By Ann Cahill and Jennifer Hough
Saturday, December 12, 2009
THE Pope’s failure to accept accountability for the role of the Catholic Church in recklessly endangering children makes him just as guilty as the Irish bishops who covered up child abuse, victims’ groups say.
Following a meeting in the Vatican with Cardinal Seán Brady and Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin, the Vatican said Pope Benedict was “disturbed and distressed” by the contents of the Murphy Report, which revealed how hundreds of complaints of abuse were covered up by senior clergy.
However, the Pope’s expressions of “profound regret” were last night described as wholly inadequate and likely to cause further distress to the thousands of people who were abused.
Maeve Lewis, head of sexual abuse support group One in Four, said it was hoped the Pope might apologise for the culture of secrecy and cover-up by Catholic Church authorities documented by the Murphy Report and that he might accept responsibility for his role in the creation of that culture.
“To say that he is disturbed and outraged by the accounts of clerical abuse is disingenuous at the very least, given that the files of the clerical sex abusers have been routinely sent to the Vatican over the years,” Ms Lewis said.
“He must have been aware of the extent of the problem when, as Cardinal Ratzinger, he presided over the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith.”
She said the Pope appeared to be trying to put all the blame on the individual offending priests rather than accepting responsibility for the role of the Church authorities in recklessly endangering children.
In an unprecedented move, however, Pope Benedict said he is planning to write a pastoral letter to the Irish people, expected early in the new year, in response to the crisis.
His statement said he wanted to “assure all concerned that the Church will continue to follow this grave matter with the closest attention in order to understand better how these shameful events came to pass and how best to develop effective and secure strategies to prevent any recurrence”.
The Pope’s message came as survivors of institutional abuse met with representatives of the Bishops’ Conference.
Patrick Walsh, the British spokesman for the Irish Survivors of Child Abuse, said a change of attitude at the highest level within the Church had been noted and the meeting had been very constructive.
On the Pope’s statement, Mr Walsh urged sceptics to hold their fire as the devil may be in the detail.
“We don’t know what is in the Pope’s pastoral letter, so I would say wait and see.”
Mr Walsh said the fact that the Pope had taken such interest in the Irish situation meant he understood fully the magnitude of the situation.
The Irish Examiner 12th December 2009
Thanks so much for the nice comment about my website. As I might well have said to you, it’s there to give people information and to give them a forum in which to raise issues of concern to them. Paddy.
I remember it well Damien. I just wish our chat could have been longer. Thanks for writing. Paddy
That’s my first comment on your site Paddy, I spoke to you on the Luas briefly. Just to introduce myself somehow.
Personal View of a Victim
Its unlikely that that Ratzinger is going to announce the entire disbandment of the Catholic church worldwide nor in any country although perhaps some window dressing may be forthcoming. It is unlikely he can be arrested in Ireland. However, continued interest by the UN and such bodies may provide a partial means to bring the Vatican to heel.
The problem is that the church has been engaged in the most serious crimes and participation in genocides and other human abuses throughout its history in its pursuit of power and control. Its not an organisation to be taken lightly and it is not beyond the arrangement of similar crimes today. It organisational behaviour confirm that it understands and accepts the use of routine violence in the pursuit of its goals. In this respect, it may ultimately become a fact that the only means to bring it to heel may be through violence. I hope not but also expect this is the reality.
The keys to church power are as with any corporation, assets and support. Support comes in the form of alms and voting powers of the believers in their functions from shopkeepers to heads of state. Ideologies partiularly rely on the capacity to control certain information. Concealement has been vital to success. Portia’s message above links to a site showing some sketches of instruments of torture used in the inquisition or Curia. These instruments can be seen each year in Vitoria in the Basque region where they are preserved and put on display exactly as they are seen in the sketches. Each pope has an official function to design a new instrument of torture.
Declaring the Vatican church a criminal organisation and forcibly disbanding its network of thugs will take some doing. Perhaps even a forcible removal. It may have to be faced that in fact the separation of Europe into North and south following Martin Luther and King Henry VIII is a process of reformation that has not been completed and in light of the ongoing behaviour of the RCC, it appears that there was a sound basis for upholding the RCC as unfit to hold office, in fact the anthetisis of enlightnment and learning is what is holding office in Rome today.
ON the other hand, we hoped that enlightnment could embrace the needs of spirituality, modern learning and humanity and teach and reinforce this without violent indoctrination or self serving ideologists masquerading as annointed agents of deities. A hoax as vile as the Golden Cow.
Following a reformation of the vatican, the remaining apparatus of RCC infrastructure, buildings, schools of educations and health care facilities, could be redeployed as a vehicle for the development of a modern replacement to a medieval religion embracing phychological learning, citizenship, integrity, charity and humanity.
This is a goal well worth fighting for. It can be imagined that such a new organisation could not dipense with the insights and strengthy involvement of the Victims of the former imposters. Indeed, it is the very experience of the victims that may bring about the second phase of the reformation in Europe. All that remains is that the brainwashing processes of the Catholic church be uncloaked for all to see the vile nature of this hoax. This is happening. Then, vatican support will dwindle and then the final push can be given.
Lofty as it may seem, it is a well worn pattern in the past 100 years. First the Romanov Dynasty and the other feudal systems accross Europe then fascism then communism and now finally vaticanism has placed itself in the cross hairs of public judgement.
It seems at times that a dark glove has turned the history of Ireland into a 500 year quagmire in which the citizens themselvess have been unwitting and innocent and sometimes violent agents of a power struggle which has more to do with the careers of popes than the interests of the empoverished and certainly not little children.
A new reformation movement would have many allys both within the former catholic countries and the northern countries.
Not all would accept that the interests of supporters of a refromation would have common desires, nor could it be possible.
Still a common objective would be the removal of a barbaric and vile dynasty that remains unchallenged.
Wouldn’t you wish that the Vatican walls would come tumbling down, this malevolent, corrupt,hateful place. They have had such a devastating effect on Ireland since independence, with their concentration camps for children and fallen women.The indoctrination was so intense and intrusive, in that people are still trying to defend them. Hopefully, their hold over Ireland is diminishing. I also read Patrick Walsh’s comments and was thinking, was he a priest in disguise? Anyway, thanks for a great website Paddy.
Yes the battle lines are drawn and winter is setting in. It will be a tough fight but a glorious one. This battle is about our dignity and for the children who come after us that they may never have to go through what we experienced as children.We are looking beyond and above the squalid behaviour of the mighty and the light of a better tomorrow is shining at us. We will stumble and fall and rise but there is no holding back the will of good. This is our moment and we will make great use of it and this good earth will breathe as it has never breathed before.
So once Ratzinger has recovered from the shock of the Murphy report, the shock he should have felt years ago given he was privy to information about the criminal activity of his members he will write the Irish people a letter. Wow! well I can save him the trouble of writing the letter and do it for him myself. It will be short. “I the Pope hereby disband all 18 Catholic orders who were investigated by Justice Ryan for serious crimes against thousands of Irish children. All their assets are to be handed over to the government of that land to make some atonement for these crimes.They are no longer part of this church.” Now that is the letter I want to see. Anything less and the Catholic Church will race to the bottom.
I don’t have names and I’m not “holding fire” as you appear to suggest in your comment. Paddy.
Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela
With controversy still raging whether in recent history did the Vatican facilitate child abuse or simply not know enough about for they seem in permanent dismay and shock with each revelation that comes to light. Here is something they knew about and actually wrote themselves.
In the 1962 version of the above titled document, clergy who failed to keep secret on clerical child abuse charges faced excommunication. Even the victims in them are threatened with it if charges were brought against abusers after thirty one days. All were subject to the pontifical secrecy and law. This was followed by a ‘learning curve’ and a later version of the above that exists to this day.
In this case the abusers can be tried by priests, but all findings or recommendations of its courts can only be transmitted by non – official means to the Vatican and all subject to pontifical secrecy and law.
Victims, what little rights they had left, could only take an action of sexual abuse against a cleric one day after their twenty eighth birthday. Again, all cases are subject to pontifical secrecy and law. About that law:
Violation of it means that clergy are quilty of a grave sin and subject it the loss of their soul along with excommunication.
Facts always speaks louder than opinion and is more permanent against the tide of fiction.
Barry Clifford
Email: bgclifford@iol.ie
Well Paddy in all due respects to you holding fire is no answer we as victims have suffered enough so name and shame and charges brought each and every one of them nothing short is a insult
A Story Just About Us
The road has been hard and long for victims of institutional abuse. For some that road meant it might have an end when it first started, while still others have felt the journey has not even begun. Most certain of all it is still the trail of tears. Many have walked its way being set upon by the dogs of war, hyenas in waiting, and snakes in the undergrowth grasping at opportunity. Victims sometimes stumbled, trembling with different emotions of fear, and even pride based on the hope for vindication, but alongside up close and personal walked a different kind of predator, one that looked, dressed, and conversed like them. In daylight or darkness they could not have known that this was ‘the enemy within’.
It is often our high expectations of others that measure our low disappointment in them, and with most victims it has been a vicious cycle. Is there any one of them looking back now that they can say this road led to just redress and vindication, and aside from the obvious, maybe look at the candidates that they voted to represent them. Though in this case the word ‘elected’ might be just too strong a word to describe a democratic process that matured into ‘kangaroo’ elections. It started out promising as it all did.
A team spirit prevailed and faith was a large part of the agenda with little else. It fueled an optimistic belief that surely ‘their own’ have the best credentials to represent them. It seemed they had the made the right choice and perhaps it was too. That would soon change.
Personal agendas started to rule the day along with egos at first, then it would morph into something much more deeper and sinister. Corruption is not an overnight transition that replaces idealism but is seeded when growing cynicism is laced with opportunity. It takes just a little more time.
Deals were brokered in private while secrecy prevailed in public.
Representatives came at bargain basement prices and those egos were stroked. Several tier systems were created to give out crumbs to support victims, and the fear of getting nothing at all was encouraged. Meetings got smaller as disappointment grew larger and a democratic dictatorship was born for only cronyism was left that prevailed at private meetings and elections. Their road was paved with gold, accolades, and positive reviews from learned scribes as victimhood was elevated to sainthood. Their party had really begun.
This is as it was in the beginning and will continue to be if the rest of the victims, which is almost all of them, do nothing but give tea and sympathy to those that want to fight. For those fighters in return they are all out of teabags and do not want to look back on the field of battle to find their supporters had left the field years ago. The fight has already begun and progress has been made and needs now your support. Any help, information with material proof of it, along with whatever else you can bring to the table, do it now. What you get for free is integrity, transparency, honesty, and courage that will not diminish until the heart stops beating for it has bled long enough.
This letter is nothing less than a call to arms.
You can contact me, Barry Clifford @ 0877511113
Or email: bgclifford@iol.ie
I have been able to get the full unedited text – PRIOR to publication of the pope’s apologia, and I’ve placed it over here:
http://tinyurl.com/stupidbishops
Has Patrick Walsh taken the vows and signed up to the clerical state ? It’s a pity he didn’t join an order where there’s a vow of silence as every utterance from his mouth might as well be in Latin for all the sense it makes to those fighting for justice.
Baa! Baa! Baa! said the sheeple!
Bah! sez I!
http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/murderers.htm
Well, Paddy, this is how the Roman Church of “God” converted people to their religion- torture and killing to create fear- so the rest of the sheep would obey the shepherd.
This is what has been hidden from our history books in Eire.
The Church is a corporation so the Pope is responsible as are all bishops etc.
The church corporation preaches about the herd thinking, but now the worm has turned and the church corporation does not want to accect corporate responsibility.