PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent
CHILD ABUSE REPORT: THE 18 congregations which signed the redress deal with the State in June 2002 have for the first time as a group expressed shame and asked forgiveness for the systematic brutality of children in institutions managed by them and as recounted in the Ryan report.
In a joint statement following their meeting in Dublin yesterday, the 18 said: “Children were abused and not listened to, and we are ashamed that many of us failed them in different ways. We once again deeply apologise to those who were abused and ask for their forgiveness.”
Former Cori president Sr Elizabeth Maxwell, leader of the Presentation Sisters Northern Province, which is one of the 18 congregations, said last night that there was “still dismay, still shock’’ among them at what was revealed in the Ryan report. “We are asking forgiveness. It has gone beyond apology,’’ she said.
In their statement the 18 said they were available to meet the Taoiseach “to explore the most effective and most appropriate ongoing response to former residents of institutions’’.
They were “committed as individual congregations to make contributions which can offer further support and assistance to former residents. The details of what is required will be discussed at our meetings with An Taoiseach and his representatives,” they said.
They were also “examining the findings and recommendations of the Ryan report in its challenge to the deficiencies which existed generally and especially in our failures in our duty of care to children. We are currently, and we will continue to examine, this fundamental issue in the context of the past, the present and the future.”
Of the 18, five congregations managed institutions investigated by the Ryan commission and, while all signed the 2002 redress deal, not all were able to contribute to it in proportion to the number of allegations made against members. Those that could not do so were assisted by others among the 18 who could afford it.
In another development, there is to be “a march of solidarity’’ with residents of the institutions run by the congregations in Dublin on June 10th. It will coincide with Dáil debates on the Ryan report.
Organised by a newly-constituted Survivors of Institutional Abuse Ireland (SOIAI) group, involving Christine Buckley of Aislinn, John Kelly of SOCA Ireland,Noel Barry of Right of Place, and Michael O’Brien, former mayor of Clonmel, it will leave the Garden of Remembrance on Parnell Square at noon that day.
It will proceed past the GPO to the Dáil, where it is planned to hand a petition to Sr Marianne O’Connor, director general of Cori, together with representatives of each of the 18 religious congregations which participated in the 2002 redress deal. An invitation to accept the petition has been extended to the congregations through Cori.
The survivors hope that those who can join in the march will each wear a white ribbon “to symbolise the lives shattered in these institutions”. The silence of the march will be broken only when 216 survivors intone the names of each of the 216 relevant institutions as the petition is handed to representatives of the congregations.
The survivors will then lay three wreaths, two white and one black, outside the Dáil “in memory of the living and dead” of those institutions.
The wording of the petition, which will be available on a website to be set up next week, will read: “We the people of Ireland join in solidarity and call for justice, accountability and restitution for the unimaginable crimes committed against the children of our country by religious orders in 216 institutions.’’
Meanwhile, a nun who is a member of a congregation which is one of 137 affiliated to Cori but is not among the 18 which signed the 2002 redress deal, has protested that neither she, her congregation nor any of its membership was consulted in advance about Cori’s involvement in facilitating the 18 relevant congregations in negotiating the redress deal.
Sr Majella McCarron of the Our Lady of Apostles congregation said yesterday that neither she nor her congregation was “afforded any debate about the matter, at any level’’. Speaking for herself, she said she “would want attention drawn to this’’.
I spoke to Minister Dermot Ahearn after the survivors meeting on Tuesday evening and he pointed out to me that the criminal offences we’re alleged to have committed have been expunged. I explained that I didn’t see how he could make that statement and he referred me to the Children’s Act 2002.
I told the Minister that I would have more to say on this matter and that as far as I was concerned, the Detention Orders had not been expunged. I pointed out the the Taoiseach that it was all semantics and I wasn’t happy with what the government were trying to do. “Smoke and Mirrors” is a cliché that comes to mind.
Paddy.
THE RELIGIOUS ARE FRAUDSTERS
The Order of The Daughters of Charity of St Vincent DePaul, an order of Nuns is nothing more than an order of fraudsters and I can prove it.
I was (on 9th November 2005) absolutely flabbergasted when I accidentally happened upon the following:
TITLE VI: PHYSICAL AND JURIDICAL PERSONS
TITLE VI: PHYSICAL AND JURIDICAL PERSONS
CHAPTER I : THE CANONICAL STATUS OF PHYSICAL PERSONS
Can. 96 By baptism one is incorporated into the Church of Christ and constituted a person in it, with the duties and the rights which, in accordance with each one’s status, are proper to Christians, in so far as they are in ecclesiastical communion and unless a lawfully issued sanction intervenes.
Can. 97 ß1 a person, who has completed the eighteenth year of age, has attained majority; below this age, a person is a minor.
ß2 a minor who has not completed the seventh year of age is called an infant and is considered incapable of personal responsibility; on completion of the seventh year, however, the minor is presumed to have the use of reason.
I can justify making the accusation I have because, given that at just under age 3 I was, on a voluntary basis, accepted by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent De Paul at Drogheda Industrial School for Junior Boys.
From documents, I have discovered that I was there for some 5 weeks before I was hauled in front of a Mullingar District Court Judge and charged under the Children Act 1908, Guardianship, and ordered to be detained until the age of 16. I was transferred to Artane at age 10 and remained there until age 12, at which point I was discharged in 1968.
If the Daughters of Charity are not liars and fraudulent, they may wish to explain the following:
1. As stated above in Can 97, B2,
A minor who has not completed the seventh year of age is called an infant and is considered incapable of personal responsibility; on completion of the seventh year, however, the minor is presumed to have the use of reason.
2. Why did they allow the Courts to charge me fully knowing that “I am incapable of personal responsibility”? – they needed the conviction to secure the child allowance.
3. Why did they wait until after the court appearance to have me Baptised at St Peters Church in Drogheda? – I cannot stay with them if I am not Baptised, they would lose the funding for me.
4. In documents in now in my possession from the Courts (Detention Order) it clearly states “And whereas this child appears to the Court to be a Catholic” – Who told the court this, given that I am not yet Baptised? – The Daughters of Charity, who else.
How many of you out there were unjustly accused, based on the fact that you were under age 7? – A lot I should imagine. How many Religious Orders had a hand in your detentions?
Keep in mind, if these people say they did nothing wrong, why did they not fight the judicial system for the younger children on the grounds of being incapable due to age?
I think I have made my case.
Writers email address: martin1956_1959@yahoo.com
Nuts to the Apology it is meaningless unless the Illegal Convictions of the thousands of young children are expunged.
I was just 2 years 11 months and 3 weeks old when they the State, the Religious and the corrupt Judges allowed my Illegal Conviction to occur without legal representation.
Nuts also to the Redress Act 2002 – I still have a case in Strasbourg.
Nuts also to not classing us younger convicts as criminals. Why then are you communicating in writing with the English Probation Service and not the English Social Services? You still consider those convictions valid.
Nuts to the Catholic Church. My Wife, a lovely woman is an Athiest but in my view nearer to God than any one of the monsters I had to endure in the 9 years I spent with them.
M J J Petty
153 Haworth Road
Heaton
BRADFORD
BD9 6NH
England
0044 1274 549334
Get in touch, I can tell a horror story or two based on fact of course.
Between the CatsPaw and the Judas cradle and the Holy Trinity etc, these men and women of God were saving souls in their twisted perverted minds.
“A sadist’s banquet – and of course it brought the wretched heretics closer to God.”
When Father Ted said the idiot in the family was sent to be a priest- he was right, just like Hitler used the imbeciles to do his work too for the Catholic church.
The abused now have the power and can choose to forgive or not.
The abusers souls are dammed by their own deeds and they will soon be gone to a dimension for re education.
The beauty of having an interactive website like this is that comments such as the above can be posted by people who have been visiting paddydoyle.com for 10 years now. Yes! That’s how long the website has been there and we’re not finished yet.
Paddy.
Amazing how sorrow and apology has broken out among these Orders when they are the object of public outrage, and look like being forced to give up half a billion euros. There was none of that when they had the ear (and heart) of “timid and submissive” Bertie Ahern, and his catspaw Michael Woods.
The bottom line is not just how much can you pay, but what can you do to repair the injustice?
Are they not able to say:
We are guilty of abusing children in our care in the Institutions. We starved them, we beat them unmercifully, we denigrated them, we enslaved them by using their small bodies to do our labour, we used sexual violence on their bodies. We are guilty and take responsibility for our actions.
An apology is one thing – and these religious orders have boxes of apologies which can be taken out and aired depending on the circumstances – but admitting to being responsible for all the horrors they inflicted on us is beyond them.