woensdag, oktober 28, 2009

Chosen. Mannen Zorg.













(24-10. Een gift die alleen mannen aan kinderen kunnen geven ).

Caldicott: Why Cardinal Mahony Is Wrong about the Catholic Church Being Safer Today for Children



Rechter trekt gebiedsverbod pedoseksueel in
NRC
Gepubliceerd: 27 oktober
Door onze correspondent

Eindhoven, 27 okt. Burgemeester Rob van Gijzel van Eindhoven heeft een pedoseksuele man ten onrechte een gebiedsverbod opgelegd. Dat heeft de rechter in Den Bosch vanmorgen bepaald. Het verbod is met onmiddellijke ingang opgeschort.

Document - Uitspraak van de voorzieningenrechter

dinsdag, oktober 27, 2009

Revieuwing the Ryan report

The story of the Ryan Report does not begin in 1999 with Mary Raftery’s television documentary States of Fear.
Het verhaal van Christine Buckley is, net als de weg naar Rome, veel ouder. Vraag het Robbeknol maar.




David Quinn
Issue 391, vol.98, Autumn 2009. Dublin Jesuits Journal.
Mijn bron

The story of the Ryan Report does not begin in 1999 with Mary Raftery’s television documentary States of Fear. It begins three years before, with Louis Lentin’s documentary Dear Daughter, which told the story of Christine Buckley, who had been brought up by the Sisters of Mercy at Goldenbridge Orphanage.

Before this there had been books, such as The God Squad (1993) by Paddy Doyle, but it was Dear Daughter that really drew public attention in a major way to the issue of child abuse in institutions run by eighteen Catholic religious orders. This means that the issue of institutional abuse has now been part of the public consciousness for thirteen years.

The importance of Mary Raftery’s States of Fear is that it led to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s apology to victims of institutional abuse and also to the setting up of the Ryan Commission, which was originally headed by Justice Mary Laffoy. She later resigned, citing disagreements with the Department of Education. When Judge Sean Ryan became head of the Commission, he decided not to hear every single former resident who wished to be heard. Instead he would hear from a sample of 1,090 people. This would allow the Commission to finish its work within a fairly reasonable timeframe.

Public Hearings
I reported on the vast majority of public sittings of the Ryan Commission, while employed by the Irish Independent as its religious affairs correspondent. Ryan cut an impressive figure. He had the cool authoritative manner of an old-fashioned country GP. When former residents would become angry at what they were hearing, especially when the heads of the orders were giving testimony, he could almost always calm them down. When hearing evidence from the heads of the religious orders, Judge Ryan would always have about him an air of objectivity, without ever seeming to be detached from proceedings. In other words, he acted as a judge should act.

The public hearings were almost entirely dominated by the evidence of the religious orders. This is because the former residents were frequently naming names to the Commission. However, the vast majority of those being named had never been charged with an offence, let alone convicted of one. The former residents, therefore, had to be heard in private. The testimony of the religious orders was mostly very uniform. Each representative described conditions in which resources – both human and financial – were scarce. Generally, there were about thirty children for every adult. Nuns would sometimes go to bed with up to six babies in their room. There was very little time off. The regimes were based on discipline first and foremost. The institutions were run on military lines. The system was mostly impersonal.

Listening to the accounts of the various religious, I was reminded of the time I saw an old black and white film version of Jane Eyre. Eyre, of course, spends part of her childhood in an institution and in one scene we see her and the other girls being woken to the whistle, washing to the whistle, getting dressed to the whistle and marching down to breakfast to the whistle. Each child, as I recall, was also assigned a number.

The accounts also reminded me of a more recent film, Les Choristes (2004). It is set in France, just after World War II, and in an institution for boys run by lay people. The place is casually cruel and uncaring. It is assumed that the boys will overrun the school, given the slightest chance, and the emphasis is all on discipline. In one scene a teacher assumes another teacher is trying to abuse one of the boys. Nothing much is thought of this. It is only mildly frowned upon. In this school some of the teachers are more caring than others and the hero is obviously the one who founds the choir, which gives some of the boys a creative outlet that transforms them.

The total contrast between Les Choristes and films about institutional life in Ireland should be noted. Unlike those Irish films, it avoids sentimentality and is never melodramatic. Also, the sound of axes grinding cannot be heard.

The reports of Dr Anna McCabe were frequently mentioned in the testimony to the Ryan Commission. Dr McCabe was the person, in the middle of the last century, appointed by the Department of Education to inspect the schools. Some of her reports were critical. For example, one of them criticised serious shortcomings at Newtownforbes, an institution run by the Mercy Sisters, but a later report gave it a relatively clean bill of health.

The orders almost invariably expressed sorrow at some of the things that happened in their institutions. Also invariably, they reported a big increase in the number of abuse allegations they received following Bertie Ahern’s apology and the announcement that he was setting up a Redress Board, in addition to what become the Ryan Commission.

Why ‘Industrial’ Schools?The industrial school system was a legacy of the 19th century. It originated in Sweden, Switzerland and Germany and came to Ireland via Britain. In Britain such schools were often run by religious societies. Britain enjoyed a Protestant religious revival in the 19th century and Evangelicals were behind numerous legal reforms.

Some of those reforms were aimed at the care of children. Organisations like Barnardos and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children were founded in this era. The industrial schools were aimed specifically at ‘solving’ the problem of street children. Reports from the time say that some cities in England had hundreds, if not thousands, of vagrant children. Cities like London were growing rapidly and were often very overcrowded; tenements frequently had many large families living in one or two room flats.

Many city children quickly turned to crime as the only way they could find of keeping body and soul together (think the Artful Dodger in Oliver Twist) and the common remedy was to put them in adult prisons. The industrial schools offered an alternative to this, a terrible alternative as it turns out. But the intent was to keep such children out of prison and off the streets, to feed and house them and train them for work when they left the schools – hence the name ‘industrial’ schools.

In Ireland, the religious orders ended up running the vast majority of industrial schools and orphanages. Irish Catholics feared the schools would otherwise be used to convert the children to Protestantism, and the religious offered a cheap alternative to lay staff, however poorly they might be paid.

Unfortunately, we now know that, even if the industrial schools were well run, they still would not have been fit places for children. Institutions never are, especially when they are under-staffed and under-funded. An institution can never provide a substitute for a loving family and that is an unavoidable and unalterable fact.

However, in many cases the institutions were appallingly run and physical, sexual and emotional abuses, as well as neglect, were commonplace. This is made abundantly clear by the Ryan Report.

The Ryan Report, of course, dominated the news headlines here for several weeks after its publication. The imprisonment of Frank Dunlop, the revelation of huge debts at Anglo-Irish Bank, and even the local and European elections only slightly distracted media and public attention from it. It also made headlines overseas: Al Jazeera covered it; a German newspaper reported that Ireland had run a series of ‘terror camps’ for children for years. No mention was made of the fact the Germany also had its industrial schools.

The Numbers
As mentioned, a total of 1,090 former residents of the institutions reported to the Ryan Commission. Between them, they named 800 alleged abusers in over 200 institutions. But there was very wide variation from institution to institution in terms of the amount of abuse taking place in each of them, something that the executive summary of the Ryan Report, which is what most journalists will have read, did not make clear. For example, fully 50 per cent of physical abuse reports and 64 per cent of the sex abuse reports heard by the Commission that involved boys, related to four of the boys institutions. The same applies to the girls’ institutions. Three schools account for almost 40 per cent of the physical abuse reports, or 48 reports each, while 19 schools had an average of 2.5 reports each.

Sexual abuse was also far worse in the boys’ institution than in the girls’, which is probably to be expected. In the girls’ institutions, sex abuse was normally perpetrated by outside workmen, or by visiting priests or religious, or by foster families, with whom the girls occasionally stayed.

A relative handful of individuals accounted for a disproportionate share of the complaints. For example: a total of 241 female religious were named as physical abusers. However, four of these were named by 125 witnesses, and 156 Sisters were named by one witness each. In total, of the 800 religious and others named as abusers, half were named by only one person.

It is also worth noting that an institution only received a special chapter in the Ryan Report if it was the subject of more than 20 complaints of abuse. Sixteen institutions, out of the dozens run by the orders, had more than 20 complaints made against them.

When I first reported the above figures in the Irish Catholic and the Irish Independent, I was accused by a handful of people (fewer than I had expected) of ‘playing the numbers game’. But surely numbers matter immensely? If they do not, then why did numbers feature so heavily in the Ryan Report and in the subsequent media coverage of it, and in the debates about it? In the North, for example, it is not immaterial whether 300 or 3,000 people died in the ‘Troubles’.

If I were a member of an order that ran those institutions that were relatively better run than some of the others, I would want people to know this. I would regard it as particularly unfair and unjust if every institution was universally regarded as being as terrible as the very worst of the institutions.


A Gulag?
It may seem a rather strange analogy to use at this point, but I think here of Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s novel First Circle (1968). The industrial schools have been compared with the extermination camps of Hitler’s Germany. I will merely compare them with the Gulag, though I think even this is over-the-top. First Circle derives its name from Dante’s Inferno, in which Dante famously divides Hell into nine circles, with the ninth circle being reserved for the very worst of the damned and the first circle for the virtuous pagans who did not know Christ. Within the Gulag, there were camps that endeavoured to treat their inmates relatively humanely. Scientists and others useful to the Soviet Union were kept in these. The inmates referred to their camps as the First Circle. They knew other camps were much, much worse.

The industrial school system contained intrinsic flaws, described above, which meant that even the best of them were not fit places for children. But within this desperately flawed system there was a great deal of variation, and some schools were relatively humane. The comparison with the Gulag is flawed, ultimately because, even in theory, the Gulag was never intended for the betterment of anyone and many people were placed in the system in the full knowledge that they would die there.

In truth, there is nothing with which our industrial school system can properly be compared, except other institutions for children. We know, for example, that the Catholic religious orders ran similar institutions in such places as Australia and Canada and that they were awful as well. We also know that institutions run by other churches in countries like Canada were terrible. In fact, some Anglican dioceses in Canada have been bankrupted because of scandals in homes for children that they ran.

We do not know very much about the industrial school system in England, because it was closed years before the last of our schools shut its doors. It is doubtful whether it was much better.

From much anecdotal evidence, we can assume that English public schools were dreadful places in the past, with peer-on-peer abuse particularly bad. The amazing thing is that parents paid a lot of money to send their children to these schools, even though they know what awaited their offspring there, because it had happened to them in their day. Recently we did hear about a children’s home in Jersey, lay-run, called Haut de la Garenne. Although nobody appears to have been killed there, as early reports seemed to indicate, nonetheless, it was a terrible place. In the 1990s a dreadful child sex abuse scandal involving, among others, care workers, was revealed in Islington borough in London. Initially, it was covered up.

We can assume, given what we know about Romania and Russia, that many children’s homes in non-English speaking countries, were dreadful.

Catholic-run institutions were not worse than institutions run by other organisations. An anti-Catholic sub-text can definitely been woven into the acceptable narrative about these places, something Professor Philip Jenkins makes abundantly clear in his Paedophiles and Priests: Anatomy of a Contemporary Crisis (1996). (Jenkins is not a Catholic). Hierarchy, the rule of celibacy and ‘patriarchy’ have all variously been blamed for the scandals.

Conclusions

In fact, I think that the scandals have revealed what we might almost term two ‘laws’ of human nature.

The first is that, when one group of people are given great power over another group of people, there will invariably be abuses, often of the most extreme kind. We find this again and again and again, in prisons, retirement homes, children’s homes and many other such places besides.

The second ‘law’ is that, when scandals come to light in an organisation or profession, the first instinct is to protect itself rather than the victim. Therefore, any organisation that has the care of others among its chief concerns, has to have rules in place to insure against both of these ‘laws’ taking effect. In fact, it must be assumed that, without such safeguards, abuses will take place and there will be a cover-up.

Of course, the problem that the industrial school system tried to address, that of children who are extremely badly cared for, or are not cared for at all, still exists. There are thousands of children in this country right now who are victims of poverty or, in the age of State welfare which relieves the worst poverty, of badly dysfunctional families. These are the ‘street’ children who are easy prey for the gangs who recruit them into criminal activity, just as their predecessors did in the 19th century, and for long centuries before that.

The best way to honour the many victims of our industrial school system is to help these children today. Does the will truly exist? Perhaps not. Perhaps, like poor, they will always be with us.

David Quinn is a journalist and is Director of the Iona Institute www.ionainstitute.ie

zaterdag, oktober 24, 2009

Mammoeten met uitsterven bedreigd



Heks vertelt verhalen in de kerk
Geplaatst door onze redactie op zaterdag 24 oktober 2009 om 15:55u
KNESSELARE (RKnieuws.net) - De bibliotheek van Knesselare trekt op donderdag 29 oktober om 20 uur naar de parochiekerk van Knesselare voor een Halloweenactiviteit.

Heks Rizerova komt mysterieuze verhalen vertellen. Toegangskaarten voor de avond kosten 2 euro. En wie in aangepaste kledij komt, krijgt een extraatje.





O sangue sabe muito, o sangue sabe o sangue que tem.
Às vezes o sangue monta a cavalo e fuma cachimbo, às vezes olha com olhos secos porque a dor lhos secou, às vezes sorri com uma boca de longe e um sorriso de perto, às vezes esconde a cara mas deixa que a alma se mostre, às vezes implora a misericórdia de um muro mudo e cego, às vezes é um menino sangrando que vai levado em braços, às vezes desenha figuras vigilantes nas paredes das casas, às vezes é o olhar fixo dessas figuras, às vezes atam-no, às vezes desata-se, às vezes faz-se gigante para subir às muralhas, às vezes ferve, às vezes acalma-se, às vezes é como um incêndio que tudo abrasa, às vezes é uma luz quase suave, um suspiro, um sonho, um descansar a cabeça no ombro do sangue que está ao lado. Há sangues que até quando estão frios queimam. Esses sangues são eternos como a esperança.


Um blogger chamado Saramago

vrijdag, oktober 23, 2009

Child sex abuse report won't be made public for several weeks

22-10-2009
...
Lawyers acting for Justice Minister Dermot Ahern yesterday asked High Court judge Mr Justice Paul Gilligan to consider a new issue, which had not been brought to his attention when he heard the main case regarding publication of the report earlier this month.

The new issue is believed to concern potential criminal proceedings that could yet result from a current garda investigation, amid fears that elements in the report might jeopardise a possible prosecution.

Last week, Judge Gilligan ruled that all but one chapter, and 21 other references in the report relating to a particular priest, were to be excluded from publication in case it prejudiced criminal proceedings.

The ruling paved the way for the imminent publication of the vast bulk of the report.

But yesterday's intervention by Mr Ahern, following late night discussions on Tuesday with the Attorney General, the Director of Public Prosecutions and justice officials, will further delay publication of the long-awaited report.

The new matter had not been brought to Judge Gilligan's attention when he was asked, last July, for directions on whether the report could be published. The issue was also not raised at the three most recent hearings on the report.

Publication will point the way forward -- Martin
Irish Independant

The archbishop said he did not know when the report would be released, but added: "It's very interesting, this question was brought to the courts on September 8 and we are now six weeks on.

"It just goes to show that there is a very difficult balance that needs to be attained. My hope is, and I've said this on many occasions, the sooner the report comes out the better."

Ex-Windsor priest arrested for sex abuse in Haiti

October 22, 2009
Joao José Correira Duarte, 43, co-founder of Windsor-based Hearts Together for Haiti (HTFHaiti),was arrested Tuesday at a hotel in Puerto Plata, in the Dominican Republic He faces 12 charges of sexually assaulting boys aged 12 to 17

*CBC file

donderdag, oktober 22, 2009

foto: Coleman
Survivors of sexual abuse urged to reach out for help

By Evelyn Ring

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

SUPPORT agencies are urging survivors of sexual abuse to reach out for help when the Dublin Archdiocese Report is published.

After the Ryan Report was published last May thousands of people contacted counselling and advocacy services for help.

According to a joint statement issued by Connect, Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, Faoiseamh and One in Four, there were a number of suicides associated with the period after the Ryan Report was published.

The agencies have asked relatives and friends of people affected by the soon to be published Dublin Archdiocese Report to be supportive.

It also wants doctors, nurses and other professionals working in hospitals and the community to be aware of the challenges facing survivors at this difficult time.

...rest artikel plus

Childhood interrupted: ‘They poisoned my mind against my own mother’

As Ireland is braced for more revelations about paedophile priests, one woman tells of the abuse she endured at the hands of nuns

October 21, 2009
The Times

Raped and infected with gonorrhoea when she was just 8 years old, then shortly afterwards, seized and sentenced to eight years in a children’s institute run by sadistic nuns, Kathleen O’Malley has spent most of her life hiding from herself. But having emerged stronger from her horrific childhood she has set herself a new challenge: to find the sister who suffered with her.

The facts of Kathleen O’Malley’s life would probably not have been believed ten years ago, not before the dam finally burst on the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland.

A long-awaited report into clerical abuse in the Diocese of Dublin is expected to be published this week and bishops are bracing themselves for another round of public anger. It will be a horror story of how known paedophile priests were shunted from parish to parish by their religious seniors. The number of children who suffered as a result of the Church’s cover-up could run into thousands.

It will also be another shattering blow to the moral authority of an institution that once ruled Ireland with an iron rod, following hard on the heels of the Ryan report, an independent tribunal that concluded in May after a decade of evidence-gathering that there had been “endemic and systemic” sexual, physical and emotional abuse of hundreds of thousands of Irish children in residential institutions run by religious orders. Four years ago, when Kathleen first told her story in her memoir, Childhood Interrupted, there were plenty of cynics around who were prepared to cast doubt on the extraordinary tale of suffering inside a system that seemed akin to the worst excesses of a totalitarian regime.

But a sea-change has occurred in Ireland since the Ryan report: the anger still swirls and will gather strength again this week with the publication of another report.

The proof of Kathleen’s claims is laid out before her on a coffee table in her smart detached Hertfordshire bungalow: pages and pages of official reports whose secrecy was not easily given up by the Irish authorities.

Two legal documents are chilling. The first is the peremptory record of how Kathleen, with her her sisters, Sarah Louise and Lydia, were taken from their mother in a dawn raid on their Dublin tenement home and found guilty in the children’s court of being “destitute” and “having a parent who does not exercise proper guardianship”. The second is a transcript of the trial of Luke McCabe, a neighbour who raped Kathleen in 1950. It’s extraordinary to read the words of a child being cross-examined by Judge McCarthy in open court: “Do you know what would happen if you told lies?”

Answer: “The Lord would light me.” Looking back, reading those words on the page, Kathleen can laugh now. “I meant I’d get a beating; it was all I knew. But look here, when he asks if I’d been taught the Catechism and knew the difference between right and wrong. I said my mother had taught me. But he ignores that answer and asks if the Sisters of Mercy had taught me. Because I was born out of wedlock she and her child counted for nothing in their eyes.

“The people who took us from Mummy were paid a bounty by the religious orders because the nuns in turn received half a man’s wage per week for every child they took. It was a business. They called us destitute and uncared for, but that’s what they condemned us to — we were loved and cared for, but they took us away and, to rub salt in the wounds, Mummy was forced to pay for it. She had to pay for our upkeep at Moate, the industrial school.”

But the court transcript also reveals glimpses of a strong-willed mother determined to fight for her children. Mary O’Malley told the court that in the eight months that had passed since Kathleen had been taken from her, the nuns had “told her not to tell anybody about the dirty thing that was done to her”.

Although the judge directed the jury to acquit McCabe of the most serious charge of “unlawful carnal knowledge of a minor”, he was found guilty of assault. It was a small but important victory for the O’Malleys. “McCabe got 18 months hard labour but my sisters and I got 25 years of that between us,” Kathleen says.
...
...
“I am a very different person now to who I was even five years ago. I remember feeling physically sick when I bumped into someone I was in Moate with. That’s how we were taught to react by the nuns.

“I was ashamed of my name. I remember Sister Cecilia saying ‘I wouldn’t tell anybody who you are or where you’re from’. And they did prepare us for our roles in life as they saw them, which was scrubbing floors. But I don’t care any more. I have nothing to hide.”
... --> hele artikel

Inuk drops boycott of truth commission

October 19, 2009
CBC News

Former Nunavut politician Peter Irniq has withdrawn his call for Inuit who attended Indian residential schools to boycott a truth and reconciliation commission that was relaunched last week.

Irniq, a former residential school student himself, proposed a boycott of the commission earlier this year, when no Inuit commissioners were appointed.

But Irniq, who attended the commission's official relaunch in Ottawa on Thursday, said he has now changed his mind and feels it is important for Inuit who experienced the residential schools to talk to the commission.

"I would welcome the commissioners to come to Nunavut because there are, I am sure, a lot of Inuit survivors from various residential schools they've attended … they want to tell stories about what happened to them," Irniq told CBC News.

The investigation into the abusive treatment of aboriginal children in Canada's residential schools last century has been held up by controversy and conflict among commissioners. They have since been replaced by a new slate.
... -->rest

En weer uitstel publicatie Dublin misbruik rapport.

RTE News
21 October 2009 22:33

It had been widely expected that the Minister would publish most of the Murphy Commission's report before this weekend.

The Government's decision to delay publication of the report into sexual abuse by priests in the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin has been condemned by the campaigner who first exposed church cover-ups in the capital.

Andrew Madden said ministers referred the Commission's Report back to the High Court despite having it since last July.

He criticised a comment by Minister for Children Barry Andrews that there was 'a material fact' that had not been brought to the attention of the High Court, and the Government wanted to seek the court's direction on the matter.

He said the Cabinet had had plenty of time to detail its concerns over ongoing criminal proceedings and present them to the High Court on two previous occasions.

He also recalled that last Thursday the High Court issued a very clear order regarding publication which a child could have understood and have actioned within an hour.

rest...

dinsdag, oktober 20, 2009

Northern Ireland victims fight back Clerical abuse

By Deborah McAleese
Tuesday, 20 October 2009
Belfast Telegraph

Abuse victims across Northern Ireland are to launch a landmark legal case against several religious orders, the Belfast Telegraph can reveal.

Decades after suffering horrific abuse at the hands of nuns and priests in church-run industrial schools and orphanages a growing number of victims are now turning to the courts for retribution and closure. They are also planning legal action against the government bodies that were responsible for child welfare at the time, for failing to protect them.

The move comes as the Northern Ireland Executive faces growing pressure to conduct a full assessment of the level of physical and emotional child abuse within institutes run by the religious orders.

So far the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister has failed to give any public commitment to such an investigation despite calls from a number of politicians and members of the public for a Ryan-style inquiry in Northern Ireland.

The SDLP is to lodge a motion next month calling on the Executive “to conduct an assessment of the level of abuse and to provide all appropriate support for those victims that come forward.”

With Northern Ireland omitted from the Ryan Report, victims here are still waiting for an adequate response from either the church or state.

Solicitor Joe Rice, from John J Rice Solicitors, told the Belfast Telegraph that a number of victims have now decided to take action themselves and are seeking advice on launching legal proceedings against the orders responsible and the government bodies charged with child welfare at the time.

Mr Rice said that ever since the publication of the Ryan Report his offices in Armagh, Ards and south Belfast have been inundated with victims seeking justice.

“This is something that is beginning to gather momentum. We have been instructed by clients in Northern Ireland who have been victims of abuse, both in state institutions and in care homes similar to those in the Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (The Ryan Report) in the Republic of Ireland. We have noticed, over the past few months, in our three offices, people coming in with complaints in relation to physical abuse, neglect and sex abuse in various institutes. These complaints of abuse have not been properly investigated by the authorities in Northern Ireland. All the institutions would have been under the inspectorate of the old Stormont government at the time.

“We have started to correlate information in common with some of these cases with a view to issuing proceedings, not only against the institutions but also the government departments that would have been responsible at the time. We have also placed an advert to try and stimulate people to come forward in relation to certain institutions.

“It seems to me that those people subject to abuse in Northern Ireland have not been well served by the authorities and the government agencies set up to protect them. It is one of these things that has not been properly dealt with in Northern Ireland.”

Mr Rice would not say how many victims have come forward or name the institutes involved, but said the complaints are not restricted to institutes in the Belfast area. The SDLP’s Alex Attwood said that his party is determined to push for a full assessment into institutional abuse in Northern Ireland to be carried out as quickly as possible.

“These people were among the most vulnerable in society,” he said.

Mr Attwood added: “It may have taken nine years for the Ryan report but we would like to think there is a different culture now because of the experience of the rest of the island. We would like to think that a new future investigation would be much more concentrated so that people would get results of inquiries quicker. We need to put appropriate mechanisms in place to help these people. It is hard to assess the scale of this which is why we are calling for this assessment.”

DUP MP David Simpson said that while there have been individual cases brought against people accused of abusing children in their care in Northern Ireland there is a real need for a serious investigation into the scale of the problem of child abuse by religious orders, or other care institutions in Northern Ireland.

He added: “The Ryan Report showed the extent of the problem in the Republic of Ireland.
“I believe we need to establish the facts surrounding just what went on in Northern Ireland. Many lives have been ruined by the child abuse inflicted by those who were in a position of trust. We need to establish how many.

“This was a gross betrayal perpetrated by those were to supposed to be caring for children. It was also a shameful failure on the part of the authorities who placed them into care only to abandon them to their fate.”

I lived in fear of the next beating, the next humiliation

Clutching an old black and white photograph, Margaret McGuckin points to a sad looking young girl whose face is turned away from the camera.

“Look how sad she is. That is me. I was three-years-old and as far as I can remember I had just arrived at Nazareth House girls’ home on the Ormeau Road. I think it was 1958. It hurts when I see how sad that little girl is,” said Margaret.

Margaret, her sister and two brothers were placed in the care of the Nazareth Sisters when her parents broke up and her father struggled to raise four young children alone. Margaret was three years old and was kept in the home until the age of 11.

“My time there was just hell. There was just real coldness in there, no love was ever displayed and that is so difficult and confusing for a young child who has just been separated from her family. They wouldn’t even let me speak to my sister which might have helped. Anytime I saw her through the railings in the segregated playground, we were pulled away from each other if we tried to talk or hold hands.

“We were treated like child slaves being made to scrub the floors, windows and walls. It was like something out of a Dickens’ book. We were just little children and we were on our hands and knees scrubbing floors. I can still remember the smell of that orange wax and carbolic soap.

“My whole life there was lived in fear — fear of the next beating, the next humiliation. I was made to feel worthless, that I was a bad person and I kept those beliefs with me my whole life. I remember one day being beaten the whole way to a cupboard by one of the Sisters. When she got me there she kept beating me with a stick and telling me I was evil and a liar and the worst type of person that walked the earth. When I cried she battered me even more, telling me to stop crying. When she left me in the cupboard I cried out for someone to come and take me away so many times, but no one came to rescue me.

“No kindness was ever shown to us and anything that might have brought me some comfort was immediately taken away. I can recall my father buying me a beautiful yellow jumper with a teddy bear on it, but it was taken from me never to be seen again. It may not have seemed important to them, but to me it was a reminder that I once had a family who loved me.”

Margaret, who is now 52, said when she was 11-years-old she was inexplicably told to leave the home, maybe because her father was no longer able to pay money for her keep there.

“I wasn’t prepared for the outside world. I didn’t take to many people because I always felt so worthless and ashamed. When I went to secondary school, I remember standing at a wall in the playground seeing others sniggering at me. It must have been the way I was, I was just looking at a wall. I always felt embarrassed and ashamed, like I was dirty and unclean. That was the scene set for the rest of my life.

“What happened to me in Nazareth House affected my job positions, my friendships and relationships with a wide range of people. I always felt unloved, ugly, rejected, dirty, evil, no good. I have hated myself so much because I was led to believe that I was a monster of some sort. It has only been this year that I am finally turning my life around. For the first time ever, I feel as if I am in control.”

Margaret is now leading a campaign to have the religious orders publicly recognise and apologise for the abuse thousands of children in Northern Ireland suffered while in their care. “What happened in these places was recognised in the Republic, but not here and we want that same recognition,” she added.

“I used to walk around filled with so much anger and sadness, but there is more joy and laughter in me now. I look in the mirror now and I am smiling. I want other victims to feel the same.”

South’s shocking report has no equivalent here
The Ryan report told the nightmare story of violence and sexual abuse suffered by a generation of some of the most vulnerable children in Ireland.

It painted a chilling picture of a severely dysfunctional church and state in Ireland — a church that protected and tolerated its members’ actions, and a state, charged to inspect the children's’ homes and schools, that failed to safeguard the young victims.

It took nine years to compile the 2,600-page report, which proposed 21 ways the Irish government could recognise past wrongs, including building a permanent memorial, providing counselling to victims and improving Ireland's current child protection services.

It provided some level of closure and justice for the thousands who were sent as children to Ireland’s austere network of industrial schools, reformatories, orphanages and hostels from the 1930s until the last church-run facilities shut in the 1990s.

But in Northern Ireland no investigation has ever been launched and the problem here remains locked in the past.

Stories of abuse at homes like St Patrick’s Home in west Belfast, run by the De La Salle Brothers, Termonbacca in Londonderry and Nazareth Lodge children’s home in east Belfast, run by the Sisters of Nazareth, are becoming more and more prevalent.

There is no longer any doubt that vulnerable children were subjected to horrifying violence and abuse while in the care of church and state run homes and schools in Northern Ireland, but a full probe into the level of abuse is necessary.

The issue is not going to go away until there is formal recognition of the extent of the abuse and a public apology from the religious orders and the government institutions that failed vulnerable children for decades. The victims who suffered in silence for so many years deserve nothing less.

Ukraine lawmakers to discuss MP's and convicted priest child sex abuse at Artek

October 20th, 2009
KIEV - Ukraine’s parliament will discuss Tuesday the allegations about involvement of its three unnamed members and others in child sex abuse at a well-known holiday camp, a report said.

The Artek camp, located in the southern Crimea on the country’s Black sea coast, has been in the news since Oct 13, when a lawmaker from Ukraine’s opposition political party alleged that two siblings had been raped at the camp and top officials were involved in this case.

Members of the Supreme Rada (the Ukrainian parliament) are expected to hear investigation reports from the prosecutor general, the interior minister and a parliamentary human rights envoy.

The parliament is also expected to form a special investigation committee.

The police have detained a man suspected of sexually assaulting his own children in the camp, the report added.

The report said that Artek general director Boris Novozhilov was hospitalised last Saturday with heart problems after the police searched the apartments of some of his relatives in Kiev in connection with the case.

Artek is famous as the main Soviet-era camp attracting the children since 1930s. The camp closed this winter due to financial problems, but resumed its work in February.

–RIA Novosti


Sexual scandal in Artek going on.
MIGnews.com.ua
20.10.2009

...
The head of Main Directorate of Interior Ministry in Crimea Hennady Moskal claimed minors had been raped in Artek earlier. “There were two facts – children at the age of 9 and 10 were raped and cases were not disclosed”, he reported.

According to him, a priest was involved into the case. Earlier he was convicted for similar crimes in the Russian Federation. “The name of the priest emerged relating to those cases. He attended Artek together with ex-presidents and their wives. When law enforcement began to check him after they had learned about rape, he disappeared. When he was checked in the database of the Russian Federation, he turned out to be convicted for perversion of minors, pedophilia and other crimes”, Hennady Moskal told.

According to Hennady Moskal, “pedophiles are coming to Ukraine from all over the world to satisfy their sexual needs because we have opened the border for everybody”. “Not Thailand but Ukraine is considered to be a center of sex tourism to satisfy perverted sexual needs”, he states.

...

“Taking into consideration high-profile story, I consider it is necessary to involve international authoritative experts”, Artek director general claimed.
Video record has appeared on YouTube in the Internet. Here is an interview with the Kyiv businessman Evhen Solovyov. According to him, he and his friend, Moscow businessman Sergey Piletsky had a business relationship with one of MPs whose name is mentioned in the “case on pedophiles” in the middle of 90s. Allegedly Piletsky was a witness of deputy’s involvement into sexual orgies in saunas, Segodnya reports.
...
The State penal corrections department reported the main suspect is in the Lukyanovka isolation ward.


Father and MPs raped children in Artek!

MIGnews.com.ua
14.10.2009

According to a MP from the Party of Regions Vadym Kolesnychenko, children had been raped in the International children’s camp Artek. According to MP, high-ranking authorities may be involved into the case. Only the Verkhovna Rada is able to authorize their detention. “According to my information, orphans had been raped in the camp. My aim is to prevent burking. That is why I sent inquiries to the Prosecutor’s General Office, Interior Ministry and Security Service of Ukraine”, he explained.

...
“Children identified rapists during interrogation and gave evidence about circumstances of their rape. Woman states on the basis of official identity her children and other guys had been raped by authorities of Artek. Children gave evidence rape was shot on video camera. Law enforcers found 32,000 obscene pictures and porno videos in the computer of Dmytro P”, is reported by Hryhory Omelchenko.
....
en een hoop veel te high profile mannetjes --> rest artikel.

Law Delaware Flauwe kul berichtgeving


Bisdom failliet in misbruikzaak
Geplaatst door onze redactie op dinsdag 20 oktober 2009 om 11:30u (Bron: Ikon)

Flauwe kul berichtgeving volgens de al jaren ontmaskerde RK zwijnenstal traditie.

De enige interessante vraag is naar de kennelijk ervaren noodzaak van het gebruik ervan.

Vatican: Christian values continue to mould European civilisation


VATICAN CITY, 19 OCT 2009 (VIS) - This morning the Holy Father received the Letters of Credence of Yves Gazzo, head of the delegation to the Holy See of the Commission of the European Communities.

In his address, the Pope referred to the values of the European Union which, he said, "are the fruit of a long and complex history in which, it cannot be denied, Christianity has played a primordial role. The equal dignity of all human beings, the freedom of expression of faith as the basis of all other civil liberties, peace as a decisive element of the common good, human development (intellectual, social and economic) as a divine vocation and the sense of history deriving therefrom, are all central elements of the Christian revelation that continues to mould European civilisation".

"When the Church mentions the Christian roots of Europe", the Holy Father went on, "she does not seek a privileged status for herself. She wishes to enact historical memory, first and foremost by recalling a truth which is suffering ever greater neglect: the decisively Christian inspiration of the founding fathers of the European Union". Furthermore, "she wishes to make it clear that the legacy of values comes chiefly from Christian heritage, which continues to nourish Europe today".

"These values are not some anarchic or random assembly, rather they form a coherent whole which is historically ordered and regimented on the basis of a precise view of mankind".

The Holy Father then went on to highlight the risk of such values being "manipulated by individuals and pressure groups who seek to make their particular interests prevail to the detriment of an ambitious collective project, which is what Europeans hope to see and which aims at the common good of all inhabitants of the continent, and of the whole world".

"It is important", he went on, "that Europe does not allow her model of civilisation to fray, thread by thread. Her generosity must not be stifled by individualism or utilitarianism. The immense intellectual, cultural, economic riches of the continent will continue to bear fruit so long as they are nourished by a transcendental view of human beings, which is the greatest treasure of European heritage".

"This mainly involves the search for a just and delicate balance between economic efficiency and social needs, the protection of the environment and, above all, the indispensable and necessary support for human life from conception to natural death, and for the family founded on marriage between a man and a woman".

Europe will not truly be itself, said the Holy Father, "if she does not conserve the originality which constitutes her greatness and which tomorrow may make her one of the main players in promoting the integral development of peoples, something the Catholic Church considers as being the only possible way to remedy the imbalances of our world".

Benedict XVI assured the new head of delegation that the Holy See "follows the activities of European institutions with great respect and attention, and hopes that, with their work and creativity, they may honour Europe which, more than a continent, is a 'spiritual home'".

"The Church", he concluded, "wishes to 'accompany' the construction of European unity. For this reason she takes the liberty of recalling the fundamental and constituent values of European society, that they may be promoted for the good of everyone".

CD/LETTERS CREDENCE/UE:GAZZO VIS 091019 (570)

maandag, oktober 19, 2009

Angst

Angst, niet die van jezelf of je kinderen, maar die van volwassenen kun je ruiken.
Echte angst.
Van iemand die naast je loopt, terwijl alle andere ingredienten ontbreken.
Geen lawaai, geen direct herkenbare dreiging, geen oorlogsgeweld, vogels, zon.
En het weten van die geur van mens-angst.
Twee maal is levenslang genoeg.

Er is ook samengebalde angst. En de onbegrijpelijkheid dat een dak van een sporthal na een publicatie daartegen bestand blijkt.

De gebeden die daarbij horen, ik heb ze niet.
Oude Creoolse wijfies-reuzenhanden hadden ze, goddank.
Maar of er daarvan genoeg in Co Galway wonen?
Twee bleken genoeg; waar ze handen tekort hadden, groeiden ze ter plekke aan.
Misschien is God laat die handen er zijn en spaar het dak dan wel een gebed?


A priest in Co Galway has predicted that next week will be possibly the worst week ever for the Catholic Church in Ireland with the publication of the Dublin report on clerical abuse.

Fr Seán Mac Aodha, parish priest of An Spidéal, told this morning's congregation that although the report will deal solely with the church's handling of allegations in the Dublin archdiocese, the spotlight will fall on every diocese in the country.

Speaking in Irish, he said he feared the Church will lose another generation of followers again, as happened when scandals began to hit the church in the 1990s.

'They will lose confidence in the Church, from their bishops to right down to the priests in their own parish,' Fr Mac Aodha said.

He said he was speaking out in an attempt to prepare his congregation for the worst.

He said that people will have to believe everything they hear about the report, however incredible it may be.

zondag, oktober 18, 2009

"O desafio é garantir que nenhuma criança é hoje abusada na sociedade irlandesa" Intervieuw with Marianne O'Conno CORI, Ireland

por PATRÍCIA VIEGAS
17-10-2009
DN
Entrevista com Marianne O'Conno directora-geral da Conferência de Religiosos da Irlanda (CORI).

18 das 138 congregações representadas pela Conferência de Religiosos da Irlanda, CORI, são referidas no relatório Ryan.Como explica os abusos que aconteceram contra crianças que frequentavam escolas geridas por essas congregações religiosas durante o século XX?
Ainda estamos a tentar responder a isso e consideramos que essa é uma questão que temos que enfrentar. O facto de a Irlanda ser um Estado emergente, à altura dos factos; a pobreza generalizada; a compreensão psicológica da infância, que hoje é comum, mas não existia então; a falta de formação dos que trabalhavam nessas instituições e a teologia prevalecente à época. Estas são apenas algumas das explicações que têm sido adiantadas. Também deve ser levado em conta que, na sociedade irlandesa, em geral, nos lares e nas escolas, havia uma abordagem de disciplinar as crianças e isso, lamentavelmente, envolvia castigos corporais. Muito bem foi feito pelos religiosos na Irlanda, nesta altura, em termos de educação e saúde - mas a questão de saber porque tudo passou despercebido e sem inspecção permanece.

As vítimas de abusos físicos e sexuais querem que a Igreja lhes pague, directamente, 600 milhões de euros. Acha que a Igreja deve pagar?
Ao abrigo do acordo, de 2002, entre as 18 congregações e o Governo, baseado numa estimativa dos custos de compensação que provavelmente iriam ter lugar, os religiosos envolvidos na gestão das instituições do Estado transferiram 128 milhões de euros para as vítimas. Isto era baseado em dinheiro e em propriedades. 12,5 milhões de euros foram para um fundo de educação e formação. 10 milhões para aconselhamento. 6,5 milhões adicionais foram dispensados para serviços de aconselhamento. É agora sabido que o número de pessoas elegíveis para receber compensação do Conselho de Indemnizações [que junta dinheiro do Estado e da Igreja] ultrapassou todas as previsões e a estimativa dos custos é agora de mil milhões de euros. As congregações envolvidas com as instituições analisadas pela comissão Ryan, foram instadas pelo Governo a fazer uma avaliação dos seus bens. O Governo estabeleceu um painel independente para analisar os bens de cada uma. O desafio não é só arranjar dinheiro, embora isso deva ser feito. O desafio é encontrar formas de trazer conforto, assistência continuada aos que foram abusados. Os fundos adicionais, quando fixados, poderão ir para iniciativas nas áreas da habitação, educação, literacia, vícios, aconselhamento, cuidados de saúde. É preciso ver também que muitas congregações já providenciaram alojamento, formação, aconselhamento e apoio para os seus antigos alunos e continuam a fazê-lo. E é também preciso ver que cada uma das congregações tem autonomia dentro da estrutura CORI.

Que parte tem o Estado na culpa do que aconteceu?

A culpa não reside apenas na Igreja, mas também no Estado, que falhou no seu papel de regulador, no sistema judicial e na sociedade irlandesa, em geral, que fechou os olhos e nunca questionou o sistema. Acho que é difícil para alguém com menos de 40 anos perceber o que aconteceu. E para os que são mais velhos isso revela que não questionávamos a nossa vida e os nossos tempos.

Como podem os responsáveis pelos abusos ser punidos?
Nos casos em que possa ser provado que ocorreram actos criminosos a lei deve ser aplicada da forma mais rigorosa e, nalgumas ocasiões, tem sido.

Acha que ainda se vai a tempo de fazer justiça, tendo em conta que muita gente, vítimas e abusadores, já morreu?
Nós devemos sempre lutar por fazer justiça. Esse é um imperativo do Evangelho. Como religiosos, temos que continuar a tentar viver de forma autêntica o evangelho de Jesus Cristo. Também temos que procurar o perdão. Mas perdoar não é esquecer. Também precisamos de dizer a verdade e ajudar os nossos próprios membros a lidar com a realidade que agora emergiu. Não estamos onde estávamos há 40 anos. Foram pedidas desculpas públicas aos sobreviventes por todas as congregações religiosas envolvidas.

Como podem ser evitadas, no futuro, situações semelhantes?

Para evitar este tipo de abusos, no futuro, precisamos, a nível estatal, de uma legislação efectiva e de um acompanhamento rigoroso da implementação dos procedimentos de salvaguarda das crianças. Ao nível da Igreja, os bispos, a CORI e a União de Missionários Irlandesa, juntos, estabeleceram um organismo independente, o Conselho Nacional de Salvaguarda das Crianças, o qual já está a ser reconhecido a nível nacional pelas suas medidas. O desafio de todos nós é garantir que nenhuma criança é hoje abusada em nenhum sector da sociedade irlandesa e que o mesmo nunca mais vai acontecer.

Alguma vez esteve numa das escolas onde havia abusos?
Enquanto criança, até aos 11 anos, frequentei uma escola primária num convento, que tinha um orfanato agregado. Os órfãos eram educados em separado e o sentimento que eu tinha, enquanto criança, era o de que eles eram "diferentes". E embora houvesse muita gente pobre na minha escola, de alguma forma eu tinha a ideia de que "eles" eram ainda mais pobres do que nós. Nunca visitei nenhuma das suas salas de aula ou residências porque éramos desencorajados a ter algum tipo de comunicação com eles.

Marie-Therese, Tom Hayes e Paddy Doyle estão entre os milhares de vítimas de abusos nas escolas industriais geridas por religiosos na Irlanda do século XX e exigem mais 600 milhões em indemnizações das congregações da Igreja. Isto numa altura em que o país se prepara para um segundo relatório sobre abusos a crianças, depois da divulgação, em Maio, do relatório Ryan.

A capa impermeável azul escura às bolinhas brancas trava-lhe o passo apressado. Ansiosa por alcançar a escola, como uma criança da primária, Marie-Therese O'Loughlin chega ligeiramente atrasada à aula de Matemática para adultos na Larkin Community College de Dublim. Aos 58 anos, está a aprender a fazer contas e a tentar recuperar o tempo perdido. Os anos que passou na escola industrial de Goldenbridge, durante a infância, não foram dedicados ao estudo. "As crianças passavam os dias a fabricar rosários que depois eram vendidos em locais de culto. Além disso éramos obrigados a lavar pilhas de roupa suja, lençóis, as fardas das freiras. Os que nunca tinham visitas, como eu, eram crianças prisioneiras. Havia outros, com mais sorte, que eram autorizados a frequentar a escola nacional. Eu tentava ler os placardes de publicidade que via nos edifícios, mas quando saí de lá praticamente não sabia ler nem escrever", conta, com visível mágoa e marca psicológica por tudo o que passou. Marie- -Therese está entre os milhares de pessoas que sofreram agressões físicas e abusos sexuais em estabelecimentos de ensino estatais geridos por congregações religiosas na Irlanda do século XX. Não aceita, por isso, que o relatório Ryan, divulgado em Maio, após nove anos de investigação, sobre um período de seis décadas, "classifique como trabalho infantil aquilo que mais não era do que escravatura".

As escolas reformatórias e industriais acolheram, até fecharem, nos anos 90, mais de 30 mil crianças ditas malcomportadas ou vindas de famílias disfuncionais, o que muitas vezes poderia simplesmente significar que eram filhas de mãe solteira. Este era o caso de Marie--Therese, cuja mãe, Johanne Karma, vinda de uma zona rural, em Wexford, decidira dar à luz a criança na capital irlandesa para não ser apontada na sua terra natal. A Irlanda era e continua a ser um dos mais fervorosos países da Europa. A bebé nasceu na maternidade Regina Coeli, onde, aos 18 meses, caiu dentro de uma lareira, ficando com marcas na pele que ainda hoje são visíveis. Aos quatro anos, foi entregue a Goldenbridge, por ordem do tribunal. Ali foi--lhe dito que a mãe morrera. E ela acreditou. "Ainda cheguei a sair uma vez, na primeira comunhão, com uma família de acolhimento, que depois me abandonou. Entre os nove anos e os 16, quando saí dali, nunca mais vi o mundo exterior. Éramos obrigadas a fabricar seis dezenas de contas de rosário por dia porque senão batiam-nos. Todas as manhãs havia uma irmã que obrigava todos a levantarem-se e, se alguém fizera xixi na cama, levava", explica, descrevendo um quotidiano de horrores na escola gerida pelas irmãs da Misericórdia.

Habitualmente mal vestidas, higienizadas, alimentadas, as crianças estavam sempre impecáveis no dia em que o inspector visitava o estabelecimento de ensino. "Ele não falava connosco, nós também não tentávamos falar com ele, não sabíamos que tínhamos direitos e vivíamos no medo", precisa, acrescentando que, quando os homens que trabalhavam lá abusavam sexualmente dela, atrás do palco, a troco de doces, "também achava divertido porque era pequena e não sabia que estava errado".

Tom Hayes, que foi entregue pelo tribunal aos dois anos e meio de idade, também viveu tempo na crença de que a mãe morrera. "Eles diziam isso que era para ninguém fazer perguntas, escrever cartas, era mais simples. Os órfãos eram os mais agredidos de todos porque não tinham ninguém a quem se queixar", conta, enquanto bebe um café misturado com coca-cola num dos hotéis mais antigos de Dublim. E exibe uma cópia da sua ordem de internamento, primeiro na escola St. Joseph, em Killarney, depois noutra com o mesmo nome, mas em Glin, Limerick. Ao longo de décadas de desconfiança, secretismo, cumplicidade entre Estado, Igreja e sociedade, Tom, de 63 anos, ganhou a mania de comprovar com documentos tudo o que diz.

"Na segunda escola em que estive, gerida pelos irmãos Cristãos, tínhamos algumas aulas, trabalhávamos na quinta, os mais crescidos na loja de sapatos. Éramos 200 rapazes, dormíamos 30 a 40 no mesmo dormitório e, aí, à noite, era frequente os monitores e vigias, mais velhos, abusarem dos outros. Noutras ocasiões isso acontecia quando estávamos a brincar no jardim. Às vezes havia um, dois ou três rapazes a tentarem abusar sexualmente de uma outra criança, éramos enconrajados a fazer parte de gangues e a aceitar ser violados."

Entre 1954 e 1962, dos oito aos 16 anos, nunca saiu da escola para fora e das vezes em que fez queixa dos abusos aos religiosos ainda recebeu mais ameaças dos colegas. Nada foi feito. "Quando saí não sabia ler, nem usar um telefone, lia devagar, não tinha capacidade de relacionamento social. Mais tarde tive seguimento médico, ajuda de um psicólogo, mas aquilo nunca desapareceu. Os abusos continuam connosco, a assustar-nos, a aparecer nos pesadelos. Não há volta a dar: uma vez abusado, é-se marcado para toda a vida", desabafa, enquanto o olhar longínquo e lacrimoso denuncia que foi subitamente transportado para o passado.

Tom Hayes e Marie-Therese vieram a descobrir, posteriormente, que as suas mães não tinham morrido e que, apesar de nunca receberem visitas, tinham família. "Quando saí da escola andei, durante muito tempo, numa vida sem sentido. Até cheguei a usar nomes falsos, a inventar referências para ir trabalhar como au pair na Suíça, mas depois de ter sido descoberta fui internada num hospital psiquiátrico e deportada. Nessa altura, porém, já não tinha medo das ameaças das irmãs de Goldenbridge e fugi, viajando, à boleia por toda a Europa. A certa altura, quando vivia em Londres, numa pensão, fui ajudada por um padre, que me levou a um psicólogo", recorda, dizendo que começou a rir quando este lhe pediu para falar de si e da mãe.

"Eu não sabia quem eu era e muito menos o que era uma mãe." A única coisa de que tinha memória era a casa da família de acolhimento que em tempos a rejeitara. "Voltei à Irlanda e fui bater à porta deles. Pedi explicações e eles, então, levaram-me até um bar em Wexford. Fui apresentada a um homem que era meu tio, que não sabia que eu existia e ficou em estado de choque. Ele contou que a minha mãe casara com outro homem e vivia em Birmingham. Eu passei-me por saber isso e voltei a ir-me embora para Londres." Quando lá estava, na pensão, recebeu um telefonema da mãe a pedir- -lhe perdão. "Foi em Agosto de 1979", diz, acrescentando que "ela morreu em 1990".

Mais recentemente, em 2007, enquanto dormia à porta do Parlamento irlandês, Dáil, para exigir que lhe seja paga também uma indemnização pelo que lhe fizeram na maternidade Regina Ceoli, descobriu que tinha uma irmã. "A mulher ficava ali, a olhar, mas não dizia nada. A seguir mandou-me um e-mail a dizer que também ela era filha de Johanne Karma, mas que, ao contrário de mim, tinha sido adoptada. Agora tem quat-ro filhos. E eu não tenho nada, nunca estudei nem trabalhei, fui declarada inválida e sofro de stress pós-traumático", exclama, confessando que, até agora, ainda não arranjou coragem para se encontrar com a meia-irmã.

Tom, pelo contrário, já conheceu a família que tem do lado da mãe, em 2003. A Alliance Victim Support Group, de que faz parte, recebeu uma carta de um primo a perguntar por ele. "A família sempre soube que a irmã da mãe dele tivera um filho, mas não sabiam onde ele estava. Foi assim que descobri que a minha mãe fora viver para Inglaterra e tivera mais dois filhos e duas filhas. Conheci-os todos, há seis anos, tenho tios e tias, sobrinhos, em Limerick, Cork, Liverpool, até nos EUA", explica. Sobre o seu pai nunca descobriu nada.

Casado e com dois filhos, Tom vive actualmente em Armagh, na Irlanda do Norte. É reformado do Exército britânico, a tábua de salvação que encontrou depois de um passado errante em hotéis irlandeses, onde trabalhou depois de deixar a escola gerida pelos irmãos Cristãos. Agora prepara-se para ir ao Supremo Tribunal, com as suas próprias provas, porque o relatório Ryan não serve de prova. Apesar de tirar conclusões contundentes, a comissão do juiz Sean Ryan, que ouviu 1090 testemunhas, atribuiu pseudónimos a todos os alegados culpados de abusos.

Noutra ponta de Dublim, Paddy Doyle, que aos 58 anos tem que lidar não só com as memórias de agressões físicas e abusos sexuais, mas também com a deficiência a que uma operação malfeita o votou, explica que é indecente ser o dinheiro dos contribuintes a pagar a maior parte das indemnizações que têm sido atribuídas às vítimas. Activista de direitos humanos e defensor do uso da marijuana para fins terapêuticos, Doyle está numa cadeira de rodas desde os dez anos. Nessa altura, as freiras da escola St. Michael em Cappoquim, que lhe batiam a torto e a direito, fosse por ele urinar na cama, por dizer que vira um homem enforcado ou por não ter polido bem o chão, levaram-no ao hospital porque ele arrastava um dos pés. "Algum médico decidiu que o que tinha nos pés estava relacionado com o sistema neurológico e operaram-me, 11 vezes, ao cérebro. Eu conseguia andar antes da primeira operação, mas, depois dela, as minhas pernas começaram a fazer coisas que eu não queria e, de um momento para o outro, já nada funcionava", conta, explicando que, dos oito aos 18 anos, a sua vida foi passada em hospitais. "Nunca mais recebi a visita das freiras, elas deviam fazer o papel dos pais, mas os pais não fariam isso", lamenta, durante uma conversa no jardim do hotel que fica perto de sua casa.

Mas eis que, ao atingir a maioridade, um anjo apareceu na sua vida. "Fui adoptado por uma mulher viúva, que já tinha sete filhos dela, mas não se importou com a minha deficiência. Ela encorajou-me a fazer coisas que não fazia, por medo dos outros, como estudar, andar de autocarro. Foi então que passei a fazer tudo como os outros adolescentes: bebia, fumava, saía à noite, cortejava raparigas." E numa dessas noites de borga, quando tentava entrar numa discoteca, conheceu a futura mulher, uma enfermeira. "O dono da discoteca não me deixou entrar e eu fiquei à por- ta a protestar durante três noites. No final, já com os media lá, obriguei-o a dizer que nunca mais discriminaria ninguém pela deficiência", conta o activista, hoje com três filhos e dois netos.

O único parente mais próximo dos pais que conheceu, há 20 anos, foi um tio. "Eu andava a dar entrevistas na televisão por causa do livro que escrevi, alguém viu e ligou-me a dizer para ir visitá-lo, porque ele estava no hospital muito mal. Não consegui muita informação dele, pois era velhote, doente, só chorava. Mais tarde descobri que o homem enforcado de que me lembrava era o meu pai, que cometeu suicídio depois de a minha mãe ter falecido de cancro na mama. Mas, curiosamente, até hoje não consegui descobrir onde estão enterrados, porque na terra, em Longford, ninguém me diz."

Paddy é uma das vítimas de abusos que sobreviveram e ultrapassaram os obstáculos com muita coragem, diz Mary Raftery, jornalista freelancer, cujos documentários, States of Fear, em 1999, destaparam publicamente o escândalo de que muitos falavam em surdina. O seu trabalho obrigou o então primeiro--ministro irlandês, Bertie Ahern, mais as congregações religiosas, a pedir desculpas. Foi estabelecido um sistema de indemnizações, de apoio às vítimas, mais uma comissão de inquérito. O problema é que o Governo pagou, com dinheiro dos contribuintes, a maior parte dos 1,3 mil milhões de euros de indemnizações e as congregações só pagaram, até agora, 128 milhões. As vítimas exigem, por isso, que elas lhes paguem directamente metade do que o Governo pagou, ou seja, mais 600 milhões de euros. "Julgo que a educação que não tiveram foi aquilo que fez maior mossa. O departamento da Educação sabia que existiam queixas e também nunca fez nada. Quando investiguei, passei meses a tentar que as pessoas falassem comigo e, nalgumas aldeias, muitas admitiram que ouviam as crianças a gritar à noite. Quando perguntei porque não fizeram nada, essas pessoas responderam que não sabiam o que fazer, o que dizer, pois a Igreja era o poder", conta Raftery, considerando que tanto cidadãos como governantes tiveram, durante muitos anos, uma posição pró-católica. "A sociedade irlandesa colocou a Igreja num pedestal e achou que ela não podia fazer mal a ninguém."
Voorlopig!

Ainda estamos a tentar responder a isso e consideramos que essa é uma questão que temos que enfrentar. O facto de a Irlanda ser um Estado emergente, à altura dos factos; a pobreza generalizada; a compreensão psicológica da infância, que hoje é comum, mas não existia então; a falta de formação dos que trabalhavam nessas instituições e a teologia prevalecente à época. Estas são apenas algumas das explicações que têm sido adiantadas. Também deve ser levado em conta que, na sociedade irlandesa, em geral, nos lares e nas escolas, havia uma abordagem de disciplinar as crianças e isso, lamentavelmente, envolvia castigos corporais. Muito bem foi feito pelos religiosos na Irlanda, nesta altura, em termos de educação e saúde - mas a questão de saber porque tudo passou despercebido e sem inspecção permanece.

ok. ik ben geen native speaker.
Niet in het portugees, niet in het engels.
Maar hier rollen mijn ogen toch wel uit mijn hoofd.

Endemisch: Inheems, d.w.z. in een bepaald gebied voortdurend als ziekte aanwezig; verbonden met eigenaardige plaatselijke omstandigheden.

-inlands -normaal voorkomend -inheems -besmettelijk

endemic
relating to a disease (or anything resembling a disease) constantly present to greater or lesser extent in a particular locality;

A culpa não reside apenas na Igreja, mas também no Estado, que falhou no seu papel de regulador, no sistema judicial e na sociedade irlandesa, em geral, que fechou os olhos e nunca questionou o sistema. Acho que é difícil para alguém com menos de 40 anos perceber o que aconteceu. E para os que são mais velhos isso revela que não questionávamos a nossa vida e os nossos tempos.

Blijkbaar is er toch nog steeds iets levensgevaarlijks aan dat rk onderwijs
En vind de voorzitter van CORI dat ook.

Tenzij deze dame natuurlijk in het buitenland aan het manipuleren is.
Toch mooi die EU.
En zo'n Europeese bisschopsconferentie.
't Kost miljarden, maar dan heb je ook wat... een paar raporten, om mee te beginnen.

zaterdag, oktober 17, 2009

Dublin abuse report to highlight tawdry saga of cover-ups published end of next week?

Irish Times
October 17, 2009

ANALYSIS: The report about to be published into child sex abuse by Dublin priests will shine a light on how some of the country’s most senior churchmen covered up their crimes, writes MARY RAFTERY

ON THIS day, precisely seven years ago, RTÉ television broadcast Cardinal Secrets , the Prime Time investigation which uncovered widespread clerical child abuse and cover-up within the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Dublin. The government’s response was swift. Then minister for justice Michael McDowell announced its intention to establish a commission of investigation. This was to be one of the first of the so-called fast-track tribunals – a lean operation designed to complete its business rapidly.

And yet, here we are, seven years later, still awaiting its report.

However, the fault for the delay does not lie with the commission. As the initial political enthusiasm for inquiry waned, various government departments dragged their heels, and it was over three years before it was finally established in March 2006.

It has been one of the most silent of our tribunals, with all of its hearings conducted in private. It was catapulted into the public eye only once – during the attempt by Cardinal Desmond Connell, former archbishop of Dublin, to prevent its examination of almost 6,000 church documents over which he claimed privilege. He subsequently dropped his challenge in the face of the clear intention of the current archbishop, Diarmuid Martin, to co-operate fully with the commission.

Connell will of course be at the heart of the commission’s report. How he and his chancellor (or diocesan administrator) Msgr Alex Stenson handled complaints of child abuse against their priests will be one of the key findings of the report. We know already that the cover-up was extensive, and that it stretched back over the tenure of at least three of Connell’s predecessors – archbishops Kevin McNamara, Dermot Ryan and John Charles McQuaid.

It is this involvement by the most senior of the country’s prelates that will set the Dublin report apart. The Ryan report on institutional abuse focused primarily on responsibility and cover-up within religious orders, most of which operate as independent entities within the Catholic Church. Indeed, it was clear in the wake of the report during the summer that the hierarchy was keen to distance itself from the religious congregations involved.

Now, however, it is the turn of the bishops themselves to face the consequences of their actions and omissions, and to be held responsible for the grievous wrongs inflicted on hundreds of children through failure to protect them from abuse.

Bishops all over the country are implicated in this saga of tawdry self-protection. Many of the present hierarchy served apprenticeships as auxiliary bishops in Dublin, and so were in a position to be aware of sexual abuse of children by their priests. For instance, the report is likely to examine the role of the Bishop of Limerick, Donal Murray, in the case of convicted paedophile Fr Thomas Naughton. As a Dublin auxiliary bishop, Murray was told in the early 1980s of complaints made against Naughton while serving in Valleymount, Co Wicklow. Naughton denied all allegations and was allowed remain in the parish.

When further complaints were made, Naughton was simply moved on. He was transferred to Donnycarney parish on Dublin’s northside, where he immediately found new child victims. Again complaints were made, and eventually the priest admitted that he had sexually abused one child only. This was Mervyn Rundle, who several years later sued the archdiocese and received a large sum in compensation.

What happened then provides a key insight into how the archdiocese did its business. The chancellor, Stenson, became centrally involved, although he reported back extensively to his superiors – in the case of Naughton, three archbishops: Ryan, McNamara and Connell. Naughton admitted to Stenson that he had abused the 10-year-old Mervyn on six occasions. Stenson decided to send Naughton to a psychiatrist, who submitted a report stating that, based on what Naughton had told him, he did not view the priest as a serious problem.

The reality was that Naughton had lied. He had told the psychiatrist that there had been only one incident of minor sexual abuse with one child. This was never contradicted by the archdiocese, despite the fact that Naughton had admitted to Stenson that he had abused young Mervyn on six occasions, not to mention the complaints from Valleymount that Bishop Donal Murray knew about.

Nonetheless, Naughton was allowed to remain in Donnycarney parish for the next seven months, saying Mass and hearing confessions, despite the fact that he was a self-confessed criminal. Finally, when further victims became known, it was decided at a meeting of the auxiliary bishops to send Naughton to the UK for treatment.

On his return to Dublin some months later, he was permitted to continue parish work and assigned to Ringsend. There he again began abusing children, sexually assaulting at least two young altar boys. It took a further two years before he was removed from parish ministry in 1988. Eventually in 1995, Mervyn Rundle, then aged 20, made a complaint to the Garda. Naughton was convicted in 1998. For well over a decade, several bishops and senior priests had covered up his criminal activity, protecting him and exposing further very young children to incalculable harm.

This, however, is only a single case. The report will deal with an additional 44 priests. It is likely to establish similar patterns of cover-up, together with cases where abusing priests were given glowing references, allowing them to move to other dioceses and countries. It may also be possible to discover how priests used their involvement with national schools to gain access to victims. There are also indications that working class parishes were at greater risk of having a preponderance of child-abusing priests.

Other patterns likely to emerge are that the children targeted for abuse came very often from the most devout of families. And to further compound the scale of the tragedy, these families and individuals who complained were often ostracised and condemned by many within their own parish who chose to disbelieve them.

We may also finally get answers to other questions, some relating to the role of the State. Why, for instance, have there been so few prosecutions brought against abusing priests, and what (if any) information has been provided to the civil authorities through the years? While we know that Connell stated that he supplied the names of 17 known abusers to the Garda in 1995, we do not yet know precisely what action resulted.

And crucially, there remain areas of mystery around the issue of insurance. The archdiocese has admitted that in 1988 it insured itself against claims in respect of child abuse perpetrated by its priests. It is further documented that during this period and throughout the 1990s, the archdiocese was claiming that it knew little about the issue of child sexual abuse.

It did, however, clearly know enough to insure and protect its assets against future claims.

Finally, it should be remembered that almost every aspect of what will be revealed in the Dublin report has been repeated in other dioceses around the country. Most of them have so far escaped similar scrutiny. Perhaps an extension of the inquiry process nationwide should now be the next step.

Mary Raftery, with reporter Mick Peelo, produced and directed Cardinal Secrets

Snotneusies met rode, blauwe, groene en gele t-shirtjes




[...] The conferences inspires teens in their Catholic faith through talks, music, prayer, the Mass, fellowship and praise and worship. The theme for the weekend, Above All, was taken from 1 Chronicles 29:11 — “Yours, O Lord, are the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heavens and on the earth is yours; yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all.”

Bishop Raymond Lahey gave the homily at the weekend’s closing Mass.
He spoke about the friendship of Christ and placing Him above all.
“Let him be the Lord of your life. You will have peace and strength.
“If Jesus Christ is Lord of our lives, if he is above all, if we love Jesus, we will want to live in obedience to his commands,” Bishop Lahey said.
He encouraged the youth to turn to the Holy Spirit in times of need.
[...]



Halifax — Globe and Mail Update
Oliver Moore Friday, Oct. 16, 2009
A huge folder on Raymond Lahey’s personal computer contained sexually charged images, including one of a boy who appears as young as nine touching himself while wearing nothing but rosary beads, police say. ...

...
The documents allege that Lahey used MSN to chat with people he meets online and that the conversations were often sexual in nature, but he thought the people involved were adults.

One document also says the RCMP officer seeking the search warrant interviewed Shane Earle, a Newfoundland man who alleges he saw a catalogue of child pornographic images in Lahey's bedroom when he was a priest in St. John's in the mid-1980s.

In the search warrant, it is alleged Earle told the officer last week that "the images were of boys not older than 13 years old and that in some of the images the boys were sexually aroused."

Earle has said in an interview that he told police in Newfoundland about the incident a few years after it is alleged to have occurred. His claims prompted police there to review their files, but they say they have not found any record of it.

vrijdag, oktober 16, 2009

Relaunch Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Gov. Gen Michaëlle Jean relaunched the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission in an emotional ceremony at Rideau Hall on Thursday.

"When the present does not recognize the wrongs of the past, the future takes its revenge," Jean told an audience that included residential school survivors. "For that reason, we must never, never turn away from the opportunity of confronting history together — the opportunity to right a historical wrong."

The mandate of the commission, which has been plagued by delays and controversy, is to probe the assimilation and abuse aboriginal children faced at residential schools across Canada in the 20th century.

Now expected to finish its work by 2014, the commission has been stalled since its former chairman, Justice Harry LaForme, resigned on Oct. 20, 2008, six months into his mandate.

In his resignation letter, LaForme wrote that the commission was on the verge of paralysis and doomed to failure. He cited an "incurable problem" with the other two commissioners — Claudette Dumont-Smith and Jane Brewin Morley — whom he said refused to accept his authority as chairman and were disrespectful.

Both women later resigned to clear the slate for an entirely new commission. In June, Justice Murray Sinclair of Manitoba was named as chair, along with a new slate of commissioners.

The commission is the first its kind in the world to focus specifically on abuse against children of a specific race, said Sinclair, who is himself a residential school survivor
While the schools they attended were known as Indian residential schools, Inuit, Metis and First Nations' children all collectively went to them, he added.

"To those of you who would say, 'That's in the past, why don't they just get over it?' I would say this," Sinclair said.

"We and you are not out of that past yet. Our families were broken apart and must be rebuilt. Our relationships have been damaged and must be restored. Our spirits have been stolen and must be returned. Our love for life was turned into fear and we must work together to learn to trust once again."