The Irish bishops have returned home after last month’s meeting with Pope Benedict in the Vatican, where they discussed what Cardinal Hummes has described as “the painful Irish happenings.”
We were warned that it would shock us, and it did. I remember the day it was released: I sat watching the news reports with my newborn son asleep in my arms. I became so upset that I had to turn the TV off, though I could hardly see the screen by then.
The question asked constantly in the Irish media has been: what should the Bishops now do? But an equally important question is: what should ordinary lay Catholic people now do? A few weeks after the report, I happened to see a re-run of The Simpsons that, oddly enough, answered that very question. It captured perfectly a common reaction amongst some Catholic laity: there is an unfortunate tendency to sweep the abuse scandal under the carpet, or to only mention it in veiled terms.
In this episode of the cartoon, Bart and Homer convert to Catholicism. Marge abducts Bart and takes him back to her Protestant church. Liam Neeson plays Fr. Sean, a trendy Catholic priest. He says to Homer:
"If I don't get Bart back to the Church, I'll be the worst priest ever! Well, except, you know . . ."
There follows a silence, broken by Homer's cough. After a further silence, Fr. Sean coughs: “ahem.” Cut to the next scene.
The Dublin diocese report meant that we could no longer cut to the next scene. We had to look at child abuse in stark terms: priests took small boys and girls and repeatedly raped and beat them. This happened again and again. Bishops were informed of this and some did nothing, or just moved the priest to a different parish, causing the terror to spread. They also failed to tell the police. Even when informed, some senior police officers just looked the other way.
Since the report, the Irish police have launched a massive investigation. Some of its own senior officers may yet go to jail along with some former clergy. In Ireland, there is public fury and disbelief: some people want revenge against the Church, or even its utter destruction. Many want all church schools to be brought under state control. A lot of people speak like Homer Simpson did when he said to Father Sean: "I'm sick of you teaching my son your timeless values."
But, despite it all, most people in Ireland do want the church to teach their children its timeless values. Despite the horrors uncovered in recent years, the Catholic Church has done many wonderful things in Ireland, and still has a lot to offer us in the 21st century.
The cover up happened because powerful people in Irish society put the welfare of the Catholic Church ahead of the welfare of children. The Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, has now pledged to put the victims first. Irish bishops have accepted the report’s core finding: Child abuse was covered up by the church.
Father Brian D’Arcy said he found the horrific details of abuse in the Dublin report “absolutely sickening." He also said: “This is not just in the Diocese, this goes right to the top in Rome.” Like many ordinary Religious, he has been devastated by the scandal. Many are now afraid to wear their clerical collars in public. Many ordinary Catholics find themselves losing faith in the Church. But the primary concern must always remain those who suffered at the hands of abusers.
The Catholic Church in Ireland has at last confessed. Now it has years of contrition ahead of it. It must try to earn the forgiveness of the victims, if it ever can. The child abuse scandal has broken in the United States, Australia and Ireland, but we are just at the crest of a global wave: Now it is the turn of Germany and other countries to face up to this disturbing worldwide phenomenon.
The duty of the Catholic laity is never again to cough, and look the other way. We must look cold and hard at what happened, and do what we can to help the victims. For if there is one maxim to follow to help bring about healing and renewal it is this: the victims’ interests are paramount. Many Irish victims’ groups were bitterly disappointed with the outcome of the Papal summit. Bishop Kirby responded to these concerns saying that he "was saddened that the survivors were disappointed with the outcome of the meeting. Perhaps their expectations were too high.”
Andrew Madden, an abuse victim, replied: "It's not our expectations that are high, it's our standards. Asking that the Pope fully accept the findings of the [Dublin] report is not a high expectation. Asking for an apology on behalf of the cover-up is not a high expectation. Asking for the Pope to accept without further delay the resignation of the three bishops is not a high expectation."
Further controversy has arisen since the Papal summit: Some bishops have asked ordinary laity to pay the compensation bills for victims. Bishop Denis Brennan has asked his flock to contribute €60,000 ($82,000 a year between them every year until 2030, in order to pay a €1.2 ($1.63) million compensation bill.
Many ordinary parishioners are outraged at such requests, as are victims’ groups.
"I would encourage [the Church] to look to its own assets and wealth," said the founder of the One in Four victims' support group. Elsewhere in Ireland, the Church has raised compensation funds through the sale of land and other assets.
Pope Benedict XVI has called the Irish abuse a “heinous crime.” Sadly, the victims were not represented at last month’s Vatican talks. Now at home, the bishops must serve the victims above all else:
They must wash their very feet.
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.liliying | Jun 11, 2010, 09:26 PM EDT
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Watchman | Mar 11, 2010, 11:03 AM EST
A bit off-topic, but did you see that a Protestant pastor, the Rev Chris Hudson, minister of All Souls Unitarian Church, Belfast, has gone out of his way to offer his support to Sean Garland, a one-time chief-of-staff of the IRA, currently being sought by the U.S. Department of Justice? "Sean Garland is not only an innocent man but an Irish patriot who dedicated his life to progressive causes and to ending political violence," Hudson said. "The American government should not only lift the extradition warrant and bin it, but invite him to the White House on St Patrick's Day next year to acknowledge his contribution to the peace process." Just as not all priests are paedophiles, so not all Prods are Loyalist stooges.
LilPaddy | Mar 10, 2010, 06:44 PM EST
WOULD "COMMENT POSTER" shane2010 PLEASE CALL 951-264-7103. I'VE GOT SOME "Daingean" NEWS FOR YOU. Paddy.
LouGuyt | Mar 10, 2010, 10:33 AM EST
The Catholic church, including the Vatican, has a lot to answer for. Look at the history of the popes, for instance. Also, when the church decided that priests could not marry, it was not for any religious reason. The reason was so that their families could not inherit the land. So they made the wives move out, and they called them whores! The hierarchy themselves did not obey this mandate and continued to live with women and have children who became bishops and cardinals. The basic religion, as taught by Christ and his apostles, is good, but Rome has long been corrupt.
TheYank | Mar 09, 2010, 10:13 AM EST
shane2010,
I want to think more about some of what you've written, but I want to add to your comments on Jansenism vs Victorian values. I think you're right about this. I suspect that what happened here was mirrored wherever Irish people went too.
When the Irish went to America or Canada or Britain or even Australia they were denigrated, partly because they didn't adhere to the more rigid Victorian attitudes towards sex. As a reaction to this and in an attempt to become accepted Irish Catholics - in Ireland as well as America, Canada, Britain, wherever - raised the bar for their own behavior and the Church was part of this effort. It was less about Catholicism and more about making Catholics acceptable in society.
However, that doesn't really deal with the editorial here. Whatever the background - and much of it is rooted in Irish history as well as Catholic practice - there is no denying that the institutional Church got it wrong in how it dealt with the abuse of young children. {And we're talking about diocesan priests and bishops here, not the Ryan report into institutional abuse.}
This is something that I seem more able to accept than to address. I don't know what should be done. It cannot be business as usual, but I don't want the Church destroyed nor do I want it driven from public life. There has to be atonement for the past as well as preventative measures for the future. I don't know what should be done to atone for what's been done, but if a gesture like the Pope washing the feet of a victim would go some way towards that, it should be done.
shane2010 | Mar 09, 2010, 09:09 AM EST
There was an excellent 'must see' RTE documentary recently about Irish missionaries which I recommend to everyone http://www.rte.ie/player/#v=1067783
shane2010 | Mar 09, 2010, 09:04 AM EST
UCD Professor of History, Diarmaid Ferriter, also notes something similar in his book The Transformation of Ireland (page 517): "Though it was not fashionable to admit it towards the end of the century, many of the members of religious orders had worked hard under difficult conditions to educate and provide for vulnerable children...one can have some sympathy with the contention of Patrick Touher, an inmate of Artane Industrial School, that 'on the whole the [Christian] Brothers were doing their best, within limited circumstances in hard times and with frightening numbers. they too shared in the hard rigid life. They had no luxuries, nothing to look forward to, except more of the same'." It's quite common to hear elderly people nostalgic about the times when the nuns ran the hospitals. I've heard only praise for them and many lament the slippening standards since they were secularized in the 70s (>falling numbers). BTW a few months ago, the Catholic Church and the Lutheran Church jointly apologized for 'endemic' abuse in their industrial schools in Germany. This seems to have received little coverage. http://www.irishcatholic.ie/site/content/lutherans-apologise-child-abuse
shane2010 | Mar 09, 2010, 09:02 AM EST
Quinn's point about the discipline in Les choristes is also echoed by Fr Michael Hughes, archivist for the Oblates of Mary Immaculate congregation, and who had been involved with supervision at Daingean. According to the Irish Times ( 'Living hell' reformatory claim rejected; Wednesday, June 07, 2006): "He agreed there were gangs and a hierarchy among the boys with newcomers known as "fish". He did not agree it was a situation which got out of control, though there were disturbances at times. "Discipline at the school was very severe for that very purpose, so staff could keep control. It was intended as protection for the children . . . these lads were not small boys." He agreed the Brothers worked all year around, seven days a week with no day off until the 1970s, and that 20 of them were responsible for 150 boys.
shane2010 | Mar 09, 2010, 09:02 AM EST
Much of what we ascribe to Jansenism or to peculiar aspects of Irish Catholicism were simply Victorian values - which were neither uniquely Catholic nor uniquely Irish (indeed neither of the two in origin). David Quinn wrote a very good article in Studies magazine (the organ of the Irish Jesuits) about the Ryan Report. He attended most of the Inquiry's hearings and felt compelled to give the report greater analysis, having realized that most media commentators had read little more than the summary. http://www.studiesirishreview.ie/j/page712 Here are a few of the facts: 1,090 former residents reported to the Ryan commission; they named 800 alleged abusers in over 200 institutions. Boys: 50% of the physical abuse reports and 64% of the sexual abuse reports came from 4 institutions. Girls: 40% of the physical abuse reports came from 3 institutions; 241 women religious were named as physical abusers, but 4 of these were named by 125 witnesses and 156 sisters were named by only one witness each. Of the 800 religious and others named as abusers, 400 were named by only one person. Sixteen institutions had more than 20 complaints made against them.