Catholics Clergy - 2 vs. Children - 0

[Msterbeau]

What a surprise....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090520/ap_on_...tholic_abuse_11

DUBLIN – A fiercely debated, nine-year investigation into Ireland's Roman Catholic-run institutions says priests and nuns terrorized thousands of boys and girls in workhouse-style schools for decades — and government inspectors failed to stop the chronic beatings, rapes and humiliation.

High Court Justice Sean Ryan on Wednesday unveiled the 2,600-page final report of Ireland's Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse, which is based on testimony from thousands of former students and officials from more than 250 church-run institutions.

More than 30,000 children deemed to be petty thieves, truants or from dysfunctional families — a category that often included unmarried mothers — were sent to Ireland's austere network of industrial schools, reformatories, orphanages and hostels from the 1930s until the last church-run facilities shut in the 1990s.

The report found that molestation and rape were "endemic" in boys' facilities, chiefly run by the Christian Brothers order, and supervisors pursued policies that increased the danger. Girls supervised by orders of nuns, chiefly the Sisters of Mercy, suffered much less sexual abuse but frequent assaults and humiliation designed to make them feel worthless.

"In some schools a high level of ritualized beating was routine. ... Girls were struck with implements designed to maximize pain and were struck on all parts of the body," the report said. "Personal and family denigration was widespread."

Victims of the system have long demanded that the truth of their experiences be documented and made public, so that children in Ireland never endure such suffering again.

But most leaders of religious orders have rejected the allegations as exaggerations and lies, and testified to the commission that any abuses were the responsibility of often long-dead individuals.

Wednesday's five-volume report sides almost completely with the former students' accounts. It concludes that church officials always shielded their orders' pedophiles from arrest amid a culture of self-serving secrecy.

"A climate of fear, created by pervasive, excessive and arbitrary punishment, permeated most of the institutions and all those run for boys. Children lived with the daily terror of not knowing where the next beating was coming from," the report concluded.

The commission said overwhelming, consistent testimony from still-traumatized men and women, now in their 50s to 80s, had demonstrated beyond a doubt that the entire system treated children more like prison inmates and slaves than people with legal rights and human potential.

The report proposed 21 ways the government could recognize past wrongs, including building a permanent memorial, providing counseling and education to victims and improving Ireland's current child protection services.

But its findings will not be used for criminal prosecutions — in part because the Christian Brothers successfully sued the commission in 2004 to keep the identities of all of its members, dead or alive, unnamed in the report. No real names, whether of victims or perpetrators, appear in the final document.

Irish church leaders and religious orders all declined to comment Wednesday, citing the need to read the massive document first. The Vatican also declined to comment.

The Irish government already has funded a parallel compensation system that has paid 12,000 abuse victims an average of euro65,000 ($90,000). About 2,000 claims remain outstanding.

Victims receive the payouts only if they waive their rights to sue the state and the church. Hundreds have rejected that condition and taken their abusers and those church employers to court.

Wednesday's report said children had no safe way to tell authorities about the assaults they were suffering, particularly the sexual aggression from church officials and older inmates in boys' institutions.

"The management did not listen to or believe children when they complained of the activities of some of the men who had responsibility for their care," the commission found. "At best, the abusers were moved, but nothing was done about the harm done to the child. At worst, the child was blamed and seen as corrupted by the sexual activity, and was punished severely."

The commission dismissed as implausible a central defense of the religious orders — that, in bygone days, people did not recognize the sexual abuse of a child as a criminal offense, but rather as a sin that required repentance.

In their testimony, religious orders typically cited this opinion as the principal reason why sex-predator priests and brothers were sheltered within the system and moved to new posts where they could still maintain daily contact with children.

But the commission said its fact-finding — which included unearthing decades-old church files, chiefly stored in the Vatican, on scores of unreported abuse cases from Ireland's industrial schools — demonstrated that officials understood exactly what was at stake: their own reputations.

It cited numerous examples where school managers told police about child abusers who were not church officials — but never did this when one of their own had committed the crime.

"Contrary to the congregations' claims that the recidivist nature of sexual offending was not understood, it is clear from the documented cases that they were aware of the propensity for abusers to re-abuse," it said.

Religious orders were chiefly concerned about preventing scandal, not the danger to children, it said.

The commission also condemned Ireland's Education Department for aiding the abusive culture through infrequent, toothless inspections that deferred to church authority.

Inspectors were supposed to restrict the use of corporal punishment and make sure the children were adequately fed, clothed and educated — but the report called those inspections "fundamentally flawed."

It said a lone inspector was responsible for monitoring more than 50 industrial schools, schools were told about the visits in advance and inspectors rarely talked to the children.

Wednesday's report also highlighted the rarity of human kindness in the institutions.

"A word of consideration or encouragement, or an act of sympathy or understanding, had a profound effect. Adults in their 60s and 70s recalled seemingly insignificant events that had remained with them all their lives," the report said.

"Often the act of kindness, recalled in such a positive light, arose from the simple fact that the staff member had not given a beating when one was expected."

[Rev.Reverence]

WOAH!SHIT!FUCK!ASS!SHIT! These will get theirs.

THIS...is the worst shit..

[Slogo]

Karma's a bitch. They'll get it

[Mizuna]

Sadly I doubt most of the people will get theirs.

They will be dead or it just plain won't happen.

I will be shocked if one is held accountable.

Its life, it sux.

[StormKnight (1)]

It would be most humorous and ironic to see, if Heaven exists, they get judged, they are consigned to hell for heresy. (If memory serves, things like "love the child," and "hate the sin, not the sinner," are quotes from Jesus/the Bible that may apply here.)

[bean]

That is just sick. Sick people.

[the eternal]

And this is an industrialized nation.

I doubt any of them will see 1/100th of the suffering they caused

People like these almost always win, while the people they tortured will continue to suffer and life in turmoil and poverty.

[Scary Guy]

Some of the largest devils have hidden behind the banner of religion.

Hearing about them screwing children and flying planes into buildings makes me hope there is actually a hell. Although their faith will "save them" if it works anything like our justice system. The law /= justice.

[Scales]

The idea of karma isn't completely dead. A lot of those abusive teachers might ask God for forgiveness, but it'll be interesting if any of them can forgive themselves.

[Rev.Reverence]

The idea of karma isn't completely dead. A lot of those abusive teachers might ask God for forgiveness, but it'll be interesting if any of them can forgive themselves.

Which is funny....as the Church Cannon clearly states that each Man will be judged by 2 books...the TORA (Law of G*D) & The Book In His Heart...as the Spark of Divinity is in each Man...if a Man can not make amends & forgive Himself, there is no hope for Him...His Immortal Soul is doomed...they say TO HELL...I say doomed to repeat the same cycle...Karma gets you on the NEXT chapter (Life Cycle).

PRAISE BE THE MOST HIGH!

IT's Plan is so complexly simple.

~AMEN~

[Scary Guy]

Which is funny....as the Church Cannon clearly states that each Man will be judged by 2 books...the TORA (Law of G*D) & The Book In His Heart...as the Spark of Divinity is in each Man...if a Man can not make amends & forgive Himself, there is no hope for Him...His Immortal Soul is doomed...they say TO HELL...I say doomed to repeat the same cycle...Karma gets you on the NEXT chapter (Life Cycle).

PRAISE BE THE MOST HIGH!

IT's Plan is so complexly simple.

~AMEN~

Which church says that? Way to judge people based on your holy book.

Bible /= Torah /= Dianetics

At least you didn't say Dianetics I guess, not that it's much better.

[Rev.Reverence]

Which church says that? Way to judge people based on your holy book.

Bible /= Torah /= Dianetics

At least you didn't say Dianetics I guess, not that it's much better.

It is clearly NOT for me to judge another man by MY BOOK...very few would stand. I was going with what these fuck-wads SWORE IN ON...

As we are talking about Dirty-old Catholic Priests I am stating what I read in the Old Testament in the Bible. (Which is the TORA in the Hebrew language)

(Way to misspell stuff...where did you get that spelling? from the status quo?)

You should read it...so you don't have to attack some perfectly good sharing..at least then you'ld know what I was talkin' about.

Do you just sit around TRYING to be wrong?

Edited May 26, 2009 by Rev.Reverence

[Scary Guy]

It is clearly NOT for me to judge another man by MY BOOK...very few would stand. I was going with what these fuck-wads SWORE IN ON...

As we are talking about Dirty-old Catholic Priests I am stating what I read in the Old Testament in the Bible. (Which is the TORA in the Hebrew language)

(Way to misspell stuff...where did you get that spelling? from the status quo?)

You should read it...so you don't have to attack some perfectly good sharing..at least then you'ld know what I was talkin' about.

Do you just sit around TRYING to be wrong?

I got the spelling from the wiki actually where I read up on it. However I've known it was part of the old testament for a very long time.

I know more about religion than I'd like to and the more I learn the more I hate those outdated myths.

[Rev.Reverence]

I got the spelling from the wiki actually where I read up on it. However I've known it was part of the old testament for a very long time.

I know more about religion than I'd like to and the more I learn the more I hate those outdated myths.

Yup...that's the Anglo-spelling...the status quo you hate so much.

Oh well.

My research is tight.

[Scary Guy]

Yup...that's the Anglo-spelling...the status quo you hate so much.

Oh well.

My research is tight.

The status quo speaks English (some of them not very well, and some different dialects but for the most part they speak English). Yes I hate the status quo however I'm not going to learn another language then speak it everywhere. For one I couldn't survive to order food or communicate the basic needs for survival and secondly the status quo douchebags wouldn't be able to understand me when I'm calling them douchebags.

Welcome to America, where we fit you into our mold. Torah it is.