Sinead O'Connor's WaPo op-ed on the Irish Catholic Church's sex scandal

[Amerigo Vespucci]

To Sinead O'Connor, the pope's apology for sex abuse in Ireland seems hollow

By Sinead O'Connor

Sunday, March 28, 2010

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/25/AR2010032502363.html

When I was a child, Ireland was a Catholic theocracy. If a bishop came walking down the street, people would move to make a path for him. If a bishop attended a national sporting event, the team would kneel to kiss his ring. If someone made a mistake, instead of saying, "Nobody's perfect," we said, "Ah sure, it could happen to a bishop."

The expression was more accurate than we knew. This month, Pope Benedict XVI wrote a pastoral letter of apology -- of sorts -- to Ireland to atone for decades of sexual abuse of minors by priests whom those children were supposed to trust. To many people in my homeland, the pope's letter is an insult not only to our intelligence, but to our faith and to our country. To understand why, one must realize that we Irish endured a brutal brand of Catholicism that revolved around the humiliation of children.

I experienced this personally. When I was a young girl, my mother -- an abusive, less-than-perfect parent -- encouraged me to shoplift. After being caught once too often, I spent 18 months in An Grianán Training Centre, an institution in Dublin for girls with behavioral problems, at the recommendation of a social worker. An Grianán was one of the now-infamous church-sponsored "Magdalene laundries," which housed pregnant teenagers and uncooperative young women. We worked in the basement, washing priests' clothes in sinks with cold water and bars of soap. We studied math and typing. We had limited contact with our families. We earned no wages. One of the nuns, at least, was kind to me and gave me my first guitar.

An Grianán was a product of the Irish government's relationship with the Vatican -- the church had a "special position" codified in our constitution until 1972. As recently as 2007, 98 percent of Irish schools were run by the Catholic Church. But schools for troubled youth have been rife with barbaric corporal punishments, psychological abuse and sexual abuse. In October 2005, a report sponsored by the Irish government identified more than 100 allegations of sexual abuse by priests in Ferns, a small town 70 miles south of Dublin, between 1962 and 2002. Accused priests weren't investigated by police; they were deemed to be suffering a "moral" problem. In 2009, a similar report implicated Dublin archbishops in hiding sexual abuse scandals between 1975 and 2004.

[KG]

1. fight the real enemy, indeed.

[JuniperLea]

5. I remember the outrage at her ripping that picture to shreds...

It becomes all too clear now.

[Raster]

26. It would seem Sinead knew exactly of what she spoke.

Fuck you, Frank Sinatra.

[NashVegas]

30. I Knew Exactly What It Was About

I was one of those kids and it was around that time the pope (John Paul II) wrote an essay attributing the scandal to the excesses of the '60s sexual revolution, blaming it for influencing a few bad apples in the priesthood.

[Luminous Animal]

11. And kudos to Kris Kristofferson for defending her.

"Don't let the bastards get you down."

Her rendition of "War" and her ripping up the picture of the Pope was a protest against child abuse perpetrated by Catholic clergy and she was mocked and vilified.

[SidDithers]

22. An amazingly prescient act...nt

Sid

[Luminous Animal]

31. Nothing prescient about it.

Her protest against the Pope was specifically targeted towards historical and ongoing sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. Nobody wanted to hear it but, instead, mocked and vilified Sinead out of a career.

[Echo In Light]

2. k/r

[joeybee12]

3. Amazing...KNR

[myrna minx]

4. Excellent essay. K&R n/t

[Hekate]

6. Suddenly ripping up the pope's photo on tv makes a lot more sense

I just shuddered now

Hekate

[Nikki Stone1]

12. Suddenly? She talked about this at the time.

It's like no one follows up. She did a whole article in Time Magazine talking about the church and abuse not long after the SNL performance.

[Hekate]

18. I had a few other things on my mind besides following the lives of celebs in the 80s...

... and since I have personal experience with abuse I wouldn't say I'm either insensitive or clueless.

Hekate

[jonnyblitz]

17. it made sense to those of us back in the 80's who weren't

CLUELESS. we shuddered THEN.

[yurbud]

7. a good argument for separation of church and state AND taking away their tax exempt status

though that would be suicidal for any politician to suggest.

[maxsolomon]

8. then a politician with nothing to lose should do it

a president in their 2nd term, a retiring catholic senator.

lame ducks have power to talk about things other politicians won't touch, sarah, you quitter.

[yurbud]

9. Dodd proves they have other priorities: lining up their jobs as lobbyists or CEOs

[trumad]

10. Wow---

I wish she wrote this after she tore up the picture.

It would have lessened the criticism a bit.

[JoeyT]

13. She did write it.

But aside from one or two articles, I don't think it was really widely spoken of.
The MSM really only airs people that scream until they're blue in the face. Anyone making a rational point is ignored.

[truedelphi]

23. She was deliberately marginalized. As so many people are when they

Try to announce that they aren't the crazy ones - that a major dysfunction is going on and everyone else is pretending it doesn't exist.

No matter what she had written back then, no major publication was going to print it.

But the time has finally come when the matter is so widely understood (at last!) that she doesn't have to fear being ignored about the truth she understands all too well.

[Withywindle]

27. She did, but who cares?

All she did on SNL was make a short statement and tear up a photograph.

She didn't advocate violence against anyone. She didn't use any kind of slur.

She just made one brief visual statement designed to reject a particular religious denomination's idea of who is infallible: exactly the kind of speech that the Constitution was written to protect.

[eridani]

14. Pleasantly surprised that she is in WaPo. Don't usually expect that these days n/t

[Johonny]

15. I can't believe this until Maria Conchita Alonso OKs this view

;-)

[foxfeet]

16. K&R

[mrs_p]

19. love you sinead

peace and blessings for speaking truth to power for the last 20+ years.

[Radical Activist]

20. Powerful. Thanks for sharing. n/t

[Radical Activist]

21. dupe

[spanone]

24. k&r

[Greyhound]

25. So, if you are so incompetent and ineffectual that literally everybody "misinterprets"

your message, are you really a God?

For millennia we've heard a continual litany of excuses, justifications, and apologies delayed for years and even centuries for gross offenses of the most cruel, depraved, unimaginable acts of pure evil, at what point does one have to admit failure?

[Canuckistanian]

28. I saw "The Magdalene Sisters" a few weeks ago

What a powerful film.

Such brutality - not necessarily physical, but mental brutality that was inflicted on those girls. And often for no reason other than the girls were caught talking to boys.
And for some, it was a life sentence if their families abandoned them.

I completely understand Sinead's rage.

[crikkett]

29. When I hit puberty my mother threatened to send me to

'a boarding school with nuns' to keep me in line.

It worked for a while as my own personal boogeyman.

[Amaya]

32. always loved her

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYw8JR1N90o

[old mark]

33. She is correct. I was raised and educated Catholic, although I stopped

believing it around age 12. I endured the remainder of my under that terrible repressive philosophy just hating it all. I have never changed my mind about the real nature of the catholic church - an antique mafia like organization dedicated to wealth and political power.

I had some respect for several of the previous popes as people, but none at all for the current office holder - his transparent lack of concern for his followers will drive many from the church, and I am glad of this.
It is about time people begin to see this organization for what they really are and repudiate them.

mark