Give enough money and you don't have to be held accountable for your crimes?
Seems to be the case with the Catholic Church.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090521/ap_on_re_eu/eu_ireland_catholic_abuse;_ylt=AgPK7AFKQl25xXo.OjZ9jYtvaA8F


Irish school victims angry that abusers not named.

Thousands beaten, raped in Irish reform schools

Ireland releases report on child abuse AP – John Kelly, of the Survivors of Child Abuse (SOCA) group, right, and Kevin Flannagan brother of Mickey … By SHAWN POGATCHNIK, Associated Press Writer Shawn Pogatchnik, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 1 min ago

DUBLIN – The thousands of victims of Ireland's child-abuse homes spent decades just trying to get the public to believe them. A mammoth investigation has proved the horrors of their youth, but left many disappointed that their abusers were not named.

A nine-year probe into child abuse by Ireland's Catholic religious orders painted a damning portrait of a system that shielded child-molesters from justice and trapped generations of Ireland's poorest children to misery from the 1930s to the 1990s.

"I do genuinely believe that it would have been a further step towards our healing if our abusers had been named and shamed," said Christine Buckley, 62, who spent her first 18 years in a Dublin orphanage run by Sisters of Mercy nuns.

More than 30,000 children deemed to be petty thieves, truants or from dysfunctional families — a category that included unmarried mothers — were sent to the mostly residential schools where the abuse took place.

Irish President Mary McAleese on Thursday denounced what she called an "atrocious betrayal of love" by Catholic clergy toward these children. She praised the victims for demanding the truth, despite Irish Catholic society's desire to doubt them and look the other way.

"My heart goes out to the victims of this terrible injustice, an injustice compounded by the fact that they had to suffer in silence for so long," McAleese said. "This report utterly vindicates their determination to break that silence."

But the victims, now mostly in their 50s to 80s, said Wednesday's 2,600-page report, despite its unprecedented scope and detail, did not make public what matters most — the names of their abusers.

That's because a religious order at the heart of the abuse charges — the Christian Brothers — successfully sued the investigators to keep the identities of all their abusive members secret.

Buckley, the daughter of an unwed mother, said the orphanage was closed to the outside world and the children inside lived a life of slave labor manufacturing rosaries. She said there was no way to escape the ritual humiliation, beatings and rape regardless of whether the children achieved their quota of producing 60 rosaries per day.

She didn't track down her parents, an Irish mother and Nigerian father, until her 40s, when she became one of the first to demand justice for her stolen youth.

"I didn't have a childhood," said Buckley, who recalled being constantly cold, hungry and thirsty as the nuns denied children water to keep them from wetting their beds. She was severely beaten by a nun for trying to smuggle out a letter detailing the abuse.

The Catholic religious orders that ran 52 workhouse-style reform schools from the late 19th century until the mid-1990s apologized after the report's release, speaking of their shame and regret. Abuses also took place at 216 other church-run institutions for children, which included orphanages, hostels, regular schools and schools for the disabled.

The Christian Brothers' leader in Ireland, Brother Kevin Mullan, said the organization had been right to keep names of even the most well-documented abusers out of Wednesday's report because "perhaps we had doubts about some of the allegations."

"But on the other hand, I'd have to say that at this stage, we have no interest in protecting people who were perpetrators of abuse," Mullan said, vowing to cooperate fully with any further investigation.

Buckley said the religious orders for years branded victims as money-seeking liars — and were incapable of admitting their guilt today. She specifically criticized Mullan.

"(Now) he doesn't mind if the abusers are named and shamed? Isn't that a little bit late for us?" she said.

Other victims emphasized that, for some of their former schoolmates, the end came far too soon. Their graves are inside the grounds of the workhouses, where some died of disease and malnutrition — and, survivors suspect, from the violence of their carekeepers.

"There's a lot of people who didn't survive here, and a lot of people who left very damaged," said Mannix Flynn, who spent two years at a Christian Brothers school in remote western Ireland.

Flynn this week revisited the closed school grounds, where dozens of residents and staff are buried, their plots marked with small heart-shaped headstones.

"The whole place was a place of abuse. There wasn't any sanctuary here. It was constant trauma and constant fear of attack," said Flynn, 52, a playwright, author and artist in Dublin. He said he and his friends faced chronic sexual assaults.

The Irish government, which in 1999 apologized for its role in permitting decades of abuse and established the commission to investigate the problem, has tried to make some amends.

A government-appointed panel has paid 12,000 abuse survivors an average of euro65,000 ($90,000) each — on condition they surrender their right to sue either the church or the state. About 2,000 more claims are pending.

Irish Catholic leaders cut a controversial deal with the government in 2001 that capped the church's contribution at euro128 million ($175 million) — a small fraction of the final cost to taxpayers.

Some victims and opposition politicians called Thursday for the church to give much more.

Cardinal Sean Brady, leader of Ireland's 4 million Catholics, said increasing the church's financial contributions for compensation was a decision that specific orders had to make, not the Irish church as a whole.

I was shocked when I heard about that.

Looks as if the Catholic Society is a sanctuary for murderers, peodophiles and child abusers.
How, can they escape arrest, prosecution, prison or even the death sentence.
I had no idea you could pay cash to get out of a felony.

The Catholic church has been harborin murderers, pedophiles, child abusers an rapists for centuries.

Yep, Red is right.

At risk of being pegged as hating religion or religious people yet again here I go...

Abuses in the Catholic Church begin virtually at it's inception. It is a politically and financially powerful institution that has been either directly or indirectly responsible for the injury and death of millions of individuals since it's creation. It is filled with hypocrites that have exploited people for centuries.

I really wonder why anyone is surprised by this news from Ireland.

Please...have a look at the history of the papacy, the politics and manipulations of the church and oh...while you are at it look at the Catholic church and the bible. Might open your eyes just a little bit.

I say with pride that I was the first person in my mothers family to refuse to be confirmed and who did not marry in the church.

It really does make me ill...considering the large numbers of good Catholic people that the institution is so corrupt.

Can be said about any religion, not sure about Hindu or Buddhism.

So true, the only difference I feel is that the Catholic church harbors the guilty instead of bringin them to justice. We talk about Islamic extremists today, what about the crusades? the spanish inquisition? the witch trials? Were these not Catholic extremists????

come on people....wake up...it's eveywhere and to think it's only in one group is insane

It's important when considering the corruption of the Catholic church to keep in mind the size and power of the institution.

I am sure there are corrupt people in every church, social organization, government etc. however there are few organizations or institutions that have held sway over so many people and governments.

Look at the role the church played in European history from it's inception to the present day. Anyone who thinks the church is not as powerful as it was then needs only to look at Ireland and south American...heck...look at how the church is dealt with here in the United States in regards to child abuse.

This is...or was the richest institution on the face of the earth. It's power should not be underestimated.

I don't see anyone here saying it is only one group...let's smarten up here...corruption in the church is systemic and well documented.

Abusers are protected, allowed to continue to work with children, moved, sheltered, promoted and not brought to account. These are not mere accusations on my part. The church has been caught at this again and again. In Ireland this time, in the United States and in Australia as well and that's just off the top of my head.

The Spanish Inquisition and the Crusades, the assassination of political opponents, the bastard children of even Popes being placed in political positions....all that and more has been directed from the Pope.

Like it or not the Catholic Church has a really spectacular history or crime, corruption, rape, bastard children, child molesting, political manipulation, war and death. These are not opinions of mine but facts.

and how has anyone dealt with those things that aren't catholic????

Again Yellow...please look at the size of the church and the incredible numbers of people who's lives have been affected by their criminal behavior.

Seriously...review the history of the church.

everyone seems to want to point fingers at everyone else...why???? don't we have enough to deal with without pointing fingers?

So...must be something wrong with pointing fingers. After all why mention the systematic large scale abuse of children and the churches protection of known monsters...if it makes some religious people uncomfortable better to remain silent right?

Makes me want to throw up.

After all, I don't imagine the generations of children who were victims of rape and beatings in the very place they should have been safe and nurtured were made uncomfortable at all. /sarcasm on

Why talk about this? Why point fingers?

Maybe so these monsters will be charged and held at account for their actions, maybe so alternative homes can be found, maybe so tax dollars aren't spent supporting pedophiles, maybe so the tithing of good faithful people aren't spent supporting pedophiles, maybe so children lives aren't ruined, maybe so people think twice before sending a child to one of these institutions, maybe so people quit donating to these institutions....there are just a few reasons to point fingers at these monsters who hide behind the illusion of faithful Christian charity.

Today I see this...a friggin' support group for women who are having sex with priests.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

500 women in secret affairs with priests: support group

* May 22, 2009

At least 500 women in Ireland are conducting clandestine affairs with Catholic priests, says the leader of a support group set up to look after those in forbidden relationships.

Bishop Pat Buckley said a conservative estimate was that one in 10 of the 5000 priests enjoyed regular sex with women and some even referred to their clerical collar as the "bird catcher".

Studies had shown that 80 per cent of priests had broken their vows of celibacy, he said.

Bishop Buckley runs the Bethany organisation, which he set up to support those in love affairs with the clergy.

Described as Ireland's rebel bishop, he was sidelined by the Catholic church in the mid-1980s when he pursued his own ministry for those who felt alienated by the traditional church.

Including practising homosexuals, Bishop Buckley said up to 40 per cent of the Catholic clergy in Ireland were sexually active.

His claims come as the shocking scale of sexual and physical abuse in Catholic education institutions reverberated throughout Ireland, victims' groups expressed anger at the failure of a commission of inquiry to recommend any criminal prosecutions.

The 2600-page report by Ireland's Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse found that for decades rape was "endemic" in more than 250 Irish Catholic care institutions from the 1930s to the 1990s, and that the church protected pedophiles in its ranks from arrest.

"A climate of fear, created by pervasive, excessive and arbitrary punishment, permeated most of the institutions and all those run for boys. Children lived with the daily terror of not knowing where the next beating was coming from," it said.

Children in industrial schools and reformatories were treated more like convicts and slaves than people with human rights, it said. Rape was particularly common in boys homes and industrial schools run by the Christian Brothers.

There were angry scenes outside the hotel in Dublin where the report was launched after about 20 former residents of industrial schools were prevented from attending the press conference.

Speaking outside the hotel, John Kelly, of the Irish Survivors of Child Abuse group, Soca, said: "We were treated as criminals as children when we were sent to these places and even now … there were Garda officers on call to arrest us if we tried to get in. It was an absolute disgrace."

Mr Kelly called the report's failure to recommend criminal prosecutions a whitewash.

The five-volume report confirmed allegations from thousands of former pupils from the institutions, finding that beatings in institutions run by priests and nuns were commonplace.

"In some schools, a high level of ritualised beating was routine … Girls were struck with implements designed to maximise pain and were struck on all parts of the body," the report said. It also criticised the failure of the Irish state, most notably the department of education, for allowing the abuse and exploitation to continue for decades.

The department aided this culture "through infrequent, toothless inspectors" that always deferred to the Catholic church's authority, the report said. The inspections even failed to ensure that children were adequately fed, clothed and educated.

After the revelations of systematic clerical abuse, Pope Benedict was challenged to hold a Vatican inquiry into the role of Catholic religious orders in Ireland's orphanages and industrial schools. Irish Soca said it was now up to the Vatican to investigate the scandal further.

The new leader of Catholics in England and Wales, the Most Reverend Vincent Nichols, also provoked outrage by describing Irish clergy who admitted abusing children as courageous for facing up to their pasts.

In an interview broadcast on British television, he said: "I think of those in religious orders … who have to face these facts from their past, which instinctively and quite naturally they'd rather not look at. That takes courage, and also we shouldn't forget that this account today will also overshadow all of the good that they also did."

The controversy threatened to overshadow the installation of the bishop, due to be attended by more than 2200 guests including the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams.
A second damning report, due to be published in June, will detail the abuse of hundreds of children in the Dublin archdiocese from 1940.

Ah, grasshopper, it is always more interesting to hang someone for a crime while being catholic, than simply hang someone for a crime!

Millions of people abuse children sexually. What fun would that be to point those out? No, find me one at that who is also a catholic, and I'll find you breaking news.

Ummmm put in jail for one...

If you don't see the difference between a child molester and molesters who abuse the relationship of the clergy with it's practitioners to acquire and abuse children within an institution that knowingly and systematically harbors and protects hundreds and maybe thousands of child molesting monsters using the resources of the richest institution on earth then you really are rather simple.

It should not matter who the offender is. If the they are caught, they should all feel the Law equally.
Those Religious leaders should be persecuted and prosecuted with extreme pregudice because, they are supposed to be setting the example.
Any religion that would shelter them has to be demonic. If they weren't, they'd wish to shine the light on and give up the perpetrators.

I agree that no one should be above the law...then again I don't know how it is in Ireland. but IMO....family members are a worse betrayal when they commit rape. but whether it's a stranger or someone they are close to...it is rape and it is a difficult situation

Being personally attached to the term rape must be difficult.
I can relate a bit about personal attachments to stressful situations. I did an MRI last year and now, I have panic attacks. Had to go to the hospital last week at 3 in the morning with one. They gave me a tranquilizer shot. That was such a wierd feeling.
I hope, for you, one day you won't heve to keep reliving your nightmare when hit with a trigger. You're a great person and sounds like you're a pretty good Mom to.

ahh willing hon...no I am ok. I just know how it can be. regardless of who does the raping...it's traumatic.