Irish Americans outraged at Irish child abuse report

'The collar shouldn't save them from prosecution'

APRIL DREW,

IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Wednesday, June 3, 2009, 3:27 PM

Updated Thursday, July 23, 2009, 5:39 PM

Larger Text

E-mail

Make a comment

Kerry native Gerry O'Shea says that the report just corroborates the stories of abuse that were already out in the open

“The church has continuously moved priests around from parish to parish knowing that they had been accused of horrendous crimes,” she said angrily. “Nothing will ever change unless prosecutions come from this.”

Church 'no longer respectable'

Brennan, a niece of John Hume -- leader of the Catholic civil rights movement in Northern Ireland for over 40 years and winner of a Nobel Peace Prize -- remembers when she was growing up that it was forbidden to speak ill of a priest or say anything that would damage the reputation of the Catholic Church.

Brennan, 40, feels that it is now time, after the release of the Ryan report, for the hierarchy in the Catholic Church to realize that the church is no longer a “respectable institution.”