch hunts direcdted against women from 1450 to 1650 during which thousands of women were killed. When will society and governments bring the force of law to deter and punish these "protected" institutions for their crimes? In the U.S. some corrective actions are being taken - crimes against humanity!

Posted by Joseph P. Ciraolo, PHD | 20.05.09, 16:19 GMT

Even before the report it was all there if you went digging all the kids who died at Letterfract, abuse at Daingean, Artane, etc etc
what gets me is they are still running schools in Ireland. They can't keep their hands off kids.

Posted by E J CROSSLAND | 20.05.09, 16:01 GMT

I too saw the movie "The Magdalene Sisters" and was deeply upset. For those men and women to don their religious garb and then commit these atrocities, I truly hope there is a Hell. They make me sick.

Posted by H. Whyte | 20.05.09, 16:00 GMT

This has been going on in the Catholic church since the begining of time. They store things in the vatican and push things under the rug, as if to say "It isn't your concern!" well I think it's everyone's concern!! I think the Catholic Church has alot of attoment coming!!!!! There was a Catholic Monk, his name was Martin Luther, he formed what they call today the Lutheran Religion...All you Catholic's should read his story!! You may want to get out of your Religon.

Posted by Lynn Zehms | 20.05.09, 15:59 GMT

The catholic church went to hell centuries ago(inquisition).
For the life of me i cant understand how or why people are still members of this institution.

Posted by patrick oboyle | 20.05.09, 15:37 GMT

My first reaction is that I am astonished that the Christian Brothers are still allowed to have a connection with any school. Like the MP's in the Commons expense debacle they just don't seem to get it. It is my personal opinion that a religious celibate should never have influence over, or be left alone with a child. This on top of the attempt in the South to introduce a Blasphemy law that, in my view, looks like an instrument by which the Govt. can enact religious terror upon citizens.

Posted by Keith | 20.05.09, 14:50 GMT

"The Christian Brothers have been accused of censoring debate about a damning major report on child abuse due to be published today."

These kinds of directives and responses from religious communities are just as troubling as similar statements made by leadership and dioceses in the United States.

Accountability will come only will there is openness and when individuals are willing to speak out demanding transparency and accountability.

Sister Maureen Paul Turlish
Victims' Advocate
DE, US

Posted by SMP TURLISH | 20.05.09, 14:03 GMT

I spent nine years at a Catholic boarding school in Kearney,New Jersey from 1966 to 1975. There I was physically and mentally abused by the Palatine Sisters. These were the worst years of my life. To this day I can't stand the sight of a priest or a nun. I totally despise Christianity and Catholicism. Thanks to the abuse I suffered, I suffer from PTSD. Its time the world knows and confronts these abusive nuns and priests!! No more sweeping it under the rug!! No more silence, we want justice!!

Posted by Rausky | 20.05.09, 13:54 GMT