The God Squad

From Cllr Sally Mulready
London Irish Centre

Dear Editor

As I sat in my home in East London watching Cardinal Brady tell the Irish nation what was in the Pope’s long awaited letter, I thought of the thousands of Irish people, hurt damaged and defiled who fled Ireland after a childhoods of unbearable and unimaginable brutality at the hands of Catholic priests, nuns and Christians brothers.

I visualised and knew they would be sitting in their homes all over Britain watching as I did, looking for every word that would be recognition of their pain, their suffering and their struggle to live ‘normal’ lives with their families, their children and in their communities. I know many of them would have wept as I was moved to do, unable to articulate whether the Pope’s letter made the hurt and the ever present painful memories seem any less so by his apology .

After a day of reflecting on the Pope’s letter , I find I cannot be satisfied. I know it has not taken away the pain and though the Pope endeavoured in that very sincere and Pontifical Way to express sorrow , remorse and even pity to the Survivors , in the end the protection and the renewal of the Catholic Church and the failure to acknowledge that crimes against children were being covered up, were the paramount messages I discerned from his letter. I am very disappointed and hurt by the inadequacies of the Pontiffs letter. The justice survivors seek cannot be obtained merely through prayer and other ecclesiastical reflections on a so called Higher Authority. Cannon law has shown itself to be corruptible and not always on the side of truth . It will not in itself bring justice.

But I am an optimistic and determined soul. And there are were some hopeful indications that the Pope had begun to understand what had happened and as a result there is a way forward and for that I say thank you to Pope Benedict.

The Popes had strong words of condemnation for his ‘ priests and religious’ who have abused children. He called on them to ‘take responsibility for their sins’ and to ‘submit to give an account of their actions’ and to submit to ‘the demands of justice’. Can we now interpret that to mean that the Pope will not let Cannon law stand in the way of bishops reporting offenders still alive today and obliging them to submit themselves to the law of the land. They have committed criminal acts that should be subject to the due process of his law.

Another hopeful sign of the Popes letter is his address to his Bishops who he accused very forthrightly of being guilty of ‘serious mistakes in responding to allegations of sexual abuse and it had …’undermined their credibility and effectiveness’. Good and decent though some of our existing Bishops are they need to go. We must have a fresh start and their prolonged stay is simply putting off the inevitable. The Pope has I feel given them a way of going with their dignity and their record of service to the Catholic church still intact. Hang on now and they will be forced to go in a matter of months in disgrace.

The Pope’s recommendation that his priests offer up ‘fasting, prayer and reading of scripture’ should be extended to making themselves available to talk and listen to Survivors accounts of their suffering.

They need to know and understand more from the perspective of Survivors what happened. Along with their reading of the Scriptures, I recommend they talk to ordinary survivors in their communities , listen to them with humility and compassion . They should also read reliable and recognised accounts of Survivors as portrayed in Mary Raftery Documentary, States of Fear and in the harrowing account written in the God Squad by Paddy Doyle. With this new knowledge and understanding we can begin to start the essential process of reconciliation and forgiveness.

Sincerely

Cllr Sally Mulready

Chair of Irish Women Survivors Support Network
Published in The Irish Post Newspaper.