28 Comments

• justhimself | Dec 08, 2010, 10:54 AM EST

  Time for Irish Catholic Reformed Church, or "The Celtic Catholic Church of Ireland" Irish catholics of conscience have to change the status quo.

• Intercessor | 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?

• myriamdom | 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.

• myriamdom | 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.

• jacersisityourself | 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.

• jacersisityourself | 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.

• jacersisityourself | 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.

• chesapeakered | Jan 04, 2010, 08:46 PM EST

  I just wish all religions would would finally admit they are a big pyramid scheme to dupe poor uneducated people out of their hard earned money. Irish people have finally wised up. The Pope has finally had to prey on the Africans and S. Americans!!

• jacersisityourself | Jan 01, 2010, 07:20 PM EST

  (... Cont’d) As the doctrine of Antinomianism is an extreme type of the heretical doctrine of justification by faith alone as taught by the Reformers, it is condemned by the Catholic Church. The Council of Trent discussed this subject and condemns it: "In opposition also to the cunning wits of certain men who, by good works and fair speeches, deceive the hearts of the innocent, it is to be maintained that the received grace of justification is lost not only by the infidelity, in which even faith itself if lost, but also by any other mortal sin soever, though faith be not lost; thereby defending the doctrine of the Divine law, which excludes from the King of God not only the unbelieving, but also the faithful who are fornicators, adulterers, effeminate, abusers of themselves with mankind, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, extortioners, and all others who commit deadly sins; from which, with the help of Divine grace, they are able to refrain and on account of which they are separate from the grace of Christ". >>> Is there a way this can be examined and investigated by people with the right background and qualifications? Is Antinomianism still out there in our Church? If so, we must get rid of it.

• jacersisityourself | Jan 01, 2010, 07:15 PM EST

  From the Catholic Encyclopaedia: “Antinomianism (or legal irresponsibility) is an old pre-Reformation heresy that holds Christians are exempt from the obligations of moral law. It falsely asserted that, as good works do not promote salvation, so neither do evil works hinder it; and, as all Christians are necessarily sanctified by their very vocation and profession, so as justified Christians, they are incapable of losing their spiritual holiness, justification, and final salvation by any act of disobedience to, or even by any direct violation of the law of God.” In other words, it allows a Christian, including a cleric, to do what he/she likes and still believe they are above the law of the land and indeed the Law of God. This heretical belief is known to still exist in today’s world, primarily through some Protestant sects and offshoots (could it explain why the horrors of the Protestant Kincora Boys Home in Belfast were successfully covered up?). Could it be that it continued to be perpetrated by certain people within the Catholic Church despite it being condemned by the Church? (cont’d...)

• jacersisityourself | Jan 01, 2010, 07:15 PM EST

  From the RCC’s Code of Canon Law - “Clerics are to behave with due prudence towards persons whose company can endanger their obligation to observe continence (i.e. refraining from any form of sexual intercourse) or give rise to scandal among the faithful.” What I would like to know is how deviant priests are treated under Canon Law, if they behave other than by this article of the Law? I should think it would be at minimum with immediate defrocking or at maximum with excommunication, not by being given transfers to other parishes secretly.

• Portia777 | Jan 01, 2010, 12:34 PM EST

  ricoforkids "The most violent pedophile will traumatize their victim well into late life." Exactly, that is how these evil men and women of "god" keep control ver the victim. The pain of the victim is energy for the abuser. They are energy vampires and sadistic predators, and without fresh blood to feed off, they die. I know priests who abused, their names are not on that list either. Just when the Gardai were moving in to arrrest- they were helped abroad to Scotland. Those who aided and abbetted are equally guilty in a proper court of Justice.

• ricoforkids | Jan 01, 2010, 07:42 AM EST

  Not all child molesting priests are listed on BishopAccountability. Four of those who sodomized me (ages 8 to 10) are not on the list, one a bishop in NY today. I wonder how many more there really are. To those who claim most are not rightfully accused, think again. The reason is that it is people like you who protect them. You can say as you will, but if laws protect them with statutes of limitations and steal the civil rights of the victims, then you can play the innocent game all you want. You now help protect them and deny human beings. And in case you are uninformed, let me help you; The most violent pedophile will traumatize their victim well into late life. Now imagine the victim dealing with a lost life? This is the worst trauma of all. Then again, those who need to protect a religion over the lives of children should be dismissed. They are those who are the worst offenders of humanity.

• ricoforkids | Dec 31, 2009, 05:59 AM EST

  I do not feel sorry for anyone who spends their Sundays talking to the ceiling and listening to a cross dressing pedophile. When that is the level of your cognitive abilities, then you deserve what you get. My mother forced me to go to church, but when I saw that creepy man in a dress, I said no way, I am not going. Faith is thought by the common man to be true, the wise man to be false, and the politician to be useful.

• skinnysally | Dec 31, 2009, 03:55 AM EST

  I thought the group (bishopsaccountabilty.org)tracked "accused" priests, not pedophile priests. Isn't this distinction important? Some of the priests on the list kept by "the group" are probably mistakenly or even falsely accused. Many of these priests may be innocent of the allegations made against them. An accusation or allegation does not equal guilt. I'm not convinced that the group is offering a helpful contribution to the problem of priests who have abused.

• Watereskhill | Dec 31, 2009, 12:21 AM EST

  Thank God for this group that tracks peodophile priests either side of the pond when others brush it off. In my opinion they are heros. Akin to the small but effective number of Jews who searched Argentina and elsewhere to bring Nazis living under assumed names to Justice after The Holocaust. Let's not be glib here. Thousands have been maimed for life. The chessboard of The Church moving criminals to another parish in Ireland or to America is the reality here. The current blue-print from the Boston Archdiocese in this Editorial to "ensure it is never repeated" reads as vague. Are it's pedophile priests to be handed a penance or axed from the ranks? Either way they will stalk the young and vunerable and such is the alertness of every parent. The days of trusting a Roman Collar are over.

• jacersisityourself | Dec 30, 2009, 09:22 PM EST

  Peace is upon marieco and all others who fret and worry. Pls don’t forget the words of a well known saint “Do not fear what may happen tomorrow; the same loving Father who cares for you today will care for you tomorrow and every day”. Every day means into eternity. . marieco knows the strength of the message. If you want to check out the legacy of eternity pls read up about another dead woman of our world, her name is Mary MacKillop, here or anywhere else you choose to search online: http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/let-2010-be-the-year-of-mary-mackillop/asc ... it might take you out of America’s thinking and into God’s world of thinking.

• marieco | Dec 30, 2009, 07:13 PM EST

  My heart aches for any child who has been violated and abused by someone...ANYONE whose main concern was supposed to be the well-being of that child, whether priest, teacher, parent or any other relative! Trust is destroyed, psyche is crippled, and the emotional injuries passed on to the next generation...and the next...and the next. I'm all for raising taxes to build more prisons for pedophiles and child-abusers! Let'em sleep with one eye open, like the children had to! Or maybe they should get the death penalty for killing the "child" in another human being!

• jacersisityourself | Dec 30, 2009, 06:23 PM EST

  Thanks to adfloatj23 for the advice to get my head out of the clouds. You’re right... I really have spent a lot of time in airplanes, in and above the clouds, that brought me on many journeys - to pray before almost all of the known tombs of the Original Apostles, for example. Have you done that? I “highly” recommend it, in clouds or none. No money will compensate for the horrors abused children suffer as adults. Which makes me ask: why should money be compensation at all? And here’s another question: Given that statistics show that some abused children are likely to become abusers themselves, is it right that those same some should be given money to be privileged to pay to abuse present-day children elsewhere in poorer countries of the world? In India? Vietnam? Thailand? Africa? Or in your local neighbourhood? >>> It looks to me that people and Sociologists are not looking far enough down the line of the future on this possible outcome of new-found wealth of abused people. Mark me, mind you – the vast majority of abused children are not abusers. Neither are the vast majority of priests. But the question hangs there and has not been investigated or exposed.

• jacersisityourself | Dec 30, 2009, 06:16 PM EST

  Well said ceciliag. Just one suggestion of a correction, if I may... “Fishers of Men” should be “Fishers of the souls of all humankind”. Souls do not have a sexual gender.

• jacersisityourself | Dec 30, 2009, 06:15 PM EST

  Thanks to Kathy for changing her tune – her abusive use of the wide-ranging word ‘culture’ is now changed to ‘sub-culture’, a far better, more truthful way to describe the horrifying seething stuff. Now we seem to be getting somewhere to the same level surface to rid our Church of the iniquity amongst us. Over a billion of us actually. Can we now recognise and speak or write of the power of the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Wisdom?

• ceciliag | Dec 30, 2009, 05:11 PM EST

  killowen, obviously you don't know your history. Do some research about the horrors committed by the clergy and hierarchy (Including Popes) against the men women and children of the Catholic Church and other religions. A good place to start would be the life of St. Thomas Moore. However, evil is evil and sin is sin, no matter who is responsible.

• ceciliag | Dec 30, 2009, 05:00 PM EST

  Our Lord Jesus promised his Apostles that HE would make them "Fishers of Men", not Rapers of Children. But the Gentle, Kind Hearted example of Our Crucified Lord seems to have been lost on the Catholic Clergy and Hierarchy over the centuries;and up until a few years ago being an Ordained/Anointed Priest, Brother, Deacon, Nun, Bishop, or Pope meant doing as, and taking what, one pleased, whenever one pleased. Hopefully, thanks to the Courage of the Victims of Clergy Sexual Abuse, along with the Integrity and Courage of their Supporters (Among Them, Our Dear Sister Maureen Paul Turlish) the Sexual Violation of the Innocent of Our Church has halted, or at least slowed. The Catholic Church has proven that they are unable to "Police" themselves and so the Victims/Survivors and their Supporters have taken on the job of assuring that the Innocent of Our Church, and other Churches, will never suffer as we have suffered. We Will Never Go Away, So Perhaps The Church Should Start Working With The Victims To Protect Children and the Vulnerable.

• SisterMaureen | Dec 30, 2009, 11:56 AM EST

  What I think is that transferring a known or credibly accused sexual predator from one state or country to another should fall under some definition of the international Trafficking laws. There is the older Mann Act that is still applicable within the United States but it seems to me that there should be some international laws that would allow prosecution of those enablers, bishops or not, who sent individuals abroad when the bishops knew, had reports or complaints about or had reasons to suspect unacceptable behavior. It is now known that there was a two-tier system in Irish seminaries where the second best or lesser lights had their tuition and support paid for by dioceses in the U.S. and/or were regularly sent to the States after ordination with promises of the good life. That has been documented. Some of the most prolific sexual predators in the United States came here from Ireland. Sister Maureen Paul Turlish Victims' Advocate New Castle, Delaware, USA maureenpaulturlish@yahoo.com

• killowen | Dec 30, 2009, 11:05 AM EST

  Funny ting about religion - Church of England founder Henry VIII, wife killer, who burned down cathedrals and went on a killing spree being regarded a lofty godly connected head. Queen Elizabeth (Protestant Pope) of today proudly carries on the tradition of this noble personage. Such an origin that delights so many of proud Saxon flock.

• adfloatj23 | Dec 30, 2009, 05:53 AM EST

  to jacersisityourself you should get your head out of the clouds and look up the history of the vatican in relation to the flight of the Nazi war criminals whom the vatican helped with passports and travel documents during and after the war the catholic church is the group whom have been spreading lies, and as for the pittance they have offered the victims of abuse 1.61 million euros this is a drop in the bucket of what the so called church is worth.

• jacersisityourself | Dec 30, 2009, 12:34 AM EST

  Kathy... will you please stop spreading lies about the Catholic Church? – As in “well organised... church culture of pedophilia exchange program is fully operational between Ireland, Boston USA etc and the Vatican”. There is no such fully operational ‘culture’. That is a total lie. Kathy, for every lie you post on IrishCentral, either I or someone else will stand up to you and ask you to re-think of what you’re saying about Christians. How dare you, Kathy, state such a thing about people in the fully operational wider Church... What I and everybody reading your postings, and those of others of your thinking, is see is a culture of hate-filled insinuating language detrimental to the Church of Christ that always works for the spiritual goodness and love of people everywhere, including you. Yes, we know there are and always have been some bad people in our Church but nothing of the scale you allege to be a “church culture”. You can look in your own neighbourhood to find the same bad people and compare the scale relatively in the neighbourhood. You are good with words - How about spreading Truth in Christ instead of lies? You know what I mean, the kind you really know... that kind of Total Love. Totally absorbing... you, and everybody, deserve it, because of one Christmas Day... Hopefully, like the ordinary shepherds (male and female) around Bet Lehem’s hills, you will hear the Angels’ song in your hills of isolation... and respond. As an ordinary Christian guy, perhaps one walking past you in the street, I really don’t want for you, in your agony or anger, to subterfuge or miss the radar of Christ’s love.

• Madeleine | Dec 29, 2009, 12:55 PM EST

  I think its all very strange, When I was growing up you never heard of this, now thats all you hear. They hav all been exposed within the last 10 years and its getting worse.I'm suspicious. Here in the US they have places where they send the offending priests to receive treatment,although they admit treatment doesn't really work for pedophiles.They should be in prison the way any sex offender would be.