The Irish Times – Monday, December 28, 2009
CHURCH SCANDALS: This was the year when the Catholic Church was finally forced to account for its actions, in the face of two horrific reports, writes FINTAN O’TOOLE
COMING IN TO 2009, the Catholic Church and the Government knew at some level that this would be the year of truth. The Ryan commission on child abuse in church-run industrial schools and the Murphy commission on the cover-up of thousands of assaults on children by priests in the Dublin diocese had been sitting for some years.
The broad reality of the industrial-school system had already been detailed by survivors and, more clinically, by Eoin O’Sullivan and Mary Raftery in their book Suffer the Little Children . The system of cover-up that enabled clerical paedophiles to carry on with impunity had been previewed in the report on the Ferns diocese. Indeed, the Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin explicitly warned the faithful that the Murphy report would “shock us all”.
Given that the essence of the two reports was already known, and that the church and State authorities had so much time to prepare their responses, two obvious questions arise. Why did those reports indeed “shock us all”? And why did the authorities flounder for even a vaguely adequate response?
Part of the answer to the first question lies in the propensity for Irish culture to have “unknown knowns” – things that are known to be true but are treated as if they are outlandish fictions. No honest person seriously doubted that the industrial schools were instruments of terror and torture – why, otherwise, were children threatened with Letterfrack and Daingean, words that induced a numbing chill of fear? Likewise, many of the abusive priests were not secretive but behaved, on the contrary, with a flagrant and swaggering arrogance.
Yet, as dramatists have understood since the time of the ancient Greeks, there is often much more power in being forced to confront what you already know than in being amazed by the unexpected. And here, the language of both the Ryan and Murphy reports played a crucial role.
In both cases, the reports were written with a cold, clinical, relentless and above all unequivocal clarity. There were no qualifications, no escape hatches, no grounds for the “yes, but . . . ” or “what about . . . ?” that had been the constant refuge of the religious orders, the hierarchy and their apologists in the media. The lies, evasions and equivocations had to stop.
It mattered, too, that in the case of both reports, the conclusions focused on the systemic nature of the crimes. In its detail and horror, the Ryan report often read like a cross between an anthropological study and a novel by the Marquis de Sade. Images – for example, the Christian Brother who played ceili music loudly on the radio to drown out the screams of the child he was torturing – burned themselves into the brains of those who read it.
But the report also drove home the fact that this was not just a nightmare but a calculated system of institutionalised violence and enslavement endured by an astonishing 170,000 children between 1936 and 1970.
Similarly, the Murphy report refused to take refuge in merely denouncing the crimes and collusion of individuals, but stressed the systemic nature of the abuse and cover-up. Its devastating conclusion that the church routinely subordinated the welfare of children to “the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the church, and the preservation of its assets” stripped bare the whole institution’s claim to moral authority.
Yet the overwhelming scale and unblinking clarity of the conclusions of the two reports merely served to highlight the inability of either the church itself or the Government to grasp what was happening. In relation to the Ryan report, both church and State seemed to believe that it would be a nine-day wonder.
Both the Taoiseach and the Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe were quickly off the blocks to say that the 2002 indemnity deal, in which the religious orders contributed just €128 million to costs of €1.1 billion, would not be re-opened. The orders, many of which had continued with a campaign of obstruction and denial throughout the Ryan commission process, naturally endorsed this stand.
It took Michael O’Brien’s five-minute outburst of controlled rage from the audience of Questions and Answers (“Eight of us from the one family, dragged by the ISPCC cruelty man. Put in to two cars, brought to the court in Clonmel. Left standing there without food or anything, and the fella in the long black frock and the white collar came along and he put us in to a van . . . And landed us below with 200 other boys. Two nights later I was raped.”) to force the Government and the orders to admit that the deal could, after all, be re-opened.
A similar pattern emerged with the Murphy report. The church authorities, with the exception of Archbishop Martin, seemed to be paralysed by the sheer novelty of a situation in which they were being asked to account for themselves. The Taoiseach ended up muttering craven excuses for the Vatican’s refusal to deal with the commission, demonstrating that a long habit of approaching the Holy See from a supine position had not been broken.
The irony was that the State was struggling to accept what was obvious to all thinking church people – that the 19th-century institutional Catholicism that had dominated the moral and psychological life of Ireland for so long was dead.
While theologians, active lay Catholics and even some bishops were beginning to face up to a very different future, mainstream political culture was still in denial. It seemed terrified of the implications of having to create a republic in which neither morality or social obligations could be outsourced.
Fintan O’Toole wrote:
“all thinking church people”
C’mon Fintan, what are you? Some sort of apologist for the Catholic Church? No person who is capable of thinking – RATIONALLY, that is – would have anything to do with organised religion, least of all the Catholic Church!!!
As Raymond rightly points out, Fintan O’Toole like so many of his colleagues, writes as a mere academic historian, totally devoid of the human outrage that one naturally feels towards all this Roman Catholic normalised rape and plunder of children. CHILDREN!!!
Hanora,
I remember too well Sean Ryan. He spoke to me like I was a school girl as I stood in court trying my best to give my statement at the “Redress”.. I didn’t realise just how hard it would be. It broke me for many months after that. He spoke to me with no warmth or understanding and told me I was basically a liar when I tried to explain how the nuns would call me pauper and bastards.
My daughter ran me out of there when she could see there was no one there to comfort me. I also realise that was the desired affect wanted by those running the show!
Shame on all of them that have been bought..you have so much blood on your hands.
Anne
“It will be immeasurably damaging to both survivors and the Catholic Church if this process is dragged out indefinitely. We call on all concerned to provide real moral leadership by finding the courage to acknowledge responsibility for their actions and inactions……………………… (and to resign immediately).
I just don’t get it. It didn’t happen in May, hasn’t happened since, and is not happening now.
It is too late for that. The Irish People as a whole proved since Ryan that it has been / still is, incapable of expressing the OUTRAGE and INDIGNATION which these crimes call for. Fintan O’Toole (and others, thankfully enough) write eloquently on the subject, but only as if they were HISTORIANS writing for posterity. Where is the ANGER? Where is the EMOTION?
SEANIE: sorry for your awful troubles, and thanks for telling us your story here. And congratulations for having done so well with your own family.
ANGRY: thanks for the CAPITALS in your text. I HEAR YOU…
And CHARLES O’ROURKE: with reference to the post of 23d December / Dear People. You will find much inspiration and many answers in the writings of Alice Miller, from Auchwitz to Artane, and Germany to Ireland. But remember this (and Fintan O’Toole): the past may and will throw light on the unspeakable crimes of Abuse in Ireland, but it’s WHAT WE DO TODAY – TODAY !!! – WHICH MATTERS…… Even if we don’t get answers and explanations, IT CHANGES NOTHING TO THE FACT THAT THESE ARE ABHORRENT CRIMES, WHICH MUST BE CONDEMNED. STOPPED. AND PUNISHED.
One more time as this Annus Horribilis draws to a close, I want to extend my warmest wishes to all who gather here under this shelter which Paddy provides. I hope the hurting find ways to achieve some healing. Grab your colours and brushes; paint paradise; and IN YOU GO….!
On your side.
Raymond
The Ryan Report and the Murphy Report will not be a nine day wonder as we have to persist in keeping it out there so that others are spared the pain we endured. Every scintilla of information that crosses my desk will be given to the media (international along with the national press) to ensure that nothing remains hidden. I have documents that no Irish newspaper would run with when they saw the content therein. Now, everything is going to be put on the table and to ensure its effectiveness, this will be a drip feed scenario. The Ryan report made no mention of the contents of these documents which tells me as much as I wanna’ know about Sean Ryan. He covered up like all the rest of them. These documents were documents of discovery with the Commission’s own stamp! Nothing illegal – all above board! So wait ’til the hammer falls! There will be more than resignations being called for. There will be accountability. Mark my words. I wrote of the Group Leaders and their corruption for a number of years and nobody gave me support on that matter but this I’ll take overseas if I have to!
Hi Paddy ……….. While the furore continues for BLOOD-LETTING of bishops and other ecclesiastical mumpers of this bunch of elder Grandee`s known commonly as the “”hierarchy”” of Ireland , the bigger issue and picture here is being overlooked…….. Sticking mitred heads on the dole queue will not solve the problem of their continued existence to infect particular levels of autocratic “”authority”” wherein they have continuing influence in schools and hospitals …….We can only achieve notable influence by the removal of ALL RELIGIOUS involvement from schools , hospitals , and wherever else these pedantic purveyors of MUMBO JUMBO flog their mutton …………We have had Ferns , we have had Ryan , we have had Murphy , WHEN ARE WE GOING TO HAVE THE GARDAI …??.. Will THE MAN up there in the Phoenix Park SUMMON THE BOTTLE TO CHARGE THESE bishops AND STICK THEM UP IN COURT .??… We witness presently , a cosmetically tailored exercise designed purely to appease public opinion that , “”yes, something is being done””… ??. Nothing effectively , is being done to HOLD THESE CRIMINALS TO ACCOUNT ……. WHERE ARE THESE “””GROUP LEADERS””” PRESENTLY , WHAT ARE THEY DOING , WHERE ARE THEIR “”VOICES”” IN SUPPORT OF SURVIVORS..??????? ……. Methinks they are all too pre-occupied COUNTING THEIR MONEY TO GIVE A TOSS ABOUT SURVIVORS …??????
Hello Again Paddy,
I am spending my winters with my wife in Arizona. I have read several comments on the subject: Abuse, I am a survivor of child abuse, served my sentence in St. Joseph’s in Glin, Co. Limerick. I live in Canada for the past 40 years. What affect did my abuse have on me and my little family. I suffer from PTSD (post traumatic Stress disorder) thanks to the Christian Brothers treatment. When I was released in 1951, the year you were born, I was taken to England deposited in a lodging house, a room of five beds in an attic with labourers, some from Ireland, a bucket for a toilet, yet I was in Heaven, the reality of being free took some time. To cut a long story short, I stopped going to Church, married an English proddy, we had three children, fantastic children to this day, I married in a register office, forbade my children going anywhere near a catholic church, no baptism, so Paddy, the damage was done to me, I was awarded a pittance by the Irish Government and no apology. My book is in the process now, “Damaged Goods” I tried several ways to shorten my life, firstly I was accepted into the special forces, spent time on active service in the Malayan Jungle not bothered if I survived or not, I had no fear any-more, the Industrial experience had robbed me of self respect, I stood naked of that quality. I am going on 75 years now, still cry at the remembrance of my time there, when will it end, the answer “Never” I write through blurred vision.
Best of the New year to you Paddy.
Seanie.
“No honest person seriously doubted that the industrial schools were instruments of terror and torture – why, otherwise, were children threatened with Letterfrack and Daingean, words that induced a numbing chill of fear?”
Oh we all knew that other children were tortured in those places, and that is how the patriarchal system kept us under control as children, lest we end up in there, never to be seen or heard of again.
After all, disposable evil children were sent there?
Perhaps a look at the brainwashing and torture used over thousands of years might explain.
In the old sacred books women and children were possessions of man.Chattels- word is still used today.
All children were born in SIN and were deemed shitbags by the patriarchal society.
Torture and pain were the cure for this sin- good for the soul is what they told us- talk about a scam to keep people poor, miserable and enslaved.It worked too, until now.
No one had time to be bothered with children as they were not making any money for the elite- were they? But an industrial school- paid for by the state- well- a nice little earner- so a steady supply of children was required- state- child snatchers to the rescue.
This is all about Human Resources- how much money the human child can create for its masters from birth to death.
Now let us have a good look at this church and the way it loves children.
We humans do not want to believe truth about man’s inhumanity to man as it reflects on us all.
The only people who need to At one- yes i left a gap deliberately there- are the men and women who have caused pain and suffering to others.
We were conned by men of God telling us to forgive all the evil and allow the evil to continue over and over- instead of delivering tough love.
This is the past of our holy Catholic Church and people think Hitler was evil- he was Catholic also.
http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/murderers.htm