Bishop apology over 'evil' abuse
Bishop apology over 'evil' abuse: We are sorry but we shall never compesate the abuse victims
The findings will not be used for criminal prosecutions?? Is this Justice or catholic cover up and hypocrisy.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/8065797.stm
Irish abuse report is 'shocking'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8058224.stm
www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTracker
BBC news
Dr Noel Treanor made the comments to a congregation in Carryduff
The Bishop of Down and Connor has apologised to all victims of child sex abuse by the Catholic church.
Dr Noel Treanor was speaking after a report last week said thousands had been abused over 60 years.
He said the report was "heartbreaking" and had recorded cruelty and abuses which were "criminal and sinful."
But Dr Treanor said the church was addressing the "evil", adding that the Down and Connor diocese now had robust child protection measures in place.
"I state my sorrow, shame and visceral pain in the face of these and all abuses inflicted on children and vulnerable adults, whenever they took place, wherever they are perpetrated," he told a congregation in Carryduff on Sunday.
"I apologise on behalf of the church to all who are victims of abuse on the part of those who professed to care for them, or minister to them, in the name of Christ.
"I apologise, too, for the failure of those in positions of leadership in the Church to deal with the abusers."
The victims of child abuse by religious orders were among 35,000 children who were placed in a network of reformatories, industrial schools and workhouses until the early 1990s.
Abuse at Catholic institutions was investigated
More than 2,000 people told the Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse they suffered physical and sexual abuse as children in the institutions.
The commission found that sexual abuse was "endemic" in boys' institutions, and church leaders knew what was going on.
Dr Treanor said: "As we grasp the extent and dimensions of this evil that has been at work within the church, we have to recognise that as a church in particular, and as society, and as individuals, we stand in need of chastening our moral and personal radar.
"Anger, indifference, denial, washing one's hands of guilt, like Pilate, if partly comprehensible as reactions, will not suffice on the part of anyone."
The Irish deputy prime minister called the abuse of children in Catholic-run institutions as one of the "darkest chapters" in Irish history.
The leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady, said anyone responsible for the abuse should be held to account.
The report, nine years in the making and covering a period of six decades, also found government inspectors failed to stop beatings, rapes and humiliation.
The findings will not be used for criminal prosecutions.
How institutions can perish
IRELAND
The Irish Times
PUBLIC OUTRAGE over the picture of brutality, sadism, sexual abuse and repression in Ireland’s industrial schools and reformatories run by Catholic congregations is intensifying following last week’s remarkable report by the Ryan commission.
It is stoked by the flat refusal of the 18 orders involved to reopen the compensation and indemnity agreement they signed with the government in 2002. Their clumsy and self-serving efforts to protect their own interests are rapidly alienating whatever limited support they have. They have failed to see the central importance of saying sorry to the victims and taking the full consequences of their actions and responsibilities. This is how institutions perish.
The gross imbalance which leaves the State paying 90 per cent of the €1.3 billion settlements is indefensible. The deal should be renegotiated, as called for by Cardinal Seán Brady and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin. The Government’s initial defensive argument that this can only be done voluntarily is just as insensitive to public opinion and short-sighted as the orders. That position too is shifting, as was signalled from the special Cabinet meeting last evening. The cosy, secretive and deferential manner in which the agreement was concluded seven years ago ill becomes a modern republican democracy. Revisiting it in light of the Ryan report and the angry public reaction would be in the best interests of church, State and citizens alike. Political and moral pressure to do this should be intensified.
Church a 'disgrace', says anxious priest
IRELAND
Irish Independent
By CLAIRE O'KEEFFE
Sunday May 24 2009
A prominent priest and sociologist believes that the Irish church is a "disgrace" and has not expressed proper regret at last week's revelations in the Ryan Report.
"It's just a continuation of the head-down attitude that so many have adopted in the clergy," says Fr Gearoid O Donnchadha from Fenit, Co Kerry.
"It's no bigger than any of the other scandals that have happened before and I don't think the revelations of the Ryan Report have changed things so much. We're a disgrace," he says.
Church has paid billions to victims all around world
Irish Independent
By Grainne Cunningham
Tuesday May 26 2009
MOST other countries where the Roman Catholic Church was responsible for child abuse have already dealt with the issue of compensating the victims.
In the United States alone, dioceses have paid out more than $2bn (€1.42bn) to settle legal actions, forcing some dioceses to sell off their entire assets and declare bankruptcy.
An audit into America's 300 plus dioceses was conducted by the College of Criminal Justice at John Jay University in New York and published in 2004.
