It was simply more of the same.

When the Pope addressed the grand finale of the Eucharistic Congress, his failure to deviate from the church's inexorable message on child sex abuse can hardly have come as a surprise to anyone.

What has been in train since the publication of the Murphy Report in 2009 -- this carefully orchestrated avoidance of accountability -- was simply continued last night.

The Eucharistic Congress, from the off, has been about moving the church past the scandal, not moving it any nearer the truth.

This all goes back to the publication of the Murphy Report when we should have seen two levels of response.

Firstly, the installation of safeguards against the abuse of children today.

Secondly, an honest and credible response to those who suffered in the past.

This response should have included the resignation of bishops who had been in the governance of the Dublin Archdiocese at a time when the sexual abuse of children by priests was being covered up.

I was willing to wait for that.

However, it soon became obvious that none of the bishops appeared to consider resignations as a viable response.

Then there were comments from the church's hierarchy that caused further insult.

Bishop Martin Drennan in Galway said it was very difficult to "move the victims beyond a position of revenge", which is to completely misrepresent the issue of resignation.

Then we had to wait for the publication of the Pope's pastoral letter to Irish Catholics a month later, but that, too, delivered nothing.

There was no acknowledgement or taking of responsibility; the issue was portrayed as being a problem amongst Irish bishops; it was a quandary of secularisation and a lack of faith, not a deeply rooted crisis within the church itself.

That's when I decided we were wasting our time expecting anything from these people in terms of a credible response to victims. At some stage, you have to stop waiting.

I was not expecting anything last night because these previous expectations have been so utterly disappointed.

It has been a week of dishonest spin, an agenda to misrepresent the past ,and to minimise the truth.

It was supposed to be about the Eucharist. 

It turned out to be an exercise in drawing lines across the sand, to move the church once and for all beyond scandal without any real effort to address it.

  

Andrew Madden

clerical wishpers

verjaring Protests greet start of congress in Dublin

Calling on all activists and survivors to protest at the 50th Eucharistic 

at the RDS on Sunday 10th June 2012 at 12:30. 

All are welcome to attend whether as individuals or groups.
It will continue there for the week until Sunday 17th June 2012 

where a final mass will be said in Croake Park – 13:00 till 17.15.

bron

klik

A number of small protests were staged at entrances to the Eucharistic Congress at Dublin's RDS today.
Separate protests were staged by abuse survivors, a Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) group, Atheist Ireland and a parent and former Dublin school board member who wants his school named after someone other than former arcbishop of Dublin Dermot Ryan.
At the main entrance to the congress site, abuse survivor Paddy Doyle said nobody was listening to the protests. “Priests and bishops are just walking by,” he said.

It was “offensive” to hold the congress in Ireland at this time, he claimed. “There's s still an awful lot of rawness out there where the abused are concerned. We're still smarting...after the Redress Board, all the reports,” he said.

He also noted that the cost of the Congress had been put at almost €12 million, “And yet we hear the Church saying there is no money" when it comes to abuse victims, he said. "It's another institutional slap in the face," he said.

At the Anglesea Road entrance, a group of LGBT activists protested against the stance of the Catholic Church on homosexuality.

Spokesman Max Krzyanowski said they were protesting at the many “grave violations” in the separation of Church and State. “The congress presents a rare opportunity to do so where people at the top of the Church are concerned,” he said. “We have no desire to interfere with normal Catholics in the observance of their faith, which we respect.”

NETZWERKB Netzwerk Betroffener
                        Sexualisierter Gewalt

Für Journalisten-Rückfragen:
netzwerkB – Netzwerk Betroffener von sexualisierter Gewalt e.V.
Norbert Denef, Vorsitzender
E-Mail: norbert.denef@netzwerkb.org
Telefon: +49 (0)4503 892782
Mobil: +49 (0)163 1625091

He said the Church was opposed to equality for LBGT citizens. He noted how, when civil partnership legislation was being introduced, Catholic primate Cardinal Seán Brady had sought exclusion on grounds of conscience for Catholic registrars who might be called on to preside at such ceremonies.

He referred to Section 37 in equality legislation which allowed the Church discriminate against LGBT people in schools, over 90 per cent of which they controlled at primary level. It was similar where LGBT nurses and doctors were concerned in Church-run hospital.

What the LGBT community was trying to do was "to change the discourse in the media to one of equal respect for all, regardless, of faith, gender, or sexual orientation," he said.

Jane Donnelly of Atheist Ireland said she was there in solidarity with the LGBT protesters "who are being discriminated against on the basis of religious prejudice".

At the Simmonscourt entrance to the RDS, Brendan Doris, a parent and former member of the board of management at a national school in Balgaddy, Co Dublin named after former archbishop of Dublin Dermot Ryan said she wants the name changed.

He has written to the current Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin asking that this be done because Dr Ryan was named 253 times in the Murphy report. "An accessory to a crime is as guilty of the crime," he said. "Archbishop Martin felt he couldn't support Cardinal Brady (in the recent controversy over the Cardinal's 1975 inquiries into abuse by Fr Brendan Smyth). Why should he support archbishop Ryan?”

He has written to Dr Martin asking that he do "the correct thing” by our children, schools and their staffs.

In his 2010 Letter to the Catholics of Ireland, Pope Benedict XVI spoke of his hope that the 50^th International Eucharistic Congress would be part of the process of healing and renewal for the community in the wake of the abuse scandal. When the week long Congress opens in Dublin’s RDS arena Sunday, June 10^th, a large granite rock hewn from the Wicklow mountains will be unveiled, engraved with a prayer composed by a survivor of clerical abuse. 
 Listen:

bron

It has been called ‘The Healing Stone’ and it will remain as a permanent reminder of the human toll of the abuse of children, a lasting memorial to the bravery and heroism of victims, a constant prayer for reconciliation within the Church in Ireland, carved in stone.

Fr Kevin Doran, Secretary General of IEC2012, told Emer McCarthy that “stone speaks of permanence. To say something is ‘carved in stone’ is to say that it is here to stay rather than just a passing thought. The stone represents the firm determination to work for healing and renewal.

Stone is highly symbolic in Irish culture. Megalithic monuments such as passage tombs, forts, dolmens, standing stones and stone circles are an integral part of Ireland’s landscape and testimony to past cultures, how they lived and how they worshipped. The first missionaries to Ireland understood this and used the medium to teach the Irish about Christ and his Gospel message, giving birth to the iconic Stone, or Celtic Crosses, tall monumental sculptures that narrate Christ’s life, death and resurrection and which can still be seen today. Moreover, when religious ceremonies were outlawed during Penal times (17^th Century), Irish Catholics used stones from church ruins, with a simple cross carved on their top, to mark the rural locations for the clandestine celebration of the Eucharist. These became known as Mass rocks.

But, Fr. Doran adds, stone also has a deep significance in our Christian tradition: “The stone which covered the tomb of Jesus, symbolises both the end of His earthly existence and the fact of His Resurrection. We are conscious of the fact that, for many who have experienced abuse, either themselves or to a member of their family, the pain of abuse can sometimes be like a stone weighing heavily on them. It is a stone that, in some way or other needs to be rolled back so that they can be set free.”

The text of the prayer, which we be recited at the Opening ceremony by all participants, reads:

“Lord we are so sorry,
for what some of us did to your children,
treated them so cruelly,
especially in their hour of need.
We have left them with a life-long suffering,
this was not Your plan for them or us.
Please help us to help them,
guide us, oh Lord. Amen”.

Work on the Healing Stone project began in early 2012. Following consultation with various people, including abuse survivors, it was agreed that the stone would be an appropriate symbol for the Congress.

Fr Doran concludes: “It is planned that after the Congress, the Stone will be given a more permanent home on an accessible site, where people can pause and pray, and so that there will be a permanent public reminder of our need never to take safeguarding for granted.”

Folly of closing Embassy to the Holy See

OPINION: The Government’s decision to close the Irish Embassy in the Vatican is short-sighted, writes VINCENT TWOMEY

THE GOVERNMENT’s decision to close the Embassy to the Holy See, reducing Ireland’s diplomatic representation to second-class status, should be a cause of concern not only for Catholics, but for all citizens.

Apart from the Chinese, diplomats and statesmen everywhere must be shaking their heads at the closure of a resident diplomatic mission in what has been described as one of the most important “listening posts” in the diplomatic world.

It is ironic that, soon after Russia’s long-term special resident envoy to the Holy See was raised to full ambassador, soon after Britain upgraded its newly established mission to the Holy See, and almost immediately following Australia’s decision to open a resident mission, Ireland should close its Embassy.

What should be of concern to all of us, is the narrow-minded, parochial nature of our foreign policy that cannot see the bigger picture and recognise the importance of the Holy See as a major player in the world of statesmanship. Even Arab states have come to see the importance of relations with the Holy See and have recently entered into diplomatic relations with it.

Statesmanship, the capacity to rise above local politics and immediate issues for the sake of a greater good, would seem to be sadly lacking in our Government.

Considering the fact that the Holy See was among the first to recognise the newly independent Irish Free State, to close it down for the sake of a paltry sum of money is, as might be said on our neighbouring island, not cricket. In other words, it is in bad taste.

Even on economic grounds it could be argued that there may well be a price to be paid in the long run: Irish businesses, especially subcontractors, who tender for business overseas tend to get the contracts, I gather, in the face of other competitors, all other things being equal. This is because of the debt so many of the countries of Africa and Asia feel toward Ireland as a Catholic country, whose priests, nuns, brothers and laity laid the foundation for their educational and health services – and who educated most of their present- day leaders. If our Government shows no respect to that patrimony, why should they?

Finally, it was reported recently that the Government would not be extending an invitation to the Pope for the International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin next year. But it is not in their gift to issue or not to issue invitations to such events. If Pope Benedict XVI were to come, it would be at the invitation of the Irish bishops or on his own initiative. In this case, he would normally be received as a head of state. Are we to understand that our Taoiseach is unwilling to extend that courtesy to the Pope?

No wonder the semi-official Chinese newspaper praised the Taoiseach’s attack on the Pope. They will be very pleased to hear of downgrading of diplomatic relations. They too want a Chinese national church free of the influence of Rome, a church controlled by the state and hence subservient to the state. Presumably this is not the aim of our Government, but one could be forgiven for thinking otherwise.

---

Father D Vincent Twomey is professor emeritus of moral theology, Maynooth, and author of The End of Irish Catholicism?

Church scandals ‘not unique’ to Ireland

The Irish Times –
Monday, August 23, 2010
ÉIBHIR MULQUEEN

The future of the Catholic Church was a question which went beyond the effects the abuse scandals had on it in Ireland, historian Diarmaid Ferriter said at the concluding session of the Merriman Summer School yesterday.

Speaking on the theme “From Cullen to Connell: the rise and fall of the Irish Catholic Church”, Prof Ferriter, professor of modern history in UCD, said Ireland was a very small jewel in the Catholic Church crown in the context of its sex abuse scandals.

It would take time to absorb the sheer enormity of what was in the Ryan, Murphy and Ferns reports, but the issues were not unique to Ireland and were now being raised in other countries.

“It may well be more pronounced within Ireland for a whole host of different reasons that are relevant to the 19th and the 20th century in terms of the Catholic culture that was developed,” he said.

The Vatican’s refusal to accept the resignations of the two Dublin auxiliary bishops had been a public humiliation for Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, “which is ironic given what he has done and the way he tried to change the language that was used before”. He believed Archbishop Martin might become a fall guy to the structure, power and control of the church.

“Diarmuid Martin can be jumping up and down until he is blue in the face but there are certain things he won’t be able to change on his own.”

Another issue was how long the church could sustain its structures as they were, he said. “They don’t have priests. It has been admitted that they are going to need more and more lay involvement to keep parishes running. The question is, ‘Are they [lay people] actually going to get any say?’
“Thankfully, it is not the job of the historian to predict the future.”

The future of much historical research would be within a comparative international framework, he added. “We have tended to look at ourselves in too insular a way and we do tend to think we are unique in all sorts of ways. And we are in some ways, but in other ways we are not. That is going to be a serious research project for a generation, I think.”

In regard to the church’s historical role, he said while Ireland had appeared to be a Catholic country for Irish people after independence, the reality of how it had been experienced was more nuanced.

Instances of dissent and difference were identifiable both privately and at government level, he said. Attempts to promote mass public devotion, such as during the centenary celebrations of Catholic emancipation in 1929 and the Eucharistic Congress of 1932, had a legitimising effect, but the State had had its way in many church-State tussles.

A 10-year campaign ending in 1935 to have legislation introduced regulating public dances had raised the question of why there were so many unlicensed dances. “You have got to remind yourself when you are talking about denunciations, there was a hell of a lot to be denounced.
“There is a case to be made that a lot of Irish people remained unreadily anarchic in their very daily behaviour.”

Homily of Cardinal Seán Brady, Mass for St Patrick's Day, St Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh

Irish Times
March 17, 2010, 11:15

My sisters and brothers in Christ.

Today, Irish people across the world are remembering St Patrick and the land of their birth. Most will do so with joy and pride. They will celebrate the enormous contribution of this nation to the Christian faith and heritage across the world. They will celebrate a people renowned for generosity to others in need.
Ireland and its people have much to be proud of.
Yet every land and its people have moments of shame.
Dealing with the failures of our past, as a country, as a Church, or as an individual is never easy. Our struggle to heal the wounds of decades of violence, injury and painful memory in Northern Ireland are more than ample evidence of this.
There is always tension between the possibilities we aspire to and our wounded memories and past mistakes.
Saint Patrick, our national Apostle, our patron Saint, knew this tension throughout his life. Even as he brought the joy and life of the Gospel to the Irish people, he was haunted by the sins of his past. We recall the famous opening words of his Confession: 'I, Patrick, a sinner, and the least of all the faithful'.
In today's Gospel, Saint Peter wrestled with his own sinfulness while still answering Jesus' call to become a fisher of men. Jesus calls Peter to 'put out into the deep'. Peter responds: 'Leave me Lord, I am a sinful man.'
We all experience this tension between being called to follow Jesus - to live up to his values - and the reality of our sinful nature. There is true freedom in humbly acknowledging - like the wounded healers Peter and Patrick - the full truth of our sinfulness.
This week a painful episode from my own past has come before me. I have listened to reaction from people to my role in events thirty five years ago. I want to say to anyone who has been hurt by any failure on my part that I apologise to you with all my heart. I also apologise to all those who feel I have let them down. Looking back I am ashamed that I have not always upheld the values that I profess and believe in.
These are momentous times for the Church in Ireland.
I believe the two years leading up to the Fiftieth International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin will be among the most critical for us since the time of St. Patrick. I deeply believe that God is calling us to a new beginning, to a time of Patrician energy, reform and renewal. I look forward to the Pastoral Letter of Pope Benedict XVI to the Faithful of Ireland as one important source for this renewal.
The Gospel we have just read, and the life of St. Patrick, also offers us some principles for this renewal.
Firstly, renewal begins with a sincere, prayerful listening to the Word of God. We have just heard how the crowds pressed around Jesus, hungry for his Word - the Word of life itself.
Secondly, we need to listen to the Spirit as the source of our renewal. St. Patrick heard the Spirit's call in the 'voice of the Irish'. As we search for the voice of the Spirit in our time, the Irish faithful must be involved more effectively within the Church.
Finally, we must humbly continue to deal with the enormity of the hurt caused by abuse of children by some clergy and religious and the hopelessly inadequate response to that abuse in the past.
I believe the period up to the Eucharistic Congress has to involve a sincere, wholehearted and truthful acknowledgement of our sinfulness. Like St. Patrick, like St. Peter, we as Bishops, successors of the Apostles in the Irish Church today must acknowledge our failings. The integrity of our witness to the Gospel challenges us to own up to and take responsibility for any mismanagement or cover-up of child abuse. For the sake of survivors, for the sake of all the Catholic faithful as well as the religious and priests of this country, we have to stop the drip, drip, drip of revelations of failure.
The Lord is calling us to a new beginning. None of us knows where that new beginning will lead. Does it allow for wounded healers, those who have made mistakes in their past to have a part in shaping the future? This is a time for deep prayer and much reflection. Be certain that I will be reflecting carefully as we enter into Holy Week, Easter and Pentecost. I will use this time to pray, to reflect on the Word of God and to discern the will of the Holy Spirit. I will reflect on what I have heard from those who have been hurt by abuse. I will also talk to people, priests, religious and to those I know and love.
Pray for those who have been hurt. Pray for the Church. Pray for me.

Nog een tweeling, sextourisme en abortus; St Patrick en de Filipijnen

Sex Tourism and Abortion
By: Father Shay Cullen

Preda Foundation founder

Fr Shay Cullen is to be honoured with the Humanitarian Award at the 2009 Meteor Ireland Music Awards together with a donation of 100,000 Euro. at St Patricks Day 17th March
Fr. Shay Cullen, nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize, is a Missionary priest from Dublin and a member of the Missionary Society of St. Columban who has worked tirelessly in protecting women and children and human rights in the Philippines since 1969.

He established Preda Foundation in Olongapo City in the Philippines in 1974 to promote human rights, justice and peace. He strives to eliminate child abuse and promote respect for children's rights by attempting to change the unjust economic, political and social structures and attitudes that allow such abuse.
He has developed twelve Preda which aim to educate for peace, free children from brothels and jails and give them a chance to recover in therapeutic homes and be reintegrated to have a happier life free from violence and abuse.

When he uncovered a child prostitution ring selling children to personnel at the US Naval base, Subic Bay, he initiated a successful campaign to remove the bases and convert the infrastructure into a commercial manufacturing zone. As many as a hundred thousand Filipinos now work at the converted U.S. bases in Clark and
Subic.

in 1975, a successful poverty alleviation, manufacturing and export project that lifts the poor to a life of dignity. He oversees twelve major projects at the Foundation including environmental protection and tree planting. With a present professional staff of 83 the projects are expanding.

He has received several human rights awards and has been nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize and other human rights awards. He has testified before the US Congress, The Philippine Senate and is a well known speaker and facilitator at numerous other international conferences. Along with being the author of
"Passion and Power" an autobiography, he writes a weekly column in The
Manila Times which is published in other newspapers and on-line. He also writes
poetry, songs and is a media commentator on the issues of trafficking of women
and children and human rights violations.

When the social workers, police from Limay, Bataan and the mother of two missing children, 13 and 14 year-olds, all from Limay, Bataan arrived in Alaminos, Nr. Pangasinan last December 2008, they expected the local police to have a squad ready to raid the “Trappers” sex bar and rescue the minors who had been trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation. Instead, the club was closed and the children are gone. After hours of persuasion, the Alaminos police miraculously found the children at a “bus stop” and they were then given to the Preda home for trafficked girls.

The traffickers, pimps and club operators seemingly have impunity from the law. Even the good Mayor, a former congressman apparently is unable to control the sex Mafia. Most sex bars, operate with a mayor's license. The people of Alaminos ought to come to the support of the mayor in his campaign to cancel the licenses and free the women and children.
Philippine Embassy personnel in Malaysia rescued several children, 13 and 14 years old trafficked into commercial sex clubs there and with the help of Visayan Forum, a children's rights organization, they were brought back to the Philippines.

One, Maryanne, was referred to the Preda Children's Home where she recovered and gave birth to twins. They are the love of her life now despite how she became pregnant. The other girls dote on them and never want to return to prostitution but want to marry in the future and have a family.

Had Maryanne not been rescued, she would have been dragged screaming to an abortion clinic and the babies forcibly aborted.

The sexual exploitation of children in Philippine tourism is found on both the national and international fronts.

Thousands of Europeans, North Americans and Australian sex tourists make the Philippines a destination and create a demand for commercially-sexually exploited children (CSEC.) Internal trafficking is the most common form of child sexual exploitation in Philippine tourism.

Thousands of Filipino sex tourists abuse some of the estimated 80,000 children under the age of 18. They are made available in sex bars or through pimps. Even 11 year- olds can be bought by arrangement.

Most bars, clubs, beer houses and karaoke bars are fronts for prostitution. Alongside, prostituted adult women and minors are also employed. However, their documents are fake and rarely verified by officials. It is a growing business with an estimated 1.2 million single male tourist arrivals every year in the Philippines. How many seek out minors as sexual partners is not known since it is secret underground-business worth millions of dollars.

The profits from tourism, sexual or otherwise, is allegedly of greater importance to the officials and business sector than is the protection of the children and the dignity of Filipinos. With the economic recession, more and more children will be dropping out of school and will enter the work force as impoverished families try to survive and hundreds more will be trafficked into the sex tourist business.

Besides the life long physical and mental damage to the minors, there is the ever present danger of sexually transmitted diseases like HIV-AIDS. Adjacent to the sex industry, drug trafficking and distribution is the other side of the sex tourist coin and the exploited children are vulnerable to addiction at an early age.

Worst of all is the illegal and dangerous abortions that can be arranged with back-street abortion clinics. This is the most heinous of crimes and usually they are late term abortions as we learn from the teenage victims who conceal the pregnancy from the sex bar operators as long as they can out of fear of punishment and forced abortion. They are dragged to the clinics and endure forced abortion. These clinics are well known to the pimps and club operators and even police.

The lack of moral outrage by the church, local government and citizens against the sex industry and its abortion clinics is shocking in itself. When was the last national rally or church-sponsored campaign against it? There are sex bars in every town and parish.

When will the clergy speak out against the exploitation? This silence, “see nothing, do nothing”, is tantamount to hypocritical consent.



bron: Preda foundation ; the torture and abuse of children in their own pictures.