UTV - UK June 6, 2011
Victims hit out at church abuse inquiry
Members of an NI survivors group have expressed their disappointment after a party of senior Catholic churchmen from the Vatican completed a series of meetings across Ireland, in the wake of the sex abuse scandal.
The trip to Ireland, known as an "apostolic visitation, was announced by Pope Benedict last year, following the publication of reports into abuse in Catholic institutions.
Led by retired archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the six visitors held meetings in the archdioceses of Armagh, Cashel, Dublin and Tuam, aimed at helping the victims of abuse and ensuring it doesn't happen again
They met a group of clerical abuse survivors from Northern Ireland in January.
Margaret McGuckin, who was abused at the Nazareth Sisters orphanage in Belfast, said survivors are "sorely disappointed by the lack of any outcomes" following the meeting.
In a statement released on Monday, the Catholic Church said the Visitation proved "very useful, thanks to the cooperation of everyone who took part in this initiative."
Visitators set out to examine "the effectiveness of the present processes used in responding to cases of abuse" and "the current forms of assistance provided to the victims".
They say no further Visitations are necessary, but "visits in loco to some religious communities will follow".
The statement added: "The Visitators have been able to arrive at a sufficiently complete picture of the situation of the Irish Church with respect to the areas under investigation."
The Vatican will publish an overall report in 2012 to include the Visitation results.
"That means nothing and offers nothing to the Victims of Child Abuse on both sides of the border," Ms McGuckin said, on behalf of the Survivors and Victims of Institutional Abuse in Northern Ireland.
"Sadly, it seems clear that the Catholic Church is institutionally incapable of responding to the child abuse crisis, that is why Victims in Northern Ireland now look to the Northern Ireland Executive to establish an Independent Public inquiry into child abuse in both Church and State run institutions."
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Bishop quits over health days before abuse audits
ReplyDeleteBy Greg Harkin, Irish Independent November 24 2011
A Catholic bishop stepped down yesterday just six days before child sex abuse audits into two dioceses where he served are due to published.
Bishop of Derry Seamus Hegarty's resignation on health grounds was accepted by Pope Benedict just two weeks after offering it. He left his post immediately.
The Pope's decision to allow Dr Hegarty to stand down so quickly is thought to be related to his health.
Two separate audits of the Derry and Raphoe dioceses, carried out into how the church dealt with paedophile priests, have been pencilled in for release early next week, sources told the Irish Independent.
However, previous releases of the reports carried out by the church-run National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC) have been postponed.
Church insiders say the contents of audits being carried out by the organisation have been seen by retired Bishop Hegarty as well as the current Bishop of Raphoe Philip Boyce.
Donegal-born Dr Hegarty served as Bishop of Raphoe from 1982 until 1994 before taking up his position in Derry where he admitted this year that allegations of child sex abuse had been made against 26 priests over the past 50 years.
Allegations against up to 20 priests have been made in the Raphoe diocese over a similar period. The audits will deal with all allegations made since the mid-1970s until the present day.
The Raphoe diocese faces questions over its handling of the case of Father Eugene Greene who abused dozens of victims in several Raphoe parishes. Greene was jailed for 12 years in 2000. Dr Hegarty has consistently denied knowing there were sex abuse allegations against Greene.
Gardai who investigated the case were told there were no records of any allegations against Greene.
There are also allegations in Derry that the church authorised out-of-court payments to two alleged victims of abuse.
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/bishop-quits-over-health-days-before-abuse-audits-2944537.html
Irish church reports reveal horrific child abuse
ReplyDeleteAGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE NOVEMBER 30, 2011
DUBLIN- A new series of reports into Catholic dioceses north and south of the Irish border on Wednesday revealed horrific child sex abuse by priests and mistakes by church authorities in dealing with them.
Audits of abuse in six dioceses by the Church's own National Board for Safeguarding Children were published by bishops, providing fresh evidence of a widespread cover-up of sexual abuse.
In Raphoe in the northwest of the Republic, Bishop Philip Boyce said horrific acts of child sex abuse were carried out by priests in his diocese over the last 35 years.
"We are truly sorry for the terrible deeds that have been inflicted on so many by a small minority of priests," Boyce said in a statement.
"During the past decades there have been very poor judgements and mistakes made.
"There were horrific acts of abuse by individual priests, that should never have happened and if suspected should have been dealt with immediately in the appropriate manner," Boyce said.
The Raphoe report said 52 allegations of abuse by a total of 14 priests were made to police between January 1975 and August 2010.
"It is clear that significant errors of judgment were made by successive bishops when responding to child abuse allegations that emerged within this diocese," the Raphoe report says.
"Too much emphasis was placed on the situation of the accused priest and too little on the needs of their complainants.
"Judgments were clouded, due to the presenting problem being for example, alcohol abuse and an inability to hear the concerns about abuse of children, through that presenting problem.
"More attention should have been given to ensuring that preventative actions were taken quickly when concerns came to light," the report says.
A report on the diocese of Derry in Northern Ireland says that 31 allegations of abuse were made against priests. The allegations involved 23 priests.
"Priests about whom there were clear concerns were not robustly challenged or adequately managed and problems were often 'handled' by moving them to postings elsewhere.
"There is evidence that abusive behaviour continued to be exhibited by priests who were moved on in this manner," the Derry report says.
Ireland, a predominantly Catholic country, has been rocked by a number of landmark reports on child sex abuse stretching back decades, and on Church leaders' complicity in covering it up.
http://www.canada.com/news/Irish+church+reports+reveal+horrific+child+abuse/5789051/story.html
Pope: sex abuse 'scourge' for all society
ReplyDeleteBy FRANCES D'EMILIO The Associated Press November 26, 2011
VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI insisted on Saturday that all of society's institutions and not just the Catholic church must be held to "exacting" standards in their response to sex abuse of children, and defended the church's efforts to confront the problem.
Benedict acknowledged in remarks to visiting U.S. bishops during an audience at the Vatican that pedophilia was a "scourge" for society, and that decades of scandals over clergy abusing children had left Catholics in the United States bewildered.
"It is my hope that the Church's conscientious efforts to confront this reality will help the broader community to recognize the causes, true extent and devastating consequences of sexual abuse, and to respond effectively to this scourge which affects every level of society," he said.
"By the same token, just as the church is rightly held to exacting standards in this regard, all other institutions, without exception, should be held to the same standards," the pope said.
An official of a U.S. group advocating for victims of clergy abuse lamented that Benedict, with his remarks, was setting a "terrible example" for bishops.
"No public figure talks more about child safety but does little to actually make children safer than Pope Benedict," David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, told The Associated Press in an emailed statement.
"The pope would have us believe that this crisis is about sex abuse. It isn't. It is about covering up sex abuse," Clohessy said. "And while child sex crimes happen in every institution, in no institution are they ignored or concealed as consistently as in the Catholic church."
The pedophile scandal has exploded in recent decades in the United States, but similar clergy sex abuse revelations have tainted the church in many other countries, including Mexico, Ireland, and several other European nations, including Italy. ...
...
An advocacy group for those who have been sexually abused cited the Penn State scandal in its scathing criticism of the pope.
"It takes hubris for Pope Benedict to tell his bishops that the Catholic Church has led in the fight against sexual abuse of children," said Kristine Ward, chair of the National Survivor Advocates Coalition. "Issuing self-satisfied pats on the back while children remain in danger only further diminishes the church's credibility and deepens the laryngitis in its moral voice."
"The church to this day, while waving a moral flag, hasn't even come close to the Penn State Board of Trustees response — no bishop has been fired," Ward said in a statement.
Benedict didn't address accusations by many victims and their advocates that church leaders, including at the office in the Vatican that Benedict headed before becoming pontiff, systematically tried to cover up the scandals, and that they have rarely been held accountable for that.
Investigations, often by civil authorities, revealed that church hierarchy frequently transferred pedophile priests from one parish to another. ...
read the full article at:
http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/pope-sex-abuse-scourge-1241356.html
Catholic church knew of abuse for decades, published warnings
ReplyDeleteDutch News - Netherlands November 29, 2011
The Catholic church was aware of child abuse at orphanages and other institutions throughout the Netherlands as early as 1954, according to documents found by researchers in church archives.
Senior church officials have consistently claimed they were not aware of the abuse.
However, television current affairs show Altijd Wat reported on Monday night the church's council for child protection issued warnings about child abuse in church-run homes and boarding schools in 1959 and 1962.
Warnings
The warnings were sent to the authorities at 112 homes and residential schools.
The letters urged institution managers to be aware of the dangers of employing people who are 'unsuitable' to give leadership to children.
The 1959 circular, for example, says the child protection group was aware of a number of cases, 'with sad and serious outcomes'.
Monks
RTL news has discovered a warning made by a senior cleric in Tilburg in 1954 in which monks in Tilburg were told: 'be careful in how you relate to children and do not make your lives unhappy. Keep your hands to yourself.'
The documents shed new light on the church's claim not to have known about the widespread abuse of children living in church institutions.
Lawyer Martin de Witte, who is representing a number of victims, said the letters showed the church could no longer say it was not aware of the abuse and claim that the cases are now too old.
Scandal
'They knew exactly what was going on but decided to to nothing about it,' De Witte told the Volkskrant.
It is almost two years since the scandal broke in the Netherlands with revelations that three Catholic clerics from the Don Rua cloisters in 's Heerenberg, Gelderland, had abused at least three children in the 1960s and 1970s.
Since then, a government commission has received reports of almost 2,000 cases of abuse within religious institutions. A number of cases will be taken to court
http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2011/11/catholic_church_knew_of_abuse.php#.TtVVuRij5mo.twitter
Abuse priest faces 'lengthy jail term'
ReplyDeleteUTV News - December 15, 2011
A former priest found guilty of 19 sex offences against two altar boys and a trainee priest has been warned he faces a jail term "of some length", after he was convicted of four more offences.
James Martin Donaghy, 53 and from Lady Wallace Drive in Lisburn, has been found to have carried out a string of indecent assaults and attempted sex attacks on three victims over a 17-year period.
But the jury of nine men and three women acquitted him over a common assault charge and further told trial judge Patrick Lynch QC that they would not be able to reach verdicts on three other sex abuse charges.
The judge said "it would not be in the interests of anyone" for a further trial, but Donaghy will find out on Friday what the Crown attitude is to any potential retrial.
As the jury returned their final verdicts - having deliberated for ten-and-a-half hours over the last three days - Donaghy again remained impassive in the dock, while relatives in the gallery wept and shook their heads in disbelief.
Defence QC Eugene Grant made an impassioned bail application to the judge, pleading for Donaghy to be released to spend Christmas with his family and attend his niece's wedding on New Year's Eve.
The request was refused by Judge Lynch.
As the now convicted paedophile was led to the cells in handcuffs, his niece blew him kisses and mouthed the words "I love you" while other family members comforted each other.
The verdicts come at the end of an almost five-week long hearing, where the judge said jurors had been presented with "difficult and frequently distasteful evidence".
He excused them from further jury service for 15 years.
All of the charges against Donaghy related to three victims - including a then altar boy who was abused from the age of about 14 until he was 20.
The now 29-year-old described how Donaghy told him when he was a teenager that "he loved me and that he had loved me from the first time that he had set eyes on me".
The priest further told him that his vow of celibacy was "only man-made rules and it's up to your conscience".
Another victim, Father Patrick McCafferty - who described his abuser as "dominating and controlling" - told the court that he was sexually assaulted the night before Donaghy was ordained as a priest, and also in the parochial house at Corpus Christi, and his own family home in Lisburn.
A third victim, former altar boy James Doherty (also known as Seamus), testified that Donaghy had tried to have sex with him in the parochial house at St Michael's in Finaghy - as Father Charlie Agnew lay dead in the house - and again five or six weeks after Fr Agnew's death, and then at Corpus Christi where Donaghy had been moved to.
Judge Lynch told the jury on Thursday that, before he proceeds to handing down the "inevitable" jail term, reports would be compiled on both Donaghy and his victims.
The case was adjourned until Friday, when it is listed for mention.
http://www.u.tv/News/Abuse-priest-faces-lengthy-jail-term/2b436f3d-8ee9-4440-aa14-0666d6c0fec4
Vatican takes steps to prevent sex abuse of children
ReplyDeleteThe Independent UK March 21, 2012
A report published by the Vatican yesterday told of its "dismay and betrayal" at the "sinful and criminal acts" committed by some Catholic clergy during decades of child-abuse scandals in Ireland, and recommended that Irish trainee priests should take child-protection classes to try to avoid such abuses in future.
The Vatican released a summary of findings of its year-long investigation ordered by Pope Benedict XVI after the uproar over widespread child abuse by priests and allegations of cover-ups. It is the first time the Holy See has endorsed the Church's efforts to fight sex abuse by clergy.
The Vatican said its investigators saw "how much the shortcomings of the past" caused an inadequate reaction "not least on the part of various bishops and religious superiors". It expressed a "great sense of pain and shame" that young people were abused by priests and nuns "while those who should have exercised vigilance often failed to do so effectively".
The report included a number of recommendations to improve the preparation of priests for a life of celibacy, to overcome a loss of trust by lay people in their pastors, and "to ensure that the tragedy of the abuse of minors would not be repeated". The recommendations include new procedures to vet priests on entrance to seminaries, child-protection classes for all trainee Catholic clergy in Ireland, and an overhaul of the way the nation's dioceses are structured.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/vatican-takes-steps-to-prevent-sex-abuse-of-children-7579427.html
Paedophilia in the Catholic Church
ReplyDeleteby Angus Stickler BBC Radio 4
An investigation by the Today Programme has uncovered new evidence that Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor the leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales failed to act appropriately when dealing with paedophile priests in his former diocese of Arundel and Brighton.
The Cardinal is currently the subject of a police inquiry over claims that he covered up the activities of one paedophile priest - Father Michael Hill. Yesterday Hill admitted abusing more children - some of them disabled.
Steven Williams' family were struggling and turned to the Church for help. Their priest was Father Michael Hill. He soon became a trusted family friend. Peter, Steven's son, was - disabled - just eight years old - and an easy target.
Steven describes his son's disabilities thus: "He had cerebral palsy and as a child, he was was much more handicapped than you'd ever guess meeting him now - with a very serious limp - one leg considerably shorter than the other, damage to one arm - he was very poorly co-ordinated in one arm, dyslexic - this kind of thing."
Yesterday Michael Hill, who has already served a five year sentence for abuse, pleaded guilty to six counts of indecent assault against three children aged between 10 and 14 - one of them in a wheelchair.
Two years ago we revealed that Michael Hill's Bishop knew he was a paedophile but allowed him to continue working. That Bishop was Cormac Murphy O'Connor, then in charge of Arundel and Brighton, now the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal and Head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales.
Documents from that original investigation confirm what the Bishop knew and when. In July 1981 Michael Hill was sent to a therapeutic centre following concerns about his sexual behaviour. In letters, Cormac describes the matter as "very serious". He questions whether Hill should have the pastoral care of a parish.
Peter and Steven Williams are shocked by this. Because just a few weeks after this date, Hill was allowed to conduct a baptism at a family retreat for disabled children. Cormac, they say, was there.
After Hill's first trial in the 1990s, the then head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, Cardinal Basil Hume, described the case as "extremely regrettable".
He said: "Clearly if the local Bishop had known then what is revealed now, a different course would have been taken..." According to the documents we've seen, and the parents we've spoken to, the Bishop did know - he was even warned by health professionals that Hill was a dangerous paedophile.
Peter believes that, as the Bishop in charge, Cormac's actions condemned him to four years of abuse. "I feel livid towards him. The sweeping under the carpet as it were was his doing. It put me in the danger that I was in for that whole length of time. "
We've now been told of more allegations relating to eight different priests in Arundel and Brighton - all under the wing of Cormac Murphy O'Connor. Some have been via anonymous letters sent directly to our offices - one via the charity Kidscape.
But we've also been contacted directly by victims, parents and parishioners. In the four cases we've had time to investigate, the victims and parents say they feel betrayed by the Church and the Bishop.
One family went to the Bishop in the mid '90s, after the daughter alleged that she'd been sexually assaulted by a priest. During the police investigation, another victim came forward, but, because the girl had health problems, the case was dropped.
continued in next comment...
continued from previous comment:
ReplyDeleteDespite serious concerns about the priest, he returned to his old job. When he left several months later, parishioners were under the impression it was part of a standard diocesan reshuffle. The family were shocked. They say that the Police and Bishop told them that they thought the allegations were true.
This case is mirrored by one in a different part of the diocese. This time it concerns the alleged abuse of a young man with learning difficulties. He was too vulnerable to give evidence and again the case was dropped. This social worker was stunned when he found out the priest had been reinstated.
Church records list this priest at four different parishes in the diocese - he is still holding mass. These allegations were made in the mid '90s around the time when the church bought out new guidelines to deal with sex abuse cases.
Parents, victims and parishioners concede that the church authorities appeared to follow the letter of their law, but not the spirit. Yes - the Police were informed - but despite serious concerns they say the priests were allowed to continue working.
And in the 1980s this appeared to be Church policy. We were told of another priest who parishioners say moved on because of allegations of abuse. But we've also found that Cormac Murphy O'Connor allowed a paedophile from Scotland to work in his diocese.
In the early '80s Father Alan Love assaulted two young boys in Glasgow - he was charged with lewd behaviour but the case never went to court. He - like Hill - was sent away for therapy and then on to Chichester in Arundel and Brighton. Even after admitting the assaults he was allowed to stay. A statement issued by the Church said that Father Love "enjoys the full confidence of his bishop." Peter Williams says this beggars belief.
We could only find one priest in the diocese, other than Michael Hill, who has been removed permanently from parish work - this was Father Christopher Towner who was given a two month suspended sentence for importing child porn in 1988.
Responding to our original investigation, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor issued a statement apologising to victims. In his defence he said the decisions he made at that time were not irresponsible and that there was a genuine ignorance among bishops, priests, and society at large about the compulsive nature of child abuse.
Cold comfort for the victims of paedophile priests.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/reports/archive/features/paedophile_priests.shtml
Cardinal who covered up child abuse and got away with it says secularists are immoral
ReplyDeleteby National Secular Society May 21, 2012
In an address at Leicester’s Anglican Cathedral, the former leader of Catholics in England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor, said that “secular values” were behind the violence carried out in totalitarian states and some of the 20th century conflicts that have killed millions.
“Our danger in Britain today is that so-called western reason claims that it alone has recognised what is right and thus claims totality that is inimical to freedom,” he said. “No one is forced to be a Christian. But no one should be forced to live according to the new secular religion as if it alone were definitive and obligatory for all humankind.”
He said: “The propaganda of secularism and its high priests want us to believe that religion is dangerous for our health. It suits them to have no opposition to their vision of a brave new world, the world which they see as somehow governed only by people like themselves. They conveniently forget that secularism itself does not guarantee freedom, rationality … or violence. Indeed, in the last century, most violence was perpetrated by secular states on their own people.”
He said a loss of “reverence” for humanity meant that some of the most vulnerable people in society are now routinely viewed as a “problem” or “threat”.
Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said: “Cardinal Murphy O’Connor is simply echoing the Vatican’s familiar and untrue line that ‘secularism’ is the enemy of religion. It is certainly the enemy of power-seeking religion, as with the Vatican’s present version of Catholicism, but it upholds the rights of religious believers to practise their faith freely and without hindrance. His presentation of Christianity as being under attack is a familiar one and still completely unconvincing. It is part of a wider campaign to reassert Catholic influence.”
Mr Sanderson continued: “Murphy O’Connor says that the ‘high priests’ of secularism can’t guarantee freedom from violence or immorality.
“But we should never forget that Mr Murphy O’Connor himself was guilty of disgracefully covering up some of the most horrific crimes of a paedophile priest when he was Archbishop of Arundel and Brighton – allowing the perpetrator to continue abusing children in other parishes. Why Murphy O’Connor was never brought to justice over this remains a mystery.”
http://www.secularnewsdaily.com/2012/05/cardinal-who-covered-up-child-abuse-and-got-away-with-it-says-secularists-are-immoral-3