A Search For Links Between U.S., Irish Church Abuse

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Published August 12, 2009

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BOSTON — When the Irish government recently released its report after investigating the abuse of children in Catholic-run institutions there, many questions arose on this side of the Atlantic about whether similar abuse happened here.

The almost 3,000 page Irish report, known as the Ryan Report, said rape and abuse were endemic in Ireland’s church-run schools and orphanages from the 1930s until most of the facilities were shut down in the 1990s.

There were dozens of similar facilities in Massachusetts that were run by religious groups at that time, so the Waltham-based group BishopAccountability.org, which gathered information on the clergy sex abuse crisis and lists some 3,000 abusive clergy members, is now investigating this.

Terry McKiernan, the head of BishopAccountability.org, is creating a database of U.S. church-run institutions where there have been similar allegations.

“We have certainly noticed that abuse has occurred at residential facilities, but we hadn’t really put it in that category and realized there were a number of residential facilities and that it added up to a lot of vulnerable children,” McKiernan said, “and that priests who liked to do this kind of thing would likely target those vulnerable populations.”

“When the Ryan Report came out,” he said, “it all came together for us.”

McKiernan’s group has documented similar abuse at dozens of Catholic-run institutions in the United States and he expects that hundreds more facilities will be identified. McKiernan said he’s been inundated with claims from alleged victims, some of whom have never before come forward.

Fifty-one-year-old David Wescott of Oklahoma grew up in Massachusetts, but when his family couldn’t care for him he was sent to the Sacred Heart Academy boarding school in Andover, and an affiliated summer camp during the late 1960s.

“I was sexually abused a number of times over the years,” Wescott said. “Not only at the school itself but also at their summer camp.”

Both the school and the camp were run by the Catholic religious order the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, and Wescott said abuse was rampant.

“Basically what they would do is they would come to you and, knowing you were young children desperate for attention, they would tell us how much they loved us and how much they cared for us,” Wescott recalled.

“This one brother in particular, I remember he would sit me in a chair and he would start talking to me and asking me how my day was,” Wescott said. “And then he would get up behind me and start rubbing my shoulders. He’d put his head next to mine and whisper in my ear and tell me how much he loved me. And then it would just be a matter of minutes before his hands would be down my pants.”

The Brothers of the Sacred Heart said records from its two boarding schools in Massachusetts are difficult to find and not very detailed. Brother Robert Croteau, a spokesman for the order, was advised by the group’s attorney not to comment on tape for this story, but he did say they are aware of abuse allegations at the Massachusetts schools and the order has offered to pay for counseling for alleged victims.

Jerry Sears, 76, is now in counseling for alleged abuse that occurred at another Brothers of the Sacred Heart boarding school in Sharon. He now lives in Colorado, but, while he was growing up in Massachusetts, his father left and his mother could no longer care for him, so she sent him to the school, where Sears said the brothers would exploit children.

“The most significant technique is finally just to show some friendship in return for sexual favors,” Sears said. “Of course I was devoid of a male, had no father in my life, I had no father figure, so some adult male that would show me some attention would be welcome.”

Sears said it is still difficult for him to talk about what happened then, and it took him decades to even acknowledge that he was abused. “I just blanked it out, you know, I was this little estranged kid, alone. Really, really alone,” Sears said. “But I guess fortunately the human mind does that for us – there were so many that I don’t remember them.”

Neither Sears nor Wescott ever pursued legal action, and their alleged abusers have never been charged. The Brothers of the Sacred Heart spokesman, Brother Robert Croteau, said these allegations are particularly difficult because both of the orders’ Massachusetts boarding schools closed in the 1970s.

Many of the brothers involved are dead and many of the alleged victims were very young children. The ’60s and ’70s were also a time of transition for how the state handled children in its care. There was no Department of Social Services and the state was moving away from putting kids in large institutions and orphanages into placing them in smaller homes and foster care.

Boston College history professor James O’Toole said officials learned that those types of facilities were not best for children. He also said that just because the abuse happened in those institutions in Ireland, it doesn’t mean it happened here.

“It’s important I think to recognize that, though there is this hierarchical structure, for the most part, in orders like this, things stop at the water’s edge,” O’Toole said. “So these sorts of institutions in Ireland are entirely different –organizationally, legally and otherwise separate – from institutions here.”

But Anne Barrett Doyle of BishopAccountability.org said that after the clergy sex abuse scandal, the government here has an obligation to investigate the evidence that her group is compiling.

“We’re gonna start by focusing on Massachusetts and New England and expanding our database of residential institutions where we believe children were abused or where there’s public documentation,” she said. “We would assemble enough evidence that the attorney general might be compelled to say, ‘This is unbelievable that these resident Catholic orphanages and boarding schools right here in our state were hell holes for children.’ ”

The Massachusetts attorney general did conduct a lengthy investigation of the Boston Archdiocese after the clergy sex abuse scandal, but never filed charges.

Your Comments

Hello, i would like to correspond with anyone who may have attended Sacred Heart School in Sharon Mass in the late 60’s and or 70’s. (In particular JC who posted an article on august 2009.) Unfortuntatley , i was one of the unlucky who was sexually abused in 71-72 by a brother who happne to be teaching us young boys the catholic religion. It was a small room upstairs from the chapel hidden and very secure from the rest of the school. the thought of what that man did to me brings back nightmares almost every day of my life. JC is right, back then we never told our parents out of fear and what those sick sob’s might do to you. I hope to hear from anyone else who may have attended this school. this has been burning inside me for almost my entire whole life and now hoping to hear from other possible victims.

Posted by james jannell on January 10, 2010, at 9:56 AM
[...] A Search For Links Between U.S., Irish Church Abuse [...]

Posted by wbur.org » News » The Most Popular WBUR Stories Of 2009 on January 8, 2010, at 4:49 PM
Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) said: I am convinced that the teaching of the church is in theory a crafty and evil lie, and in practice a concoction of gross superstition and witchcraft.

And Friedrich Nietzche (1844-1900) said: One should not go to church if one wants to breathe pure air.

Posted by Jean on January 2, 2010, at 2:31 PM
dear laurie goldman: i just read your email and it has brought tears to my eyes and quelled my soul even if for only a moment; you spoke exact words in that a day doesn’t go by that i wonder what i could have been and not what i am today and ask god what deeds will you finally work through me. use me as you will but please benefit the whole of society when you do because society is the real loser. they lost out on what i could have been and contributed but i ask god to take the pain from me and one day bring finality to all of this. i don’t know your profession ms. goldman but you have a compassionate heart and have comforted me through you keen insight and knowlege and i want to thank you for it. may god bless you and your work for survivors.

Posted by rosemary e. miranda on August 25, 2009, at 6:34 PM
I support Ms. Miranda’s position that so many firemen are out there with hoses that it is hard to find anyone to quietly bare witness quietly and help the weeping without an agenda. The agenda is impt and so are the individuals. In my practice I have met a number of survivors. One of the saddest moments is when individuals stop and wonder what their life might have been if this had not happened. It is a necessary step in order to accept and move on. Any institution or its supporters who don’t understand that sexual repression and denial will come back to haunt you, is still under the influence.

Posted by laurie goldman on August 21, 2009, at 9:18 PM
reading all the articles and comments is so overwhelming for me because it has been the hardest and lonliest journey one could embark upon; you can read and blog only so much but in the end i still have not found any survivor or anyone really i could freely discuss this issue because i feel they only care about their agenda and not to support anyone out of their scope. and it hurts more to be usurped!

Posted by rosemary e. miranda on August 21, 2009, at 4:01 AM
To this day in New Hampshire victims and their supporters are terrorized with dead birds with their heads cut off, porographic emails, harassing telephone calls, home break-ins, damage to property and professional life. The ACLU/NAMBLA within the Roman Catholic Church is a conflict of mind/body/spirit.

Posted by Janine Wallace on August 20, 2009, at 9:43 PM
Of course there is a link! somehow it all connects…these religious orders originated from somewhere & were taught the same belief system and were brought to other lands to spread the “Jesus Gospel”. Gee, Mr. O’Toole don’t you remember…”Go out among the nations & spread the Good News?”. Well what was it that they were spreading?, Lies, cover-ups, I tell you “EVIL DEEDS” that’s what for their fellow faternal brotherhood so that “THEY” the priveledge may live in peace and spread more of the words of Jesus? Come on! Remember the old comedy routine about Make-up? well this routine is not about comedy its called “WAKE-UP” and coofee is replace by the translucent face powder!. There was no gospel of Jesus, the EVIL DEEDS were the Gospel for those abused by the very hands that were supoosingly consecrated for the “LORDS’ work & Salvation?.
I am a bit confused, such a controversy in Moral Issues preached.
Where is all the “Fire & Brimstone” for those who offend & still offend!
oh its the Monopoly game, Clergy get a “Free” get out of jail card for being in the club for those who God hand picks for card blanche to abuse!
Get Real! tkae off your rose colored glasses & ask that you will see for what it is!

Posted by Deanna Leonti on August 19, 2009, at 7:06 PM
Prof. O’Toole’s assessment is simply wrong. The facts paint a picture that is much different than the one he sees. The abuse and devastation of children by nuns, priests and brothers in institutions did not stop at the water’s edge in Ireland. The religious from Ireland who came to the U.S. brought their perversions with them. The mind-blowing debacle of Mount Cashel orphanage in St. John’s Nfld in Canada was the initial North American exposure to the Irish Christian Brothers’ evil ways…..but not the only One. There have been successful civil cases which have uncovered widespread institutional sexual and physical abuse in orphanages in the U.S.: in Vermont, in Kentucky and most recently, in Seattle at the now closed Briscoe Academy run by none other than the Irish Christian Brothers. Take another look professor…remove the cloak of denial and you will see a shocking and disgusting picture. The religious orders that ran such institutions and tolerated this systemic abuse and the church leaders who looked the other way are devoid of Christ. The pope is obsessed with rooting out heresy and dissent. What more blatant examples than those who deny the mission and role of Christ in the Church not by word but by actions.
Thomas Doyle

Posted by Thomas Doyle on August 19, 2009, at 5:47 PM
In my note citing Joe Rigert’s work, A minor correction is in order: “priests’ sexual function” should read “Priests’sexual disfunction”.

Posted by Edward Hill on August 19, 2009, at 4:56 PM
I was surprised to not see a reference to Joe Rigert’s recent work (2008 Crossland Press): “An Irish Tragedy”, generally about how sex abuse by Irish priests helped cripple the Catholic Church. One of the featured characters in his book is our former Bishop Anthony O’Connell at the Diocese of Palm Beach. And before him was Bishop Keith Symons. Rigert relates the Irish priests’ sexual function to the Vatican itself, and I found it to be a very informative, up-to-date read.

Posted by Edward Hill Member , VOTF of PBC on August 19, 2009, at 4:51 PM
Professor O Toole’s contribution to your piece is an example of institutional denial. ‘Abuse stops at the waters edge’ – oh please pass me the smelling salts for this is Victorian bunk at its best. Where is the proof? Tosh such as this is usually a last ditch cry from a screamer who knows the lid will be lifted on something they’ve respected for a lifetime. Already there is evidence of abuse happening in American boarding schools including the much reported events at a choral boarding school on the Eastern Seaboard. Has this escaped the attention of Professor O’ Toole? One cannot overcome the power of those who do not wish to see.

Let’s put it simply so the Professor ‘get’s it.’ Boarding schools very sadly attract some people who have an unhealthy interest in the young. Boarding schools offer the prospect of nirvana to a perpetrator. There is no better place to be than a target rich environment offering 24 hour immersion with children and where there are no parents to inconveniently get in the way? If such an institution is run by a paedophile then staff joining are likely to share the Principals predilection for this will quickly and discreetly discovered at interview. The institution becomes an abusers nirvana.

Members of staff do not arrive at the institution with their heads stamped “abuser.” Those with this predilection are often charming, very good at their jobs, amusing, enjoyed by children and parents alike, and very hard working all of which makes them impossible to identify to non-abusers. There is nothing not to like about them because their interest happens in secret behind closed doors and prior to turning up at ‘your school gate’, they have remained undiscovered.

They go on to win the confidence of their victims, break down the physical barriers that naturally exist between humans, then go on to abuse their target/s. From that first occasion of abuse the child’s life changes dramatically and they are normally silenced for decades by the complicit guilt victims often mistakenly feel. The critically acclaimed BAFTA award winning Documentary ‘Chosen’ which can be seen at http://www.chosen.org.uk explains this and more about the politics of abuse. This is a subject understood by few, and not at all by Professor O’Toole.

Tom Perry
Founding contributor Chosen.

Posted by Tom Perry on August 16, 2009, at 1:16 PM
The Catholic Institution has “No Shame to Their Game!”.

Posted by Deanna Leonti on August 14, 2009, at 10:59 PM
The problem of sexual abuse of children in the Catholic church has become just a “way of life” for so many pervert priests and religious orders. Because no one was held to account, Satan took over. I told Cardinal Keeler of the Archdiocese of Baltimore this several years ago. I said: “Because you have ordered, allowed, and promoted this horrific crime for so long, your heart has been hardened to your sin. After a while God’s truth will not penetrate a hardened heart. As the book of Revelation so clearly states in chapter 2 “they are given over to sexual immorality but they do not repent.” So don’t hold your breath looking for a change of behavior on their part. I don’t believe they think it is even a sin anymore. Kurt Gladsky, Founder: Christian Brothers Sexual Abuse Survivors Network

Posted by Kurt Gladsky on August 14, 2009, at 10:44 AM
Bernie(the out)Law said it was only one or two isolated cases when the story broke in Boston.
A Roman Catholic Lie.
B.C. professor James O’Toole said just because it happened in Ireland it doesn’t mean it happened here.
A Roman Catholic Lie.
The conference of catholic bishops promises of openness.
A Roman Catholic Lie.
Testimony by any bishop: “I don’t know anything about that”.
Yet one more Roman Catholic Lie.

Posted by Bob Sidorowicz on August 14, 2009, at 10:29 AM
Thank you BA! In my psychotherapy office and as an advocate I continue to hear heart wrenching acoounts of the abuse of girls and boys in Catholic orphanages and “homes” for children. I am certain that your list will get very long as you compile this data.

Posted by Ann Hagan Webb on August 13, 2009, at 10:51 PM
Thank you bishopaccountability and WBUR for this investavative coverage of sexual abuse in our American Institutions.
Several of us here in Boston met a group of courageous deaf citizens a while back. About 18 of them vigiled with us in front of the Cathedreal of the Holy Cross. Their accounts of sexual and physical abuse were chilling.
Several weeks ago a woman stopped by to tell us that her son had been taken away from her at a young age and sent to the Nazareth School (orphanage?)in the Boston area. She said that he left a video of what happened to him and that she keeps this video in her drawer – “It’s too painful to watch” she said. She went on to say that her son subsequently took his own life.
I do believe that our US Institutions need to be invistigated especially those Institutions who took in our native American Indians.
Ruth Moore, a STTOP Coordinator

Posted by Ruth Moore on August 13, 2009, at 10:18 PM
Thanks once again to Bishop Accountability for researching and doing the tedious detective work to support survivors and show the world what has taken place, supposedly in the name of God. It is a worldwide disgrace that the church has not taken responsibility for their actions. This just reinforces the notion that they are a corporation first, who try to cover-up their criminal acts and avoid culpability at all costs. Well, almost all costs as they never counted on the groundswell that rose up around survivors to support them in their grief. I never felt more “one with God” than when I stood OUTSIDE the church with survivors. That is the true holy ground. I know it was God working through all of us to make his own statement. Ironically, it is through seeing the church in this horrific light and talking with those abused that I have come to a very spiritual place, one that does not include the Catholic church or its inhabitants.

Posted by Laura Breault on August 13, 2009, at 6:18 PM
I thought once a judge orders a “Writ” to disclose records of information they have to obey the court order? At least that’s what happens in the “real” secular world!
Didn’t Exon and other major companies who were owned by shareholders have to?
Couldn’t parishoners be considers share holders of the Catholic Church, seeing that it is their money inwhich funds this Conglomerate that sells us this bill of goods called a higher morality?

Posted by Deanna Leonti on August 13, 2009, at 12:31 AM
I have the privilege of knowing David Wescott, one of the survivors in the story. His courage in coming forward is remarkable, and should help others who may be suffering. His experience was nightmarish with one particularly sadistic, sick brother.

Religious orders have generally been obstructive and recalcitrant when dealing with survivors. Brothers of the Sacred Heart have a nasty record in New Hampshire, my home state, and it remains to be seen how responsive they will be going forward. The focus is so often on secrecy about lawsuits and settlements, when the disinfectant of sunshine is what is really needed instead.

Br. Croteau acknowledges they are aware of abuse. That is some indication of truthfulness, but how forthcoming are they about naming “alleged” abusers? Survivors need the truth to heal. Those in institutions were trapped 24/7, with no recourse or escape. Totally vulnerable.

I agree Prof. O’Toole’s opinion that all stopped at the water’s edge is naive at best. Spiritual formation practices and the charisms of religious orders were not rationed by geographic boundaries, and indeed the impact of Irish spirituality on the American church is widely recognized. International transfers are also a feature of religious orders.

Because abuse happened in Ireland, doesn’t mean it did not happen here as well. That is for careful investigation to determine, not mere supposition. More than hierarchical structure is shared in the various branches of orders; a whole ethos and culture is perpetuated, even if a host nation’s legal procedures are different.

Witness the Christian Brothers’ rampant abuse in Mt. Cashel in Newfoundland, and in Australia, far from Ireland’s shores.

Posted by Carolyn Disco on August 12, 2009, at 11:48 PM
This is happening across the globe – same processes, same horror – no need to ask a question we all know the answer to.

The real question is do you want to put forward an appropriate response – we have – its the only one available anywhere in the world as far as we know http://www.september12009.com/ – only worth a visit from those wanting to put an end to the global clergy abuse crisis. We can match any horror story on this topic on the planet – we choose not to simply because we prefer to apply what we have learned and to take a stand against the global rape of women, children, nuns and priests and our children – if that is not enough motivation then we suggest you look elsewhere or simply give us a not of your support. See if you are eligible for the money we have on offer.

Posted by JohnB on August 12, 2009, at 5:22 PM
Sorry about the mistakes in the previous e-mail. I mistakenly hit the submit button before proofreading. I should have said we need a USA government study of AMERICAN Catholic institutions, modeled after the Ryan Report, because the American Church was modeled after and has mirrored much of the Irish Church since the beginning.

Posted by robert m hoatson on August 12, 2009, at 11:09 AM
As an advocate for hundreds of clergy abuse survivors, I am aware of sexual abuse by religious in several camps and residential institutions. Camp Marist in New Hampshire had sexual abusers. The football chaplain of a Catholic high school in Boston used to go to summer camp with the team and engage in bizarre abusive behaviors in Maine, Massachusetts, and New York. The boy scout camps in upstate New York were havens for pedophiles. The Chicago Jesuits just settled a case of Jesuit abuse in a boy scout camp in the Adirondacks. A survivor of a New York Archdiocesan priest recently visited the boy scout camp off the Northway where he was abused. The Newton, NJ, camps sponsored by Catholic orders were havens for abuse too. A “retreat” center in the Paterson, NJ diocese on an idyllic lake was the scene of abuse by a priest or priests.

A Paterson, NJ priest took boys to his family’s vacation house on Long Island, and this same priest had a camper in which he took many boys “fishing.”

A former bishop has admitted that boys were being abused by the priest with whom he shared a house at the Jersey shore. The priest abused boys in the house while the bishop slept, but the bishop knew nothing about the abuse. Yeah, right!

A young man reported abuse at a former Catholic military boarding school in the Hudson Valley of NY. That same school sponsored summer camps.

My point: abuse at residential schools, parishes, day schools, summer homes of priests, camps, YOU NAME IT…abuse took place.

What we need is USA government study of sexual abuse of children in Irish institutions. And, I as a survivor of abuse in religious life and the priesthood, I am offended by the comments of Professor O’Toole of Boston College who hasn’t a clue about the extent of abuse in the USA. To not compare the abuse in the USA Church (essentially founded and modeled after the Irish church by Irish clerics or descendants of Irish clergy) with that in the Irish Church is naive, at best.

Fr. Bob Hoatson
Founder and President, Road to Recovery, Inc.
West Orange, New Jersey
Member, National Survivor Advocates Coalition

Posted by robert m hoatson on August 12, 2009, at 11:03 AM
When I was child in the 1960’s, my parents sent me and my brother to Sacred Heart Academy summer camp in Sharon Ma. The physical abuse of the children there was horrific. Here’s what I remember;

The brothers would go around at night, after bedtime, and shine flashlights in your eyes. If your eyelids moved, you were accused of being awake and you were beaten…either in the dormitory or in a back room. Of course,all of kids would wake up in fear when this happened. My heart would be pounding..I only hoped to God they didn’t think I was also awake.

One night a couple of kids had a pillow fight after lights went out. They were taken to a back room and beaten for several hours. All night long the kids laid there in fear…many kids called there parents and asked to be brought home after that. Back then, however, you would never tell your parents what happened.

There were many more incidents of beatings, but these are the ones I remember most.

The years go by and the memories fade, but it’s hard to ever forget what happened there. I will say however, that I never experienced or saw sexual abuse, but many of the brothers gave you a very creepy feeling…it’s just a kids intuition.

Years later when my brother and I told me mother about this, she was angry that we didn’t let her know what was happening at the time. I told her that back then, kids wouldn’t talk to parents about this kind of stuff.

Posted by JC on August 12, 2009, at 10:15 AM
THE SOLUTION? “STOP DONATING LAITY” as St. Peter Damien correctly asserted & was canonized for.

There is no middle ground on this subject laity, you are either financially contributing to a pervasive CLEAR & PRESENT DANGER pedo curia cult, that remians unpunished and unremoved, or you are not.

HOW WILL YOU ANSWER YOUR MAKER?!

To date, over 140,000 documented children have been raped and sodomized. on the current curia’s watch, while they continue enabling, aid & abetting, perpetrating, racketeering, obstruction of jusitce, etc, in the past 30 years, just in the USA, costing laity at least $4.5 Billion Dollars in diverted offetory monies and squandered laity paid for assets and counting.

Edmund Burke reminds each of us: “The only condition for the triumph of evil is for good men (or women) to do nothing.”

St. Paul to the Ephesians, 5:11: states: “Do not deal in fruitless deeds of darkness, but expose them!”

Amoung the overtly criminal curia guilty in the many hundreds are: Beppe ‘Red Shoes’ Ratzinger, Bill ‘Darth’ Leveda, Rog ‘Mahal’ Mahony, Bernie Law (less), Claudio ‘Lie With Statisitcs’ Hummes, George ‘Where Are The Fresh Seminary Boys?’ Pell, Eddie ‘What Palamony Gay Priest Lover AIDS Wrongful Death Lawsuit?’ Egan, Sean ‘No Shoes’ O’Malley, Francis ‘Boys Club’ George, Tarscio ‘Ben Over Boy’ Bertone, Angelo ‘Rump Ranger’ Re, Noberto ‘There Is No Crime In All Of Mexico Or The Church’ Rivera, Ray ‘Burn’m All At The Stake’ Burke, Aunt Ted McCarrick, Charlie ‘Off The Reservation’ Chaput, Tod ‘Gay Boys’ Brown, Robert ‘Donkey Show’ Brom, etc.

Fiat Luz & Veritas,

Albino Luciani,
MURDERED POPE

Posted by Albino Luciani on August 12, 2009, at 10:12 AM
How about gaining knowledge about the TOP OFFICIAL of the boarding school? This credibly accused sexually abusive false cleric was also the school “Councelor” wereby he is “alledged” to have abused troubled boys sent to him in his office at the school. THIS GUY RAN THE SCHOOL FOR A DECADE! The boys never had a change!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxlCwqZY9QA

Bob Schwiderski
skibrs@mchsi.com

Posted by Bob Schwiderski on August 12, 2009, at 8:16 AM
Thank you to Bishop Accountability for providing the data which helped identify what some call “the most dangerous Catholic boarding school in the nation.” The Crosiers – the Order of the Holy Cross – had 7 (SEVEN) credibly accused sexual abusive on staff at the school at the same time in 1981.

Here is a brief look at one of the top officials of the school: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXMUdejQAZY

If you or a loved one has been harmed by this false cleric, contact me – I will help you!

Bob Schwiderski
skibrs@mchsi.com

Posted by Bob Schwiderski on August 12, 2009, at 8:08 AM
REPORT BY IRELAND’S COMMISSION TO INQUIRE INTO CHILD ABUSE

I am thoroughly saddened, disgusted and angered at yet another sweeping indictment of individuals and church authorities including the leadership of both male and female religious communities.

In 2004 it was the “report commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.”

Today it is the commission set up by the Irish government and headed by High Court Justice Sean Ryan that has released the 2,600-page report, which capped a nine-year investigation.

It reinforces the conclusions many have come to in the United States especially since 2002; that the problems of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church have been both systemic and endemic over decades and generations in countries around the world.

It is not an American problem as some cardinals and highly placed Vatican officials argued a few years back. Neither is it caused by the presence of homosexually orientated men in the priesthood.

It is not a conspiracy by the newspapers in the United States or by anybody to bankrupt the institutional church.

It is not the “Know Nothings” of an earlier era in the United States.

It comes from within the institution not from the outside. The institution, the Roman Catholic Church as we know it, has done it to itself.

Clericalism is the all encompassing problem in the church today, that widespread abuse of authority, that lack of accountability and transparency which the United States bishops promised in 2002 but which they have been short on delivering since and should have been practicing all along the line anyway.

The all encompassing mantra that allowed, permitted and enabled this horror to happen, was and is the widespread abuse of power and authority in the Roman Catholic Church starting at the highest levels. It can be see in the reports and documents coming out of the Archdiocese of Boston, Massachusetts in 2002, in dioceses in California like the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and in investigations and reports like the Grand Jury Report on the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in 2005.

This is why in Delaware we removed all statutes of limitation regarding the sexual abuse of children with the signing of the 2007 Child Victims Law which includes a two year civil window for bringing forward previously time barred cases of sexual abuse by anyone, if it happened in Delaware.

New Yorkers of all religious stripes and none are well advised to support the Markey/Duane bill on the sexual abuse of children. It is unconscionable for the Archdiocese of New York and the New York Catholic Conference to be opposing accountability and transparency in regard to childhood sexual abuse.

The Irish Report was done by governmental authorities unlike the 2004 report in the United States which was commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and for that reason it’s figures especially should be considered suspect.

It is unconscionable that the Irish government actually made a deal with the institutional church to allow no prosecutions for these heinous crimes against humanity. It is equally despicable that the religious order known as the Christian Brothers brought suit and barred the release of any names of any of these known sexually predatory priests to the public.

It is immaterial whether they are living or dead. If the Christian Brothers religious community knew them to be credibly accused, if they had records in church files of these individuals molesting others over the years they should have made these names public for the physical, spiritual and psychological well being of those who were abused, raped, sodomized, etc.

How could they not think of the children before all else?

How could the institutional Roman Catholic Church think of the children before all else?

Sodom and Gomorrah suggest anything?

These crimes against children are in direct violation of and in contradiction to the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child to which the Holy See was an original signatory, notwithstanding the fact that no periodic compliance reports have ever been submitted by the Holy See.

Might this suggest a course of action?

Sister Maureen Paul Turlish
Victms’ Advocate
New Castle, Delaware
__________________

Sister Maureen Turlish is a member of the National Survivor Advocates Coalition. In addition, she is a Delaware educator and victims’ advocate who testified before the Delaware Senate and House Judiciary Committees in support of Delaware’s 2007 Child Victims Law.

E-mail Sister Maureen Paul Turlish at
maureenpaulturlish@yahoo.com

Posted by Sister Maureen Paul Turlish on August 12, 2009, at 7:44 AM

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