Irish Americans shocked, outraged at Irish child abuse report

'The collar shouldn't save them from prosecution'

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.”

Seeking punishment for all the physical and mental scars that have been left with the thousands of victims, Brennan said, “The priests should be treated the same as any other male that committed these crimes. It’s disgusting that so many lives have been ruined by this.”

Brennan, who has been living in New York for 20 years, said she was very close to a case where a priest was accused of abusing a four-year-old child in Ireland.

“The Catholic Church paid his bail saying he was innocent until proven guilty. Then my question to them was why if he was innocent did he skip bail, and why justice has since never been served?”

'Devastating'

Maurice Brick, a devout Catholic from Dingle, County Kerry who now lives in New York, described the report as “devastating.”

Brick, who attends Mass every morning of the week, said he was seriously shook up and would like to see the abusers accept responsibility.

“I hope they own up to it, to somehow assuage a fraction of the frustration and consternation they have caused for us throughout the world,” he said.

“But they’ll never erase the visions of children screaming in dank and darkened corridors. The fears. The shaking. The dread of day and night approaching.”

Brick said his best friend, Brother Quinn, who passed away two years ago at the age of 93, would have been repulsed to discover what really went on in those reform schools.

“His passion was learning and teaching English and Irish literature. He just couldn’t wait to impart his newfound knowledge to anyone. And he prayed a lot. I know, I caught him at it a number of times,” said Brick.

Brick said he would try and focus on the good souls he knows in the church.

“There is Fr. Tom Lynch from Dingle who has spent almost all his life in India serving his people. The laws of the area prohibit him from spreading Christianity. He says Mass alone. But his life is the people he serves,” he said. 

“And there’s Fr. Sean Myres in South America. Another local hero from Killarney who serves the poor. I will draw from them for now for hope and encouragement and a healing for the hurt I feel in the core of my soul.”

Another Kerryman, Gerry O’Shea, 65, said that the report just corroborates the stories of abuse that were already out in the open.

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Nster.com