Washington Post: Thousands beaten, raped in Irish reform schools

[Fumesucker]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/20/AR2009052000191_pf.html

By SHAWN POGATCHNIK
The Associated Press
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 3:54 PM

DUBLIN -- A fiercely debated, long-delayed investigation into Ireland's Roman Catholic-run institutions says priests and nuns terrorized thousands of boys and girls in workhouse-style schools for decades _ and government inspectors failed to stop the chronic beatings, rapes and humiliation.

Nine years in the making, Wednesday's 2,600-page report sides almost completely with the horrific reports of abuse from former students sent to more than 250 church-run, mostly residential institutions. But victims' leaders said it didn't go far enough _ particularly because none of their abusers were identified by name.

The report concluded that church officials always shielded their orders' pedophiles from arrest to protect their own reputations and, according to documents uncovered in the Vatican, knew that many pedophiles were serial attackers.

<snip>

More at link..

[MichiganVote]

1. No surprise in that one.

[Fumesucker]

2. What I fail to understand is this..

Obviously there were some sick, twisted abusers in these schools.

But where were the non-abusers?

Why did they not try to bring this to an end?

What moral calculus did the non-abusers perform in their mind which allowed them to remain silent about these horrors basically forever?

[erinlough]

9. They were making money.....

follow the money. These were industrial work houses. The church and their congregations made money off of their work.

[saigon68]

17. This thug laughed all the way to the bank

[Kaleva]

11. Same moral calculus most everyone uses

Rare is the bird who is willing to go against their peers, tradition and other things.

[Fumesucker]

12. You are implying that the abusers were in the majority..

Do you think that is so?

[Kaleva]

16. I'm not implying that the abusers were in the majority

Was just trying to say many who know of or witness abuse may say or do nothing about it.

[MichiganVote]

14. Same stuff used today--not my business, boys will be boys, it's good for them,

it's God's will and on and on and on. Otherwise known as Rationalization.

[TahitiNut]

3. It should be obvious that the Magdalene Laundries wasn't some anomaly.

There are no anomalies when it comes to institutionalized societal behavior. The behavior of the troops at Abu Ghraib was NOT an anomaly. Torture under Cheney/Bush was NOT an anomaly. These behaviors are consistent with a prevailing attitude.

[Fumesucker]

4. Yep...

And I think a huge apology is owed to Sinead O'Connor.

[FiveGoodMen]

7. Boy, you got that right!

Tearing up the pope's picture was mild.

Tearing down his fucking institution would be better.

[TahitiNut]

13. All of the poor, angry, offended callers to SNL are too busy wearing teabags and protesting Obama's

... appearance at Notre Dame, rather than the decades of despicable institutionalized child abuse.

[riverdeep]

5. I remember seeing a movie about it, "The Magdalene Sisters".

I won't give anything away, just that don't watch it if you're already feeling down, it's pretty heavy.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0318411/

[lunatica]

10. I saw that movie. I really liked it too. It was based on the truth

[randr]

6. Those protesters at Notre Dame need to get their own house in order

before they go calling other people "baby killers".
Another disgusting example of the Catholic Church's perverse enslavement of peoples minds.

[erinlough]

8. More complete information at Irishtimes.com

Unbelievable is that some of the kids were sent there simply because a marriage had broken up and the church deemed single parent families to be abhorant. In actuality it sounds as if the congregations who ran these slave quarters made a lot of money off of these poor children. Oh what we do in the name of religion....sad.

[Creena]

15. I wish my Daideo survived to see this report.

He suffered abuse at the hands of the Christian Brothers. He often mentioned the abuse as one of his reasons leaving the Catholic Church.