New York Irish Catholic faithful feel let down by Church in sex abuse response

Amen to that my Friend!! -Barneyjo

Barneyjo - thank you for that post. I had a great long chat with one of my sons on this topic recently. He said he could identify and separate the issues on this subject of Catholics feeling let down, which struck me as extraordinarily mature for such a young fellow. He maintains that he still has his faith despite all the media bashing, some of which he believes is totally misleading. You’re right to say that we should not be blinded to the truth; it is exactly what my son said. May God be with you too and with us all, especially abused people and with young Catholics of today and tomorrow.

Jacersistyourself I agree totally with your expressions of hope in the Holy Spirit and trust in Jesus. I believe, like yourself that is where hope lies for the remenants of the Irish Catholic Church Faith Community (for that is what we are) And we should support genuine men and women of faith who minister as Religious. We cannot be blinded to the truth though, wherever it lies; be that in parishes across all Continents, or even in the very heart of the Vatican itself. The truth may be unpallatable for us all. However we will not find the peace you identify, and which all of us seek until we as a Faith Community face that truth, and understand it for what it is, and the damage it has wrought on young lives across the world, across the ages. May God be with you on your journey towards that peace. Yours in Christ, Barneyjo.

Stay away from the clergy and avoid one more sin.

(.../Cont’d) Like April’s interviewees, I too know the vast goodness of the Roman Catholic Church better than its few bad bits. It’s why I still believe in it despite what’s happening. I trust in Jesus. I trust Him to guide us all through His teachings if only we frail humans would listen to them enough and for them to be implemented in full - even if it means our respected and beloved Pope Benedict should be found wanting in the Fisherman’s Shoes. But I honestly, in truth, do not think that wanting is going to be found, despite the harbouring of doubt many of us feel through media and unforgiving abused people's pressures. We must pray to be guided by the Holy Spirit of Wisdom. Then we members of the Church of Christ will find a peace, as surely as the victims of abuse must too. I hope and pray that those who were abused do not, as Sociologists’ statistics show, go on to horribly abuse others - they too will be found out.

(.../Cont’d) But then, I do ‘kind of’ understand – there’s Canon Law and there’s Civil Law, isn’t there? There was a culture in Ireland between people in power back then – judges, policemen, church officials and politicians - of the *wink-wink, nod-nod* kind – “You deal with what you have to deal with, we’ll deal with what we have to deal with – ok?” *Wink-wink, nod-nod*. If a man was charged with ‘Unlawful Carnal Knowledge’ as the phrase for Rape was back then, then the police took care of it. If a one alleged a priest had the same ‘knowledge’ one was lambasted as a liar – “The cheek of ye to say so!” kind of retort. A politician might be asked by the man charged to ‘get him off the hook’ and he would go and have a ‘chat’ with the charging policeman and the charge was often dropped with a wink and a nod. If it was a priest who was charged with abuse, the laws of the church applied, or so we, including the police officers, themselves church-respecting Catholics, were led to believe (“Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s; render unto God what is God’s” was turned on its head to suit the occasion). It doesn’t excuse it at all. Never did... It’s easy to look back in hindsight, but that was the way it was, probably the same as in the USA, Australia, Germany, Austria, Poland etc (Cont’d.../)

I agree completely with my fellow Good Friday Catholics’ comments in April’s article above. I grew up during the years that this abuse was going on but never once knew anyone who was abused, either in the Christian Brothers’ school that I attended over 10 yrs, with its thousands of pupils, or in the parish where I was part of the Church’s young people’s scene – Sodalities, Football and Youth Clubs etc. My sisters attended one of the nuns’ convent schools mentioned in the Murphy report but they never heard of the abuse that was exposed as going on within it during their time there. This is one of the reasons that we Irish Catholics find it so hard to believe the evil of child abuse happened at all. The trust in, and, for many, the fear of clerical people and subsequent cover-up must obviously have been hugely successful back then – and by the looks of it, probably still going on. My biggest problem is trying to understand why the surviving leaders of my Church of the days back then still can’t come out and explain straight up why they didn’t hand these abusers over to the civil authorities. (Cont’d.../)