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Home Page > News > Irish Catholic Church child abuse 'scandal on astonishing scale,' says new report

Irish Catholic Church child abuse 'scandal on astonishing scale,' says new report

By
KENNETH HAYNES,
IrishCentral.com Staff Writer
Published Thursday, November 26, 2009, 1:35 PM
Updated Friday, November 27, 2009, 12:11 PM

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More people are attending Mass in Ireland
More people are attending Mass in Ireland


A shocking and explosive report into child and sexual abuse in the Dublin Archdiocese today slammed the Catholic Church hierarchy for covering up the horrors.

Investigators revealed how Church and state authorities handled allegations of child abuse against nearly fifth priests. It found that the Church placed its own reputation above the protection of children in its care.

It also said that state authorities actually aided the cover-up by allowing the Church to operate outside the law.

Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin said "no words of apology would ever be sufficient" and offered "to each and every survivor, my apology, my sorrow and my shame for what happened to them".

He added that the "many good priests of the Archdiocese" shared his sense of shame.

The "Report of the Commission of Investigation into the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin" covered a period from 1975 to 2004.

It exposed a culture of concealment where Church leaders prioritized the protection of their own institution above that of vulnerable children in their care.

The report said the avoidance of public outrage, which would inevitably follow high-profile prosecutions, appeared more important than preventing abusers from repeating their crimes.

Instead of reporting the allegations to civic authorities, those accused of horrific crimes were systematically shuffled from parish to parish where they could prey on new, unsuspecting victims.

The report stated: "The Dublin archdiocese's pre-occupations in dealing with cases of child sexual abuse, at least until the mid 1990s, were the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the Church, and the preservation of its assets."

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21 Comments

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jacersisityourself | Dec 05, 2009, 07:47 AM EST
I've posted a couple of replies to posts by others but they've not it made online. Probably like barneyjo's comment under another article, they've disappeared in the internet ether. Or blocked by some IC sub-editor posing as a commentor who knows my points are too strong in truth. Alas...

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wizardofoz | Dec 02, 2009, 08:34 AM EST
Jacersisityourself, you are running around like a cut snake defending the indefensible. You feign sympathy for the victims on one hand while on the other you whine ‘sure it was only 2% of priests’ liar! Paedophiles, pederasts and all manner of degenerates have continued their heinous crimes without fear knowing those in authority in the Vatican would protect them! This unrighteous nefarious felony goes right to the top. Back in 1981, Cardinal Ratzinger, (now pope Benedict XV1) was appointed head of the ‘Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith’ a most important and powerful post, which he held until 2004, when soon after he became the new pope. To suggest this efficacious criminal had no knowledge of the crimes perpetrated over generations by paedophiles and pederasts in the Irish branch of the Roman Catholic Church is the hight of all nonsense! He, Benedict knew what the score in Ireland was but chooses to ignore it. “F*&% it! It’s a paddy problem keep quiet it will go away”. Like the three monkeys, hear no evil; see no evil speak no evil. Auld Benedict believes this storm will blow itself out. You too hold this same belief. He, like you, don’t give a rats ass for the victims, they got what they deserved right? You bet I’m right! The victims are just ungrateful dupes, lets move along! What’s 2% among friends? Sure you only mention it to show how petty it is. You disgust me!

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McNamara31 | Dec 01, 2009, 09:37 PM EST
Well said barnejo. The Vatican was made aware of the size of the growing abuse problem back when it sent Canon lawywer Fr. Tom Doyle in 1984 to investigate. The church has long established facilities: St. Lukes Institute and The Servents of Paraclete, who treated these re offending child abusers for years. The whole structure for dealing with this horror of a situation was to protect themselves and not the children.I keep reading this 2% figure in some of the posts. These were children, not a percentage on a spreadsheet. The Vatican Hierarchy allowed this to happen and they rewarded the Bishops and Cardinals for their secrecy as in the case of Cardinal Law of Boston.

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barneyjo | Dec 01, 2009, 08:50 PM EST
No, jacersisityourself, I did not miss any points at all. I know many good priests, who have told me of their sense of despair, frustration, and above all their shame at the actions of their brother Priests. I have to say also that in many cases, they are quite open and direct in their criticism of the Irish Hierarchy and of their actions in the many events detailled in the various reports on Irish Diocese. They feel equally tainted by all the scandals and wholly inadeqate when it comes to responding to the very serious challenges they now face. Witness the words of the spokesman of the Bishop of Derry Diocese who said on record that the Irish Catholic Church, and its priests and bishops now carry absolutley no moral authority.Add to that the comments of the Bishop of Dromore who said that if he would resign if he found himself in the position where his “ability to deal with these matters with credibility and integrity” was challenged. There is a Sociological axiom which states that "the whole is greater than the sum of the parts" It is not about the good and decent men of the church and all that they do, that so many have turned away, rather it is the uncaring, indifferent entity that the Church Body has become, and how it deals with the faithful. Indifference, double standards, duplicity; I could go on. This is not a Church that can, or should survive if it continues on its present course. The faithful have, and will continue to vote with their feet, and fall away. The words of scriputre come to mind though I dont quote accurately, "A House Divided against itself will not stand" Sad but true in the present climate...

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jacersisityourself | Dec 01, 2009, 03:10 PM EST
barneyjo appears to miss a couple of points made in this debate (read them all). We are not denying justice be done for those who've suffered abuse such as b'jo rightly describes. My main point has been that press reporting is so presented that it is heavily suggesting the WHOLE of the Catholic Church is at fault for the abuse. It is not - 2% of its members are, according to Social Studies experts, meaning the other 98% good ones cannot be faulted. Reference to Keano is irrelevant to this discussion - I merely borrowed his recent words "what comes round, comes round" in making a point. kickstar, a self-proclaimed practicing home Christian, expressed hatred for a fellow human being (Keano); I merely challenged kickstar's un-Christian words about a proven genuinely generous Christian in his native city. I also want to defend the good priest guys from being indirectly being labelled fellow-abusers by the manner of press reporting. The scale of abuse by a relatively small percentage of all priests is indeed horrific. But please don't let the Press headlines tar all priests with the abusers filth.

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barneyjo | Dec 01, 2009, 04:56 AM EST
Catholic Bashing? Can you not for one moment see that we are way beyond "taking pops" at the Church here. What part of ruptured genatalia, ruptured lives and destroyed souls do people not understand? And what does Roy Keane have to do with this? Get real people. This is way to serious for "trite" observations

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athlonejackie | Nov 30, 2009, 08:47 AM EST
And the Catholic Bashing goes on and on.

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jacersisityourself | Nov 29, 2009, 04:12 PM EST
Most of kickstar’s postings on IC are so acrimonious towards the Catholic Church that some might consider them to be abusive rather than helpful contributions to a debate involving the Church. His reference to Roy Keane has nothing to do with this debate and his outright statement of hatred for Roy Keane here on IC shows a total lack of Christianity on kickstar’s part which he professed on previous postings to practice privately in his home – bible readings, prayers etc. I’d invite kickstar to re-post his comment in the Irish Examiner, a newspaper based in Cork City. Roy Keane may come across as being obnoxious to some people, even me self, on account of his public comments and some of his football mistakes but he’s highly revered in Cork, not only for his erstwhile football talents on Cork’s and other grass fields but for his innumerable hugely-generous, contributions to charitable causes in his native city. Millions of dosh, they say. That’s Keano going about veritable work, being an un-noticed Christian Irish Catholic. Except that Keano’s charitable contributions have and continue to making a difference to lots of people’s lives in Cork. That’s not unnoticeable.

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jacersisityourself | Nov 29, 2009, 04:06 PM EST
Olovely obviously refers to my contribution of putting forward percentages in this debate. The percentages are not mine – they are those of Social Studies experts. I hope it is seen by everyone that so far, under Kenneth Haynes column above, I am the only one to highlight that the media’s manner of reporting forgets the great work being done by the other 98% of Catholic priests in Ireland. That makes me the only ‘amount’ supposedly trying to ‘rationalise’ according to olovely. Where are the others on IC? >>> Today, Archbishop Martin of Dublin appealed to Irish people to not forget the ‘good priests’ as he called them and asked us to support them in this terrible time for the Irish Catholic Church. It’s no more than what I asked for recognition of in presenting my contribution to this debate. I agree w/ olovely on the scale of the horror - I’ve already commented on that. As for olovely intimating that I was propounding “it wasn’t as bad as all that”, I never said any such thing. Is olovely a media person warping meanings? I hope not. What has happened is very bad, whether it happens to one, or many.

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kickstar | Nov 29, 2009, 05:21 AM EST
jacersisityourself I would be very surprised to hear that Roy Keane could read and write and his neck didn't get that color because his shirt rubbed it and for him to say "what come around comes around" Basically says it all really about this guy.I hope you don't think I dislike Roy Keane cos you'd be wrong....I hate him.

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olovely | Nov 28, 2009, 11:07 AM EST
What blows my mind, other than the scale of this horror, is the amount of people who try to rationalize it, or break it down in fractions as though it were a math equation, as if you could put a "it wasn't as bad as all that" spin on decades of rape and abuse.

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eulalia | Nov 27, 2009, 09:22 PM EST
Like barneyjo, I am also of Irish Catholic stock (although Australian). However, I do not share his faulty premise that Catholicism is not Christianity. I am 49, about the same age as barneyjo, and have seen in my lifetime the absolute destruction of my religion by the legion of vandals set upon us by Vatican II. My theory is that their sinister, incredibly zealous influence has been responsible for not only the massive and erroneous changes to Catholicism, but also for most of the evil that has crept in since the 1960's. It is particularly prevalent in the English speaking world where the Irish Catholic Church has had an enormous influence, and this is a huge worry.

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barneyjo | Nov 27, 2009, 08:41 PM EST
In his Post today, Burneys has reported; "I know this will come as a surprise to some, and I really do not mean to offend. 1)Christianity is NOT a religion, it is a RELATIONSHIP with the God of creation through Christ Jesus, not a man, be that man a 'pope' or other name. 2)Catholicism IS NOT Christianity. A man (pope) that his placed himself on an equal level as Christ equals a cult. 3)Holy scripture states emphatically that the one that adds-to, or takes-from the Words of the Bible will have his part removed from the Lamb's Book of Life. Purgatory is not mentioned in God's Word! Now, simply put...Why are you people not reading from the Bible? That's a easy one to answer...you would then have to align Your thinking to match with God's thinking, either that or call yourselves a hyprocrite. Heaven forbid that you do THAT!" AND YOUR POINT IS!!!!!!

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eiregirl | Nov 27, 2009, 07:54 PM EST
Why isn't this your top story...it's everyone else's?

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jacersisityourself | Nov 27, 2009, 07:18 PM EST
A point that has been mentioned by Social Studies experts but not highlighted enough by media people is that about 2% at large in a population of any country abuse children (as still happens today and will continue). Given what the two reports on Child Abuse by Ryan and Murphy apparently say - that some 50 priests out of some 3000 priests in Ireland over the period in question have been named and shamed, this represents about 1.6% of priests. Given that some 2000 people came forward to highlight the abuse they suffered out of a child population of some 500,000 through those years, this represents about 0.5% of children. These percentages do not lessen our horror or the abused people’s hurt but I do mention it to draw attention to the fact that media’s manner of reporting is completely unfair to the remainder (some 98%) of priests who go about their Christian, catholic vocational duties in our midst. Especially since it is now acknowledged that we Irish people can be easily duped – by priests, bishops and by policemen and media people. I would like to see some redress on this at least by the media people; its headlining, less-than-objective manner of reporting could be termed misleading in ‘suggesting’ to the public at large that all of the Catholic Church’s priests are abusive. And thus open to legal challenges by the ’might’ of the Catholic Church. “What comes round comes round” said footballer Roy Keane this week in relation to Ireland’s soccer World Cup hopes. It might come round for media people under unfair media practices, as the Irish Times newspaper’s Editor and one of its journalists discovered to its cost this week to the tune of €600,000 (approx $900,000) through an Irish Court’s ruling because they destroyed certain evidence. At least the present Archbishop of Dublin did make the evidence available. Maybe that’s a start for everybody out this appalling chapter of Irish Catholicism.

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