Another Clerical Abuse Report into paedophile priests came out to-day, although the full report is not to be published for another three weeks or more.
The report looks back as far as 1975, investigated and interviewed men and woman who were molested by these paedophile priests.
These two links are to short local newspaper reports.
One priest convicted in 35 years
Ex-bishop apologises over abuse
A lot of the people involved took it so badly that they became drug users, alcoholics or committed suicide.
See here for a post about priests and sex abuse i made a few months ago.
Five dioceses were involved, one in the South of Ireland and four in Northern Ireland, lots of paedophile priests and children.
The diocese of Londonderry:————————–priests 23 children 31
The diocese of Dromore :——————————–priests 10 children 35
The diocese of Kilmore :———————————priests 7 children 7
The diocese of Rraphoe :- ——————————priests 14 children 52
The Diocese of Down and Connor:- —————-priests 2 children 42
The Diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise :——priests 13 children 14
But the thing is yet to come and that is, there still 180 reports ( yes 180 ) still to be investigated in the South of Ireland.
There have been police investigations made public with the priests charged and it came out the church was more interested in its reputation and keeping it by moving priests to another country, than the welfare of the children and trying to stop it.
And what from the Vatican or the Pope, a few years ago just a letter saying sorry, well that’s not good enough, the priests should have been defrocked and expelled from the Catholic Church, which i may say has happened but not everyone.
I don’t think we have heard the last about this matter, more dirt to came.
dribblingpensioner 
Oh Harry it is everywhere – we had this one: In December 2010 a former Catholic Marist teaching brother, now living in Australia — Bede Hampton, aged 62 — was sentenced in New Zealand’s High Court to jail for two years and six months for indecent assaults committed against boys in a New Zealand Catholic boarding school (St Joseph’s College in Masterton) in the early 1970s.
Prosecutors alleged that Brother Hampton targeted vulnerable boys, one with a learning difficulty and another who had lost a parent.
A jury found Hampton guilty of 11 charges — 10 of indecent assault and one of committing an indecent act.
Hampton was found not guilty on two counts of sodomy, three charges of indecent assault and five charges of committing indecent acts.
According to the judge’s sentencing statement, Hampton claimed that the offending arose because he was living in a dysfunctional religious order and was ill-suited to religious life.
However, the judge said that this did not reduce Hampton’s culpability for his exploitation of boys over whom he had authority.
Hampton left the Marist Brothers when he was 29. He has become an interior decorator based in Queensland. One of his victims now also lives in Australia. (sourced: http://brokenrites.alphalink.com.au/nletter/page244-bede-hampton.html)
And in Australia there is an organisation called Broken Rites who publicise cover ups by the church: http://brokenrites.alphalink.com.au/nletter/whatsnew.html
It is just heartbreaking that these crimes are not punished with harsher terms…
Jo, any priest who does these acts should be sent to jail for a long time, but half of them are dead and the Vatican are hiding the rest.
Sexual abuse is taking place everywhere … the only weapon we have is to keep our eyes and ears open. The squeaking wheel gets the oil … so let’s keep squeaking! Thanks for doing just that, Mr. D! I will be squeaking about it here in Canada. Love, cat
Thanks cat, it is all over that’s the trouble, and some countries like the USA are doing nothing about it, not even taking the people to court.
It does not matter what we say. The Roman Catholic church structure is not like the military hierarchical structure we are familiar with. Assuming any succesful cout action will result in the victims being compensated by the Varican is entirely wrong.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith and oversaw reports of sexual abuse by priests. That office, along with its predecessor, the Congregation of the Holy Office, were directly involved with the investigation of sexual abuse by clerics. In May 2001 then Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) sent a letter to Bishops confirming that the 1962 code of secrecy remained in effect.
Ratzinger was in charge and he implemented and maintained a policy of protecting pedophile priests from the long arm of the law from the 1960’s until the end of November 2008. Sure he made a blame the victims “apology”, and did so only after it became clear that the US court of Appeals would find that the Vatican can and will be sued, and that the pope himself will be subpoenaed to testify.
All roads do lead to Rome when it comes from money flowing into the Vatican coffers from 72 other dioceses situate all over the world. But abused people can only sue their own diocese where the pedophile priests were when the acts took place. If and when they get win their case in court like the abused people in Cape Breton in the Antagonish diocese in Canada did – guess what? The same diocese, the very same relatives and friends of the abuse victims of pedophile priests have to pay the court order and cannot demand money from Rome (the Vatican) because it’s a separate diocese and not subject to the court order.
So there you have it – the most corrupt and despicable institution in the world is sitting on their treasure chest (money in multple Swiss bank accounts) and the little folks at the bottom of the totem pole who live in poverty stricken parishes in a povery stricken doicese have to pay up.
I won’t take the time to go on and on about the fact that it was Ratzinger himself who was in charge of all the pedipgile priests complaints and whe advised the Bishop’s to keep moving the preverts around so they abused hundreds more boys and girls. I won’t bother to post on the fact that Ratzinger was also the one who issyed the hush your mouths edict (1962 code of secrecy ) to the Bishops either.
Meanwhile Ratzinger that _____ of a ___ is a world traveler in his PopeMobile and wherever he travels there will be deluded idiots who call him “Holy” ie. worshiping that protector fo pedophiles.
CBC Documentary about Antigonish Sexual Abuse Class Action
on CBC’s 5th Estate. Linden MacIntyre explores the effects of the Antigonish Diocese Sexual Abuse Class Action. You can watch the entire documentary online. http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/2010-2011/betrayal/
@dribllingpensioner
I would be grateful if you edited any typos in my comment above. My app is not working today and I cannot see the typos I make.
TT, the Pope ( Ratzinger ) is the main person in all this as you said about the code of secrecy and protecting pedo’s for the sake of the church name.
And i agree it is the most corrupt institution in the world 10s of billions in its banks while its follows starve all over the world.
All the pedo’s should be brought home to face trial.
Yes they are not above the law and ought to be facing trials. But it’s very important to understand that being convicted will not result in any compensation to the victims from the Vatican’s coffers.
Timethief, this is in response to your comment below, there wasn’t a reply button next to it.
Although having the pedophiles face trial won’t result in monetary compensation for the victims, with they unarguably deserve, having them face up to what they did and be put away for the rest of their lives is arguably a form of compensation in the form of justice. Additionally, victims of these crimes are almost always haunted by the thought of their abuser(s) still being free to victimize other children. I say put ’em away first, so they’re not a threat to anyone else, and then focus on the compensation part.
Hi Harry, there were priests here too that did such crimes, the Catholic church somehow covered it all up but the victims are no longer hiding. More and more people want nothing to do with religion, and that abuse is one of the reasons.
Ina, more and more people are speaking out all over the world because of what happened in both parts of Ireland.
Young people in Ireland have left the Catholic church never to return the chapels are nearly empty.
Good for you keeping this alive.
Thanks granny i intend to. Another touchy subject coming up soon.
My male cousin was a victim of a Methodist minister who sexually abused him. His father, also a Methodist Minister, wouldn’t believe his own son. This stuff just gets worse and worse… 😦
Lorna, sorry to hear about your cousin. I can believe a Methodist Minister would not believe his own son, that’s the way the Methodist sect is built, i hope the son disowned is father.
Thank you for highlighting this topic, Harry. It’s extremely important we keep instances of child abuse in the discourse of our global society, despite how heartbreaking it is to think about.
I’m glad to see the above comments highlighting other instances of molestation within the churches of the U.K. However, this is a problem that is the fault of the Catholic church (not Catholicism) only insofar as the representatives of the Vatican utilized the institutions (which were created by man, not ‘God’) to cover up their colleagues’ predatory sexual behavior.
This happens everywhere there is a collection of well-intended folks who form an institutionalized organization. If you’re Catholic, it may be hard to think of the Catholic Church in such fundamental terms as an ‘institutionalized organization,’ but at it’s basis, that’s what it is.
I’m not Catholic. I was raised Lutheran, but haven’t been able to escape what seems to be a natural inclination toward agnosticism. I feel like I need to say that because of my above parentheticals. Religion is besides the point, though. My point is that Catholicism, despite the twisted, lecherous, egomaniacal human males who’ve taken advantage of its followers’ trust, is not to blame for these monstrosities.
Lately, American’s have been forced to reach the realization that this happens anywhere adults are left in charge of children in an unsupervised setting. These twisted, lecherous, egomaniacal people are everywhere, and they utilize the trust inherent in institutionalized organizations to fulfill their twisted lecherous desires. The prestige (or holiness) granted to them by the organization feed their egomaniacal tendencies, which allow them to justify their twisted lecherous behavior as being a prerequisite to their ability to contribute to the greater good.
Within the past two or three months in the United States there have been two immense revelations of child sexual abuse taking place within college athletic organizations. We’ve had problems like this in other organizations over the years (most notably, the Boy Scouts). This happened at Pennsylvania State University (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penn_State_sex_abuse_scandal) and Syracuse University in New York State (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/28/syracuse-basketball-coach-bernie-fine-fired-molestation-allegations_n_1115952.html). Both of these men were very similar to the Catholic priests with regard to the amount of prestige granted to them by both the leaders of the organization and its followers.
What this has shown is that, quite simply, parents cannot trust the well-being of their children to these institutionalized systems. Ever. Just like with the Catholic church, once the organization found out about the abuse, they covered it up. These well-intended folk are so focused on their original goal that when they learn of the abuse, they try to protect the goal rather than the children. Parents cannot leave their children in such environments where the adults in charge worry more with the organization’s continued success and longevity than with protecting the children from a pedophile. It really is a shame, because for every child rapist out in the world there is probably fifty men who, if left alone with children in such situations, would actually act as a fantastic role model and mentor for these kids. And God knows, they’re needed.
The Catholic church from the Pope down has covered this up for 40 years or more, they say sorry but nothing changes, they don’t hand the priests over.
I have read 4 posts all about the Pen State Uni scandal in ” balladeer’s blog ” shame on the USA Government, Penn State, and the police. But also shame on the people of Pennsylvania because they defend him and threaten the young peoples family many of whom are in hiding.
Harry, this is one thing that just horrifies me. I’m not going to say much, or I’ll rant. Suffice say, good for you for highlighting the details!
Ryan thank you, ranting can be good 🙂 as i said this matter is not over yet.
Keep talking about it, it will help flush them out…eventually. Keep quiet and they’ll stay undercover!
Couldn’t agree more!
Marcia, that is the truth, but not enough people are taking about it and a lot of Governments are doing nothing about it.
TT, i do understand that i don’t think any-one has even applied for compensation here because it is a total waste of time, but the powers that be are on the case and if they can win, it means everyone can hit the vatican.
Some folks seem to think justice and revenge are all that ought to be addressed. That’s their pregogative, of course. Hopefully the abuse victims will be crystal clear about what I pointed to above because it affected hundreds of those who were vistimized by priests. Sadly now their friends and family members in their tiny dioscese are paying the compensation while the Vatican pays sweet muck all.
Are they kiddy fiddlers before wearing the cloth or does that do that do you while you’re in there? Surely any sane man would be trying to dislocate the nuns hips!?
Congrats on the 100 posts my man, I’ll be there before long myself 🙂
Pete i love it 🙂 i don’t think they were kiddy fiddlers before, i think its their life style that is to blame.
As for dislocating the nuns hips, they may be restricted to battery operated gadgets,
The Priesthood and Educators — taking small children and abusing them — maddening! I don’t understand why so many people cover up such offenses! Makes me nuts.
Shonnie , thanks for your visit and please call back again, i don’t think any-one can understand it either, the church’s and vatican do not want to know about it.