Ireland wakes up
…for the first time in this country a report on child sexual abuse exposes an attempt by the Holy See to frustrate an inquiry in a sovereign, democratic republic as little as three years ago, not three decades ago. In doing so the report excavates the dysfunction, disconnection and elitism that dominates the culture of the Vatican to this day. The rape and torture of children were down-played or managed to uphold the primacy of the institution, its power, standing and reputation. Far from listening to evidence of humiliation and betrayal with St. Benedict’s “ear of the heart”, the Vatican’s reaction was to parse and analyse it with the gimlet eye of a Canon lawyer.
Music. And there’s more.
Later on, Deputy Dara Calleary speaks up:
…
Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin:
How many inquiries do we have to go through before real action is taken on this dreadful neglect?…
And there’s much more. It’s good reading.
As much as I like to see people finally condemning the churches actions in these matters, its still just words, the church and all its followers will ignore them. If these people were not clergy they would be in handcuffs.
OT, but the video on this site just seems like something OB must see …
I would love to hear how the children’s questions about this are handled. No its not the onion.
http://www.godlyplayfoundation.org/newsite/Main.php
You shall judge them by what they tell the little children.
As lovely an elaboration on Fuck You as I’ve read in a while. That said, I’m afraid that David has it right. Debate is not action.
It’s time to no longer acknowledge the Vatican as a country. They behaved like a criminal organisation. They don’t deserve diplomatic immunity.
Debate is not action, agreed, but this is a start. I didn’t think Enda Kenny had that in him. I met him a few times and he came across as a bit socially “off”, someone who wouldn’t rock the boat and was trying to appease everyone, and this is great to hear. I know people whose brains literally switch off when such atrocities are mentioned–the power of cognitive dissonance and denial is breathtaking.
What’s most disheartening to me in all this is that Kenny and other “faithful” Catholics in Ireland and around the world, see the church itself as an innocent victim. They separate the clergy from the institution and mourn for the wounds inflicted on their beloved institution.
But the root of this horror is in the faith itself. The faith of Kenny’s that souls are more important than flesh and blood, that god is superior to mere humans, and that you are welcome to be with god in his kingdom no matter how many children you rape so long as you tell him you’re sorry and promise not to do it again.
JacK M: The funny thing is, with regards to some things (e.g. the status of women, the attitude towards “liberation theology”, etc.), Catholics (including from what I can tell, some priests) try to compartmentalize in the other direction. Weird how that works.
This is some serious posturing on the part of some of Ireland’s officials, but I don’t expect anything to come of it. When they get too uppity, the RCC will just threaten to excommunicate them, and they’ll scurry right back into line. As long as they continue to maintain their faith that threat will always work.
I don’t know P-A. It seems to me that so-called cafeteria Catholics aren’t blaming the institution so much as what they see as a reactionary hierarchy. They don’t want to leave the church, they want to change popes.
The Catholic faith is innately harmful. It’s inconceivable to me how a parent of a raped child can’t see that fact when the harm has been so grotesquely inflicted on their own child.
“Does the Vatican take us, the people of Ireland, for fools?”
Well, it’s worked pretty well up till now.
As long as there are Catholics, there will be Catholic dupes, IMO, and no finitive action. Much like for all religions…
Ophelia,
I think the ellipsis in your quote from Dara Calleary omits the referent of the subsequent paragraph. The “damning line” in question was where the Vatican threatened punishment under canon law if the Irish Bishops actually carried out the Irish reforms.
As I pointed out a few days ago, that line is quite damning. If their “underlining” and “emphasizing” the conflicts with canon law wasn’t enough—and it was—the threat of punishment makes it utterly clear that they were giving the Irish bishops definite orders to not carry out the reforms as they’d promised to, and instead to meticulously follow the procedures established under canon law.
IMO that’s criminal conspiracy, given what canon law actually says about keeping things secret from the police, etc.
—
I’m no expert on law or Irish law, but it’s hard for me to see how all this is not proof of criminal conspiracy. Even if Irish law doesn’t specifically require particular actions about priests and child sexual abuse, I suspect general child abuse, child endangerment and criminal conspiracy laws do apply.
Child sex abuse is clearly illegal and considered known to be harmful under law. People entrusted to care for children are legally obliged to protect them from harmful things quite generally. A conspiracy to cover up—and thus knowingly perpetuate—such things is therefore quite illegal, too. Right?
If that’s not clear, imagine a corporation running child amusement centers in which children were regularly exposed to, say, food poisoning. Even without laws saying that day amusement center operators, specifically, were responsible for protecting children from food poisoning, specifically, they’d be legally at fault. Everybody knows food poisoning is bad for kids, and everybody knows that anybody entrusted with kids is supposed to protect them from that, not cover it up and keep doing it.
My impression is that the law recognizes that—lack of clauses about a specific group entrusted with kids or a specific kind of harm does not get you off the hook. Obviousness is enough—obvious endangerment of children is illegal, isn’t it?
It seems to me that the Irish government ministers are pulling their punches by talking about how it’s morally abhorrent but not saying that it’s felonious.
I think it’s great that they’re finally coming out and criticizing the Church in the way they are, but I’ll be really impressed when they start arresting all the conspirators and charging them with criminal conspiracy—or at least giving much better explanations why they should be able to, but somehow legally can’t.
At the very least, they ought to be charging these guys with obstruction of justice. Even if somehow what they were doing wasn’t legally a criminal conspiracy in itself, due to some amazing gap in Irish law, surely they’re guilty of obstruction of the inquiries, and that’s a crime in itself.
When are the Irish ministers going to start calling the bishops criminals?
I’ll take it seriously when they start issuing arrest warrants.
This is article 44.1 of the Irish constitution.
“The State acknowledges that the homage of public worship is due to Almighty God. It shall hold His Name in reverence, and shall respect and honour religion.”
The same document also contains various oaths of office, such as for the President, which include things like “In the presence of Almighty God, I …. ”
(It used to have some stuff about the special place of the RCC but that was removed years ago.)
Source:
http://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/attached_files/html%20files/Constitution%20of%20Ireland%20%28Eng%29Nov2004.htm
Since the pope has still not seen fit to remove any of these criminals, it’s instructive to note that recently Bishop William Morris of the Toowoomba diocese, west of Brisbane, was fired by the Rattenfaenger for merely daring to suggest that RCC Inc. should keep an open mind on the question of ordaining women and married men. Not that we didn’t all already know what RCC priorities are…..
Enda Kenny said:“Because for the first time in Ireland, a report into child sexual abuse exposes an attempt by the Holy See to frustrate an inquiry in a sovereign, democratic republic … as little as three years ago, not three decades ago.
”First a minor quibble. The phrase “as little as three years ago” is tripe. A Government spokesman later explained this did not refer to any specific event, but described the cumulative effect of the Vatican’s actions. As columnist Kevin Myers commented “Quite so: what need of accuracy when the mob is abroad?”
HOWEVER the main point is that Enda Kenny is denouncing the Vatican for not introducing Mandatory Reporting into its canon law while the Government itself declined to introduce it into civil law. Kevin Myers again “To remind you: in February, 1998, the then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern announced that mandatory reporting of child sex abuse would be introduced within the lifetime of that government. Yet here we are, thirteen and-a-half years later, and this has still not happened.”
It was not a question of inefficiency or the State having other priorities either. During the second half of the 1990s there were debates in the Irish Parliament and the media about the merits of Mandatory Reporting. The idea was supported by the ISPCC and Barnardos; these are advocacy groups that demand changes in the law and Constitution to protect children etc. It was opposed by organisations of social workers and care workers. These are the people who actually deal with troubled families and would be the ones required to report allegations to the police and then face enraged parents if the claims turned out to be false. (After all the family would still be troubled and now would have a GENUINE grievance against “interfering” social workers.)
It was decided at the time NOT to introduce Mandatory Reporting, so for more than 10 years, State procedures were actually LESS rigorous than Church ones (dated 1996). The Government is now going to introduce this measure in a fit of anti-clerical hysteria – and at the same time is denouncing the Vatican because it objected to procedures that the Government had decided not to implement! This kind of lunacy will do nothing to benefit children.