More Clerical Sex Abuse

[Purple]

To be totally honest, and not trying to be dramatic here, I read some reports in the Examiner this morning, and it has really upset me. The fact that this was facilitated by men of the cloth is just despicable. On so many levels, this was just so, so wrong, and I hope that those who suffered get the just rewards.

I know some people who were abused and it has had a profound effect on their entire lives. That said I am not in the least surprised at the level of abuse. I am shocked and appalled that any school in the country is still in the control or under the patronage of any religious body.

 

[Knuttell]

I went to Christian Brothers and Vincentians
Brothers were tough , Vincentians, smarter, more intelligent and interested in developing the student as opposed to rote learning.

I have terrific sympathy for those people whose lives are blighted by these paedophile.

I also have a great deal of respect and sympathy for those decent teachers who only had the best of intentions for their students but are now somehow sullied by the evil actions of these dreadful things masquerading as teachers.

 

[Purple]

I went to Christian Brothers and Vincentians
Brothers were tough , Vincentians, smarter, more intelligent and interested in developing the student as opposed to rote learning.

I have terrific sympathy for those people whose lives are blighted by these paedophile.

I also have a great deal of respect and sympathy for those decent teachers who only had the best of intentions for their students but are now somehow sullied by the evil actions of these dreadful things masquerading as teachers.

I went to a Christian Brothers school. There was only one of them left when I started and he was gone within 2 years. I don't know if they had retired, died or were spirited away. I also have sympathy for the decent teachers but I hold the ones who knew what way happening and kept quite in lower regard than the actual abusers.

I don't for a moment think that every order and every bishop and senior clergy member in the country didn't know exactly what was going on.
I don't for a moment think that they didn't know about this when they apologised for the abuse that was uncovered over the last few decades.
I don't for a moment think that they were doing anything other than lying when they made those apologies.
I also don't for a moment think that we can draw a clean line between the Catholic Church and the rest of society. This scandal is a societal scandal, not just a religious one.

 

[thedaddyman]

I was taught by priests, 90% of them were decent hard working men, 10% were just nasty people but it's the same in any walk of life. There was never any issue that I was aware of and my school is not on the list. I can't say nothing ever happened but in an 80's boarding school, you endured rather then enjoyed it. Having said that, if I got a slap from a teacher whenever I was in school and told my parents, the immediate reaction would have been "what were you doing" and the expectation was that I deserved it.

I was aware of issues in other schools, I know of one lay headmaster in a Brothers school that was beaten up by a group of Dads in the 80's after the complained about him to the PP and the Gardai, neither of whom believed them so the parents "sorted" the issue themselves and a blind eye was then turned to it. I'm aware of another priest in an order on which people had complained but nothing was done because he was a great GAA man who coached teams to major successes. He subsequently got a county "person of the year award". I dread to think what that did to the psyche of his victims. He died before he was prosecuted. His school is on the list

What was clear in my time, is that a lot of the priests should never have been priests. There is wisdom sometimes in Father Ted. Remember the episode when he says to an American, (and I'm paraphrasing here). "in a lot of Irish families the bright son goes on to University and becomes a Doctor and the idiot son becomes a priest" and Dougal pipes up, "you've a brother a Doctor, don't you Ted?". Mothers vocations have a lot to answer for.

Bishops in question had very little or no control over the orders. They tend to be "fiefdoms" in their own right within the structure of the Church. Even if a Bishop was aware, and complained to the Head of an Order, the Bishop had no power to enforce anything. The orders would simply move the priests on, sometimes sending them overseas.

This was certainly a societal issue, Church has to take a lot of the blame, but a lot of these abusers were also employed by the State as teachers and were lay people. Gardai, Dept of Education, all the authorities pretended it didn't happen, all helped cover it up, either by their action or inaction.

Bear in mind as well, and given the numbers, most of us are probably in some way or other, related to one of these abusers. I know I am distantly and it was quite a shock when it came out.