Wednesday, September 23, 2009
PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent
THE MEDIA has been criticised for being “clearly not objective” in coverage of the Ryan report on child abuse and of being “not at all interested” in the religious congregations’ side of the story.
The criticisms, made and reported by author, commentator and Redemptorist priest, Fr Tony Flannery, appear in his introduction to the book Responding to the Ryan Report (Columba), which he edited.
He writes that, on publication of the Ryan report: “I found myself getting more and more irritated by the majority of the media coverage . . . Too many of the regular media commentators were clearly not objective, but rather had obvious agendas of their own.”
He continues: “In order to get a very necessary perspective on what had been revealed, I felt we needed some really independent, dispassionate voices, people who were genuinely knowledgeable and could help us get our minds around a situation which is deeply complex.”
Fr Flannery noted that “the other absent voice, of course, was that of the religious, who lost their nerve and were not willing to go public”.
Some of the religious told him “they were afraid they would not be listened to and that they would be savaged by more professional and media-savvy spokespeople. Some of them believed that the media were not at all interested in hearing their side of the story and that if they had gone on air to tell it, the response would have been ‘there they go again’.”
He says that “the effect of the shortage of genuinely knowledgeable and objective comment was that as the days went on the debate narrowed, and the problem was more and more laid at the door of the church and the religious, until eventually it got to the stage where it was being demanded that the Catholic Church and religious be removed from all involvement with the care of people”.
An “underlying assumption developed that abuse was a problem almost exclusively associated with priests and religious and that if they were removed from the scene it would be solved”.
The book, he says challenges such assumptions as “that a large proportion of priests and religious are child abusers . . . that Catholic Church teaching on sexuality is a true reflection of the teaching of Christ, and is adequate for the present age . . . that the Catholic Church’s zero tolerance policy of treating all errant priests and religious in the same fashion is either fair or just”.
Contributors to the book include theologians Fr Seán Fagan, Fr Donal Dorr, Mercy nun Sr Margaret Lee, academic Dáire Keogh, communications consultant Terry Prone and law lecturer Tom O’Malley.
From The Irish Times 23rd September 2009
What Ryan also failed to submit in his report was where the Dept.of Ed. was complicit in its cover up of the Sodomy in Upton. Keep sodomy to a minimum or else your funding will be cut. They knew this was a problem for 9 years and their response was to send the boys involved to a Reformatory. Why did you keep quiet on that one Sean? Flannery is now experiencing a tad of what we suffered as children and were not believed and has to call in the big gun experts. Grow up Father and stop snivelling. We endured and survived so learn from us!
The priest really is asking that the media give equal voice to those complicit in the abuse of children in the Institutions. It’s obvious from McGarry’s piece that the priest DID NOT read the Child Abuse Commission Final Report – only that he read the media’s reaction to its publication. Flannery should go back to his tied cottage and read up on the Commission’s report.
Flannery is not new to this subject [the abuse of helpless children by Roman Catholic religious and clergy]: In 2006 he asked: “Is it not strange that we are devoting so much energy to inquiring into the abuse of children half a century ago.”
This from a guy who worships a guy who died 2,000 years ago !!!!
Waxing lyrical Flannery went on to state: “If we had enough inquiries we would discover that there was a lot of hunger and physical abuse, suffered by the children of Ireland in those far distant war years. The stories from the orphanages could be replicated in many homes and schools of the time. A great deal of apologising would need to be done.”
And he wasn’t finished yet – he produced this nugget: “children nowadays …. are sexualised at a young age.”
He obviously didn’t note the irony in the fact that thousands of children WERE ‘sexualised’ over 50 years ago in the Institutions … their ‘sexualisation’ began when they were raped and buggered by CLERGY SEXUAL TERRORISTS!
So now they want to present themselves as victims, the backlash begins. On the bright side you can smell how rotten they have become, almost as if there is a death wish in their way of meeting the truth.Of course they are working feverishly to find a way of escape, using every tool available , pouring in enormous resources to make themselves deaf. Just when they think they have control again the truth rises some where else and they scurry to mend the leak.And so it goes on and on. By all means go public and truth will have a field day.
It is widely accepted that the Rape of a Child is the worst possible crime.
The Ryan Report shows that we are the biggest offenders in the world.
Yet all we hear is talk of Nama, Lisbon, bale-outs and cutbacks. In times when the most important topic we should be talking about is these crimes against our Children.
Hardly a word about the victims.
Silence from the Civilian, Judicial, Political and Ecclesiastical members of our society.
As a morally-bankrupt people, nothing can make sense in the present crisis, and no amount of medicine and remedies can put this right.
The only hope as I see it, would be to put up our hands, owe up to our actions and omissions, and ask for help. But there’s no sign of this happening. Maybe Change will come through a different place altogether: a last drop or a back-breaking straw; one old person’s mugging too many; one sniggering smile on the TV.
What is wrong with these men and women of God?
Abuse IS Abuse- and this Fr Tony can dress it up anyway he wants, get all the experts he wants and the result will still be the same.
Is he looking for someone to come along and make excuses for these abusers- as was usual in the past?
The time for excuses is long over.
What a shame the abused were forced to keep quiet re money they received- otherwise the media could print more and more stories of truth.
Those who accepted compensation under threat of fines- are still suffering- because having had one of those gagging orders on me for 14 years- i know the damage it does physically and psychologically- so that ought to be changed immediately, if not in Eire, then in Strasbourg- otherwise another crime against humanity is ALLOWED.
Honestly, this church and state and HSE secrecy is exactly like Hitler and the SS and we as human society swore to never allow it happen again- but Ireland has- in order to keep the truth hidden about a small elite group.
Thank you Paddy for keeping this issue in the media through your website.