Bron:
zaterdag, juni 12, 2010
fropskottels, mensbaksels en de Vleeslapeter
Thank you!
Light After Darkness
On 11 May 1999, the then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern apologised on behalf of the state and its citizens to victims of institutional abuse for 'our collective failure to intervene, to detect their pain, to come to their rescue'. Eleven years on, four children of survivors of abuse at Ireland's industrial schools recount the effect the cruelty and neglect suffered by their parents has had on their lives.
By Claire Ryan.
Photographs by Mark Condren
Sunday Tribune
'Knowing what mam suffered has definitely made us closer. The moment I walk in the door my mam still runs up and hugs me' Conor Buckley (29)
His mother Christine Buckley grew up in Goldenbridge Orphanage and was the subject of the 1996 documentary 'Dear Daughter'. She now runs The Aislinn Centre, which supports survivors of abuse
'I've a vivid memory from when I was a kid of being in my bedroom and seeing a big scar running down my mother's leg. I was probably about five or six at the time and I remember asking why her leg was like that. She was pretty open about it and said that boiling water had been poured over it but she didn't go into any detail in terms of why or how it happened.
My mam lived in Goldenbridge Orphanage from the time she was a few months old up until she was around 18. Her mam met my grandad, a Nigerian medical student in Dublin and became pregnant. After giving birth to my mam in England, she came back to Ireland and placed her in Goldenbridge.
I was 15 when Dear Daughter aired in 1996. My sister, brother and myself were featured in the closing scenes so we were very aware of it and knew it could be something big. My mam didn't want me to watch it on the night of the first broadcast because I had a big important sports game the next day and it would have been too upsetting. I remember seeing her photo in the papers the next day at school but nobody around me made too much of a fuss, which was good. I eventually watched it a few weeks later and I was upset but in actual fact I found it a lot more upsetting when I was older and watched it again. Maybe reality had kicked in a little more. I think if I watched it again now I'd find it even more upsetting and I'd probably be even angrier than before.
After the documentary was broadcast, we had to get a second phone in the house because there were so many calls and journalists were camped outside the house 24/7 but mam really took it all in her stride.
I've never been to Goldenbridge. I know when mam visited there she was shaking like a leaf because of the bad memories it brings back to her. I don't think I'd ever want to see the place because of what happened to her there.
I'm actually quite religious in my own way and I haven't lost my faith. I know there are a lot of very good priests and nuns out there and my mam always stressed the fact that there were nuns who were very good to her as well in Goldenbridge and my own experience with religious orders at my schools was very positive.
Knowing what mam suffered has definitely made us closer as a family. For someone who never had parents herself she has somehow still managed to be an incredibly loving parent and a great role model. The moment I walk in the door at home my mam still runs up and hugs me, which is the way it's been since I was a child. I suppose in many ways she's a mother not just to me, my brother and my sister but to everybody at the Aislinn Centre as well."
By Claire Ryan.
Photographs by Mark Condren
Sunday Tribune
'Knowing what mam suffered has definitely made us closer. The moment I walk in the door my mam still runs up and hugs me' Conor Buckley (29)His mother Christine Buckley grew up in Goldenbridge Orphanage and was the subject of the 1996 documentary 'Dear Daughter'. She now runs The Aislinn Centre, which supports survivors of abuse
'I've a vivid memory from when I was a kid of being in my bedroom and seeing a big scar running down my mother's leg. I was probably about five or six at the time and I remember asking why her leg was like that. She was pretty open about it and said that boiling water had been poured over it but she didn't go into any detail in terms of why or how it happened.
My mam lived in Goldenbridge Orphanage from the time she was a few months old up until she was around 18. Her mam met my grandad, a Nigerian medical student in Dublin and became pregnant. After giving birth to my mam in England, she came back to Ireland and placed her in Goldenbridge.
I was 15 when Dear Daughter aired in 1996. My sister, brother and myself were featured in the closing scenes so we were very aware of it and knew it could be something big. My mam didn't want me to watch it on the night of the first broadcast because I had a big important sports game the next day and it would have been too upsetting. I remember seeing her photo in the papers the next day at school but nobody around me made too much of a fuss, which was good. I eventually watched it a few weeks later and I was upset but in actual fact I found it a lot more upsetting when I was older and watched it again. Maybe reality had kicked in a little more. I think if I watched it again now I'd find it even more upsetting and I'd probably be even angrier than before.
After the documentary was broadcast, we had to get a second phone in the house because there were so many calls and journalists were camped outside the house 24/7 but mam really took it all in her stride.
I've never been to Goldenbridge. I know when mam visited there she was shaking like a leaf because of the bad memories it brings back to her. I don't think I'd ever want to see the place because of what happened to her there.
I'm actually quite religious in my own way and I haven't lost my faith. I know there are a lot of very good priests and nuns out there and my mam always stressed the fact that there were nuns who were very good to her as well in Goldenbridge and my own experience with religious orders at my schools was very positive.
Knowing what mam suffered has definitely made us closer as a family. For someone who never had parents herself she has somehow still managed to be an incredibly loving parent and a great role model. The moment I walk in the door at home my mam still runs up and hugs me, which is the way it's been since I was a child. I suppose in many ways she's a mother not just to me, my brother and my sister but to everybody at the Aislinn Centre as well."
'It was very upsetting to hear his anger and pain come out so powerfully but I'm glad that it did because it touched so many people' Catriona O'Connor (43) Her father Michael O' Brien, a former Fianna Fáil mayor of Clonmel, was sent to St Joseph's Industrial School, Ferryhouse, Clonmel, in the 1940s. His story came to public prominence following his emotional outburst on 'Questions & Answers' in May 2009
'I only found out 10 years ago about the sexual abuse my father suffered when I saw his photo in the paper beside a story that said something along the lines of 'Former Mayor of Clonmel Abused in an Industrial School'. None of us had any idea. We were gobsmacked. We knew that his mother had died when he was eight and that my father and seven of his siblings were taken from the family home and put into care but he'd completely protected us from knowing about the sexual abuse.
I rang him straight away after seeing the article and he apologised that he hadn't had a chance to tell us before the story hit the paper. I've two brothers and one sister and my father spoke to each of us individually because we're all very different and would have dealt with it in our own way. We each asked him what we felt we needed to know, or what we felt we could deal with at the time and he told us.
He'd buried all this pain under his thick skin for years until he finally let it out and told everyone the truth of what he'd suffered. I don't think he could have carried on for the rest of his life not telling us the extent of what went on at Ferryhouse but there was a time when you couldn't speak out against people in the church, so he didn't. They were treated like gods.
I think everything really came to a head when he was on Questions & Answers last year. I knew he was going to be in the audience and was there to ask a question but I wasn't prepared for what happened when he confronted minister Noel Dempsey and the government on the issue of institutional abuse. It was very upsetting to hear his anger and pain come out so powerfully but I'm glad that it did because it touched so many people. After Questions & Answers, the amount of emails, phone calls, letters and cards he received was unbelievable.
He's always been an amazing father. He was tough with us growing up but very fair and very supportive. We never wanted for anything. He could have turned out bitter and defeated by what he suffered and he could taken his own pain out on his family but he never did.
He never turned to drink or put what he had suffered upon us. My mother is a fantastic woman as well and
I admire them both for giving us a normal home life against the odds. I see my father every day. We're very close. He dotes on his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.
Sometimes I look at him and think it's incredible what he's been through in his life. He's very strong and he'll stay strong until he gets closure – no matter how long it takes. He'll fight on until the day he dies. He just wants acceptance of the damage that has been done.
I feel a lot of anger about what he went through. It affects us all to this day. We still cry about it. This is something we never asked for. It should never have happened to my father or anyone. I don't go to Mass. I can't bring myself to go. Maybe my faith in the church will come back but at the moment it's too raw.
I rang him straight away after seeing the article and he apologised that he hadn't had a chance to tell us before the story hit the paper. I've two brothers and one sister and my father spoke to each of us individually because we're all very different and would have dealt with it in our own way. We each asked him what we felt we needed to know, or what we felt we could deal with at the time and he told us.
He'd buried all this pain under his thick skin for years until he finally let it out and told everyone the truth of what he'd suffered. I don't think he could have carried on for the rest of his life not telling us the extent of what went on at Ferryhouse but there was a time when you couldn't speak out against people in the church, so he didn't. They were treated like gods.
I think everything really came to a head when he was on Questions & Answers last year. I knew he was going to be in the audience and was there to ask a question but I wasn't prepared for what happened when he confronted minister Noel Dempsey and the government on the issue of institutional abuse. It was very upsetting to hear his anger and pain come out so powerfully but I'm glad that it did because it touched so many people. After Questions & Answers, the amount of emails, phone calls, letters and cards he received was unbelievable.
He's always been an amazing father. He was tough with us growing up but very fair and very supportive. We never wanted for anything. He could have turned out bitter and defeated by what he suffered and he could taken his own pain out on his family but he never did.
He never turned to drink or put what he had suffered upon us. My mother is a fantastic woman as well and
I admire them both for giving us a normal home life against the odds. I see my father every day. We're very close. He dotes on his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.
Sometimes I look at him and think it's incredible what he's been through in his life. He's very strong and he'll stay strong until he gets closure – no matter how long it takes. He'll fight on until the day he dies. He just wants acceptance of the damage that has been done.
I feel a lot of anger about what he went through. It affects us all to this day. We still cry about it. This is something we never asked for. It should never have happened to my father or anyone. I don't go to Mass. I can't bring myself to go. Maybe my faith in the church will come back but at the moment it's too raw.
snoskommer en trollekloppers
'When I heard about my father being taken to a small room in the basement at Letterfrack, I cried. It broke my heart. I kept sobbing' Mark Sweeney (38)His father Tom Sweeney was sent to industrial schools, in Artane and Letterfrack, in the 1950s and 1960s
'We kind of always knew my father had had a hard life because he used to talk about the Christian Brothers a lot but we never knew he was molested until he went on hunger strike outside the Dáil in 2004.
He was in Artane first and then they took him to Letterfrack. They said it was for truancy but his mam had a letter from his teacher saying he was good at school. The Christian Brothers used to make him run around the yard and dig potatoes until five in the morning. The travellers got an even worse doing. If they wet the bed they were made run around with the sheets tied around their heads, until the bed linen dried.
My father has a bad temper and was very hard on all six of us. He wasn't an affectionate dad. He didn't know how to be because he was never shown any affection. That really impacted on us. My brother turned to heroin and is in Portlaoise prison at the moment. I did a lot a lot of hash and pills but copped on in time and got into fitness. I boxed until I was 28.
I must have been around 10 when detectives from Salthill in Galway came to our house in the 1980s. My father was one of the first to be interviewed about Letterfrack. We were told us to get out of the room so we knew something serious was going on.
I only found out he was on hunger strike when my mother rang me and asked me to go down and support him. She only meant me to stand beside him but I decided to join him on the hunger strike. I did 21 days with him and he did 22.
It wasn't down to money. He just wanted to speak about what had happened to him and not be penalised for it. He also wanted an apology from the Christian Brothers, which he never got.
Being on the strike was tough. My hands bled with the cold. It rained for 10 days solid. After the seventeenth day, my father told me to start making his funeral arrangements but he held on. It was only during the negotiations in Leinster House that I found out properly about the sexual abuse. None of us had known about it.
When I heard about my father being taken to a small room in the basement at Letterfrack, I cried. It broke my heart. I kept sobbing afterwards but I never told my sisters or brothers the details of what I heard.
When I heard about my father being taken to a small room in the basement at Letterfrack, I cried. It broke my heart. I kept sobbing afterwards but I never told my sisters or brothers the details of what I heard.
I've got a daughter of 11. Her mother and myself aren't together but I see her nearly every day. She's my little princess. I tell her how much I love her all the time because my father wasn't able to say that to us.
I love my dad but it's difficult because he's still so tortured."
'Dad has suffered from bouts of depression all his life and still drinks to forget and to sleep but mainly just to get through the day' June Jordan (41)Her father Joe Jordan was sent to St Joseph's industrial school, Tralee, Co Kerry in the 1950s
I'm the eldest in our family and always spent a lot of time in my dad's company. When I was around seven or eight he told me about being sent to St Joseph's in Tralee – an industrial school run by the Christian brothers. He said he was sent there because he was an orphan. I thought it was so sad for him and for us that he didn't have any family and didn't know where he came from.
My father wasn't sexually abused but he suffered plenty of physical and emotional abuse that has scarred him deeply. Some of the stories he used to tell us about his time at St Joseph's were very traumatic. He frequently spoke about a little chap that was in the school called Joe Pike, who was a great Irish dancer. I remember dad would frequently get upset at the memory of Joe being badly beaten and afterwards lying dead on the ground.
My dad has always been a drinker, so we didn't have much growing up and we did go without. He has suffered from bouts of depression all of his life and still drinks to forget and to sleep but mainly just to get through the day, which has damaged us as a family but I suppose it has helped him cope. I remember when I was very young he would come home from the pub drunk and I'd be up waiting for him with my mam. He'd start talking about the mother he never knew and get very upset. Being the eldest, I knew the most about dad's story and it made me the strongest member of my family. I became very protective of them. My mother was very caught up with my father, with his drinking and his problems, so I took on a lot to help my siblings. I became old before my time.
Dad didn't know how to deal with us because he had no one to teach him how to parent but he's a gentle person and we knew he loved us, even if he couldn't always show it.
When dad was 50, we found out through Barnardos that he had a sister. It turned out his mam had died in 1968, which was the year he got married. That was devastating for him but meeting his sister, who lives in Gloucester, about 15 years ago was a dream come true. My aunt had been sent to a school in Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon, and my dad was fostered out a few times before being sent to St Joseph's until he was 16. They were never given any details about each other's existence and were allowed to think that they were entirely alone in the world.
Dad has found help through the Alliance Committee but he still wants recognition from the authorities of what want went on. They created a damaged generation and the knock-on effect is that families like ours have borne the brunt of what our parents suffered. It doesn't stop with them. My father is a very good person and I love him to bits but because of what he's been through it's like I'm parenting him at times."
May 23, 2010
Antjie
vrijdag, juni 11, 2010
Paus volhardt in ontkenning sexualiteit vrouwen
In his homily the Pope noted how the Year for Priests was celebr
ated to ensure "a renewed appreciation of the grandeur and beauty of the priestly ministry. The priest is not a mere office-holder. ... Rather, he does something which no human being can do of his own power: in Christ's name he speaks the words which absolve us of our sins and in this way he changes, starting with God, our entire life. Over the offerings of bread and wine he speaks Christ's words of thanksgiving, ... which open the world to God and unite it to Him. The priesthood, then, is not simply 'office' but Sacrament".
"This audacity of God Who entrusts Himself to human beings (Who, conscious of our weaknesses, nonetheless considers men capable of acting and being present in His stead) this audacity of God is the true grandeur concealed in the word 'priesthood'. ...This is what we wanted to reflect upon and appreciate anew over the course of the past year. We wanted to reawaken our joy at how close God is to us, ... we also wanted to demonstrate once again to young people that this vocation, this fellowship of service for God and with God, does exist".
"It was to be expected that this new radiance of the priesthood would not be pleasing to the 'enemy'; he would have rather preferred to see it disappear, so that God would ultimately be driven out of the world. And so it happened that, in this very year of joy for the Sacrament of the priesthood, the sins of priests came to light - particularly the abuse of the little ones. ... We too insistently beg forgiveness from God and from the persons involved, while promising to do everything possible to ensure that such abuse will never occur again; and that in admitting men to priestly ministry and in their formation we will do everything we can to weigh the authenticity of their vocation and make every effort to accompany priests along their journey".
"Had the Year for Priests been a glorification of our individual human performance, it would have been ruined by these events. But for us what happened was precisely the opposite: we grew in gratitude for God's gift, a gift concealed in 'earthen vessels' which ever anew, even amid human weakness, makes His love concretely present in this world. So let us look upon all that happened as a summons to purification, as a task which we bring to the future and which makes us acknowledge and love all the more the great gift we have received from God. In this way, His gift becomes a commitment to respond to God's courage and humility by our own courage and our own humility".
The Pope continued his homily by commenting on Psalm 23 - "The Lord is my shepherd" - which forms part of today's liturgy. "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want", said Benedict XVI. "God personally looks after me, after us, after all mankind. I am not abandoned, adrift in the universe and in a society which leaves me ever more lost and bewildered. ... The world's religions, as far as we can see, have always known that in the end there is only one God. But this God was distant. ... There was still a recognition that the world presupposes a Creator. Yet this God, after making the world, had evidently withdrawn from it. The world itself had a certain set of laws by which it ran, and God did not, could not, intervene in them". However, "wherever God's loving concern is perceived as getting in the way, human beings go awry. ... God wants us, as priests, in one tiny moment of history, to share His concern about people. As priests, we want to be persons who share His concern for men and women, who take care of them and provide them with a concrete experience of God's concern".
"We should strive to 'know' men and women as God does and for God's sake; we should strive to walk with them along the path of friendship with God. ... The shepherd points out the right path to those entrusted to him. He goes before them and leads them. Let us put it differently: the Lord shows us the right way to be human. He teaches us the art of being a person. What must I do in order not to fall, not to squander my life in meaninglessness? This is precisely the question which every man and woman must ask, and one which remains valid at every moment of one's life. How much darkness surrounds this question in our own day! We are constantly reminded of the words of Jesus, Who felt compassion for the crowds because they were like a flock without a shepherd".
"The people of Israel continue to be grateful to God because in the Commandments He pointed out the way of life. ... God has shown us the way and how to walk aright. The message of the Commandments was synthesised in the life of Jesus and became a living model. Thus we understand that these rules from God are not chains, but the way which He is pointing out to us. ... By walking with Christ, we experience the joy of Revelation, and as priests we need to communicate to others our own joy at the fact that we have been shown the right way".
Explaining the Psalm's reference to the "darkest valley", Benedict XVI pointed out that this can refer to death where, however, the Lord will not abandon us. Yet, "when speaking of the darkest valley, we can also think of the dark valleys of temptation, discouragement and trial through which everyone has to pass. Even in these dark valleys of life He is there. ... Help us priests, so that we can remain beside the persons entrusted to us in these dark nights. So that we can show them your own light", he said.
"'Your rod and your staff - they comfort me': the shepherd needs the rod as protection against savage beasts ready to pounce on the flock; against robbers looking for prey. Along with the rod there is the staff which gives support and helps to make difficult crossings. ... The Church too must use the shepherd's rod, the rod with which she protects the faith against those who falsify it, against currents which lead the flock astray. The use of the rod can actually be a service of love. Today we can see that it has nothing to do with love when conduct unworthy of the priestly life is tolerated. Nor is it love if heresy is allowed to spread and the faith twisted and chipped away, as if it were something that we ourselves had invented. As if it were no longer God's gift, the precious pearl which we cannot let be taken from us. Even so, the rod must always become once again the shepherd's staff - a staff which helps men and women to tread difficult paths and to follow the Lord".
The Psalm closes with a reference to the "table set", to "dwelling in the house of the Lord". In these words, said the Holy Father, "we see a kind of prophetic foreshadowing of the mystery of the Eucharist, in which God Himself makes us His guests and offers Himself to us as food - as that bread and fine wine which alone can definitively sate man's hunger and thirst. How can we not rejoice that one day we will be guests at the very table of God? ... How can we not rejoice that He has enabled us to set God's table for men and women, to give them His Body and His Blood, to offer them the precious gift of His very presence".
Finally, the Pope commented on the two communion antiphons which recount the lance thrust in Jesus' side which caused blood and water to come out. This, the Pope explained, recalls "the two fundamental Sacraments by which the Church lives: Baptism and the Eucharist. From the Lord's pierced side, from His open heart, there springs the living fountain which continues to well up over the centuries and which makes the Church. The open heart is the source of a new stream of life".
"Every Christian and every priest should become, starting from Christ, a
wellspring which gives life to others. We ought to be offering life-giving water to a parched and thirsty world. Lord", the Holy Father concluded, "we thank you because for our sake you opened your heart; because in your death and in your resurrection you became the source of life. Give us life, make us live from you as our source, and grant that we too may be sources, wellsprings capable of bestowing the water of life in our time. We thank you for the grace of the priestly ministry. Lord bless us, and bless all those who in our time are thirsty and continue to seek".
HML/ VIS 20100611 (1630)
ated to ensure "a renewed appreciation of the grandeur and beauty of the priestly ministry. The priest is not a mere office-holder. ... Rather, he does something which no human being can do of his own power: in Christ's name he speaks the words which absolve us of our sins and in this way he changes, starting with God, our entire life. Over the offerings of bread and wine he speaks Christ's words of thanksgiving, ... which open the world to God and unite it to Him. The priesthood, then, is not simply 'office' but Sacrament"."This audacity of God Who entrusts Himself to human beings (Who, conscious of our weaknesses, nonetheless considers men capable of acting and being present in His stead) this audacity of God is the true grandeur concealed in the word 'priesthood'. ...This is what we wanted to reflect upon and appreciate anew over the course of the past year. We wanted to reawaken our joy at how close God is to us, ... we also wanted to demonstrate once again to young people that this vocation, this fellowship of service for God and with God, does exist".
"It was to be expected that this new radiance of the priesthood would not be pleasing to the 'enemy'; he would have rather preferred to see it disappear, so that God would ultimately be driven out of the world. And so it happened that, in this very year of joy for the Sacrament of the priesthood, the sins of priests came to light - particularly the abuse of the little ones. ... We too insistently beg forgiveness from God and from the persons involved, while promising to do everything possible to ensure that such abuse will never occur again; and that in admitting men to priestly ministry and in their formation we will do everything we can to weigh the authenticity of their vocation and make every effort to accompany priests along their journey".
"Had the Year for Priests been a glorification of our individual human performance, it would have been ruined by these events. But for us what happened was precisely the opposite: we grew in gratitude for God's gift, a gift concealed in 'earthen vessels' which ever anew, even amid human weakness, makes His love concretely present in this world. So let us look upon all that happened as a summons to purification, as a task which we bring to the future and which makes us acknowledge and love all the more the great gift we have received from God. In this way, His gift becomes a commitment to respond to God's courage and humility by our own courage and our own humility".
The Pope continued his homily by commenting on Psalm 23 - "The Lord is my shepherd" - which forms part of today's liturgy. "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want", said Benedict XVI. "God personally looks after me, after us, after all mankind. I am not abandoned, adrift in the universe and in a society which leaves me ever more lost and bewildered. ... The world's religions, as far as we can see, have always known that in the end there is only one God. But this God was distant. ... There was still a recognition that the world presupposes a Creator. Yet this God, after making the world, had evidently withdrawn from it. The world itself had a certain set of laws by which it ran, and God did not, could not, intervene in them". However, "wherever God's loving concern is perceived as getting in the way, human beings go awry. ... God wants us, as priests, in one tiny moment of history, to share His concern about people. As priests, we want to be persons who share His concern for men and women, who take care of them and provide them with a concrete experience of God's concern".
"We should strive to 'know' men and women as God does and for God's sake; we should strive to walk with them along the path of friendship with God. ... The shepherd points out the right path to those entrusted to him. He goes before them and leads them. Let us put it differently: the Lord shows us the right way to be human. He teaches us the art of being a person. What must I do in order not to fall, not to squander my life in meaninglessness? This is precisely the question which every man and woman must ask, and one which remains valid at every moment of one's life. How much darkness surrounds this question in our own day! We are constantly reminded of the words of Jesus, Who felt compassion for the crowds because they were like a flock without a shepherd".
"The people of Israel continue to be grateful to God because in the Commandments He pointed out the way of life. ... God has shown us the way and how to walk aright. The message of the Commandments was synthesised in the life of Jesus and became a living model. Thus we understand that these rules from God are not chains, but the way which He is pointing out to us. ... By walking with Christ, we experience the joy of Revelation, and as priests we need to communicate to others our own joy at the fact that we have been shown the right way".
Explaining the Psalm's reference to the "darkest valley", Benedict XVI pointed out that this can refer to death where, however, the Lord will not abandon us. Yet, "when speaking of the darkest valley, we can also think of the dark valleys of temptation, discouragement and trial through which everyone has to pass. Even in these dark valleys of life He is there. ... Help us priests, so that we can remain beside the persons entrusted to us in these dark nights. So that we can show them your own light", he said.
"'Your rod and your staff - they comfort me': the shepherd needs the rod as protection against savage beasts ready to pounce on the flock; against robbers looking for prey. Along with the rod there is the staff which gives support and helps to make difficult crossings. ... The Church too must use the shepherd's rod, the rod with which she protects the faith against those who falsify it, against currents which lead the flock astray. The use of the rod can actually be a service of love. Today we can see that it has nothing to do with love when conduct unworthy of the priestly life is tolerated. Nor is it love if heresy is allowed to spread and the faith twisted and chipped away, as if it were something that we ourselves had invented. As if it were no longer God's gift, the precious pearl which we cannot let be taken from us. Even so, the rod must always become once again the shepherd's staff - a staff which helps men and women to tread difficult paths and to follow the Lord".
The Psalm closes with a reference to the "table set", to "dwelling in the house of the Lord". In these words, said the Holy Father, "we see a kind of prophetic foreshadowing of the mystery of the Eucharist, in which God Himself makes us His guests and offers Himself to us as food - as that bread and fine wine which alone can definitively sate man's hunger and thirst. How can we not rejoice that one day we will be guests at the very table of God? ... How can we not rejoice that He has enabled us to set God's table for men and women, to give them His Body and His Blood, to offer them the precious gift of His very presence".
Finally, the Pope commented on the two communion antiphons which recount the lance thrust in Jesus' side which caused blood and water to come out. This, the Pope explained, recalls "the two fundamental Sacraments by which the Church lives: Baptism and the Eucharist. From the Lord's pierced side, from His open heart, there springs the living fountain which continues to well up over the centuries and which makes the Church. The open heart is the source of a new stream of life".
"Every Christian and every priest should become, starting from Christ, a
wellspring which gives life to others. We ought to be offering life-giving water to a parched and thirsty world. Lord", the Holy Father concluded, "we thank you because for our sake you opened your heart; because in your death and in your resurrection you became the source of life. Give us life, make us live from you as our source, and grant that we too may be sources, wellsprings capable of bestowing the water of life in our time. We thank you for the grace of the priestly ministry. Lord bless us, and bless all those who in our time are thirsty and continue to seek".HML/ VIS 20100611 (1630)
donderdag, juni 10, 2010
Theresa Brenninkmeijer;
In 2011 wordt in Nederland de zweedse band afgeschaft.
De macht van een foto en doden.
23 jaar.
springprocessierupsen;
Up to 10,000 people gathered outside Leinster House this afternoon after taking part in a silent march through Dublin organised as a mark of solidarity with those who suffered clerical abuse in church-run institutions.
An eerie silence fell over the city centre as the march weaved through the city. The horrors inflicted on tens of thousands of children in orphanages and schools across the country spilled onto the streets of the capital as survivors were supported in a public demonstration of suffering and grief.
An eerie silence fell over the city centre as the march weaved through the city. The horrors inflicted on tens of thousands of children in orphanages and schools across the country spilled onto the streets of the capital as survivors were supported in a public demonstration of suffering and grief.
A banner with the words ‘Cherishing all of the children of the nation equally’ from the 1916 Proclamation was carried by emotional protesters who gathered on Molesworth Street in the shadow of the Dail.
The dignity and peace of the march was shattered only when victims demanded to voice their pain. Marie Therese O’Loughlin took to the stage to describe her childhood with the Sisters of Mercy. She said she was was forced to wash excrement off younger children with cold water from the toilet and wash their dirty bed sheets before being made to make rosary beads in what she called the ‘Goldenbridge factory’. “There are lots of people like me,” she told the crowd as they chanted “We Want Justice” and “Name and Shame”. “This was a mini holocaust and the Government and the religious tried to pretend we weren’t hurt in these institutions,” she added.
Abuse survivor Christine Buckley joined four victims in a wreath laying ceremony on the back of a temporary stage — an open-back lorry opposite the Dail gates. Two black wreaths were left for those who died and two white for the living. Emotional protesters then repeated words on a petition handed over to Christian 
Brother Kevin Mullan and Sr Marianne O’Connor, head of the Conference of Religious of Ireland. Loud applause erupted after they read:
Brother Kevin Mullan and Sr Marianne O’Connor, head of the Conference of Religious of Ireland. Loud applause erupted after they read: “We the people of Ireland, join in solidarity and call for justice, accountability, restitution, and repatriation for the unimaginable crimes committed against the children of our country by religious orders in 216 or more institutions.”
Ms Buckley, who first lifted the lid on institutional abuse 25 years and 20 days ago, told the crowd she never thought this day would come. “I wish we had 365 days like this,” said the former Goldenbridge resident. “I find it ironic that for once we the victims are in front and the religious who abused are behind. “We have tried and tried to say what happened to 165,000 children in 216 hellholes. Now finally, we have been vindicated.”
As 216 black and white balloons marking the number of institutions were released into the air, many protesters made the short walk to the front of Leinster House and tied white ribbons, children’s shoes and teddy bears to the gates.
John Kelly, Survivors of Child Abuse in Ireland, pleaded with protesters not to get angry but maintain their dignity like they had for many years. He revealed up to 300 survivors were invited to a 
reception at Aras an Uachtarain on June 28 by President Mary McAleese. “This will have great significance because you were denied your constitutional rights as a child, you were valued as a child, the constitution didn’t mean anything,” he said. “Now finally the state is saying we cherish you as adults. That is very important to us.”
reception at Aras an Uachtarain on June 28 by President Mary McAleese. “This will have great significance because you were denied your constitutional rights as a child, you were valued as a child, the constitution didn’t mean anything,” he said. “Now finally the state is saying we cherish you as adults. That is very important to us.” Ms Buckley, who runs the Aislinn support group, called for a trust to be formed to take money from religious orders to compensate victims and demanded that organisations be penalised if found guilty of any deception. “This trust fund should be independent so that means the religious no longer control us,” she added. “We ask that every single payment that was made at the sham of a redress board is revisited.”
This morning Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, said he would be unable to attend the march as he was currently debating the Ryan report at the Bishop's Meeting in Maynooth. He will send a representative to the march instead.
reproduktie rechten
Helplines
A special helpline has been established in Drogheda, which opened at 9am. The number is 1800-200529.
There is also a general HSE information line: 1850-241 850.
Alternatively, people can contact their local obstetric service.
The HSE said that the helplines had received 145 calls since the scandal broke yesterday.
A special helpline has been established in Drogheda, which opened at 9am. The number is 1800-200529.
There is also a general HSE information line: 1850-241 850.
Alternatively, people can contact their local obstetric service.
The HSE said that the helplines had received 145 calls since the scandal broke yesterday.
woensdag, juni 09, 2010
Een pijnlijke rechtszaak herinnert Argentinië aan de vuile oorlog van de jaren zeventig en tachtig. De twee geadopteerde kinderen van één van de rijkste zakenvrouwen in het land moeten tegen hun wil dna-materiaal afstaan.
Vermoed wordt dat de moeder, de 84-jarige Ernestina Herrera de Noble, de adoptiepapieren van de twee heeft vervalst. De twee kinderen zouden in de jaren zeventig gestolen zijn van vermoorde politieke gevangenen.
Het gebeurde wel vaker dat families die loyaal waren aan het regime, kinderen kregen toegewezen van gevangenen. Er zijn enkele tientallen gevallen van bekend. Zwangere vrouwen moesten bevallen in de martelcentra van het regime en werden dan gedood.
Waarheid
De Dwaze Moeders, die al jaren aandacht vragen voor hun door het regime vermoorde kinderen, eisten een dna-test van de kinderen, zodat kan worden bepaald of de twee familie zijn van verdwenen gevangenen. Het dna van de kinderen zal worden vergeleken met het erfelijk materiaal van verdwenen activisten.
"We zullen nooit iemand tot contact dwingen met de biologische familie. Nooit.", verzekerde een woordvoerder. "Maar we willen wel de waarheid weten: dat hun ouders gevangenen waren, dat hun grootouders naar hen hebben gezocht en dat de kinderen nooit vergeten zijn."
Bewijs tegen moeder
De inmiddels volwassen kinderen willen helemaal niet weten van wie zij familie zijn. Zij zijn bang dat hun dna-materiaal zal worden gebruikt in een strafproces tegen hun moeder. "Onze identiteit is van ons. Het is privé en daar hebben de Dwaze Moeders niks mee te maken", laten Felipe en Marcella weten.
De familie Herrera stelt dat de kinderen pionnen zijn in een politiek spel tegen de moeder. Herrera leidt een mediaconcern dat kritisch is over president Kirchner.
Het zal naar verwachting nog weken duren voordat de uitslag bekend is.
Vermoed wordt dat de moeder, de 84-jarige Ernestina Herrera de Noble, de adoptiepapieren van de twee heeft vervalst. De twee kinderen zouden in de jaren zeventig gestolen zijn van vermoorde politieke gevangenen.
Het gebeurde wel vaker dat families die loyaal waren aan het regime, kinderen kregen toegewezen van gevangenen. Er zijn enkele tientallen gevallen van bekend. Zwangere vrouwen moesten bevallen in de martelcentra van het regime en werden dan gedood.
Waarheid
De Dwaze Moeders, die al jaren aandacht vragen voor hun door het regime vermoorde kinderen, eisten een dna-test van de kinderen, zodat kan worden bepaald of de twee familie zijn van verdwenen gevangenen. Het dna van de kinderen zal worden vergeleken met het erfelijk materiaal van verdwenen activisten.
"We zullen nooit iemand tot contact dwingen met de biologische familie. Nooit.", verzekerde een woordvoerder. "Maar we willen wel de waarheid weten: dat hun ouders gevangenen waren, dat hun grootouders naar hen hebben gezocht en dat de kinderen nooit vergeten zijn."
Bewijs tegen moeder
De inmiddels volwassen kinderen willen helemaal niet weten van wie zij familie zijn. Zij zijn bang dat hun dna-materiaal zal worden gebruikt in een strafproces tegen hun moeder. "Onze identiteit is van ons. Het is privé en daar hebben de Dwaze Moeders niks mee te maken", laten Felipe en Marcella weten.
De familie Herrera stelt dat de kinderen pionnen zijn in een politiek spel tegen de moeder. Herrera leidt een mediaconcern dat kritisch is over president Kirchner.
Het zal naar verwachting nog weken duren voordat de uitslag bekend is.
Class-action lawsuits seek damages for residential school abuse
ST. JOHN'S
SUE BAILEY
The Canadian Press
09/06/10
Thousands of former residential school students in Newfoundland and Labrador have won the right to sue the federal government after they were left out of a historic multi-billion dollar compensation package.
Their class-action lawsuit was certified by Justice Robert Fowler of the Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court on Monday and their lawyer says if it’s settled, it could top $500 million.
The case involves about 5,000 Labrador Metis, Innu and Inuit students who attended five schools in the province and are seeking damages over allegations of sexual and physical abuse along with cultural losses, one of the group’s lawyers, Steve Cooper, said Tuesday.
He bases the value of an out-of-court settlement on similar cases in other parts of the country.
Ottawa can appeal the certification within 30 days.
Margot Geduld, a federal spokeswoman for Indian and Northern Affairs, said the government is reviewing Justice Robert Fowler’s decision.
Ottawa claims it had no involvement with the schools and excluded former students from its official apology and $4-billion compensation deal.
The allegations in the class-action lawsuit involve the Yale, Lockwood, Makkovik, Nain and St. Anthony schools. German-based Moravian Missionaries ran two of the schools while the International Grenfell Association, a non-religious charity, ran three. None of the allegations in the lawsuit has been proven in court.
Cindy Lyall said she was almost six years old when she moved as a young Inuit girl to a student dormitory in North West River in Labrador to start residential school.
A year later, she said she was raped by an older student and sexually abused by another person.
“I grew up, I never ever really felt like I belonged anywhere or fitted in place anywhere. I always felt awkward ... like I wasn’t as good as anyone else,” said Lyall, who is now 46 and is part of the lawsuit.
“An apology would be nice.”
The class action also includes some immediate family members of students who attended the schools.
Cooper said many were devastated when they were left out of the compensation package and official apology by Prime Minister Stephen Harper almost two years ago. Ottawa has argued the schools existed before the province joined Canada in 1949.
It therefore claims it is not responsible for what happened at the schools between 1949 and when the last closed some 30 years later.
Cooper calls that argument “factually incorrect.”
He said Canada adopted responsibility for the well-being of the Labrador Metis, Innu and Inuit students when the province became part of Confederation.
“They truly have been revictimized by the government’s unconscionable and unreasonable decision to maintain their exclusion,” he said in an interview.
“There were reasons, I presume, that they were excluded at the time that the negotiations took place. There were just no representatives there to represent them around the table (during talks), largely in Toronto. But there’s no excuse for this now.”
Geduld declined to comment on why the province was left out.
But she noted that the historic compensation deal for former students in other parts of Canada was reached with input from aboriginal leaders and was approved by courts in nine jurisdictions.
Cooper said he has worked on residential school cases elsewhere in the country since 1997 and is baffled by Ottawa’s position.
“Our clients — and I’ve spoken personally with hundreds of them — are distraught, are confused, are frustrated, are feeling victimized by a system that is exclusive.
“The fact that the prime minister in his apology expressly excluded the people of Labrador in his apology was extremely hurtful.”
Many parents were forced to enrol their children in the schools under threat of arrest, he said.
Lyall said a cash payment could never erase the trauma she suffered, but she hopes compensation would help former students get help.
She, her sister and brother were placed in residential school after her parents divorced and her father couldn’t care for them, she said.
Lyall, who lives in St. John’s, said she is still fighting battles from her experience.
“I’m in recovery and I’m getting treatment,” she said of her diagnosis 10 years ago of depression and post traumatic stress disorder.
“It’s sad to see people and know that they probably suffered terrible abuses and haven’t been able to deal with them.”
SUE BAILEY
The Canadian Press
09/06/10
Thousands of former residential school students in Newfoundland and Labrador have won the right to sue the federal government after they were left out of a historic multi-billion dollar compensation package.
Their class-action lawsuit was certified by Justice Robert Fowler of the Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court on Monday and their lawyer says if it’s settled, it could top $500 million.
The case involves about 5,000 Labrador Metis, Innu and Inuit students who attended five schools in the province and are seeking damages over allegations of sexual and physical abuse along with cultural losses, one of the group’s lawyers, Steve Cooper, said Tuesday.
He bases the value of an out-of-court settlement on similar cases in other parts of the country.
Ottawa can appeal the certification within 30 days.
Margot Geduld, a federal spokeswoman for Indian and Northern Affairs, said the government is reviewing Justice Robert Fowler’s decision.
Ottawa claims it had no involvement with the schools and excluded former students from its official apology and $4-billion compensation deal.
The allegations in the class-action lawsuit involve the Yale, Lockwood, Makkovik, Nain and St. Anthony schools. German-based Moravian Missionaries ran two of the schools while the International Grenfell Association, a non-religious charity, ran three. None of the allegations in the lawsuit has been proven in court.
Cindy Lyall said she was almost six years old when she moved as a young Inuit girl to a student dormitory in North West River in Labrador to start residential school.
A year later, she said she was raped by an older student and sexually abused by another person.
“I grew up, I never ever really felt like I belonged anywhere or fitted in place anywhere. I always felt awkward ... like I wasn’t as good as anyone else,” said Lyall, who is now 46 and is part of the lawsuit.
“An apology would be nice.”
The class action also includes some immediate family members of students who attended the schools.
Cooper said many were devastated when they were left out of the compensation package and official apology by Prime Minister Stephen Harper almost two years ago. Ottawa has argued the schools existed before the province joined Canada in 1949.
It therefore claims it is not responsible for what happened at the schools between 1949 and when the last closed some 30 years later.
Cooper calls that argument “factually incorrect.”
He said Canada adopted responsibility for the well-being of the Labrador Metis, Innu and Inuit students when the province became part of Confederation.
“They truly have been revictimized by the government’s unconscionable and unreasonable decision to maintain their exclusion,” he said in an interview.
“There were reasons, I presume, that they were excluded at the time that the negotiations took place. There were just no representatives there to represent them around the table (during talks), largely in Toronto. But there’s no excuse for this now.”
Geduld declined to comment on why the province was left out.
But she noted that the historic compensation deal for former students in other parts of Canada was reached with input from aboriginal leaders and was approved by courts in nine jurisdictions.
Cooper said he has worked on residential school cases elsewhere in the country since 1997 and is baffled by Ottawa’s position.
“Our clients — and I’ve spoken personally with hundreds of them — are distraught, are confused, are frustrated, are feeling victimized by a system that is exclusive.
“The fact that the prime minister in his apology expressly excluded the people of Labrador in his apology was extremely hurtful.”
Many parents were forced to enrol their children in the schools under threat of arrest, he said.
Lyall said a cash payment could never erase the trauma she suffered, but she hopes compensation would help former students get help.
She, her sister and brother were placed in residential school after her parents divorced and her father couldn’t care for them, she said.
Lyall, who lives in St. John’s, said she is still fighting battles from her experience.
“I’m in recovery and I’m getting treatment,” she said of her diagnosis 10 years ago of depression and post traumatic stress disorder.
“It’s sad to see people and know that they probably suffered terrible abuses and haven’t been able to deal with them.”
Sierra Leone parents seek children adopted by Americans in late 1990s, saying no consent given
allWestAfrica
June 4, 2010
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — Balia Kamara’s mother sent her to a center in northern Sierra Leone so the 5-year-old could receive an education and food, and stay out of harm’s way during the West African country’s brutal civil war.
The mother visited Balia at the Help A Needy Child International center, known as HANCI, regularly for two years until 1998, when the children there were taken to Sierra Leone’s capital for medical examinations. They never returned.
Parents of about 30 children at the center say they only later learned that the children had been adopted by Americans and sent abroad without permission.
“We were reluctant to hand over the child,” recalled Balia’s mother, Mariama Jabbie, in an interview with The Associated Press. “When they told us that they were going to educate her up to college level, we decided to hand her over. That was how they were able to entice us to do so.”
In 2004, the center’s director and two of his employees were arrested and charged with conspiracy to violate adoption laws. Those charges against them though ultimately were dropped and the case disbanded, according to court records.
Now more than a decade after the children disappeared, Sierra Leone’s government said late Wednesday it is setting up a national commission of inquiry to re-examine the case of the HANCI children following years of pressure from their biological parents.
The American agency that facilitated the children’s adoptions maintains it has no knowledge of any wrongdoing on the part of their staff in the West African nation.
Last month, the children’s biological parents stormed the office of Sierra Leone’s social welfare minister, demanding the government help them find a way to communicate with their children. A spokesman for the parents, Kassim Kargbo, said they had traveled from villages in the north nearly 100 miles from the capital.
The parents also published an open letter to President Ernest Bai Koroma in a local newspaper. They asked Sierra Leone’s government to reopen the case against those who ran the HANCI center where the children were staying.
Sierra Leone is not the only country where there has been controversy over whether parents have given sufficient consent for adoptions. Guatemala suspended international adoptions for nearly two years after the discovery that some babies were being sold.
In Argentina, the government confirmed that hundreds of children were taken from dissidents and raised by military families or others that supported the ruling military junta in the 1970s and early 1980s. El Salvador has worked to reunite children who were also separated from their families during that country’s civil war and adopted by foreign families.
...
The legal process for the adoptions was approved at the time by Sierra Leone’s government, as well as by the U.S. State Department, she said. “We’ve heard nothing officially from anyone from Sierra Leone for years,” she added.
But the children’s birth parents say that adoption was never mentioned, nor was a trip out of the country. For years they never knew what had become of the children and feared they may have been killed during the war. Not until 2004 did they learn they were adopted by Americans, Bakarr said.
complete artikel
June 4, 2010
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — Balia Kamara’s mother sent her to a center in northern Sierra Leone so the 5-year-old could receive an education and food, and stay out of harm’s way during the West African country’s brutal civil war.
The mother visited Balia at the Help A Needy Child International center, known as HANCI, regularly for two years until 1998, when the children there were taken to Sierra Leone’s capital for medical examinations. They never returned.
Parents of about 30 children at the center say they only later learned that the children had been adopted by Americans and sent abroad without permission.
“We were reluctant to hand over the child,” recalled Balia’s mother, Mariama Jabbie, in an interview with The Associated Press. “When they told us that they were going to educate her up to college level, we decided to hand her over. That was how they were able to entice us to do so.”
In 2004, the center’s director and two of his employees were arrested and charged with conspiracy to violate adoption laws. Those charges against them though ultimately were dropped and the case disbanded, according to court records.
Now more than a decade after the children disappeared, Sierra Leone’s government said late Wednesday it is setting up a national commission of inquiry to re-examine the case of the HANCI children following years of pressure from their biological parents.
The American agency that facilitated the children’s adoptions maintains it has no knowledge of any wrongdoing on the part of their staff in the West African nation.
Last month, the children’s biological parents stormed the office of Sierra Leone’s social welfare minister, demanding the government help them find a way to communicate with their children. A spokesman for the parents, Kassim Kargbo, said they had traveled from villages in the north nearly 100 miles from the capital.
The parents also published an open letter to President Ernest Bai Koroma in a local newspaper. They asked Sierra Leone’s government to reopen the case against those who ran the HANCI center where the children were staying.
Sierra Leone is not the only country where there has been controversy over whether parents have given sufficient consent for adoptions. Guatemala suspended international adoptions for nearly two years after the discovery that some babies were being sold.
In Argentina, the government confirmed that hundreds of children were taken from dissidents and raised by military families or others that supported the ruling military junta in the 1970s and early 1980s. El Salvador has worked to reunite children who were also separated from their families during that country’s civil war and adopted by foreign families.
...
The legal process for the adoptions was approved at the time by Sierra Leone’s government, as well as by the U.S. State Department, she said. “We’ve heard nothing officially from anyone from Sierra Leone for years,” she added.
But the children’s birth parents say that adoption was never mentioned, nor was a trip out of the country. For years they never knew what had become of the children and feared they may have been killed during the war. Not until 2004 did they learn they were adopted by Americans, Bakarr said.
complete artikel
maandag, juni 07, 2010
Nigeria: The priest as a predator
by allWestAfrica on June 4, 2010
Just as some Nigerians were breathing easy that the avalanche of sexual abuse that has rocked the Catholic world in the west will bypass us, the case of Richard Burke surfaced this week. An Irish Bishop, Burke served as an Archbishop in the Diocese of Benin City in Edo State and during his stint as a priest in Warri, had a sexual relationship with a Dolores Atwood.
So far the priest has not denied the act, except to say that the girl was twenty-one when they, “had a caring relationship that began in the latter part of 1989, when she was 21 and I was 40. I was posted back to Ireland in March 1990, and returned to Nigeria in April 199.” Atwood says she was 14 when the priest had sex with her, which would make it a case of sexual abuse. In his letter of resignation Richard Burke apologized for failing to honour his vow of celibacy.
That this singular case of sexual abuse by a Catholic priest has surfaced in Nigeria shouldn’t be surprising at all, what is somewhat puzzling is that many more have not. Research shows that membership of the Catholic Church in Africa skyrocketed from 1.9 million in 1900 to 130 million in 2000 and Nigeria boasts of about 25million out of that, yet only one case of sexual abuse has come to light. Considering the fact that we live in a country where talk about sexual abuse is almost non-existent we may never get to the bottom of the issue. Even as we speak, many are more likely to berate Ms. Atwood instead of questioning the priest’s wrong doing.
Revelations in the United States and Europe have also shown that many of the sexually abused are young boys. In a society like ours, will any Nigerian boy or man be able to come out and say, “I was sexually abused by my priest”? Or if there are abused boys, would they understand what happened to them as abuse? Many would rather die with the hurt and pain or simply dismiss the encounter, while the priest walks free to prey on; such is the respect we sometimes have for men of the cloth.
It is instructive that the St Patrick’s Missionary society ‘ found no evidence to corroborate the allegation of child sexual abuse.” But the Vatican is investigating further.
We live in a society where many laws are often disregarded and often rarely enforced, a double tragedy because any errant priests would know this and their abused victims would too. What will come of it if he or she were to confess, apart from the priest resigning? Will our government seek redress for its citizens? Do we have a solid judiciary system that will address the issues?
It will be interesting to see how the Pope and the Vatican respond to Ms. Atwood’s case in Nigeria. We have seen how the other nations like America and Britain have shaken an apology out of the hesitant Holy Papal.
We never ask for apologies and very soon we start to hear “let’s forgive and forget, nobody is perfect, everything is in God’s hands”; then follows the usual – let us pray about it. But while we are praying about priests sexually abusing our young ones, we should also start talking about it and loudly too.
Just as some Nigerians were breathing easy that the avalanche of sexual abuse that has rocked the Catholic world in the west will bypass us, the case of Richard Burke surfaced this week. An Irish Bishop, Burke served as an Archbishop in the Diocese of Benin City in Edo State and during his stint as a priest in Warri, had a sexual relationship with a Dolores Atwood.
So far the priest has not denied the act, except to say that the girl was twenty-one when they, “had a caring relationship that began in the latter part of 1989, when she was 21 and I was 40. I was posted back to Ireland in March 1990, and returned to Nigeria in April 199.” Atwood says she was 14 when the priest had sex with her, which would make it a case of sexual abuse. In his letter of resignation Richard Burke apologized for failing to honour his vow of celibacy.
That this singular case of sexual abuse by a Catholic priest has surfaced in Nigeria shouldn’t be surprising at all, what is somewhat puzzling is that many more have not. Research shows that membership of the Catholic Church in Africa skyrocketed from 1.9 million in 1900 to 130 million in 2000 and Nigeria boasts of about 25million out of that, yet only one case of sexual abuse has come to light. Considering the fact that we live in a country where talk about sexual abuse is almost non-existent we may never get to the bottom of the issue. Even as we speak, many are more likely to berate Ms. Atwood instead of questioning the priest’s wrong doing.
Revelations in the United States and Europe have also shown that many of the sexually abused are young boys. In a society like ours, will any Nigerian boy or man be able to come out and say, “I was sexually abused by my priest”? Or if there are abused boys, would they understand what happened to them as abuse? Many would rather die with the hurt and pain or simply dismiss the encounter, while the priest walks free to prey on; such is the respect we sometimes have for men of the cloth.
It is instructive that the St Patrick’s Missionary society ‘ found no evidence to corroborate the allegation of child sexual abuse.” But the Vatican is investigating further.
We live in a society where many laws are often disregarded and often rarely enforced, a double tragedy because any errant priests would know this and their abused victims would too. What will come of it if he or she were to confess, apart from the priest resigning? Will our government seek redress for its citizens? Do we have a solid judiciary system that will address the issues?
It will be interesting to see how the Pope and the Vatican respond to Ms. Atwood’s case in Nigeria. We have seen how the other nations like America and Britain have shaken an apology out of the hesitant Holy Papal.
We never ask for apologies and very soon we start to hear “let’s forgive and forget, nobody is perfect, everything is in God’s hands”; then follows the usual – let us pray about it. But while we are praying about priests sexually abusing our young ones, we should also start talking about it and loudly too.
Nigerian Archbishop resigns over oath of celibacy
Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of the Tipperary-born Archbishop of Benin City in Nigeria, Richard Burke.
The decision was confirmed in a message posted on the Vatican’s website.
In a statement the St Patrick’s Missionary Society, which Richard Burke was a member of, said former Archbishop Burke informed the society that the reason for his resignation was his failure to observe his oath of celibacy.
The statement added that Richard Burke had ‘apologised to all those whom he had hurt by his actions’ and had taken ‘full personal responsibility for what he has done wrong’.
The resignation follows a complaint made last year by Dolores Atwood, alleging that she had been sexually abused by Richard Burke when she was 14 years old and he was a priest ministering in Warri Diocese, Nigeria.
According to the St Patrick’s Missionary Society, Ms Atwood alleged that she had an ongoing relationship with Richard Burke afterwards.
The society then launched a full investigation and provided counselling to Ms Atwood.
According to the society, Archbishop Burke denied the allegation of child sexual abuse but admitted that he had had a sexual relationship with Ms Atwood.
He voluntarily withdrew from ministry while the investigation was carried out.
The Society says that the investigation found no evidence to corroborate the allegation of child sexual abuse made by Ms Atwood.
In a statement from Archbishop Burke, published by the Irish Catholic newspaper, he said he was deeply ashamed of his behaviour, which had caused great pain, hurt and bewilderment to those around him.
He added that he takes full responsibility for his actions and wishes to express his deepest sorrow for his inappropriate, irresponsible and repeatedly sinful conduct.
He also apologises directly to Dolores Atwood for the pain he has caused her and her family.
The decision was confirmed in a message posted on the Vatican’s website.
In a statement the St Patrick’s Missionary Society, which Richard Burke was a member of, said former Archbishop Burke informed the society that the reason for his resignation was his failure to observe his oath of celibacy.
The statement added that Richard Burke had ‘apologised to all those whom he had hurt by his actions’ and had taken ‘full personal responsibility for what he has done wrong’.
The resignation follows a complaint made last year by Dolores Atwood, alleging that she had been sexually abused by Richard Burke when she was 14 years old and he was a priest ministering in Warri Diocese, Nigeria.
According to the St Patrick’s Missionary Society, Ms Atwood alleged that she had an ongoing relationship with Richard Burke afterwards.
The society then launched a full investigation and provided counselling to Ms Atwood.
According to the society, Archbishop Burke denied the allegation of child sexual abuse but admitted that he had had a sexual relationship with Ms Atwood.
He voluntarily withdrew from ministry while the investigation was carried out.
The Society says that the investigation found no evidence to corroborate the allegation of child sexual abuse made by Ms Atwood.
In a statement from Archbishop Burke, published by the Irish Catholic newspaper, he said he was deeply ashamed of his behaviour, which had caused great pain, hurt and bewilderment to those around him.
He added that he takes full responsibility for his actions and wishes to express his deepest sorrow for his inappropriate, irresponsible and repeatedly sinful conduct.
He also apologises directly to Dolores Atwood for the pain he has caused her and her family.
Ierland: Diarmuid Martin I often feel that he Archdiocese of Dublin will turn out to be the most investigated diocese in the world
04/06/2010 Newman Society, Oxford University
“THERE ARE MANY YOUNG PEOPLE WHO ARE STRUGGLING TO FIND A REASON TO REMAIN IN THE CHURCH”
Speaking Notes ofMost Rev. Diarmuid Martin
Archbishop of Dublin and Primate of Ireland
---------
Newman Society, Oxford, 4th June 2010
Speaking Notes ofArchbishop of Dublin and Primate of Ireland
The title that I have chosen for my reflections this evening – There are many young people who are struggling to find a reason to remain in the Church” – may seem slightly puzzling to some of you. Let me explain its origin. It is a line taken from the comment of the Parish Pastoral Council of one Dublin parish sent to me in the light of the publication of the Murphy Report into the sexual abuse of children by priests within the Archdiocese of Dublin.
The Murphy Report was a very significant examination of how allegations of sexual abuse by priests were managed by Church and State authorities in Ireland. The Report was the fruit of a Government instituted Commission which was established to examine a representative sample of how abuse cases were managed in the period of time between 1975 and 2004.
The findings of the Murphy Report were disastrous. Certainly much of what was dealt with took place in different times and in a different culture. Medical science and juridical reflection may have underestimated the damage done to children who were sexually abused. But what the Murphy Report narrated was nonetheless catastrophic. I have repeated on numerous occasions that for me the only honest reaction of the Church to that Report was to publicly admit that the manner in which that catastrophe was addressed was spectacularly wrong; spectacularly wrong “full stop”; not spectacularly wrong, “but…” You cannot sound-byte your way out of a catastrophe.
The cultural situation was different; abuse takes place in many other sectors of society. This is all true. But it cannot be used as an excuse to down-play the gravity of what took place in the Church of Christ. The Church is different; the Church is a place where children should be the subject of special protection and care. The Gospel presents children in a special light and reserves some of its most severe language for those who disregard or scandalise children in any way.
It is hard to understand why, in the management by Church authorities of cases of the sexual abuse of children, the children themselves were for many years rarely even taken into the equation. Yes, in the culture of the day children were to be seen and not heard, but different from other professions Church leaders should have been more aware of the Gospel imperative to avoid harm to children, whose innocence was indicated by the Lord a sign of the kingdom of God. Where innocent children are failed, the Kingdom of God and the message of Jesus Christ have been distorted.
complete verhaal
“THERE ARE MANY YOUNG PEOPLE WHO ARE STRUGGLING TO FIND A REASON TO REMAIN IN THE CHURCH”
Speaking Notes ofMost Rev. Diarmuid Martin
Archbishop of Dublin and Primate of Ireland
---------
Newman Society, Oxford, 4th June 2010
Speaking Notes ofArchbishop of Dublin and Primate of Ireland
The title that I have chosen for my reflections this evening – There are many young people who are struggling to find a reason to remain in the Church” – may seem slightly puzzling to some of you. Let me explain its origin. It is a line taken from the comment of the Parish Pastoral Council of one Dublin parish sent to me in the light of the publication of the Murphy Report into the sexual abuse of children by priests within the Archdiocese of Dublin.
The Murphy Report was a very significant examination of how allegations of sexual abuse by priests were managed by Church and State authorities in Ireland. The Report was the fruit of a Government instituted Commission which was established to examine a representative sample of how abuse cases were managed in the period of time between 1975 and 2004.
The findings of the Murphy Report were disastrous. Certainly much of what was dealt with took place in different times and in a different culture. Medical science and juridical reflection may have underestimated the damage done to children who were sexually abused. But what the Murphy Report narrated was nonetheless catastrophic. I have repeated on numerous occasions that for me the only honest reaction of the Church to that Report was to publicly admit that the manner in which that catastrophe was addressed was spectacularly wrong; spectacularly wrong “full stop”; not spectacularly wrong, “but…” You cannot sound-byte your way out of a catastrophe.
The cultural situation was different; abuse takes place in many other sectors of society. This is all true. But it cannot be used as an excuse to down-play the gravity of what took place in the Church of Christ. The Church is different; the Church is a place where children should be the subject of special protection and care. The Gospel presents children in a special light and reserves some of its most severe language for those who disregard or scandalise children in any way.
It is hard to understand why, in the management by Church authorities of cases of the sexual abuse of children, the children themselves were for many years rarely even taken into the equation. Yes, in the culture of the day children were to be seen and not heard, but different from other professions Church leaders should have been more aware of the Gospel imperative to avoid harm to children, whose innocence was indicated by the Lord a sign of the kingdom of God. Where innocent children are failed, the Kingdom of God and the message of Jesus Christ have been distorted.
complete verhaal
Hoe vrouwen en mannen betekenis geven aan geweld uit hun kindertijd.
Datum donderdag 10 juni
Tijd 19.30 – 22.00 uur
Locatie Groenestraat 294 6531 JC Nijmegen
Kosten € 10,-
Aanmelden mogelijk tot 8 juni
Telefoonnummer 024-360 32 58
E-mail info@hulpnaseksueelmisbruik.nl
10 juni 2010 LEZING - Sietske Dijkstra
Uit de doofpot en dan?
De zoektocht van als kind seksueel misbruikte mannen naar hulp
Dagelijks komen er nieuwe zaken aan het licht van seksueel misbruik in tehuizen en
op internaten, nationaal en internationaal. Mannen van vijftig, zestig vertellen soms
met piepstem over het misbruik van toen, hoe ze zich slapend probeerden te houden,
hoe eenzaam en onveilig ze zich sindsdien voelden. Zo lang stil gehouden, ontkend
en verzwegen, wat doet dat met een mensenleven?
In mijn lezing ga ik in op het specifieke van misbruik voor mannen, ik sta stil
bij overeenkomsten en verschillen tussen mannen en vrouwen en tussen mannen
en vrouwen onderling. Welke voorwaarden zijn er nodig om voor dit onzichtbare leed
een solide en solidaire context te scheppen voor goede hulpverlening? Wat is er eigenlijk nodig om seksueel misbruik (van jongens en mannen) echt uit de doofpot te krijgen?
Peter John Schouten is uitgenodigd om zijn bijdrage te leveren aan dit thema, op grond van zijn ruime ervaring in hulpverlening aan mannen die seksueel misbruikt zijn.
Sietske Dijkstra leidt sinds 1998 haar eigen bureau Dijkstra, http://www.sietske-dijkstra.nl/.
Ze is daarnaast sinds 2007 lector vrouwenopvang en huiselijk geweld bij Avans
Hogeschool. Ze publiceerde in 1996 Bij stukjes en beetjes over seksueel misbruik van
mannen als jongens en hun ervaringen met hulp, verkrijgbaar bij Movisie. In 2000
borduurde ze voort op deze eerdere studie met haar proefschrift Met vallen
en opstaan. Hoe vrouwen en mannen betekenis geven aan geweld uit hun kindertijd.
Mannengroep
In maart is de groep voor mannen gestart.
Themagroep voor vrouwen
Eind maart is deze groep voor vrouwen van start gegaan.
Training psycho-sociale weerbaarheid
Training voor vrouwen is gestart
bron:(US) Abuse Tracker. rest oproep
Tijd 19.30 – 22.00 uur
Locatie Groenestraat 294 6531 JC Nijmegen
Kosten € 10,-
Aanmelden mogelijk tot 8 juni
Telefoonnummer 024-360 32 58
E-mail info@hulpnaseksueelmisbruik.nl
10 juni 2010 LEZING - Sietske Dijkstra
Uit de doofpot en dan?
De zoektocht van als kind seksueel misbruikte mannen naar hulp
Dagelijks komen er nieuwe zaken aan het licht van seksueel misbruik in tehuizen en
op internaten, nationaal en internationaal. Mannen van vijftig, zestig vertellen soms
met piepstem over het misbruik van toen, hoe ze zich slapend probeerden te houden,
hoe eenzaam en onveilig ze zich sindsdien voelden. Zo lang stil gehouden, ontkend
en verzwegen, wat doet dat met een mensenleven?
In mijn lezing ga ik in op het specifieke van misbruik voor mannen, ik sta stil
bij overeenkomsten en verschillen tussen mannen en vrouwen en tussen mannen
en vrouwen onderling. Welke voorwaarden zijn er nodig om voor dit onzichtbare leed
een solide en solidaire context te scheppen voor goede hulpverlening? Wat is er eigenlijk nodig om seksueel misbruik (van jongens en mannen) echt uit de doofpot te krijgen?
Peter John Schouten is uitgenodigd om zijn bijdrage te leveren aan dit thema, op grond van zijn ruime ervaring in hulpverlening aan mannen die seksueel misbruikt zijn.
Sietske Dijkstra leidt sinds 1998 haar eigen bureau Dijkstra, http://www.sietske-dijkstra.nl/.
Ze is daarnaast sinds 2007 lector vrouwenopvang en huiselijk geweld bij Avans
Hogeschool. Ze publiceerde in 1996 Bij stukjes en beetjes over seksueel misbruik van
mannen als jongens en hun ervaringen met hulp, verkrijgbaar bij Movisie. In 2000
borduurde ze voort op deze eerdere studie met haar proefschrift Met vallen
en opstaan. Hoe vrouwen en mannen betekenis geven aan geweld uit hun kindertijd.
Mannengroep
In maart is de groep voor mannen gestart.
Themagroep voor vrouwen
Eind maart is deze groep voor vrouwen van start gegaan.
Training psycho-sociale weerbaarheid
Training voor vrouwen is gestart
bron:(US) Abuse Tracker. rest oproep
zondag, juni 06, 2010
This is a hospital of sinners not a museum of saints
naar Dan Herzog
Bisschop Johan Bonny:
‘Misbruikcrisis vraagt beter preventiebeleid’
ANTWERPEN (RKnieuws.net) - Mensen die professioneel kerkverbonden zijn, zijn geen supermensen. Een persoonlijk probleem met alcoholverslaving, verliefdheid, homofilie, pedofilie of porno op het internet, kan ook bij hen voorkomen. In de recente brief van de Belgische bisschoppen zitten aanzetten om dat voortaan beter aan te pakken, licht de Antwerpse bisschop, Johan Bonny, toe.
...
Het werken met kinderen, adolescenten of kwetsbare mensen wordt in een deontologische code vastgelegd.
“We moeten de tijd nemen om samen met deskundigen een degelijke code uit te schrijven. Een jaar lijkt me een haalbare tijdspanne. De code moet het functioneren van pastoraal verantwoordelijken in het onderwijs, de jeugdbeweging en de parochie duidelijk maken.
In landen als Canada en Ierland bestaat zoiets al. We zullen die kennis en ervaring zeker kunnen gebruiken.”
Tot slot kondigen de bisschoppen ook aan dat ze zich zullen buigen over de gezagsvormen die aanleiding kunnen geven tot het misbruik van kinderen. “We pleiten voor open structuren en een open leven. In een professionele omgeving met een mengeling van jong en oud, man en vrouw, gewijde en niet-gewijde maakt het machtsmisbruik van een geestelijke minder kans. Meer sociale openheid helpt ook. De pastorie is al lang geen gesloten burcht meer. Het is nu een plek voor gezonde samenwerking en een sociaal netwerk.”
Bisschop Johan Bonny:
‘Misbruikcrisis vraagt beter preventiebeleid’
ANTWERPEN (RKnieuws.net) - Mensen die professioneel kerkverbonden zijn, zijn geen supermensen. Een persoonlijk probleem met alcoholverslaving, verliefdheid, homofilie, pedofilie of porno op het internet, kan ook bij hen voorkomen. In de recente brief van de Belgische bisschoppen zitten aanzetten om dat voortaan beter aan te pakken, licht de Antwerpse bisschop, Johan Bonny, toe.
...
Het werken met kinderen, adolescenten of kwetsbare mensen wordt in een deontologische code vastgelegd.
“We moeten de tijd nemen om samen met deskundigen een degelijke code uit te schrijven. Een jaar lijkt me een haalbare tijdspanne. De code moet het functioneren van pastoraal verantwoordelijken in het onderwijs, de jeugdbeweging en de parochie duidelijk maken.
In landen als Canada en Ierland bestaat zoiets al. We zullen die kennis en ervaring zeker kunnen gebruiken.”
Tot slot kondigen de bisschoppen ook aan dat ze zich zullen buigen over de gezagsvormen die aanleiding kunnen geven tot het misbruik van kinderen. “We pleiten voor open structuren en een open leven. In een professionele omgeving met een mengeling van jong en oud, man en vrouw, gewijde en niet-gewijde maakt het machtsmisbruik van een geestelijke minder kans. Meer sociale openheid helpt ook. De pastorie is al lang geen gesloten burcht meer. Het is nu een plek voor gezonde samenwerking en een sociaal netwerk.”
zaterdag, juni 05, 2010
België Open brief Norbert Bethune
Priester misbruikte bewusteloze vrouwen
Geplaatst door onze redactie op zaterdag 29 mei 2010
BRUSSEL (RKnieuws.net) - Een inmiddels overleden geestelijke misbruikte tussen de jaren 60 en 80 comateuze en psychiatrische patiënten in het Sint-Andriesziekenhuis in het West-Vlaamse Tielt. Dat zegt priester Norbert Bethune uit Wingene, die volgende week met een "loodzwaar dossier" naar buiten komt over de zaak. Dat schrijven Het Laatste Nieuws en Het Nieuwsblad zaterdag.De dader is inmiddels overleden. Hij was ook deken in Tielt toen hij in het ziekenhuis toesloeg. "De directie was op de hoogte, maar ondernam niets", zegt nog Bethune. Het parket in Brugge onderzocht de zaak eind jaren 90, maar toen waren de misdrijven volgens procureur Berkvens "overduidelijk verjaard" en was een strafproces niet mogelijk.
In 1991 meldde Bethune het misbruik aan bisschop Vangheluwe maar die stuurde pas tien jaar later een nietszeggend antwoord.
...
Bethune, die destijds als pastor in het Sint-Andriesziekenhuis was tewerkgesteld, speelde het gerecht een pak informatie door. Hij deed dat naar eigen zeggen omdat zijn pogingen om het misbruik te doen stoppen door het aan te klagen bij de kerkelijke overheid en de ziekenhuisdirectie niets opleverden. Bethune voelde zich later bekocht, toen de speurder aan wie hij zijn informatie bezorgde, twee jaar na de start van het onderzoek bekende dat hij dat niet verder kon voeren omdat zijn schoonbroer de directeur was van het ziekenhuis.
Feiten verjaard
De Brugse procureur Jean-Marie Berkvens liet eerder al verstaan dat de feiten wel degelijk grondig onderzocht werden, maar niet meer tot vervolging konden leiden omdat ze verjaard zijn. Ook dat trekt Bethune in twijfel.
Vragen
In zijn open brief formuleert de priester een aantal pertinente vragen aan het Brugse parket. Hij vraagt zich verder ook af waarom politici in ons land niet reageren op de verhalen over seksueel misbruik in de kerk. (belga/sam
Aan De Congregatie van de Zusters van het Geloof
Aan Zusters Machteld Vanseveren, ex-directrice van het St. Andriesziekenhuis in Tielt
Aan Zuster Hilde Swyngedouw, ex-directrice van het St. Andriesziekenhuis in Tielt
Aan De Heer Roger Vandewalle, directeur van het St. Andriesziekenhuis in Tielt
Aan de Behandelende geneesheren van het St. Andriesziekenhuis in Tielt
Aan de heer Procureur en de onderzoekers van de Gerechtelijke Politie bij de Parketten in Brugge
Aan het eerste meldpunt voor Seksueel misbruik in het bisdom Brugge
Aan de Raad van Beheer van het Sint Andriesziekenhuis van de jaren ’90 tot 200….
Aan de politieke verantwoordelijken van de Stad Tielt,West-Vlaanderen en ons land.
Aan de priesters van het bisdom Brugge
Aan professor Adriaenssens en zijn commissie
Aan de niet bestaande volledig onafhankelijke commissie in dit land.
...
Medio 1988 en ervoor,toen ik nog ziekenhuispastor was in het Sint Andriesziekenhuis, vertelden meerdere mensen me dat de toenmalige deken Lefèvre grensoverschrijdend gedrag stelde.
Dit werd me verteld door mensen die het niet verder hadden laten komen, d.w.z. ‘de weerbaren’.
Er grepen toen enkele feiten plaats van echt seksueel misbruik en poging tot misbruik van weerloze patiënten op de afdeling psychiatrie.
...
rest " MIJN VERHAAL"
Geplaatst door onze redactie op zaterdag 29 mei 2010
BRUSSEL (RKnieuws.net) - Een inmiddels overleden geestelijke misbruikte tussen de jaren 60 en 80 comateuze en psychiatrische patiënten in het Sint-Andriesziekenhuis in het West-Vlaamse Tielt. Dat zegt priester Norbert Bethune uit Wingene, die volgende week met een "loodzwaar dossier" naar buiten komt over de zaak. Dat schrijven Het Laatste Nieuws en Het Nieuwsblad zaterdag.De dader is inmiddels overleden. Hij was ook deken in Tielt toen hij in het ziekenhuis toesloeg. "De directie was op de hoogte, maar ondernam niets", zegt nog Bethune. Het parket in Brugge onderzocht de zaak eind jaren 90, maar toen waren de misdrijven volgens procureur Berkvens "overduidelijk verjaard" en was een strafproces niet mogelijk.
In 1991 meldde Bethune het misbruik aan bisschop Vangheluwe maar die stuurde pas tien jaar later een nietszeggend antwoord.
...
Bethune, die destijds als pastor in het Sint-Andriesziekenhuis was tewerkgesteld, speelde het gerecht een pak informatie door. Hij deed dat naar eigen zeggen omdat zijn pogingen om het misbruik te doen stoppen door het aan te klagen bij de kerkelijke overheid en de ziekenhuisdirectie niets opleverden. Bethune voelde zich later bekocht, toen de speurder aan wie hij zijn informatie bezorgde, twee jaar na de start van het onderzoek bekende dat hij dat niet verder kon voeren omdat zijn schoonbroer de directeur was van het ziekenhuis.
Feiten verjaard
De Brugse procureur Jean-Marie Berkvens liet eerder al verstaan dat de feiten wel degelijk grondig onderzocht werden, maar niet meer tot vervolging konden leiden omdat ze verjaard zijn. Ook dat trekt Bethune in twijfel.
Vragen
In zijn open brief formuleert de priester een aantal pertinente vragen aan het Brugse parket. Hij vraagt zich verder ook af waarom politici in ons land niet reageren op de verhalen over seksueel misbruik in de kerk. (belga/sam
Aan De Congregatie van de Zusters van het Geloof
Aan Zusters Machteld Vanseveren, ex-directrice van het St. Andriesziekenhuis in Tielt
Aan Zuster Hilde Swyngedouw, ex-directrice van het St. Andriesziekenhuis in Tielt
Aan De Heer Roger Vandewalle, directeur van het St. Andriesziekenhuis in Tielt
Aan de Behandelende geneesheren van het St. Andriesziekenhuis in Tielt
Aan de heer Procureur en de onderzoekers van de Gerechtelijke Politie bij de Parketten in Brugge
Aan het eerste meldpunt voor Seksueel misbruik in het bisdom Brugge
Aan de Raad van Beheer van het Sint Andriesziekenhuis van de jaren ’90 tot 200….
Aan de politieke verantwoordelijken van de Stad Tielt,West-Vlaanderen en ons land.
Aan de priesters van het bisdom Brugge
Aan professor Adriaenssens en zijn commissie
Aan de niet bestaande volledig onafhankelijke commissie in dit land.
...
Medio 1988 en ervoor,toen ik nog ziekenhuispastor was in het Sint Andriesziekenhuis, vertelden meerdere mensen me dat de toenmalige deken Lefèvre grensoverschrijdend gedrag stelde.
Dit werd me verteld door mensen die het niet verder hadden laten komen, d.w.z. ‘de weerbaren’.
Er grepen toen enkele feiten plaats van echt seksueel misbruik en poging tot misbruik van weerloze patiënten op de afdeling psychiatrie.
...
rest " MIJN VERHAAL"
Duitsland: Zollitsch war für Klosterkirche Birnau nie zuständig
Kirche beteuert Unschuld Zollitschs in Missbrauchsskandal
4-6-2010
Freiburg/Bonn - Ein Aufklärer unter Verdacht: Nun ist auch Erzbischof Robert Zollitsch (Freiburg) in den Sog des Missbrauchsskandals geraten, der die katholische Kirche seit mehreren Monaten erschüttert. Dem Vorsitzenden der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz (DBK), der wiederholt eine "lückenlose Aufarbeitung" aller Affären versprochen hatte, wurde Beihilfe zum sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern vorgeworfen. Die Freiburger Staatsanwaltschaft ermittelt gegen ihn, aber vermutlich wird dieser Fall bald zu den Akten gelegt.
Es geht um einen Vorgang aus dem Jahr 1987. Als damaliger Personalreferent der Erzdiözese Freiburg soll Zollitsch die erneute Anstellung eines Zisterzienserpaters in einer Bodensee-Gemeinde veranlasst haben, obwohl bekannt gewesen sei, dass es durch den Geistlichen bereits früher zu sexuellen Übergriffen gekommen sei. Die Vorwürfe, vom ARD-Magazin "Report" verbreitet, basieren auf der Anzeige eines Mannes, der in den 60er-Jahren von dem betreffenden Pater missbraucht worden sein soll.
Das Erzbistum nannte die Vorwürfe substanzlos und "sensationsheischend". Sie träfen nicht zu, weil erst seit Ende 2006 bekannt sei, "dass es in den 60er-Jahren zumindest einen Fall von sexuellem Missbrauch bei der Wallfahrts- und Klosterkirche Birnau gab". Zollitsch habe "keinesfalls" 1987 eine erneute "Anstellung dieses Paters" in Birnau veranlasst. "Eine weitere Anstellung beim Erzbistum Freiburg hat es nicht gegeben - wenngleich es Hinweise darauf gibt, dass der beschuldigte Pater erneut zur Klostergemeinschaft des Zisterzienserordens in Birnau gehörte", heißt es in der ausführlichen und differenzierten Stellungnahme.
Schon vor Wochen hatte das Ordinariat Freiburg beteuert, dass es nach Bekanntwerden eines Vorwurfs gegen den beschuldigten Pater rasch gehandelt, den Orden eingeschaltet und die Zisterzienser auf die zu ziehenden Konsequenzen hingewiesen habe.
Birnau gehört als Priorat seit 1919 zur Abtei Mehrerau, sie ist vom Ortsbischof unabhängig. Der jeweilige Abt trifft auch die Personalentscheidungen in seinem Territorium "nach Maßgabe seiner Ordensstatuten". Daraus schließt das Freiburger Erzbistum: "Der nun verbreitete Verdacht eines strafbaren Verhaltens von Dr. Robert Zollitsch im Zusammenhang mit dem Kloster Birnau entbehrt also bereits mangels Zuständigkeit, aber auch in der Sache jeder Grundlage."
Eine Position, die auch vom Mehrerauer Abt Anselm van der Linde gestützt wurde. Er bedauerte einen "nicht adäquaten Umgang" seines Ordens mit Tätern und Opfern. Zollitsch habe aber damit nichts zu tun, er sei "plötzlich und völlig grundlos" in die Vorgänge gezogen worden.
Die Deutsche Bischofskonferenz sieht den Erzbischof bereits "entlastet", wie ihr Sprecher Matthias Kopp der WELT sagte. Die "haltlosen Vorwürfe" hätten keinerlei Auswirkung auf seine Funktion als Episkopatsvorsitzender. Die Erzdiözese Freiburg steht in Kontakt mit der Freiburger Staatsanwaltschaft, "damit die Substanzlosigkeit der Vorwürfe rasch dokumentiert werden kann". In diversen Medien war über einen möglichen Rücktritt von Zollitsch spekuliert worden. Derartige Gerüchte entbehrten jeder Grundlage, wurde gestern erklärt.
yo,u nobuntu; Kop vellen Belgium’s Catholic Church Struggles to Regain Trust
The New York Times
By Nicholas Kulish
Published: June 3, 2010
LEUVEN, Belgium — It may be no accident that the Roman Catholic Church in Belgium is taking a more aggressive response to child abuse by priests.
rest artikel
By Nicholas Kulish
Published: June 3, 2010
LEUVEN, Belgium — It may be no accident that the Roman Catholic Church in Belgium is taking a more aggressive response to child abuse by priests.
rest artikel
soveel verwonding vir waarheid
soveel verwoesting
so min het oorgebly vir oorlewing
.....
maar as die oue nie skuldig is nie
nie skuld bely nie
kan die nuwe natuurlik ook nie skuldig wees nie
en nooit voor stok gekry word
as hy die oue herhaal nie
alles begin dus van voor af aan
dié slag anders ingekleur
soveel verwoesting
so min het oorgebly vir oorlewing
.....
maar as die oue nie skuldig is nie
nie skuld bely nie
kan die nuwe natuurlik ook nie skuldig wees nie
en nooit voor stok gekry word
as hy die oue herhaal nie
alles begin dus van voor af aan
dié slag anders ingekleur
uit:
Antjie Krog
Down to my last skin
vrijdag, juni 04, 2010
België: School Luik: 2 jaar voor Kapucijner Jean_ Bernard Pottier
4-6-2010
De kapucijn Jean- Bernard Pottier is vrijdag door de rechtbank in het Belgische Luik veroordeeld tot twee jaar cel voor het aanranden van twee meisjes op de katholieke school in het centrum van Luik waar hij als leerlingbegeleider werkzaam was.
De strafbare feiten werden gepleegd 2004 en 2006.
De veertiger was al diverse malen voor de rechtbank verschenen, maar het proces moest telkens verdaagd worden omdat de verdachte onwel werd als de woorden 'jonge meisjes' en 'aanrakingen' door de rechtszaal klonken. Gezien de belangen van de slachtoffers vond uiteindelijk veroordeling bij verstek plaats.
Aan de vrouwen, één van hen 13 op dat moment, werd naast een voorlopige schadevergoeding van 1500€ en 2000€ toegekend. Tevens werd een psychologisch onderzoek opgelegd.
De rechtbank heeft in haar vonnis mee overwogen dat Pottier, gepaard aan gebrek aan empathie, de ontkenning van zijn schuld en het afwijzen van zijn verantwoordelijkheiden zijn slachtoffers koos uit de meest kwestbaren in het leven. (bij afwezigheid van info over de school en de vrouwen: niet onmogelijk een verwijzing naar gehandicapten).
De man was niet meer op de school werkzaam, maar woont in de directe omgeving ervan.
De vrouwen werden vertegenwoordigd door Mrs. Charlier en Leclerc.
bronnen:
ANP
Dominique Lemaire, LaMeuse
De kapucijn Jean- Bernard Pottier is vrijdag door de rechtbank in het Belgische Luik veroordeeld tot twee jaar cel voor het aanranden van twee meisjes op de katholieke school in het centrum van Luik waar hij als leerlingbegeleider werkzaam was.
De strafbare feiten werden gepleegd 2004 en 2006.
De veertiger was al diverse malen voor de rechtbank verschenen, maar het proces moest telkens verdaagd worden omdat de verdachte onwel werd als de woorden 'jonge meisjes' en 'aanrakingen' door de rechtszaal klonken. Gezien de belangen van de slachtoffers vond uiteindelijk veroordeling bij verstek plaats.
Aan de vrouwen, één van hen 13 op dat moment, werd naast een voorlopige schadevergoeding van 1500€ en 2000€ toegekend. Tevens werd een psychologisch onderzoek opgelegd.
De rechtbank heeft in haar vonnis mee overwogen dat Pottier, gepaard aan gebrek aan empathie, de ontkenning van zijn schuld en het afwijzen van zijn verantwoordelijkheiden zijn slachtoffers koos uit de meest kwestbaren in het leven. (bij afwezigheid van info over de school en de vrouwen: niet onmogelijk een verwijzing naar gehandicapten).
De man was niet meer op de school werkzaam, maar woont in de directe omgeving ervan.
De vrouwen werden vertegenwoordigd door Mrs. Charlier en Leclerc.
bronnen:
ANP
Dominique Lemaire, LaMeuse
Mea Culpa: Fysiek geweld, niet als corrigerende tik! Rechtsherstel?
Een leerzame tijd.
schrijft Annemie Knibbe:
Ik zat in Venray bij de Ursulinen van 1965 tot 1967. Ik was 12 jaar oud toen ik daar terecht kwam. Ik heb daar geweld ondervonden. Ik heb geaccepteerd dat het met mij gebeurd is, en vergeven. Ik heb behoefte aan rechtsherstel : erkenning van de feiten en vaststelling van de ontoelaatbaarheid ervan. Het maakt het leven al gemakkelijker nu niet meer te ontkennen is dat er sprake was van wreedheden in de katholieke internaten. De last van het gebeurde ligt nu bij de daders en hun leiding. Ik word sinds de onthullingen 's morgens wakker met een veel lichter gevoel over het leven. Laat de verantwoordelijken nu tot inzicht komen in hun aandeel in dit geweld en gedwongen worden te voorkomen dat het anderen in vergelijkbare situaties nog overkomt. Daar zit ik nog mee. Gelofte van gehoorzaamheid = organisatie van lamme onverantwoordelijkheid.
Wat gebeurde er:
rest
Ha Annemie, Goed een stukje van je verhaal te kunnen lezen, dank je wel.Het spijt me voor je dat het 2 zulke beroerde jaren voor je zijn geweest, met zulke kennelijk diepgaande gevolgen. Vooral goed te lezen dat je 's morgens beter wakker wordt door de vele onthullingen en - naar ik aanneem - de afgedwongen openheid over dat verleden.
Voor mij is rechtsherstel een knap zwaar begrip, wat ik bloedserieus wens te nemen. Maar wat mij een raadsel is - misschien wel door de andere situatie waarin wij verkeerden? - en mij alleen maar bijzonder verbaast is dat je rechtsherstel eist. Van wie dan en mbt. welk(e) recht(en)die je ontnomen zouden zijn? "
Ik kan het na herhaald overlezen en herkauwen in je verhaal niet vinden. Misschien gebruik je - mede gezien de privacy waarop ook jij en anderen natuurlijk alle recht hebben - dezelfde truc als ik mbt. mijn persoonlijk verleden in de Voorzienigheid, daar heb ik geen idee van.
Maar dat zou wel betekenen dat anderen, als ik, die je verhaal graag willen verstaan en de daar mogelijk bij horende (h)erkenning onthouden blijft. Ik (h)erken nu wel het nodige, maar met dat maar beter verd... serieus te nemen "rechtsherstel" heeft dat weinig te maken.
Ik hoop dat je in staat bent mijn vraag/opmerkingen niet verkeerd te lezen. Vanzelfsprekend ontken ik op geen enkele wijze het recht, de noodzaak en het belang van wie dan ook zich over dat haar/zijn jeugd/het verleden te uiten en iets te laten zien wat dat verder heeft betekend. Maar dat acht ik niet hetzelfde als (maatschappelijk en/of kerkelijk) rechtsherstel.
Omdat ik die eis over dat rechtsherstel- waarin wij kennelijk het nodige delen - zo serieus acht en ik veel tamtam en beschuldigingen op onduidelijke en bevraagbare gronden óók een aantasting van Rechten - toen en nu -acht, deze vraag mijnerzijds ook in het openbaar dan maar. Dan zien we wel weer hoe we verder komen.
Naast mijn dank voor je (deel)verhaal ook die voor die geboden mogelijkheid dus.
Hartelijke groet
--------------------
toegevoegd 6-6-2010 11.00 uur
5-6-2010 21:08:57 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
Beste Crispina, Misschien vul jij de term rechtsherstel in met iets heel specifieks?
We zien in vele landen nu dat de kerk ter verantwoording wordt geroepen. Hier moet dat nog gebeuren. Wat er te bewijzen valt dat kan ik niet overzien. Ik vond de bekentenissen van Simonis, die wel zorgen had voor zijn eigen religieuzen en niet voor de kinderen die aan hun misdadige gewoontes overgeleverd waren bijvoorbeeld een heel verwijtbaar standpunt.(Andere tijden) Zelf vond hij dat hij "toen niet kon weten dat dat fout was". Zo'n standpunt alleen al laat zien wat er onder zo'n leiding mogelijk was. Een samenleving moet dat niet toelaten.
Verder: elke afzonderlijke getuigenis mist bewijskracht, maar de vele verschillende verhalen met dezelfde systematische patronen van ontsporing, kunnen niet zonder gevolgen blijven. Een samenleving kan niet blijven wachten terwijl het intussen ook verder gaat. Ik kon jouw verhaal niet vinden: je vertelt dat je een enigszins vergelijkbare situatie hebt doorgemaakt? Bij de "Voorzienigheid"?
Annemie Knibbe
annemie Knibbe a dot knibbeAT NOSPAMtocfe dot nl
-----------------------------------------------------------------
enig mogelijke reactie mijnerzijds, na weigering mijn vingertoppen af te bijten, met dank aan de krokodillen van Antjie Krog:
Zucht !
*******************************************************
TOEGEVOEGD 18-6-2010 23.31 een leerzame tijd, ich hatte es nicht gewusst:
de jongetjes van Overbunde
Wat ervaringskennis al niet mogelijk maakt.
schrijft Annemie Knibbe:
Ik zat in Venray bij de Ursulinen van 1965 tot 1967. Ik was 12 jaar oud toen ik daar terecht kwam. Ik heb daar geweld ondervonden. Ik heb geaccepteerd dat het met mij gebeurd is, en vergeven. Ik heb behoefte aan rechtsherstel : erkenning van de feiten en vaststelling van de ontoelaatbaarheid ervan. Het maakt het leven al gemakkelijker nu niet meer te ontkennen is dat er sprake was van wreedheden in de katholieke internaten. De last van het gebeurde ligt nu bij de daders en hun leiding. Ik word sinds de onthullingen 's morgens wakker met een veel lichter gevoel over het leven. Laat de verantwoordelijken nu tot inzicht komen in hun aandeel in dit geweld en gedwongen worden te voorkomen dat het anderen in vergelijkbare situaties nog overkomt. Daar zit ik nog mee. Gelofte van gehoorzaamheid = organisatie van lamme onverantwoordelijkheid.
Wat gebeurde er:
rest
Ha Annemie, Goed een stukje van je verhaal te kunnen lezen, dank je wel.Het spijt me voor je dat het 2 zulke beroerde jaren voor je zijn geweest, met zulke kennelijk diepgaande gevolgen. Vooral goed te lezen dat je 's morgens beter wakker wordt door de vele onthullingen en - naar ik aanneem - de afgedwongen openheid over dat verleden.
Voor mij is rechtsherstel een knap zwaar begrip, wat ik bloedserieus wens te nemen. Maar wat mij een raadsel is - misschien wel door de andere situatie waarin wij verkeerden? - en mij alleen maar bijzonder verbaast is dat je rechtsherstel eist. Van wie dan en mbt. welk(e) recht(en)die je ontnomen zouden zijn? "
Ik kan het na herhaald overlezen en herkauwen in je verhaal niet vinden. Misschien gebruik je - mede gezien de privacy waarop ook jij en anderen natuurlijk alle recht hebben - dezelfde truc als ik mbt. mijn persoonlijk verleden in de Voorzienigheid, daar heb ik geen idee van.
Maar dat zou wel betekenen dat anderen, als ik, die je verhaal graag willen verstaan en de daar mogelijk bij horende (h)erkenning onthouden blijft. Ik (h)erken nu wel het nodige, maar met dat maar beter verd... serieus te nemen "rechtsherstel" heeft dat weinig te maken.
Ik hoop dat je in staat bent mijn vraag/opmerkingen niet verkeerd te lezen. Vanzelfsprekend ontken ik op geen enkele wijze het recht, de noodzaak en het belang van wie dan ook zich over dat haar/zijn jeugd/het verleden te uiten en iets te laten zien wat dat verder heeft betekend. Maar dat acht ik niet hetzelfde als (maatschappelijk en/of kerkelijk) rechtsherstel.
Omdat ik die eis over dat rechtsherstel- waarin wij kennelijk het nodige delen - zo serieus acht en ik veel tamtam en beschuldigingen op onduidelijke en bevraagbare gronden óók een aantasting van Rechten - toen en nu -acht, deze vraag mijnerzijds ook in het openbaar dan maar. Dan zien we wel weer hoe we verder komen.
Naast mijn dank voor je (deel)verhaal ook die voor die geboden mogelijkheid dus.
Hartelijke groet
--------------------
toegevoegd 6-6-2010 11.00 uur
5-6-2010 21:08:57 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
Beste Crispina, Misschien vul jij de term rechtsherstel in met iets heel specifieks?
We zien in vele landen nu dat de kerk ter verantwoording wordt geroepen. Hier moet dat nog gebeuren. Wat er te bewijzen valt dat kan ik niet overzien. Ik vond de bekentenissen van Simonis, die wel zorgen had voor zijn eigen religieuzen en niet voor de kinderen die aan hun misdadige gewoontes overgeleverd waren bijvoorbeeld een heel verwijtbaar standpunt.(Andere tijden) Zelf vond hij dat hij "toen niet kon weten dat dat fout was". Zo'n standpunt alleen al laat zien wat er onder zo'n leiding mogelijk was. Een samenleving moet dat niet toelaten.
Verder: elke afzonderlijke getuigenis mist bewijskracht, maar de vele verschillende verhalen met dezelfde systematische patronen van ontsporing, kunnen niet zonder gevolgen blijven. Een samenleving kan niet blijven wachten terwijl het intussen ook verder gaat. Ik kon jouw verhaal niet vinden: je vertelt dat je een enigszins vergelijkbare situatie hebt doorgemaakt? Bij de "Voorzienigheid"?
Annemie Knibbe
annemie Knibbe a dot knibbeAT NOSPAMtocfe dot nl
-----------------------------------------------------------------
enig mogelijke reactie mijnerzijds, na weigering mijn vingertoppen af te bijten, met dank aan de krokodillen van Antjie Krog:
Zucht !
*******************************************************
TOEGEVOEGD 18-6-2010 23.31 een leerzame tijd, ich hatte es nicht gewusst:
de jongetjes van Overbunde
Wat ervaringskennis al niet mogelijk maakt.
Hungerstrike day 19
Hunger strike for justice
Paddy :
A SURVIVOR of institutional abuse has criticised in-fighting among victims groups over compensation, warning they are in danger of losing public support.
...
Christine Buckley, director of the Aislinn Centre, said a range of groups had “mushroomed” since the apology of then-Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in 1999 and the establishment of the Redress Board. Ms Buckley said the priorities for the Aislinn Centre have always been education and counselling.
She said that some groups had told survivors they could get them an extra €200,000 to €300,000 in the second tranche of 
compensation and that some people had borrowed from money lenders as a result.
And Ms Buckley said she had been contacted by two separate solicitors who told her they would offer loans to survivors on the back of such assurances.
However, the Taoiseach has said the €110m in extra cash pledged by 16 of the 18 religious orders will be placed in a trust fund and administered by the State.
"It is a crime to withhold information to a crime regardless of what crime it is".
donderdag, juni 03, 2010
woensdag, juni 02, 2010
Time to be heard; Survivors Scotland
Knowledge not used is abused.
Dear Former Resident of Quarriers
I am writing to invite you to apply to take part in Time to be Heard. This is a pilot that will give up to 100 survivors and other former residents in Quarriers the chance to describe what it was like to be in care as children and the impact of that experience on their lives.
The Scottish Government has given funding and is helping with the preparations for the pilot. But Time to be Heard will be independent of government. I and one of two Commissioners, Anne Carpenter and Kathleen Marshall, will listen to each participant individually and with understanding and respect. Everyone who decides to take part will be offered support, help and advice before, during and after their involvement in the pilot. Time to be Heard is confidential and the identity of those who take part will not be made public.
Time to be Heard will begin on 17 May 2010 and will run for at least three months in central Glasgow. Travel costs will be paid for those who take part and for up to two supporters who can come with them. But if you are an older person, or are ill, or have other reasons why you can’t travel, we will make arrangements to meet you at a location convenient for you.
Time to be Heard, as a pilot, will test how useful this approach to
listening to and acknowledging the experiences of former residents could be. I will be writing a report on Time to be Heard, including a record of what the participants say about their experiences and what taking part meant for them. My report will be available early in 2011.
If you take part you will be helping to develop appropriate means of acknowledging the experiences, both good and bad, of adults who were in care as children in the past. You will also be helping to improve the provision for children who are in care now.
Further information and an information pack can be found from 7 April at: http://www.survivorscotland.org.uk/
or by phoning 0131 244 3633 or 0131 244 3214 between 9am and 5pm on weekdays or by writing to the SurvivorScotland team, Area 2ER, St Andrews House, Edinburgh EH1 3DG.
I am writing to invite you to apply to take part in Time to be Heard. This is a pilot that will give up to 100 survivors and other former residents in Quarriers the chance to describe what it was like to be in care as children and the impact of that experience on their lives.
The Scottish Government has given funding and is helping with the preparations for the pilot. But Time to be Heard will be independent of government. I and one of two Commissioners, Anne Carpenter and Kathleen Marshall, will listen to each participant individually and with understanding and respect. Everyone who decides to take part will be offered support, help and advice before, during and after their involvement in the pilot. Time to be Heard is confidential and the identity of those who take part will not be made public.
Time to be Heard will begin on 17 May 2010 and will run for at least three months in central Glasgow. Travel costs will be paid for those who take part and for up to two supporters who can come with them. But if you are an older person, or are ill, or have other reasons why you can’t travel, we will make arrangements to meet you at a location convenient for you.
Time to be Heard, as a pilot, will test how useful this approach to
listening to and acknowledging the experiences of former residents could be. I will be writing a report on Time to be Heard, including a record of what the participants say about their experiences and what taking part meant for them. My report will be available early in 2011.If you take part you will be helping to develop appropriate means of acknowledging the experiences, both good and bad, of adults who were in care as children in the past. You will also be helping to improve the provision for children who are in care now.
Further information and an information pack can be found from 7 April at: http://www.survivorscotland.org.uk/
or by phoning 0131 244 3633 or 0131 244 3214 between 9am and 5pm on weekdays or by writing to the SurvivorScotland team, Area 2ER, St Andrews House, Edinburgh EH1 3DG.
Sex abuse victims say church is still tenaciously fighting claims
Even after convictions, some lawsuits have dragged on for more than a decade; church official blames complexities of judicial system
Toronto Star
Sun May 30 2010
[...]
The 65-year-old native of St. John’s, Nfld., is among a group claiming physical and emotional abuse at the Belvedere Orphanage — a female counterpart of Mount Cashel. More than 30 women are suing the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy and the province of Newfoundland. Her case is now 13 years old and has only a faint pulse.
Evans, a singer who entertained Toronto crowds for three decades at nightspots like the El Mocambo, the Silver Dollar and the Royal York, said the legal limbo frustrates her and her five sisters who were all “tortured” by the nuns in the 1940s and ’50s.
Evans said she was beaten with belts and fists, locked in a dark tower without food for hours and, as a kindergarten student, was placed in a bathtub of scalding water and scrubbed with a hard brush between her legs when she peed her pants. One of Evans’ sisters had two fingers sliced off while operating a bread machine in an unsupervised kitchen while another sister needed stitches after a nun hit her in the head with the schoolyard bell.
“I had a business, I had a successful career,” said Evans, whose singing days ended when she began addressing childhood memories in the mid-1990s and had a breakdown.
She’s also battled alcoholism (she’s sober now), depression and now requires regular psychotherapy.
“(Other orphans) ended up drug addicts, prostitutes, suicides or emotionally abused . . . or drunks, because I was there too,” said Evans, who lives in Toronto with her husband of 34 years, Joe. She asked that her married surname not be used.
“I would give the world to see this come to closure of some sort.”
But the Belvedere case has little traction.
Nuns have died, memories are fading, time limits on physical assault allegations ran out decades ago, no criminal charges were laid and the potential financial compensation may not, ultimately, be worth the trauma of putting the women on the stand, says Evans’ lawyer, Richard Rogers.
That’s one of the reasons he has not formally filed a statement of claim. Rogers, who represented Mount Cashel and residential school victims, hopes to negotiate a group settlement for clients, most of whom needed extensive therapy as adults. Some women claimed they were also sexually assaulted by nuns.
Thomas O’Reilly represents the Sisters of Mercy and described Evans’ case as being in a state of “inertia,” citing the lack of a statement of claim.
The province responded to the Star in an email, stating “liability is being contested and the claims are being actively defended.”
Lavers understands why Rogers wants to avoid a trial. He witnessed two Belvedere women crack during discovery sessions a decade ago.
“The ladies would have breakdowns (and) and would end up in the (psychiatric) hospital,” said Lavers, who then represented two Sisters of Mercy nuns who were being sued as individuals.
“My heart went out to a couple of them because it appeared to be a re-victimization of the whole thing. I think it became so difficult for them to face it, they just walked away. It just wasn’t worth it to them.”
Cecilia McLauchlin felt she was in a game of “survivor” when she sued the London archdiocese in 2007. She was abused by Sylvestre when she was about 4 until she was 6.
The 32-year-old settled with the church last September — five days before her trial was to start. Prior to that, she had a 9-hour psychological assessment in Toronto for the defence that she said “haunted” her and caused regression in her therapy. The defence is entitled to conduct independent medical assessments.
McLauchlin was alone with a male doctor who asked graphic, explicit questions about her abuse and her adult sex life. She was also asked to describe the priest’s penis — even though Sylvestre was dead. McLauchlin said she was given a written assignment with hundreds of questions, such as: Do you ever feel like jumping off a bridge?
Another Sylvestre victim — the woman who’d had her psychiatric exam in Toronto cancelled — is in her fifth year of litigation. The woman said she’s seen the priest’s victims crumble after years on “an emotional roller coaster.”
“They couldn’t eat, sleep, work, they couldn’t carry on in their personal relationships,” said the woman, whose trial date is in 2011.
“There was so much anger in their lives and frustration. They just said ‘I want this done. I don’t care if I get $10, I just want this done.’ ”
Swifter resolutions would be more humane for victims, said Connie Coatsworth, a counsellor who has treated between 15 and 20 adults sexually assaulted as children by Catholic clergy.
“The longer (litigation) goes on, the harder it is for (patients) to heal,’’ said the Chatham therapist, who sees clients suffer under stresses related to lawsuits. “If (the church) truly wants healing for them, they need to expedite this process.”
Caruso called the church’s conduct hypocritical because it boasts of pastoral outreach to victims yet treated him “like sh--.”
“Their only concern is to piss you off and get you going and do everything they possibly can to deter you from suing them.”
Caruso said it would be more helpful to victims — and probably cheaper — for the church to provide counselling to ease their pain instead angering them into court action.
“I did not want to sue,” he said. “I didn’t want to be the poster child for this kind of bull.”
Toronto Star
Sun May 30 2010
[...]
The 65-year-old native of St. John’s, Nfld., is among a group claiming physical and emotional abuse at the Belvedere Orphanage — a female counterpart of Mount Cashel. More than 30 women are suing the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy and the province of Newfoundland. Her case is now 13 years old and has only a faint pulse.
Evans, a singer who entertained Toronto crowds for three decades at nightspots like the El Mocambo, the Silver Dollar and the Royal York, said the legal limbo frustrates her and her five sisters who were all “tortured” by the nuns in the 1940s and ’50s.
Evans said she was beaten with belts and fists, locked in a dark tower without food for hours and, as a kindergarten student, was placed in a bathtub of scalding water and scrubbed with a hard brush between her legs when she peed her pants. One of Evans’ sisters had two fingers sliced off while operating a bread machine in an unsupervised kitchen while another sister needed stitches after a nun hit her in the head with the schoolyard bell.
“I had a business, I had a successful career,” said Evans, whose singing days ended when she began addressing childhood memories in the mid-1990s and had a breakdown.
She’s also battled alcoholism (she’s sober now), depression and now requires regular psychotherapy.
“(Other orphans) ended up drug addicts, prostitutes, suicides or emotionally abused . . . or drunks, because I was there too,” said Evans, who lives in Toronto with her husband of 34 years, Joe. She asked that her married surname not be used.
“I would give the world to see this come to closure of some sort.”
But the Belvedere case has little traction.
Nuns have died, memories are fading, time limits on physical assault allegations ran out decades ago, no criminal charges were laid and the potential financial compensation may not, ultimately, be worth the trauma of putting the women on the stand, says Evans’ lawyer, Richard Rogers.
That’s one of the reasons he has not formally filed a statement of claim. Rogers, who represented Mount Cashel and residential school victims, hopes to negotiate a group settlement for clients, most of whom needed extensive therapy as adults. Some women claimed they were also sexually assaulted by nuns.
Thomas O’Reilly represents the Sisters of Mercy and described Evans’ case as being in a state of “inertia,” citing the lack of a statement of claim.
The province responded to the Star in an email, stating “liability is being contested and the claims are being actively defended.”
Lavers understands why Rogers wants to avoid a trial. He witnessed two Belvedere women crack during discovery sessions a decade ago.
“The ladies would have breakdowns (and) and would end up in the (psychiatric) hospital,” said Lavers, who then represented two Sisters of Mercy nuns who were being sued as individuals.
“My heart went out to a couple of them because it appeared to be a re-victimization of the whole thing. I think it became so difficult for them to face it, they just walked away. It just wasn’t worth it to them.”
Cecilia McLauchlin felt she was in a game of “survivor” when she sued the London archdiocese in 2007. She was abused by Sylvestre when she was about 4 until she was 6.
The 32-year-old settled with the church last September — five days before her trial was to start. Prior to that, she had a 9-hour psychological assessment in Toronto for the defence that she said “haunted” her and caused regression in her therapy. The defence is entitled to conduct independent medical assessments.
McLauchlin was alone with a male doctor who asked graphic, explicit questions about her abuse and her adult sex life. She was also asked to describe the priest’s penis — even though Sylvestre was dead. McLauchlin said she was given a written assignment with hundreds of questions, such as: Do you ever feel like jumping off a bridge?
Another Sylvestre victim — the woman who’d had her psychiatric exam in Toronto cancelled — is in her fifth year of litigation. The woman said she’s seen the priest’s victims crumble after years on “an emotional roller coaster.”
“They couldn’t eat, sleep, work, they couldn’t carry on in their personal relationships,” said the woman, whose trial date is in 2011.
“There was so much anger in their lives and frustration. They just said ‘I want this done. I don’t care if I get $10, I just want this done.’ ”
Swifter resolutions would be more humane for victims, said Connie Coatsworth, a counsellor who has treated between 15 and 20 adults sexually assaulted as children by Catholic clergy.
“The longer (litigation) goes on, the harder it is for (patients) to heal,’’ said the Chatham therapist, who sees clients suffer under stresses related to lawsuits. “If (the church) truly wants healing for them, they need to expedite this process.”
Caruso called the church’s conduct hypocritical because it boasts of pastoral outreach to victims yet treated him “like sh--.”
“Their only concern is to piss you off and get you going and do everything they possibly can to deter you from suing them.”
Caruso said it would be more helpful to victims — and probably cheaper — for the church to provide counselling to ease their pain instead angering them into court action.
“I did not want to sue,” he said. “I didn’t want to be the poster child for this kind of bull.”
Catholic Church in Canada sues victims of abuse
Clerical Whispers
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
AllGov
Conducting what’s been described as “relentless legal campaigns,” the Catholic Church of Canada has countersued numerous victims of abuse by priests.One example cited by the Toronto Star focused on former altar boy John Caruso, whose abuser, Reverend James Kneale, was convicted more than a decade ago.
Caruso and his family filed an $8.6 million civil case against the local diocese for not taking actions sooner to prevent Kneale from molesting the plaintiff.Church officials responded by counter-suing Caruso’s mother and father, claiming the parents were negligent because they did not get counseling and medical help for their son, and that Caruso’s father regularly beat him.
Caruso has reportedly tried to kill himself several times.
Although the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops has repeatedly called for abuse victims to be treated with empathy, compassion and counseling, when it comes to paying out money, the Church’s attorneys often play hardball.
According to Mary Ormsby, writing in the Star, the church “too often plays a game of courtroom chicken with stall tactics, hostile discovery sessions and intrusive psychological probes that unnerve vulnerable clients.”
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
AllGov
Conducting what’s been described as “relentless legal campaigns,” the Catholic Church of Canada has countersued numerous victims of abuse by priests.One example cited by the Toronto Star focused on former altar boy John Caruso, whose abuser, Reverend James Kneale, was convicted more than a decade ago.
Caruso and his family filed an $8.6 million civil case against the local diocese for not taking actions sooner to prevent Kneale from molesting the plaintiff.Church officials responded by counter-suing Caruso’s mother and father, claiming the parents were negligent because they did not get counseling and medical help for their son, and that Caruso’s father regularly beat him.
Caruso has reportedly tried to kill himself several times.
Although the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops has repeatedly called for abuse victims to be treated with empathy, compassion and counseling, when it comes to paying out money, the Church’s attorneys often play hardball.
According to Mary Ormsby, writing in the Star, the church “too often plays a game of courtroom chicken with stall tactics, hostile discovery sessions and intrusive psychological probes that unnerve vulnerable clients.”
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