By Sammie Jones-
Catholic leaders and the police failed victims of sexual abuse, a report published today states.
The report, full of heavy criticism against leaders of the Catholic Church, exposes a systemic culture of sexual abuse of boys and cover up in the Catholic Church decades ago. How much of this still goes on is anybody’s guess.
The report make Police and Catholic leaders guilty of a ”catalogue of failures” in their handling of a pedophile ring inquiry at a Belfast care home, a report has concluded.
The report into child mistreatment across Northern Ireland concluded that a Royal Ulster Constabulary investigation into sexual abuse at the KIncora care home in Belfast was ”inept, inadequate, and far from thorough”.
The report went further to accuse the Catholic hierarchy in Ireland of repeatedly ignoring warnings about Fr Brendon Smyth, a serial Pedophile, who sexually assaulted and raped dozens of young victims.
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Over 30 boys were sexually abused by McGrath, the KIncora house master, and others residing at the home. One of their victims, jumped over a ferry into the Irish SEa in the late 1970’s after years of abuse by the Paediphile ring who were running the care home. Three senior staff at KIncora were jailed in 1981 for abusing 11 boys. They were McgGrath, Raymond Semple and Joseph Mains. Strangely, McGrath was also believed to be an informer of M15 and special branch in the 70’s.
Retired judge Sir Anthony Hart decried the incompetence of the investigation, saying that had a proper investigation into KIncora been carried out, many of the victims may have been spared.
He praised the co-operation of the current police service of Northern Ireland, which he said was in marked contrast to the ”unwillingness of some individuals”
The report criticised the Catholic Church for continuously moving Fr Brendan Smith around Parishes in both Northern Ireland and United States long after it knew about its abuse of children in places like Belfast.
The report read ” Father Brendon Smyth was able to carry out widespread sexual abuse of children including some children resident in their homes investigated by the inquiry because of the failure of branches of the Roman Catholic church to properly address his behavior from before he was ordained as a priest, despite clear warnings”, it said.
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”There was repeated failure to assess the risk he posed to children, to confine him to his abbey, to thoroughly investigate allegations of abuse, to notify the police and social services, and to share information between doicess and report matters to the appropriate civil and ecclesiastical authorities”. H
Catholic nuns, the sisters of Nazareth, were also were also blasted in the report. ” In each of the four homes, some nuns engaged in physical and emotional abuse against children, emotional abuse was widespread in all homes”.
”There were a number of sexual abuses involving priests and lay staff. Many were known to the clergy, but he did nothing to stop them”, the report states. The sisters of Nazareth has apologised to anyone who suffered abuse whilst in their care. ”It was always the desire or the order to provide a safe place for children and when we failed on any occasion, we want to express our deepest regret, the statement read.
”This has been a traumatic time for those survivors and victims who have come forward, however, we sincerely hope it has sincerely been an opportunity to provide relief”. Unfortunately, the regret comes far too late. Too much damage has been done, and it is always easy to express regret after being exposed for serious misconduct.
Harts report is 2,300 pages long and contains 10 volumes of findings and testimonies. They include public hearings held into 22 institutions across Northern Ireland run by the State, local authorities, the Catholic Church, the Church of Ireland, and other voluntary organisations.Archbishop Eamonn, who leads Ireland’s Catholics, has said he will discuss the findings of the report t with Pope Francis when they meet in Rome later today.He apologised ”unreservedly” to all who had suffered abuse in Church run institutions.
He said ”I am ashamed and I am truly sorry that such abuse occurred, and that in many cases children and young people felt deprived of love and were left with a deep and lasting suffering”. Margeret McGuckin, who has for years campaigned for survivors of this terrible abuse, said ” today we are believed. As young children we tried to complain about our abuse and no one would listen. IN particular, the religious orders and these holy devout christian people disbelieved us and even bullied us more for daring to complain. Today, we have been vindicated”.
Such widespread abuse is shameful and horrifying, reminiscent of the sexual abuse of boys recently exposed in football, also dating back to the 70’s, Sexual abuse reveals the lowest level of moral degradation in human beings, but becomes more disgraceful and distasteful when it involves religious organisations of any kind. So called priests and nuns who put on saintly faces were guilty of the most serious of atrocities, and got away with it for years, with no action from the authorities of the church. The only reason the extent of sexual abuse was able to continue without punishment or redress is probably because the authorities of those churches may themselves have been involved in sexual abuses of a similar kind, clandestinely, or openly. Ofcourse, this is mere speculation, but when such a wide scale of sexual abuse comes to light and authorities do nothing about it, one has to wonder why.
Money could have been an influencing factor, so that if the authorities of the Catholic church were being subsidised in any way, it would be against their interest to stop the cycle of extreme abuses by monsters masquerading as
priests and holy individuals.
Sir Anthony recommended a permanent memorial to be established at Stormont and a commissioner for survivors of institutional abuse be appointed. Twelve of those who gave evidence had since dies, prompting Sir Anthony to say it was only ”just and humane” that their spouses receive a payment of 75% of the total lump sum. The family of the deceased who gave evidence are expected to receive payments ranging from £7,000 to £100,000.
The revelation of sexual abuses in the Catholic Church is not new, but the scale of this finding is particularly disgraceful. It will inevitably stain the reputation of the Catholic Church, although not all priests will have the tendency for sexual abuse like this. There are many noble Catholic priests in Britain and other parts of the world, but when sexual abuse as widespread as this is exposed, it makes it difficult to trust anybody. The catholic church have a lot of work to do to root out this type of disgraceful behaviour in order to prevent any repetition. Whether they can successfully address it is another matter, but sexual predators among them need to be quickly identified and driven away.This news adds to a catalogue of sexual abuses in different organisations revealed this year and in 2016. It is too shameful.
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