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Irish Catholic Church sex scandal tied to American abuse cases, group charges

By
PATRICK ROBERTS
,
IrishCentral.com Staff Writer
Published Tuesday, December 29, 2009, 6:33 AM
Updated Tuesday, December 29, 2009, 1:04 PM
Read more: Ireland, United States, Christianity, Crime, Culture and Lifestyle, Irish Politics, Politics, Religion, Roman Catholicism, Sexual Offenses

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Victims of clergy sex abuse in the United States and a group that tracks pedophile priests are calling on American Roman Catholic leaders and the Irish Government to publicly detail known connections between the clergy abuse scandals in the two countries.

Four bishops in Ireland have resigned since the Ryan Report revealed how Dublin Archdiocese leaders had covered-up the crimes of pedophile priests.

The group, BishopAccountability.org, says it has created the first comprehensive, web-based database of accused Irish priests who also have worked in the U.S. The group has asked Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley and Rhode Island Bishop Thomas Tobin to reveal the names of any any priests accused of sexual abuse after being transferred from Ireland.

Bishopaccountability.org also revealed the names of almost 70 priests accused of sexual abuse it says were either born in Ireland or are of Irish descent, and who came to the United States and continued to be sex-abusers. Its website has pages that also names the priests, and others, who it says have been accused of sexual abuse.

The group has also asked Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen for a list of accused Irish priests who have moved to U.S. dioceses or parishes.

"Bishops in Ireland just like bishops here have been moving accused priests around even though they know they are dangerous," said Terence McKiernan, founder of BishopAccountability.org. "Unfortunately the places where they put them include our own backyard. So the Irish crisis, basically has become our crisis, too."

Standing in front of O'Malley's Boston residence on Monday, members and supporters of BishopAccountablity.org said the Irish scandal is deeply linked to the U.S. crisis because priests trained in Irish seminaries are often sent to work in America, including ones with histories of sex abuse.

The Boston Archdiocese said it is committed to doing "everything in our power to protect children from the threat of sexual abuse." It said news from the raging scandal in Ireland serves as a "painful reminder."

"Our hearts and prayers go out to those in Ireland who have been harmed by the tragic reality of sexual abuse of children by clergy," the statement said. "We know from our own experience the profound impact and suffering caused by the harm perpetrated on children and young people. Over the past decade, we have worked diligently to respond to this crisis and ensure it is never repeated."

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Most recent comments - See all comments

Report abuse
Posted by Intercessor on Feb 13, 2010, 11:12 PM EST
Has anyone ever investigated how many Pedophile Priests from Ireland were "gifted" to Canada, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand? It's doubtful that the USA was not the sole recipient of pederast priests from Ireland. Where there's smoke there's often fire! Has anyone asked the archbishops of Ireland where the other safe havens were for the pederasts not sent to the States? Just wondered?
Report abuse
Posted by myriamdom on Jan 18, 2010, 08:40 PM EST
By the way, there is this priest in the name of Raymond Lahey who is now under investigation after he was intercepted at the Ottawa airport, Canada when customs officials confiscated his laptop and finding "disturbing" images. He's Irish too, and a former bishop of Antigonish, Nova Scotia.
Report abuse
Posted by myriamdom on Jan 18, 2010, 08:37 PM EST
I live in Canada. There are several Irish priests that have been sent here. I just hope they are not here to hide or escape from their own heinous scandals. God forbid, we do not want to find out.
Report abuse
Posted by jacersisityourself on Jan 05, 2010, 08:21 PM EST
An interesting article by Colum Kenny of the School of Media Studies at Dublin City University “Journalism, Sex Abuse and The Catholic Church in Ireland” may be seen in full online here >> (http://arrow.dit.ie/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1029&context=aaschmedart) <<. I quote from it: “In the 1980s, the activities of paedophiles at the Kincora Boys Home, a Protestant institution in Belfast, were revealed and their ringleader, William McGrath, convicted. McGrath was not only a worker at Kincora but also, as it transpired in subsequent Investigations, an influential political activist and agent of the British Intelligence Service MI5. It is claimed by Foot (another investigative journalist/author) that some civil servants, ministers of (NI) govt, politicians and security personnel were involved in a cover-up of what happened at Kincora. If so, then they escaped the legal consequences of their involvement”. Another internet site says “Kincora was run as a virtual gay brothel by loyalist leaders and MI5. Its clientele, who preyed for years on vulnerable young boys in its care... included loyalist paramilitary leaders, unionist politicians, judges and public figures. MI5 knew about it the entire time and used it as a blackmailer’s lever on Unionist figures (Nth Ire’s biggest political party at the time)”. Go judge for yourselves. Me? I just want the whole truth and nothing but the truth, whether of Catholic, Protestant, atheist, humanist, non-believers or your local neighbours’ abuse. Child Abuse - it’s all got to be stopped. Right now.
Report abuse
Posted by jacersisityourself on Jan 05, 2010, 08:15 PM EST
Though wiz mentions facts regarding those convicted of child abuse in Kincora, wiz’s comments are notable for a fact s/he does not mention... that three members of a UK Govt Commission of Enquiry into abuses at Kincora resigned in protest because none of the Commission was allowed access to certain files that they knew existed about Kincora. And so the enquiry collapsed or ‘was collapsed’. Why? We’d love to know... It is widely held in the public domain that there was a massive cover-up when members of the enquiry team were not allowed to examine the files. The Kincora boys of the time, today adults in their 50’s & 60’s, still live in fear, many because, as has been alleged in the public domain, some of those who did want to speak out in the ‘70s and ‘80s- all young Protestant men - were murdered by Loyalist gangs in the 70’s to stop them speaking out. >>> It needs to be fully exposed, just as all abusive people, including RCC clerics, must be exposed. For more info, I suggest ppl google or bing ‘Kincora Child Abuse’ for lots of links to the story. I’ve many times called for all child abuse to be investigated and under IC’s columnist Eddie Holt’s earlier articles of last summer, encouraged Eddie to take on investigating Kincora. All child abuse must stop; it exists within and without all religions. It is so horrifyingly heinous, imprisoning abused human people in their minds for their whole lifetime, never mind the physical injuries and scars present for life in many cases. The sentences handed down to McGrath, Semple and Mains were derisory considering the damage they caused to the boys in their care, just as they were in Catholic cleric abuse cases.
Report abuse
Posted by jacersisityourself on Jan 05, 2010, 08:05 PM EST
wizardofoz’s overall remarks on my referring to Antinomianism and the Kincora abuse case disappoint greatly. I could choose to report them as abuse on IC but I’d rather let them stand on their own for everyone to ponder on the nature of wiz’s language and judge for themselves. What wiz or anybody thinks of me is none of my business. >>> I am a fervent believer that all child abuse must be investigated, punished and stopped, wherever it occurs... in Ireland, USA or in the war fields of Africa, or the schools of Islam in hills and valleys of Afghanistan and Pakistan etc. My point in relation to the pre-Reformation belief of Antinomianism (it was horrifically practiced as part of the Inquisitions) was to ask if it was possible that it still secretly exists today, just as there are societies today with secret ritual beliefs. It is known that some of the pious Christian Reforming Churches continued to believe in Antinomianism and handed it down (not necessarily by that name) through abuse of their own family members, some of whom themselves became abusers and so it went on and on into present times. It is not beyond possibility that RCC clerics also rejected the Council of Trent’s condemnation of the belief and continued along the same lines. I asked if that could be investigated by those in appropriate fields of human and religious studies etc. I wait to see... and hope to see justice delivered. At the very least, the Truth must come.


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