'Concentration camps run by holy men and women' (Child abuse in Ireland)

[Jackeens]

This article from today's Sunday Tribune (Ireland) isn't for the faint-hearted, it's deeply depressing - so be warned. (It's a response to the report issued earlier this week in to the abuse of Irish children by members of the Catholic church over the last 60 years - BBC summary here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8059826.stm).


They lied. They stole. They terrorised. They assaulted children. They manacled them to their beds and flogged them. They starved them. They beat them with pokers and hurleys, scalded them and held their heads under running water. When the children tried to abscond, they locked them up in a small room or in the pig sty for days on end. They raped them. They gang-raped them. And throughout it all, they – and the whole world – thought they were holy men and women.

Children were made to lie in bed at night with their arms piously crossed over their chests. When they slipped out of this position unconsciously in their sleep, they were woken up and beaten. Holy men came into the dormitories at night, sometimes two at a time, and put their private parts in the children's hands and in their mouths. If they wet their beds, they were made to wrap the soiled sheet around them in the morning and to parade in front of everyone. They watched powerlessly as their siblings were tortured. Sometimes they were forced to participate in the abuse. If they tried to tell anyone what was going on, they were beaten. Dignitaries came to visit. The children dared hope afresh they would get the chance to tell. But the holy men and women brought the politicians and the bishops, even the President of Ireland, to the parlour and kissed their rings and intoned God's name.

They told the children their parents were dead when they were still alive. They told them they themselves were worthless and unlovable. They made them wear threadbare, filthy clothes. They punished girls whose clothing got stained with menstrual blood. They took children out of class to do menial work. They terminated their formal education at sixth class. They ridiculed them and humiliated them and undermined them. They shaved their heads bald. They set them against one another. At mealtimes, the more assertive children were allowed to bully the others and take their food. Emaciated children scavenged for scraps in the bins. In Daingean reformatory, Co Offaly, gangs of boys ran an "anarchic institution" where vulnerable children repaid older ones for their protection with sex "and the authorities were dismissive of any complaints".

https://www.tribune.ie/article/2009/may/24/concentration-camps-run-by-holy-men-and-women/

[SharonAnn]

1. My god. This is so awful, so awful.

[get the red out]

2. When will other countries face this?

I knew when the Priest abuse revelations in the US came out, first in the 80s then many more some years later, that this had to be a problem within the Church itself. I wondered how long it would be before other countries started trying to get up the courage to look at what this institution has done to so many children. I wonder what has been done/is being done in South America that we won't hear for decades yet due to the power of the Church?

People can say what they want about our litigious society, but at least the US got the ball rolling on outing this crap! I wonder if any of the Irish survivors have any hope at any kind of settlement?

[Jackeens]

4. Hi get the red out

Some of the victims have got settlements, but most are still waiting. Incredibly, in 2002 our Government did a deal with the Catholic church which gave the church an indemnity against all future claims if they paid E128 million in cash and property. At that stage the Govt calculated that the total cost of the claims would be around E300 million - they have now reached E1.2 billion (approx $1.7 billion). So that means the tax payer will fund the bulk of the settlements, while the Irish Catholic church, who were responsible for this abuse, holds on to its wealth.

There is, naturally, an outcry over this, but whether or not that deal can be overturned legally remains to be seen.


A letter in the Irish Times (tomorrow, May 25) gives a sense of the outrage people are feeling right now:

Madam, – If the religious cult which abused, tortured, starved, raped, buggered and killed so many of this nation’s children was called anything other than the Catholic Church, it would be disbanded, outlawed and their members jailed.

Some people are saying that it was not the whole church, so they cannot be blamed. But it was the whole church: they all knew to some degree what was going on, along with the State.

This “cult” should be banned from all dealings with children. Any sub-cult (or order) that has been named by the commission, should be outlawed and its lands and goods used to try to compensate the victims. The Cab should be brought in to investigate, as profit was made by the cult from the work of the children. Membership of the cult should be made a criminal offence.

People should be on the streets demonstrating their disgust to the Catholic demi-gods hiding in the palaces, waiting for the fuss to die down. We can only believe they won’t do it again if they are not allowed to be in a position to do so. – Yours, etc,

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/letters/2009/0525/1224247320032.html

[get the red out]

5. It just brews and brews

The Catholic church sitting on it's ill-gotten gain all the while. I hope the Irish people really take some action.

A lady I used to work with was part of a class action suit against our local Diocese. She has been through hell, which anyone who was molested as a child would go through. Thank God she has seen some of the settlement. But of course she was in her 30s before she was able to begin to be part of a push for restitution.

I am sure the allegations won't stop with the US and Ireland, even if it is another 20 years before people in other countries are brave enough to bring it up. The Church is so powerful, they have been able to do as they please for centuries. It is time for a beginning to the end on this kind of accepted abuse. How does the world face down an institution that has managed to ingrain itself as unquestionable for so long? That may be the big question. Where do we, humanity, start with cleaning up these "holy" institutions? We have been brainwashed to never question people that claim they speak for God?

And I believe that trying to somehow do away with religion (which is the knee jerk response so often to these questions) would only entrench and empower the abusers, and lead to a new kind of tyranny or thought police if it somehow were successful.

[Odin2005]

10. If it weren't for the RCC's clout it would have been shut down ages ago.

If the RCC was anything else they would have never gotten away with such atrocities. Such is the evil power of religion.

[Raksha]

12. I understand there have been quite a few successful lawsuits already,

and undoubtedly more to come. The abuse was so widespread and has been going on for so long that just to do a thorough investigation took the Irish government NINE YEARS!!!

Re People can say what they want about our litigious society, but at least the US got the ball rolling on outing this crap! I wonder if any of the Irish survivors have any hope at any kind of settlement?

[get the red out]

14. That is a relief to hear!

I hope the Catholic Church has to pay and pay around the world for forcing such a faulty, harmful product on humanity for so long. They almost make the cigarette manufacturers look good.

[ancient_nomad]

3. My God, this is horrific!

I just gave this a recommend. It needs to be read! There are no words. The horror of it all!

Thank you for posting it.

[Bobbieo]

6. Canada is undergoing this right now with the release of information that some 50,000

First Nations Indian children were physically and sexually abused and died at the hands of members of the religious institutions who ran the gov't boarding schools.

These children were forcifully taken from their parents to be forcibly "assimilated" into the white society.

[Seldona]

16. That makes me physically ill.

That happened to my great grandparents as well. They were taken from their parents and put in state schools. They were beaten for using their own language, as well as practicing our religious and artistic traditions. Many died.

My grandmother was taught LAUNDRY in high-school.

Oneida Tribe, DePere Wisconsin.

[Posteritatis]

18. That's putting it lightly

The Genocide Convention has five criteria that qualify the use of the term; any of the five, combined with the intent of eliminating the group in question, is defined as genocide. The residential schools program fits at least three of them that I can see at a glance, and possibly all five in more specific cases.

[Festivito]

7. Be wary of who NEXT has unquestioned control.

Today priests have been finally questioned, where previously, they were not.

NEXT,

Will politicians be treated as gods? Take a look at how Republicans treated the Bush clan. Kids went missing under JEB's Florida child services. What happens when the politicians are in charge of who asks the questions?

They have unquestioned control.

[get the red out]

11. Very good point!

The greatest danger is in giving people control without the right or means to question what they do with power. Sometimes people technically have the right, but do not have the ability to question in any meaningful way due to media and legal systems being stacked against them.

[Matariki]

13. You are spot on. That's the REAL issue.

Not religion, as some would like to make this about. But, as you say, unquestioned authority and unaccountability.

[Happyhippychick]

8. No words

:cry:

[Odin2005]

9. Religion = Evil. Words fail me...

:cry:

[lunatica]

15. K&R

[spanone]

17. there are no words....

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