Victims of abuse at the hands of priests in Ireland are not satisfied by the Pope’s letter of apology.
Marie Collins is still a practising Catholic despite years of pain and frustration fighting the Irish Catholic hierarchy.
In 1960, when she was 13, she was sexually abused by a chaplain at Crumlin Hospital Dublin – but didn’t report the abuse until 1995.
Then, she said, “All I got was lies and deceit from the archdiocese (of Dublin). I was bullied and threatened.”
Last year she discovered from a report by Judge Yvonne Murphy into the Dublin dioscese’s handling of sex abuse allegations that the archbishop at the time knew of complaints about her abuser – and so did the Irish police. But nothing was done and the priest continued abusing children in his care.
A softly-spoken woman of 63, Mrs Collins was not expecting much of the Pope’s long-awaited apology yesterday. But even so, she was visibly disappointed.
“I had no great hope for this letter but there’s still a sense of let-down,” she said. “The Pope blames it all on the secularisation of Irish society and the misinterpretation of canon law. He takes no responsibility at all for the Vatican’s role in the cover up of abuse. There’s no acknowledgement that it’s a worldwide problem for the Church, or that victims weren’t just ignored, they were bullied into silence.”
Married with one son, Mrs Collins has devoted most of the last decade to pressuring the Irish Church to come clean on sex abuse and now campaigns for the Irish sex abuse victim support group, One in Four.
She said the battle had damaged her faith.
“It’s a struggle but I’m trying to hang on,” she said. “I need something more to hang on to. I need a sense of morality.”
Paddy Doyle, 59, one of the first victims of abuse in Catholic-run institutions in Ireland to go public, has none of Mrs Collins’ quiet sadness. As the letter was read out, 21 years after the publication of his harrowing autobiography The God Squad, he was still apoplectic with rage.
The Pope’s words were the “same old dribble that’s been coming out for years”, he said. “He hasn’t accepted his own responsibility for what happened at all.”
Mr Doyle was a four-year-old orphan when dispatched to St Michael’s Industrial School, at Cappoquin, County Wexford – where he was viciously assaulted and sexually abused. He soon developed severe physical disabilities, a result, he believes of the trauma he endured. By the age of 10 he was paralysed.
Now a non-Christian, he has no fear of labelling the Irish bishops “the lads in frocks” who spent most of their recent visit to the Vatican “kissing rings”.
“When will they come out of the 12th century or wherever they live and look at the real issues, the broken lives of the people who were raped and ——– and starved by deviants and perverts in their ranks?” he said.
According to a government report published last year, children at his school were routinely sexually and physically abused and severely underfed.
That report was the second of three damning recent investigations into clerical and religious abuse of children in Ireland.
What started as a trickle of barely-believed allegations in the 1980s has become a torrent of ever more horrific revelations, of paedophile priests abusing children with impunity and of obsessive efforts by the Irish Catholic hierarchy to silence victims.
There has also been a constant drip of court documents and victim testimony, giving the sense that even the official version of events might still be the tip of the iceberg.
Last week it emerged that the primate of all Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady, had interviewed two children in 1975 about their abuse at the hands of a notorious paedophile priest. Cardinal Brady’s involvement came to light only through court documents lodged by one of the victims, who is now suing him, claiming he made her swear an oath of secrecy.
The priest was imprisoned for child rape in 1994 – but in the intervening years is believed to have abused 90 children. Last year’s Murphy Report identified 2000 victims of clerical sex abuse in Dublin diocese, and described the efforts of Church authorities to cover up allegations.
Outrage over the behaviour of church authorities has now reached a tipping point. Before publication of the Pope’s letter there were daily calls for Cardinal Brady to resign and demands for a mass clear-out of Irish bishops. On Wednesday, St Patrick’s Day, there were fresh allegations that the Bishop of Derry was involved in the cover-up of a rape case.
At mass yesterday in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh, Cardinal Brady asked the congregation to pray that the Pope’s intervention would be the beginning of a great season of rebirth and hope in the Irish church.
But while the Catholic hierarchy still has its supporters in Ireland, many practising Catholics are appalled by events. The Pope’s letter appears only to have fuelled their anger.
Eithne MacDaeid, 53, from Bettystown, County Meath, is a regular mass-goer and member of a prayer group. She said she was outraged by the Pope’s remarks, particularly his suggestion that the problem arose from the secularisation of Irish society. “He seems to think he can blame the Irish people for this. It’s nothing to do with our lack of faith. This is a problem for the church across the world,” she said.
Colm O’Gorman, 43, who was abused as a teenager by a priest in his home diocese of Ferns, found some small comfort in the words of the Pope. The language is more accessible compared to what was used previously, he says. “Certainly the apology is fulsome,” he added.
But the Pope’s recommendations were “laughable”, he said. “He wants us all to go back to Church and pray. I’m not disputing the power of prayer but he doesn’t seem to get the reality of this – the countless suicides and the devastation of the faith, and not just among the victims.”
By Carissa Casey in Dublin
Published: 7:45AM GMT 21 Mar 2010
Telegraph.co.uk
A short note about Totalatarian Regimes
In a totalatarian state, it is unwise to speak out. It is unwise for a child to tell the truth to an adult. It is unwise for an adult to approach the authorities. It is unwise to confide in a freind. It is unwise speak openly about the rumours. It is unwise to defend the abused, it is unwise go up against authority. The reason of course is that they can get you, interfere with your life, lift you off the street, do what they want, better to shut up, you and yours might dissappear or have to dissappear. It is unwise to tell you mother.
Perhaps reading this you are confused about which country is involved, could it be Stalins Russian, Germany perhaps, could it be Ireland? Silly old me, of course it is also Ireland.
But actually, the comments above were actually made by a man who lived beside STUTTHOF forest in NE Poland as a child. He recently described how as a free child, he and his pals would play in the forest and meet escaped Jewish children in the forest looking for food. Deeper in the forest, about 1 km, was STUTTHOF subconcentration camp, a half million or so died there. The children could get through holes in the fences away from black uniforms and adulst, then they would go into the forest in a daze thinking they could get free. Its an experience not lost on me either. His wife has a fine stock of butter and foods, salamis and so on in the cellar, in case ‘they’ (Nazis) come back. And that is just a few months ago.
The old man, actually he is not so old and still working away today in NE Poland, he also made the point that as a child and as adults around him knew, nobody would be wise to assist the escaped Jewish children cos they were supposed to hand them back in to the Nazis and absolutely nobody wise could speak out about the truth that all knew was happening. Nobody would be wise to talk to a freind. No child would be wise to complain to an adult. No child could complain to a black uniform.
And the similiarity too is that the Irish clerics, (those uncles and cousins of the silent ones who went into that mob), think of themselves as the most beautiful & holy of holies, above all others, capable of walking on water even, with not a single of their members ever possible of even a small sin sin. Haloes virtually following them around, dreams of canonisation perhaps even, purple robes, medals d´honneur even. In the meantime, a little bit of dirty work to go along with.
It took 6 years of war to bring that shower of thugs to heel in Poland. Their surviving cousins in Ireland are as good as dead meat in Ireland, still a final good shove wont go amiss. SHOWER OF FUCKERS.
What would Michael Collins have done indeed!
So during the visit of the pope in england ‘these are the prices as given on tv. 30 euros for mass , 27 euros to see susan boyle singing for the pope , and 7 euros for collective prayers. so if anyone wants to go with thier familys, that makes a lot of money. it is for the people who can afford to pay.there is no buisness like religon
Would you all stop blaming the pope. the Dail, the whoever, for your problems, it is writen in concrete, we are not to be taken serious by any Irish Government, Church, or whoever,. forget the moaning amongst ourslves, we are illiterate GOMS from Ireland, the fairies have more legitimate problems hiding in the bushes avoiding these Papel concerns, and so say all of us. I find it difficult to face up to this discraceful opinion of mine, but I have to be real, I have a letter from a lady friend in England who sums it up correctly, her two brothers serverd their time with me, Michael is dead now, no justice for him, Margarets letter moved me, she asked for it to be sent to the Dail. I will try to forward Margarets letter and we should all copy it and forward our version to the Dail.
Seanie
Paddy,
I am glad to see you are active and publishing good articles like Carissa Casey’s
You may be interested to know that my letter to the Pope (sent in March you will recall) has yet to be answered, and I have heard nothing further from Diarmuid Martin or his staff. Although… I continue to correspond with them…
A travesty all around…
Conrad J. Noll
he was responsible for every case of abuse, that accrued once he knew of the situation.he should be in prison. covering up for the church is not an excuse .he protected the abuser. healing does not concern him. people praying wont bring back the victims who have died from the pain of it.he should be charged with non assistance to children in danger
paddy i even sent my statement and all my reports to the pope last year with no reply
I am not interested in any apologies from the church, period. What bothers me is what is happening now, the present. My concerns are for the other inmates who are out of the loop, I believe 13,000 would be a modest number of our fellow inmates still wandering on British soil alone, how many worldwide I do not know. This is what I have gathered in my inquiries, there is a gentleman whom I think everyone on paddy’s list should phone especially those of you living in Ireland England, Scotland and Wales, his Name is Peter O’Brien, Redress Unit, phone: 00353 9064 83937. He says that there will be, or were publications in the following newspapers regarding the public consultation re: the Fund issue, I personally have not seen a publication yet up to today the 1st of August. Look in the Irish Times, the Irish Independent, the examiner and today the Sunday Independent. The Irish Post UK. The Irish World UK. and a newspaper I have not heard of over here in the Americas, the Irish Voice ?. Has anyone seen these publications and if so, where in the newspapers are they?
Seanie.
The Pope’s words were the “same old dribble that’s been coming out for years”, he said. “He hasn’t accepted his own responsibility for what happened at all.”
Paddy I take my hat off to you.