Jehovah's Witnesses under fire from former congregants who say child sex abuse was hushed
$10.5 Million Lawsuit Against Jehovah's Witnesses Organizations Velicia Alston, who says she was molested as a child, wants to change the way Jehovah's Witnesses' leadership responds to child sexual abuse.
By Aimee Green December 01, 2014
Two people who say that as children they were sexually abused by a leader in a Hillsboro Jehovah’s Witnesses congregation filed a $10.5 million lawsuit Monday – among the first in Oregon to accuse the religious organization of hiding decades of sexual abuse.
Attorneys for Velicia Alston, 39, and an unnamed man said the Jehovah’s Witnesses leadership continues to cover up sexual abuse against children by leaders. They say it is more than a decade behind other organizations, such as the Catholic Church, that have been forced to address their problems through many years of civil litigation.
“There is a crisis of silence in the Jehovah's Witness organization," said Irwin Zalkin, one of several attorneys representing Alston and the man. Zalkin described the religious organization as "more concerned about protecting its reputation than it is about protecting its children."
For example, Zalkin said the seven men who make up the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Governing Body have a policy requiring a confession from the perpetrator or two eyewitnesses to the abuse before leaders will take any action.
“Even if they do disfellowship a perpetrator, they don’t tell the congregation why,” Zalkin said during a news conference Monday in Portland. “No one but the elders can ever know that there is a child predator lurking in that congregation.”
Zalkin said Jehovah’s Witnesses leaders don’t call police. Rather, Zalkin said, they take the position that although Oregon law defines clergy as mandatory reporters of child abuse, they don’t need to report the abuse because it was a privileged religious communication.....
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2014/12/jehovahs_witnesses_under_fire.html
See Haunting Photos of the Sites of Child Abuse
Richard Conway
The very ordinariness of both the context and the location of child abuse in Ireland struck photographer Kim Haughton as profoundly disturbing.
In a damning 2009 report, Ireland’s independently-run Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse – which spent nine years investigating thousands of allegations of abuse at religious-run institutions – spoke of a culture of “endemic sexual abuse” in the country’s Catholic boys’ schools and of the “deferential and submissive attitude” of the Irish state towards the religious orders who ran them.
What emerged from the investigation, and from a separate Dublin-specific inquiry concluded the same year, was that institutional child abuse was widespread and that it had occurred not only in schools, but in many places where young people were in the care of religious orders. The commissions also revealed that very often when children reported the abuse, they were largely ignored and even punished, with many of the adult perpetrators being relocated to new parishes by church officials. The state, too, had willfully turned a blind eye....
https://time.com/3608071/see-haunting-photos-of-the-sites-of-child-abuse/
Showing posts with label Ireland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ireland. Show all posts
Monday, December 1, 2014
Friday, June 6, 2014
Mass grave at Galway home not the only one, 800 babies 'in septic tank'
Mass grave at Galway home not the only one, says Irish leader Kenny
Sheila Langan June 06,2014
The mass grave of 796 children at a former home for unwed mothers and children in Tuam, Co. Galway is likely not the only one of its kind in Ireland, Prime Minister Enda Kenny has said.
A government investigation launched in wake of the shocking discovery will focus on all of the former so-called ‘mother and baby homes’ in Ireland, it was announced yesterday.
Minister for Children Charlie Flanagan is organizing a group of senior officials who will advise the government on the scope of investigation required and the best course of action at the end of the month.
Speaking from the US, where he is currently on a trade mission, Kenny said that Flanagan and his committee would determine “whether this is an isolated [incident] or whether there are others around the country that need to be looked at” and to “decide what is the best thing to do in the interests of dealing with another element of our country's past.”....
Many other homes for unwed mothers, their “illegitimate” children and other orphans operated in Ireland throughout the 1900s. There was Bessborough in Co. Cork, Sean Ross in Tipperary (where Philomena Lee had her son), and Castlepollard in Westmeath – all run by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart. The mortality rates at these homes were far higher than the national average, the Irish Examiner recently reported, ranging from 30% - 50% between 1930 and 1945.
There were Protestant mother and baby homes too, such as the Bethany Home in Dublin, where a similar scandal took place. Between 1922 and 1949, close to 220 children died and were buried in an unmarked grave at Dublin’s Mount Jerome Cemetery. They were memorialized in 2010.....
http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Mass-grave-at-Tuam-Childrens-Home-not-the-only-one-says-Kenny.html
Ireland shock over 800 babies 'in septic tank'
Friday 06 June 2014
Ireland has been rocked this week as another horrific scandal linked to the Catholic church emerges in Galway, where a mass grave with the bodies of 800 children was uncovered.
....This week it was revealed that the site contained the remains of hundreds of children who died in the care of Bon Secours nuns between 1925 and 1961 and was not a famine grave as originally claims in the 70s.
The babies are believed to have been secretly buried at the home for unwed mothers, dubbed "fallen women", which had an extraordinarily high infant mortality rates - with children dying of TB, pneumonia, measles and gastorenteritis.
A report from the institution in 1944 revealed emaciated childen, mothers suffering with mental health issues and overcrowding.
The Bon Secours sisters, a Roman Catholic organisation, began providing healthcare in Ireland in the 19th century and is now the country's largest private healthcare provider.
The sisters said they were shocked and saddened by the reports, they ran 10 similar homes across Ireland and three of the others are believed to have plots with the remains of 3,200 babies and infants....
The case follows a series of scandals over abuse at institutions entrusted to the Catholic church in Ireland.
The Artane Industrial school case revealed how Christian brothers systematically neglected and abused orphans and boys from single parent families put into "state care" for decades.
Magdalen asylums, known as Magdalene laundries, ran in Ireland until 1996 with as many as 30,000 "fallen women" incarcerated, stripped of their identities and forced to carry out forced labour.
Women were locked up in abusive laundries for being sexually active outside marriage, having "illegitimate children" and some simply to safeguard their "moral purity"....
It found the entire system had treated children as prisoners and slaves, ignoring their rights and noted that some religious officials had encouraged ritual beatings - while protecting their own with a culture of secrecy.
http://www.channel4.com/news/bon-secour-galway-catholic-church-ireland-septic-tank
Sheila Langan June 06,2014
The mass grave of 796 children at a former home for unwed mothers and children in Tuam, Co. Galway is likely not the only one of its kind in Ireland, Prime Minister Enda Kenny has said.
A government investigation launched in wake of the shocking discovery will focus on all of the former so-called ‘mother and baby homes’ in Ireland, it was announced yesterday.
Minister for Children Charlie Flanagan is organizing a group of senior officials who will advise the government on the scope of investigation required and the best course of action at the end of the month.
Speaking from the US, where he is currently on a trade mission, Kenny said that Flanagan and his committee would determine “whether this is an isolated [incident] or whether there are others around the country that need to be looked at” and to “decide what is the best thing to do in the interests of dealing with another element of our country's past.”....
Many other homes for unwed mothers, their “illegitimate” children and other orphans operated in Ireland throughout the 1900s. There was Bessborough in Co. Cork, Sean Ross in Tipperary (where Philomena Lee had her son), and Castlepollard in Westmeath – all run by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart. The mortality rates at these homes were far higher than the national average, the Irish Examiner recently reported, ranging from 30% - 50% between 1930 and 1945.
There were Protestant mother and baby homes too, such as the Bethany Home in Dublin, where a similar scandal took place. Between 1922 and 1949, close to 220 children died and were buried in an unmarked grave at Dublin’s Mount Jerome Cemetery. They were memorialized in 2010.....
http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Mass-grave-at-Tuam-Childrens-Home-not-the-only-one-says-Kenny.html
Ireland shock over 800 babies 'in septic tank'
Friday 06 June 2014
Ireland has been rocked this week as another horrific scandal linked to the Catholic church emerges in Galway, where a mass grave with the bodies of 800 children was uncovered.
....This week it was revealed that the site contained the remains of hundreds of children who died in the care of Bon Secours nuns between 1925 and 1961 and was not a famine grave as originally claims in the 70s.
The babies are believed to have been secretly buried at the home for unwed mothers, dubbed "fallen women", which had an extraordinarily high infant mortality rates - with children dying of TB, pneumonia, measles and gastorenteritis.
A report from the institution in 1944 revealed emaciated childen, mothers suffering with mental health issues and overcrowding.
The Bon Secours sisters, a Roman Catholic organisation, began providing healthcare in Ireland in the 19th century and is now the country's largest private healthcare provider.
The sisters said they were shocked and saddened by the reports, they ran 10 similar homes across Ireland and three of the others are believed to have plots with the remains of 3,200 babies and infants....
The case follows a series of scandals over abuse at institutions entrusted to the Catholic church in Ireland.
The Artane Industrial school case revealed how Christian brothers systematically neglected and abused orphans and boys from single parent families put into "state care" for decades.
Magdalen asylums, known as Magdalene laundries, ran in Ireland until 1996 with as many as 30,000 "fallen women" incarcerated, stripped of their identities and forced to carry out forced labour.
Women were locked up in abusive laundries for being sexually active outside marriage, having "illegitimate children" and some simply to safeguard their "moral purity"....
It found the entire system had treated children as prisoners and slaves, ignoring their rights and noted that some religious officials had encouraged ritual beatings - while protecting their own with a culture of secrecy.
http://www.channel4.com/news/bon-secour-galway-catholic-church-ireland-septic-tank
Thursday, June 5, 2014
Manslaughter claim in deaths of 800 children in Galway Home, Neglect and death, Bodies of 800 Babies Reportedly Found in Sewer Tank in Ireland
Manslaughter claim in deaths of 800 children in Galway Home (VIDEO)
Cahir O'Doherty June 05,2014
An Irish politician has called what happened with the deaths of 800 children at a religious-run unmarried mothers home in Tuam in Galway between 1925 and 1961 “manslaughter.”
Hildegarde Naughton, a Fine Gael Senator from Galway, claimed in the Irish Senate that what had occurred at the mothers and babies home was in fact criminal.
The shocking revelation that 796 babies died and were buried in an unmarked grave in a septic tank in the mother and baby home in Tuam, County Galway continues to reverberate.
Calls for a full historical inquiry have now reached the higher echelons of the church.
Archbishop of Tuam Michael Neary said the order of the Bon Secours sisters needed to address the issue, stating the archdiocese had nothing to do with the home when it was open.... http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Manslaughter-claim-in-deaths-of-800-children-in-Galway-unwed-mothers-Home-VIDEO.html
Neglect and death of 800 kids in Galway happened in plain sight
Sheila Langan June 04,2014
The 796 infants and children buried in an unmarked mass grave in the septic tank behind St. Mary’s Mother and Baby home in Tuam, Co. Galway made headlines around the world after their shocking story broke last week.
But this is not the first time the Home and the ‘Home babies,’ as locals call them, have been in the news.
Following early reports on the research of Tuam historian Catherine Corless, who brought the story to light, Liam Hogan, a Limerick-based historian and librarian, began uncovering a trail of damning news clips dating from before the Home’s founding in 1925 to after its closure in 1961.
The articles show that the Home was very much a matter of both public and governmental knowledge. And the way in which they discuss the Home’s occupants (or “inmates” as they are more often referred to) makes clear the totally normalized disdain with which all the “illegitimate children” and “fallen women” were held.
The Tuam Children’s Home, it turns out, is a scandal that emerged from an even earlier scandal – The Glenamaddy Children’s Home, less than 20 miles away.
A June 1, 1924 article from the Connacht Tribune speaks of the ‘dire conditions’ at the Glenamaddy Home, a former workhouse that began housing orphans and unwed mothers in 1921, under the supervision of the Bon Secours nuns.... http://www.irishcentral.com/news/The-Home-babies-in-the-news-A-timeline-of-neglect-in-plain-sight.html
Bodies of 800 Babies Reportedly Found in Sewer Tank in Ireland
Thursday, Jun 5, 2014
New research suggests that some 796 children were secretly buried in the sewage tank of a home run by nuns in Tuam, Ireland, where unmarried pregnant women were sent to give birth in an attempt to preserve the country's devout Catholic image, NBC News reported. People who lived near the home-- run by nuns from the Bon Secours Sisters congregation between 1925 and 1961 -- said they have known about the unmarked mass grave for decades, but a fresh investigation was sparked this week after research by a local historian purportedly showed that of the hundreds of children who died at the home, only one was buried at a cemetery. http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/261955901.html
Cahir O'Doherty June 05,2014
An Irish politician has called what happened with the deaths of 800 children at a religious-run unmarried mothers home in Tuam in Galway between 1925 and 1961 “manslaughter.”
Hildegarde Naughton, a Fine Gael Senator from Galway, claimed in the Irish Senate that what had occurred at the mothers and babies home was in fact criminal.
The shocking revelation that 796 babies died and were buried in an unmarked grave in a septic tank in the mother and baby home in Tuam, County Galway continues to reverberate.
Calls for a full historical inquiry have now reached the higher echelons of the church.
Archbishop of Tuam Michael Neary said the order of the Bon Secours sisters needed to address the issue, stating the archdiocese had nothing to do with the home when it was open.... http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Manslaughter-claim-in-deaths-of-800-children-in-Galway-unwed-mothers-Home-VIDEO.html
Neglect and death of 800 kids in Galway happened in plain sight
Sheila Langan June 04,2014
The 796 infants and children buried in an unmarked mass grave in the septic tank behind St. Mary’s Mother and Baby home in Tuam, Co. Galway made headlines around the world after their shocking story broke last week.
But this is not the first time the Home and the ‘Home babies,’ as locals call them, have been in the news.
Following early reports on the research of Tuam historian Catherine Corless, who brought the story to light, Liam Hogan, a Limerick-based historian and librarian, began uncovering a trail of damning news clips dating from before the Home’s founding in 1925 to after its closure in 1961.
The articles show that the Home was very much a matter of both public and governmental knowledge. And the way in which they discuss the Home’s occupants (or “inmates” as they are more often referred to) makes clear the totally normalized disdain with which all the “illegitimate children” and “fallen women” were held.
The Tuam Children’s Home, it turns out, is a scandal that emerged from an even earlier scandal – The Glenamaddy Children’s Home, less than 20 miles away.
A June 1, 1924 article from the Connacht Tribune speaks of the ‘dire conditions’ at the Glenamaddy Home, a former workhouse that began housing orphans and unwed mothers in 1921, under the supervision of the Bon Secours nuns.... http://www.irishcentral.com/news/The-Home-babies-in-the-news-A-timeline-of-neglect-in-plain-sight.html
Bodies of 800 Babies Reportedly Found in Sewer Tank in Ireland
Thursday, Jun 5, 2014
New research suggests that some 796 children were secretly buried in the sewage tank of a home run by nuns in Tuam, Ireland, where unmarried pregnant women were sent to give birth in an attempt to preserve the country's devout Catholic image, NBC News reported. People who lived near the home-- run by nuns from the Bon Secours Sisters congregation between 1925 and 1961 -- said they have known about the unmarked mass grave for decades, but a fresh investigation was sparked this week after research by a local historian purportedly showed that of the hundreds of children who died at the home, only one was buried at a cemetery. http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/261955901.html
Friday, March 28, 2014
Church diocese sues another over priest accused of sex abuse
Church diocese sues another over priest accused of sex abuse
AP March 27, 2014
NEW ULM, Minn. -- In a rare legal move, a Roman Catholic diocese in Minnesota is suing a diocese in Ireland, alleging it transferred a priest to Minnesota without warning that the man had been accused of sexual abuse.
A report by Minnesota Public Radio News and KARE-TV said the Diocese of New Ulm filed the lawsuit in February against the Diocese of Clogher in Ireland and the Servants of the Paraclete religious order.
In it, the New Ulm Diocese claims it never would have accepted the Rev. Francis Xavier Markey in 1981 if it had been told about the allegations against him.
Markey was ordained in Ireland in 1952, and documents in several court cases show he was accused of sexually abusing boys as early as the 1960s. The documents also show he had gone to treatment before coming to the U.S., and also received treatment at a Paraclete facility in New Mexico.
The New Ulm Diocese said Markey arrived in Willmar in December 1981 and did some temporary parish work. He left the diocese seven months later.
The New Ulm Diocese's lawsuit stems from a claim filed last year by a man who says Markey groped him and his two brothers at their family home in 1982, when Markey was filling in at rural churches in Henderson and Jessenland.
Markey died in 2012 while awaiting trial on child rape charges in Ireland....
But in court documents filed in another Markey case, the Diocese of Clogher said it did not assign Markey to work in Minnesota on its behalf, and it has no record of approving Markey to transfer to any program in Minnesota.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-ulm-minnesota-church-diocese-sues-one-in-ireland-over-priest/
AP March 27, 2014
NEW ULM, Minn. -- In a rare legal move, a Roman Catholic diocese in Minnesota is suing a diocese in Ireland, alleging it transferred a priest to Minnesota without warning that the man had been accused of sexual abuse.
A report by Minnesota Public Radio News and KARE-TV said the Diocese of New Ulm filed the lawsuit in February against the Diocese of Clogher in Ireland and the Servants of the Paraclete religious order.
In it, the New Ulm Diocese claims it never would have accepted the Rev. Francis Xavier Markey in 1981 if it had been told about the allegations against him.
Markey was ordained in Ireland in 1952, and documents in several court cases show he was accused of sexually abusing boys as early as the 1960s. The documents also show he had gone to treatment before coming to the U.S., and also received treatment at a Paraclete facility in New Mexico.
The New Ulm Diocese said Markey arrived in Willmar in December 1981 and did some temporary parish work. He left the diocese seven months later.
The New Ulm Diocese's lawsuit stems from a claim filed last year by a man who says Markey groped him and his two brothers at their family home in 1982, when Markey was filling in at rural churches in Henderson and Jessenland.
Markey died in 2012 while awaiting trial on child rape charges in Ireland....
But in court documents filed in another Markey case, the Diocese of Clogher said it did not assign Markey to work in Minnesota on its behalf, and it has no record of approving Markey to transfer to any program in Minnesota.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-ulm-minnesota-church-diocese-sues-one-in-ireland-over-priest/
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Ireland and Child Abuse
Ireland and Child Abuse
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD JAN. 31, 2014
For years, the government of Ireland has denied liability for child sexual abuse by teachers in state-financed schools managed by the Roman Catholic Church. The European Court of Human Rights punctured this denial Tuesday with a finding that the Irish government, in financing and regulating the education of youngsters, had “an inherent obligation” to protect them, and owed compensation to a victim whose case was rejected as groundless by Ireland’s highest court.
The European court pointed to the obvious: The Irish government is responsible for failing to act against inhuman and degrading treatment of citizens that is specifically barred under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The court ordered more than $150,000 in compensation and court costs for Louise O’Keeffe, who had been repeatedly abused 40 years ago as a 9-year-old at the national school at Dunderrow, County Cork.
The abuser was a lay teacher, Leo Hickey, who was not charged for 20 years, even though parents had complained about him to a school administrator in the early 1970s. The scandal finally broke into the open in the 1990s and the abuser was sentenced to three years in prison after being charged with 386 criminal offenses involving 21 youngsters....
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/01/opinion/ireland-and-child-abuse.html
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD JAN. 31, 2014
For years, the government of Ireland has denied liability for child sexual abuse by teachers in state-financed schools managed by the Roman Catholic Church. The European Court of Human Rights punctured this denial Tuesday with a finding that the Irish government, in financing and regulating the education of youngsters, had “an inherent obligation” to protect them, and owed compensation to a victim whose case was rejected as groundless by Ireland’s highest court.
The European court pointed to the obvious: The Irish government is responsible for failing to act against inhuman and degrading treatment of citizens that is specifically barred under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The court ordered more than $150,000 in compensation and court costs for Louise O’Keeffe, who had been repeatedly abused 40 years ago as a 9-year-old at the national school at Dunderrow, County Cork.
The abuser was a lay teacher, Leo Hickey, who was not charged for 20 years, even though parents had complained about him to a school administrator in the early 1970s. The scandal finally broke into the open in the 1990s and the abuser was sentenced to three years in prison after being charged with 386 criminal offenses involving 21 youngsters....
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/01/opinion/ireland-and-child-abuse.html
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Irish TV host and child camp founder Domhnall O Lubhlai never stood trial for 11 sexual abuse charges, Gymnastics coach who sexually abused seven girls as young as six walks free from court as judge accepts his 'remorse' despite attempts to blame victims
Irish TV host and child camp founder Domhnall O Lubhlai never stood trial for 11 sexual abuse charges
Language activist and Irish college founder dubbed “Ireland’s Jimmy Savile” was up on 56 horrific charges By IrishCentral Staff Writers, Tuesday, April 9, 2013
The Irish language activist and TV host Domhnall O Lubhlai (84) died before facing sexual abuse claims. O Lubhlai, the founder of one of Ireland’s largest Irish colleges, Colaiste na bhFiann, and the presenter of a TV show on RTE, has been dubbed “Ireland’s Jimmy Savile” due to the allegations against him....
In 2000 O Lubhlai was charged with the molestation of 11 children. O Lubhlai faced 56 charges of sexual assault, buggery and attempted buggery. Five men testified that they had been abused....
However the trial collapsed due to the fact that the accused claimed he was on medication during his interviews with detectives, in 1998 and 1999. Last January a former Irish college student made a fresh complaint against O Lubhlai. He claimed O Lubhlai abused him between the ages of 12 and 15, during the mid-1970s....
The police were compiling a report and witness statement when O Lubhlai was found dead at his Mullingar home, County Westmeath....
Although there were 11 complaints against him in 2000 it was believed that there may have been other victims during his 30 years as a teacher. His alleged crimes only came to light in the early 1990s when he reported that he was being blackmailed by a former student. Until the end, O Lubhlai maintained his innocence and claimed his accusers were motivated by jealousy.
http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Irish-TV-host-and-child-camp-founder-Domhnall-O-Lubhlai-never-stood-trial-for-11-sexual-abuse-charges-202093361.html
Gymnastics coach who sexually abused seven girls as young as six walks free from court as judge accepts his 'remorse' despite attempts to blame victims
Bob Bellew admitted a string of sexual abuse charges spanning 40 years
Was handed 15-month prison sentence suspended for two years
Judge said offences were 'not specimens of a course of conduct'
She said 'punishment has in effect already begun'
Sentence slammed as 'everything that is wrong' with British justice system
'You get six months for taking your husband’s speeding points,' say victims
Bellew had 'passed the blame onto his victims' in a probation report
By James Rush 12 April 2013
An internationally renowned gymnastics coach who sexually abused seven girls as young as six over a 40-year period has walked free from court. Bob Bellew, 66, has published books on gymnastics, taught at schools across the UK and was a former Community Coach of the Year.
He also served on committees planning the 2012 Olympics and was chief coach of the Tower Hamlets Schools gym and dance display team. Bellew was also awarded the 'Order of the Smile', a UN-recognised citation for adults 'distinguished in their love, care and aid of children'.
But he admitted a string of sexual abuse charges, spanning 40 years, against girls he was tutoring....
She described two sets of allegations, the first in the 1970s, and the second in the 1990s and early 2000s. She said: 'The offences would not have occurred but for the position of trust held by the defendant as a gymnastics coach, which gave him access to the victims who were young and therefore vulnerable.'
Bellew was due to stand trial in September after pleading not guilty to a number of offences in April last year. However, the second set of allegations came to light after the victims read news reports of the pending court case and contacted police.
Bellew admitted eight of 17 charges against him, involving seven victims as young as six years old....
However in a probation report he backed down from his admissions, denying the touching was sexual and passing the blame onto his victims. His lawyer Barry Kogan said: 'He has had great difficulty coming to terms with the shame of what he has done, and this is demonstrated by what he has told the probation officer, trying to deny his actions, pass them off as inappropriate not sexual, and blame the victims.'....
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2307610/Bob-Bellew-Gymnastics-coach-sexually-abused-girls-young-walks-free-court-judge-accepts-remorse-despite-attempts-blame-victims.html
Language activist and Irish college founder dubbed “Ireland’s Jimmy Savile” was up on 56 horrific charges By IrishCentral Staff Writers, Tuesday, April 9, 2013
The Irish language activist and TV host Domhnall O Lubhlai (84) died before facing sexual abuse claims. O Lubhlai, the founder of one of Ireland’s largest Irish colleges, Colaiste na bhFiann, and the presenter of a TV show on RTE, has been dubbed “Ireland’s Jimmy Savile” due to the allegations against him....
In 2000 O Lubhlai was charged with the molestation of 11 children. O Lubhlai faced 56 charges of sexual assault, buggery and attempted buggery. Five men testified that they had been abused....
However the trial collapsed due to the fact that the accused claimed he was on medication during his interviews with detectives, in 1998 and 1999. Last January a former Irish college student made a fresh complaint against O Lubhlai. He claimed O Lubhlai abused him between the ages of 12 and 15, during the mid-1970s....
The police were compiling a report and witness statement when O Lubhlai was found dead at his Mullingar home, County Westmeath....
Although there were 11 complaints against him in 2000 it was believed that there may have been other victims during his 30 years as a teacher. His alleged crimes only came to light in the early 1990s when he reported that he was being blackmailed by a former student. Until the end, O Lubhlai maintained his innocence and claimed his accusers were motivated by jealousy.
http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Irish-TV-host-and-child-camp-founder-Domhnall-O-Lubhlai-never-stood-trial-for-11-sexual-abuse-charges-202093361.html
Gymnastics coach who sexually abused seven girls as young as six walks free from court as judge accepts his 'remorse' despite attempts to blame victims
Bob Bellew admitted a string of sexual abuse charges spanning 40 years
Was handed 15-month prison sentence suspended for two years
Judge said offences were 'not specimens of a course of conduct'
She said 'punishment has in effect already begun'
Sentence slammed as 'everything that is wrong' with British justice system
'You get six months for taking your husband’s speeding points,' say victims
Bellew had 'passed the blame onto his victims' in a probation report
By James Rush 12 April 2013
An internationally renowned gymnastics coach who sexually abused seven girls as young as six over a 40-year period has walked free from court. Bob Bellew, 66, has published books on gymnastics, taught at schools across the UK and was a former Community Coach of the Year.
He also served on committees planning the 2012 Olympics and was chief coach of the Tower Hamlets Schools gym and dance display team. Bellew was also awarded the 'Order of the Smile', a UN-recognised citation for adults 'distinguished in their love, care and aid of children'.
But he admitted a string of sexual abuse charges, spanning 40 years, against girls he was tutoring....
She described two sets of allegations, the first in the 1970s, and the second in the 1990s and early 2000s. She said: 'The offences would not have occurred but for the position of trust held by the defendant as a gymnastics coach, which gave him access to the victims who were young and therefore vulnerable.'
Bellew was due to stand trial in September after pleading not guilty to a number of offences in April last year. However, the second set of allegations came to light after the victims read news reports of the pending court case and contacted police.
Bellew admitted eight of 17 charges against him, involving seven victims as young as six years old....
However in a probation report he backed down from his admissions, denying the touching was sexual and passing the blame onto his victims. His lawyer Barry Kogan said: 'He has had great difficulty coming to terms with the shame of what he has done, and this is demonstrated by what he has told the probation officer, trying to deny his actions, pass them off as inappropriate not sexual, and blame the victims.'....
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2307610/Bob-Bellew-Gymnastics-coach-sexually-abused-girls-young-walks-free-court-judge-accepts-remorse-despite-attempts-blame-victims.html
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Frances Andrade death: Charity calls for review in child abuse trials, IIreland sent girls, women to Catholic workhouses until 1996, report finds
Frances Andrade death: Charity calls for review in child abuse trials
Frances Andrade Violin teacher Frances Andrade was found dead after giving evidence
9 February 2013
A charity for adults who were abused in childhood has said the way prosecutions are brought must change after a victim took her own life during a trial.
Frances Andrade was found dead less than a week after she faced Michael Brewer at Manchester Crown Court.
Following Brewer's conviction for indecently assaulting her, her family said "the court system let her down".
The National Association for People Abused in Childhood's Pete Saunders said the "legal system has to change".
He said a conclusion such as the one in Mrs Andrade's case was "not as uncommon as it should be".
'Ashamed of themselves'
"She is another victim not only of the people who abused her, but the British legal system too," he said.
"The people who put her through the trauma of the court case should be ashamed of themselves.
"Child abuse is a unique crime and it should be dealt with very sensitively. Instead, it is dealt with as if it were any other sort of crime."....
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-21395749
Ireland sent girls, women to Catholic workhouses until 1996, report finds
By Ian Johnston, Staff Writer, NBC News
Ireland’s government was directly involved in sending girls and women to work for nothing in laundries run by Catholic orders, a landmark report published Tuesday concluded.
The report by Irish Senator Martin McAleese found that orphans and abused, neglected or unruly children were among more than 10,000 sent to the Magdalen Laundries from 1922 to 1996.
Some had committed minor crimes, others were simply homeless or poor. Women with mental or physical disabilities and some people with psychiatric illness also found themselves in the laundries.
Their average age, the report found, was 23, but the youngest child was just nine and the oldest known entrant was 89.
Activists called on the government to issue a formal apology and pay compensation, with one group saying those affected had been "treated like slaves."
Their plight came to greater public attention when it was the subject of a 2002 film called The Magdalene Sisters, which used a different spelling.
And in June 2011, the United Nations’ Committee on Torture highlighted allegations of "physical, emotional abuses and other ill-treatment" and said it was "gravely concerned" at Ireland’s failure to "protect girls and women who were involuntarily confined."....
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/05/16854772-ireland-sent-girls-women-to-catholic-workhouses-until-1996-report-finds
Frances Andrade Violin teacher Frances Andrade was found dead after giving evidence
9 February 2013
A charity for adults who were abused in childhood has said the way prosecutions are brought must change after a victim took her own life during a trial.
Frances Andrade was found dead less than a week after she faced Michael Brewer at Manchester Crown Court.
Following Brewer's conviction for indecently assaulting her, her family said "the court system let her down".
The National Association for People Abused in Childhood's Pete Saunders said the "legal system has to change".
He said a conclusion such as the one in Mrs Andrade's case was "not as uncommon as it should be".
'Ashamed of themselves'
"She is another victim not only of the people who abused her, but the British legal system too," he said.
"The people who put her through the trauma of the court case should be ashamed of themselves.
"Child abuse is a unique crime and it should be dealt with very sensitively. Instead, it is dealt with as if it were any other sort of crime."....
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-21395749
Ireland sent girls, women to Catholic workhouses until 1996, report finds
By Ian Johnston, Staff Writer, NBC News
Ireland’s government was directly involved in sending girls and women to work for nothing in laundries run by Catholic orders, a landmark report published Tuesday concluded.
The report by Irish Senator Martin McAleese found that orphans and abused, neglected or unruly children were among more than 10,000 sent to the Magdalen Laundries from 1922 to 1996.
Some had committed minor crimes, others were simply homeless or poor. Women with mental or physical disabilities and some people with psychiatric illness also found themselves in the laundries.
Their average age, the report found, was 23, but the youngest child was just nine and the oldest known entrant was 89.
Activists called on the government to issue a formal apology and pay compensation, with one group saying those affected had been "treated like slaves."
Their plight came to greater public attention when it was the subject of a 2002 film called The Magdalene Sisters, which used a different spelling.
And in June 2011, the United Nations’ Committee on Torture highlighted allegations of "physical, emotional abuses and other ill-treatment" and said it was "gravely concerned" at Ireland’s failure to "protect girls and women who were involuntarily confined."....
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/05/16854772-ireland-sent-girls-women-to-catholic-workhouses-until-1996-report-finds
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Los Angeles Archdiocese Is Accused of Failing to Release All Abuse Records, Kesgrave/Stowmarket: Inquiries into historic child abuse allegations at three former schools, Ireland finally admits state collusion in Magdalene Laundry system
Los Angeles Archdiocese Is Accused of Failing to Release All Abuse Records
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN and JENNIFER MEDINA February 4, 2013
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles released 12,000 pages of internal files last Thursday on priests accused of sexually abusing children, saying that it was finally abiding by a settlement it signed with victims six years ago to make the painful history public.
But it now appears that the files the church released with much fanfare are incomplete and many are unaccounted for, according to the abuse victims’ lawyers. In addition, on many documents the names of church supervisors informed of abuse allegations were redacted by the archdiocese, in apparent violation of a judge’s order.
At issue is whether the survivors of abuse and the public will ever learn which church officials were responsible for mishandling or covering up allegations of sexual abuse.
Abuse victims had insisted that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles release the records as part of a settlement in 2007, which provided $660 million to more than 500 victims. Other Catholic dioceses that have settled with victims have released similar records.
“We know we have not gotten a complete disclosure,” said Jeff Anderson, who is among the lawyers representing the victims. “They have removed things that should not have been removed, some of which we have seen before, so we know that they exist. It’s more deception, deceit and secrecy.”
But J. Michael Hennigan, a lawyer for the Los Angeles Archdiocese, said in an interview that while there were probably a few errors, there was no intention to withhold information.
“I would be surprised if we did this job perfectly,” he said. “The team that worked on this worked under pressure sometimes late into the night.”
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles fought for six years all the way to the State Supreme Court to block the release of the documents. Early in January, Judge Emilie H. Elias overturned a previous decision, and ordered the archdiocese to lift the redactions of the names of certain kinds of officials: archbishops and bishops, vicars for clergy members and directors of treatment facilities, as well as pastors, “church agents” or employees who had supervisory responsibility over an accused priest and were made aware of complaints or suspicions about him.
But on many pages it appears that the names of supervisors, like pastors in parishes or the supervisors of religious orders, are missing.
For example, the file on Carlos Rodriguez, a priest serving in a parish in Central Los Angeles, includes a letter to him from his religious order, the Vincentian Fathers and Brothers, informing him that he is being sent to a treatment center in Maryland. Mr. Rodriguez was accused of molesting several teenage boys over the years. But while the letter makes clear that the writer is the priest’s religious superior, the name is redacted. Other documents in the file are similarly missing names of religious order supervisors....
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/05/us/los-angeles-archdiocese-is-accused-of-failing-to-release-all-priest-abuse-records.html
Kesgrave/Stowmarket: Inquiries into historic child abuse allegations at three former schools
Colin Adwent Crime Correspondent Monday, February 4, 2013
THREE former Suffolk schools are now at the centre of criminal investigations into historic child abuse allegations.
The accusations, which relate to alleged physical and sexual assaults, are said to have occurred between the late 1970s and run through to the 1990s.
A solicitor representing ex-pupils of one of the schools - Oakwood School in Stowmarket - has said the number of claimants has reached three figures.
Andrew Grove, who is based in Cambridge, said: “We now have 100 complainants on the civil claim relating to Oakwood School.”
Last week detectives said they were re-opening the 1992 inquiry into alleged abuse at Kesgrave Hall independent school.
The investigation, codenamed Operation Garford, comes after former students’ calls for it to be re-opened were backed by Central Suffolk and North Ipswich MP Dr Dan Poulter.
Responding to the new inquiry, Dr Poulter said: “I am pleased that Suffolk Police are conducting a full and thorough investigation into the alleged child abuse at Kesgrave Hall school, following my intervention.
“A number of people have written to me raising concerns about abuse when they or their family members were pupils at the school, and I would again urge anyone who has been the victim of abuse to come forward and immediately contact Suffolk police.”
Four people were suspended in 1992 during the Kesgrave Hall inquiry. No charges were ever brought. The school closed in 1993.
However, a woodwork teacher Alan Stancliffe, was convicted and jailed in 1999 and again in 2007 for indecent assaults on three ex-pupils....
http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/kesgrave_stowmarket_inquiries_into_historic_child_abuse_allegations_at_three_former_schools_1_1857903
Ireland finally admits state collusion in Magdalene Laundry system
Taoiseach Enda Kenny fails to formally apologise for involvement over female enslavement causing more outrage
Henry McDonald in Dublin The Guardian, Tuesday 5 February 2013
After more than seven decades of exploitation and a 10-year struggle for justice, Ireland on Tuesday admitted its role in the enslavement of thousands of women and girls in the notorious Magdalene Laundry system, but stopped short of issuing a formal apology from the government.
A long-awaited report headed by Senator Martin McAleese said there was "significant state involvement" in how the laundries were run – a reversal of the official state line for years, which insisted the institutions were privately controlled and run by nuns.
But the Irish Premier Enda Kenny's failure to give the women and their supporters a full, formal, public apology in the Dail on Tuesday afternoon has infuriated the victims and their supporters, who said such an approach risked undermining Ireland's attempt to right a historic wrong. Instead Kenny stated his "regret" about the stigma hanging over the women.
"The stigma that the branding together of all the residents, all 10,000, in the Magdalene Laundries, needs to be removed, and should have been removed long before this," Kenny said. "And I really am sorry that that never happened, and I regret that it never happened."
Claire McGetterick of the Justice For Magdalenes group said last night: "Frankly their country has failed them again".
Labelled the "Maggies", the women and girls were stripped of their names and dumped in Irish Catholic church-run laundries where nuns treated them as slaves, simply because they were unmarried mothers, orphans or regarded as somehow morally wayward.
Over 74 years, 30,000 women were put to work in de facto detention, mostly in laundries run by nuns. At least 988 of the women who were buried in laundry grounds are thought to have spent most of their lives inside the institutions....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/05/ireland-magdalene-laundry-system-apology
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN and JENNIFER MEDINA February 4, 2013
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles released 12,000 pages of internal files last Thursday on priests accused of sexually abusing children, saying that it was finally abiding by a settlement it signed with victims six years ago to make the painful history public.
But it now appears that the files the church released with much fanfare are incomplete and many are unaccounted for, according to the abuse victims’ lawyers. In addition, on many documents the names of church supervisors informed of abuse allegations were redacted by the archdiocese, in apparent violation of a judge’s order.
At issue is whether the survivors of abuse and the public will ever learn which church officials were responsible for mishandling or covering up allegations of sexual abuse.
Abuse victims had insisted that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles release the records as part of a settlement in 2007, which provided $660 million to more than 500 victims. Other Catholic dioceses that have settled with victims have released similar records.
“We know we have not gotten a complete disclosure,” said Jeff Anderson, who is among the lawyers representing the victims. “They have removed things that should not have been removed, some of which we have seen before, so we know that they exist. It’s more deception, deceit and secrecy.”
But J. Michael Hennigan, a lawyer for the Los Angeles Archdiocese, said in an interview that while there were probably a few errors, there was no intention to withhold information.
“I would be surprised if we did this job perfectly,” he said. “The team that worked on this worked under pressure sometimes late into the night.”
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles fought for six years all the way to the State Supreme Court to block the release of the documents. Early in January, Judge Emilie H. Elias overturned a previous decision, and ordered the archdiocese to lift the redactions of the names of certain kinds of officials: archbishops and bishops, vicars for clergy members and directors of treatment facilities, as well as pastors, “church agents” or employees who had supervisory responsibility over an accused priest and were made aware of complaints or suspicions about him.
But on many pages it appears that the names of supervisors, like pastors in parishes or the supervisors of religious orders, are missing.
For example, the file on Carlos Rodriguez, a priest serving in a parish in Central Los Angeles, includes a letter to him from his religious order, the Vincentian Fathers and Brothers, informing him that he is being sent to a treatment center in Maryland. Mr. Rodriguez was accused of molesting several teenage boys over the years. But while the letter makes clear that the writer is the priest’s religious superior, the name is redacted. Other documents in the file are similarly missing names of religious order supervisors....
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/05/us/los-angeles-archdiocese-is-accused-of-failing-to-release-all-priest-abuse-records.html
Kesgrave/Stowmarket: Inquiries into historic child abuse allegations at three former schools
Colin Adwent Crime Correspondent Monday, February 4, 2013
THREE former Suffolk schools are now at the centre of criminal investigations into historic child abuse allegations.
The accusations, which relate to alleged physical and sexual assaults, are said to have occurred between the late 1970s and run through to the 1990s.
A solicitor representing ex-pupils of one of the schools - Oakwood School in Stowmarket - has said the number of claimants has reached three figures.
Andrew Grove, who is based in Cambridge, said: “We now have 100 complainants on the civil claim relating to Oakwood School.”
Last week detectives said they were re-opening the 1992 inquiry into alleged abuse at Kesgrave Hall independent school.
The investigation, codenamed Operation Garford, comes after former students’ calls for it to be re-opened were backed by Central Suffolk and North Ipswich MP Dr Dan Poulter.
Responding to the new inquiry, Dr Poulter said: “I am pleased that Suffolk Police are conducting a full and thorough investigation into the alleged child abuse at Kesgrave Hall school, following my intervention.
“A number of people have written to me raising concerns about abuse when they or their family members were pupils at the school, and I would again urge anyone who has been the victim of abuse to come forward and immediately contact Suffolk police.”
Four people were suspended in 1992 during the Kesgrave Hall inquiry. No charges were ever brought. The school closed in 1993.
However, a woodwork teacher Alan Stancliffe, was convicted and jailed in 1999 and again in 2007 for indecent assaults on three ex-pupils....
http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/kesgrave_stowmarket_inquiries_into_historic_child_abuse_allegations_at_three_former_schools_1_1857903
Ireland finally admits state collusion in Magdalene Laundry system
Taoiseach Enda Kenny fails to formally apologise for involvement over female enslavement causing more outrage
Henry McDonald in Dublin The Guardian, Tuesday 5 February 2013
After more than seven decades of exploitation and a 10-year struggle for justice, Ireland on Tuesday admitted its role in the enslavement of thousands of women and girls in the notorious Magdalene Laundry system, but stopped short of issuing a formal apology from the government.
A long-awaited report headed by Senator Martin McAleese said there was "significant state involvement" in how the laundries were run – a reversal of the official state line for years, which insisted the institutions were privately controlled and run by nuns.
But the Irish Premier Enda Kenny's failure to give the women and their supporters a full, formal, public apology in the Dail on Tuesday afternoon has infuriated the victims and their supporters, who said such an approach risked undermining Ireland's attempt to right a historic wrong. Instead Kenny stated his "regret" about the stigma hanging over the women.
"The stigma that the branding together of all the residents, all 10,000, in the Magdalene Laundries, needs to be removed, and should have been removed long before this," Kenny said. "And I really am sorry that that never happened, and I regret that it never happened."
Claire McGetterick of the Justice For Magdalenes group said last night: "Frankly their country has failed them again".
Labelled the "Maggies", the women and girls were stripped of their names and dumped in Irish Catholic church-run laundries where nuns treated them as slaves, simply because they were unmarried mothers, orphans or regarded as somehow morally wayward.
Over 74 years, 30,000 women were put to work in de facto detention, mostly in laundries run by nuns. At least 988 of the women who were buried in laundry grounds are thought to have spent most of their lives inside the institutions....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/05/ireland-magdalene-laundry-system-apology
Thursday, October 4, 2012
The Redemption of Sinead O'Connor
The Redemption of Sinead O'Connor
By Michael Agresta Oct 3 2012
Twenty years ago today, Sinead O'Connor tore up a picture of the pope on Saturday Night Live—and the media largely misunderstood why. Is America finally ready to hear her out?
In the weeks and months after Sinead O'Connor tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II on live television, commentators in the media sought to explain the motives of her protest. Very few, however, made use of the traditional tools of journalism: interviews, research, and textual analysis. Instead, most commentators seem to have consulted their own imaginations....
Also inexplicably ignored were O'Connor's own words, in an interview published in Time a month after her SNL appearance:
It's not the man, obviously—it's the office and the symbol of the organization that he represents... In Ireland we see our people are manifesting the highest incidence in Europe of child abuse. This is a direct result of the fact that they're not in contact with their history as Irish people and the fact that in the schools, the priests have been beating the shit out of the children for years and sexually abusing them. This is the example that's been set for the people of Ireland. They have been controlled by the church, the very people who authorized what was done to them, who gave permission for what was done to them.
Her interviewer seemed confused by the connection O'Connor was making between the Catholic Church and child abuse, so O'Connor opened up about her own history of abuse:
Sexual and physical. Psychological. Spiritual. Emotional. Verbal. I went to school every day covered in bruises, boils, sties and face welts, you name it. Nobody ever said a bloody word or did a thing. Naturally I was very angered by the whole thing, and I had to find out why it happened... The thing that helped me most was the 12-step group, the Adult Children of Alcoholics/Dysfunctional Families. My mother was a Valium addict. What happened to me is a direct result of what happened to my mother and what happened to her in her house and in school.
The interviewer remained skeptical of O'Connor's characterization of Irish schools as playgrounds and training grounds for child abusers, and the interview moved on to different topics.
By now, the history of sexual and physical abuse in the Irish Catholic school system is familiar. As late as 2007, the Church controlled 93% of the schools in Ireland, giving most children no hope of escaping the often-sadistic system. As in America, serial child molesters like Brendan Smyth were shuttled from parish to parish and school to school to keep a step ahead of police and complaining parents. The culture of permissiveness towards abuse affected all communities, but probably the worst off were poor, orphaned, and troublemaking children sent to residential reformatory and industrial schools. To read the 2009 Ryan Report covering crimes carried out against children in these settings is to court a special sort of nausea—the kind that comes from bearing witness to an organized effort to deny the dignity of individual life and make the bodies of the powerless available to service the needs of the powerful. In this case, the powerless were disadvantaged minor teenagers and children.
Sexual abuse in several industrial schools was described as a "chronic problem." Clergy whose behavior drew complaints from parents of day-school students were transferred to industrial schools where their abuses drew less attention. Some schools seem, on the evidence, to have been more labor camps than institutions of learning. At one notorious industrial school in Dublin, each child was required to string 60 rosaries each weekday and 90 on Saturdays. Students who did not reach their quotas were beaten....
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/10/the-redemption-of-sinead-oconnor/263020/
By Michael Agresta Oct 3 2012
Twenty years ago today, Sinead O'Connor tore up a picture of the pope on Saturday Night Live—and the media largely misunderstood why. Is America finally ready to hear her out?
In the weeks and months after Sinead O'Connor tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II on live television, commentators in the media sought to explain the motives of her protest. Very few, however, made use of the traditional tools of journalism: interviews, research, and textual analysis. Instead, most commentators seem to have consulted their own imaginations....
Also inexplicably ignored were O'Connor's own words, in an interview published in Time a month after her SNL appearance:
It's not the man, obviously—it's the office and the symbol of the organization that he represents... In Ireland we see our people are manifesting the highest incidence in Europe of child abuse. This is a direct result of the fact that they're not in contact with their history as Irish people and the fact that in the schools, the priests have been beating the shit out of the children for years and sexually abusing them. This is the example that's been set for the people of Ireland. They have been controlled by the church, the very people who authorized what was done to them, who gave permission for what was done to them.
Her interviewer seemed confused by the connection O'Connor was making between the Catholic Church and child abuse, so O'Connor opened up about her own history of abuse:
Sexual and physical. Psychological. Spiritual. Emotional. Verbal. I went to school every day covered in bruises, boils, sties and face welts, you name it. Nobody ever said a bloody word or did a thing. Naturally I was very angered by the whole thing, and I had to find out why it happened... The thing that helped me most was the 12-step group, the Adult Children of Alcoholics/Dysfunctional Families. My mother was a Valium addict. What happened to me is a direct result of what happened to my mother and what happened to her in her house and in school.
The interviewer remained skeptical of O'Connor's characterization of Irish schools as playgrounds and training grounds for child abusers, and the interview moved on to different topics.
By now, the history of sexual and physical abuse in the Irish Catholic school system is familiar. As late as 2007, the Church controlled 93% of the schools in Ireland, giving most children no hope of escaping the often-sadistic system. As in America, serial child molesters like Brendan Smyth were shuttled from parish to parish and school to school to keep a step ahead of police and complaining parents. The culture of permissiveness towards abuse affected all communities, but probably the worst off were poor, orphaned, and troublemaking children sent to residential reformatory and industrial schools. To read the 2009 Ryan Report covering crimes carried out against children in these settings is to court a special sort of nausea—the kind that comes from bearing witness to an organized effort to deny the dignity of individual life and make the bodies of the powerless available to service the needs of the powerful. In this case, the powerless were disadvantaged minor teenagers and children.
Sexual abuse in several industrial schools was described as a "chronic problem." Clergy whose behavior drew complaints from parents of day-school students were transferred to industrial schools where their abuses drew less attention. Some schools seem, on the evidence, to have been more labor camps than institutions of learning. At one notorious industrial school in Dublin, each child was required to string 60 rosaries each weekday and 90 on Saturdays. Students who did not reach their quotas were beaten....
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/10/the-redemption-of-sinead-oconnor/263020/
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Vatican likely to replace Irish Cardinal with deputy bishop, Dr. Phil - MPD show
articles:
- Vatican likely to replace Irish Cardinal Brady with new deputy bishop
Report says Cardinal Brady likely to be gone to retirement by end of year
-Advisers backed resignation of Cardinal Sean Brady to save Catholic Church's image
- As Cardinal Sean Brady turns his back on calls to quit, pressure mounts on police to get involved
- Dr. Phil - "My Husband, My Kids and My Multiple Personalities"
Thursday - May 10, 2012
Vatican likely to replace Irish Cardinal Brady with new deputy bishop
Report says Cardinal Brady likely to be gone to retirement by end of year
By JOHN O'BRIEN, IrishCentral.com Staff Writer
The Vatican is expected to replace Ireland’s leading church figure. Cardinal Sean Brady, and will appoint a coadjutor or deputy bishop by the end of this year who will eventually be his replacement.
The Irish Times has reported that the Vatican move will happen because of massive public pressure on Brady over his actions concerning the notorious pedophile priest Fr. Brendan Smyth.
Brady is primate of all Ireland, essentially Ireland’s leading Catholic figure, based in Armagh.
The Vatican is expected to act after a BBC documentary alleged that Brady was far more involved in a cover up of Smyth than he admitted at the time in 1987. Brady, then a young priest, served on a panel investigating Smyth. No action was taken against Smyth and he went on to abuse many more kids.
The Vatican at first defended Brady and said he had their full confidence. However, Irish leader Enda Kenny, Deputy leader Eamon Gilmore, and Northern Irish leader Martin McGuinness, have all called on Brady to resign....
Brady, 73, managed to keep his position after an earlier controversy about Smith and how he handled the case. This latest crisis, however, is seen as far more serious.
If Brady is forced to step down, it will be the 2nd major figure that Fr. Brendan Smyth has been instrumental in forcing out of office.
Former Irish leader Albert Reynolds also resigned after becoming involved in the Smyth controversy....
http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Vatican-likely-to-replace-Irish-Cardinal-Brady-with-new-deputy-bishop-150279125.html
Advisers backed resignation of Cardinal Sean Brady to save Catholic Church's image
By Greg Harkin Saturday, 5 May 2012
Cardinal Sean Brady was backed by his senior advisers when he offered to resign more than two years ago.
The head of the Catholic Church in Ireland informed the Vatican of his "willingness to stand aside" as one of a range of possible options when his role in the Brendan Smyth controversy became public in 2010.
And his senior advisers backed the move -- expressing concern that the Smyth controversy would damage the church.
The cardinal is now planning an alternative exit strategy.
Cardinal Brady had asked the Pope for 'Episcopal help' or an auxiliary bishop two years ago when the controversy first erupted, but the bishop was not appointed.
However, the church confirmed yesterday that the request has been "reactivated".
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/advisers-backed-resignation-of-cardinal-sean-brady-to-save-catholic-churchs-image-16154588.html
As Cardinal Sean Brady turns his back on calls to quit, pressure mounts on police to get involved
By Liam Clarke
Saturday, 5 May 2012
Pressure is growing on the PSNI to interview Cardinal Sean Brady over the most recent claims in the child sex abuse scandal.
The police didn’t act two years ago when the revelations that Dr Brady was present at the interview of two victims of paedophile priest Brendan Smyth first emerged.
One of the young victims, Brendan Boland, gave the names and addresses of several other children he knew were being abused by Smyth.
Despite this evidence nothing was done to warn the children’s parents or inform the police, and Smyth went on to abuse dozens more children over subsequent decades until he was finally brought to justice in the 1990s, dying in prison in 1997.
He had been abusing children since the 1940s.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/as-cardinal-sean-brady-turns-his-back-on-calls-to-quit-pressure-mounts-on-police-to-get-involved-16154168.html
Dr. Phil - "My Husband, My Kids and My Multiple Personalities"
Thursday - May 10, 2012
Tracy is a married mother of four who says her life was forever changed the day she was diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder, more commonly known as multiple personality disorder. She says she has five personalities, or “alters:” Emily, a frightened 5-year-old child; Becky, who cuts, bruises, chokes and has threatened to kill Tracy; Susie, an innocent 10-year-old child; Samantha, “the CEO;” and Miss Anne, “the caretaker.” Tracy says that she’ll often times black out when an alter takes over and that the transition back to being Tracy can make her physically ill. Joined by her husband, Tyler, the couple says Tracy's alter egos and unpredictable moods are causing strain on their marriage, and they're struggling to explain her erratic behavior to their children. Is Tracy’s diagnosis real? Then, in a Dr. Phil first, Tracy transitions between her alters onstage. Speaking as Becky and Emily, can Dr. Phil gather insight into Tracy’s disorder? Tracy’s therapist, Dr. Peggy Avent, joins the show and explains her diagnosis. Could a secret from Tracy’s childhood hold the key to understanding her illness? Tracy’s mom, Sandy, weighs in and shares why she blames herself.
http://www.drphil.com/shows/
- Vatican likely to replace Irish Cardinal Brady with new deputy bishop
Report says Cardinal Brady likely to be gone to retirement by end of year
-Advisers backed resignation of Cardinal Sean Brady to save Catholic Church's image
- As Cardinal Sean Brady turns his back on calls to quit, pressure mounts on police to get involved
- Dr. Phil - "My Husband, My Kids and My Multiple Personalities"
Thursday - May 10, 2012
Vatican likely to replace Irish Cardinal Brady with new deputy bishop
Report says Cardinal Brady likely to be gone to retirement by end of year
By JOHN O'BRIEN, IrishCentral.com Staff Writer
The Vatican is expected to replace Ireland’s leading church figure. Cardinal Sean Brady, and will appoint a coadjutor or deputy bishop by the end of this year who will eventually be his replacement.
The Irish Times has reported that the Vatican move will happen because of massive public pressure on Brady over his actions concerning the notorious pedophile priest Fr. Brendan Smyth.
Brady is primate of all Ireland, essentially Ireland’s leading Catholic figure, based in Armagh.
The Vatican is expected to act after a BBC documentary alleged that Brady was far more involved in a cover up of Smyth than he admitted at the time in 1987. Brady, then a young priest, served on a panel investigating Smyth. No action was taken against Smyth and he went on to abuse many more kids.
The Vatican at first defended Brady and said he had their full confidence. However, Irish leader Enda Kenny, Deputy leader Eamon Gilmore, and Northern Irish leader Martin McGuinness, have all called on Brady to resign....
Brady, 73, managed to keep his position after an earlier controversy about Smith and how he handled the case. This latest crisis, however, is seen as far more serious.
If Brady is forced to step down, it will be the 2nd major figure that Fr. Brendan Smyth has been instrumental in forcing out of office.
Former Irish leader Albert Reynolds also resigned after becoming involved in the Smyth controversy....
http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Vatican-likely-to-replace-Irish-Cardinal-Brady-with-new-deputy-bishop-150279125.html
Advisers backed resignation of Cardinal Sean Brady to save Catholic Church's image
By Greg Harkin Saturday, 5 May 2012
Cardinal Sean Brady was backed by his senior advisers when he offered to resign more than two years ago.
The head of the Catholic Church in Ireland informed the Vatican of his "willingness to stand aside" as one of a range of possible options when his role in the Brendan Smyth controversy became public in 2010.
And his senior advisers backed the move -- expressing concern that the Smyth controversy would damage the church.
The cardinal is now planning an alternative exit strategy.
Cardinal Brady had asked the Pope for 'Episcopal help' or an auxiliary bishop two years ago when the controversy first erupted, but the bishop was not appointed.
However, the church confirmed yesterday that the request has been "reactivated".
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/advisers-backed-resignation-of-cardinal-sean-brady-to-save-catholic-churchs-image-16154588.html
As Cardinal Sean Brady turns his back on calls to quit, pressure mounts on police to get involved
By Liam Clarke
Saturday, 5 May 2012
Pressure is growing on the PSNI to interview Cardinal Sean Brady over the most recent claims in the child sex abuse scandal.
The police didn’t act two years ago when the revelations that Dr Brady was present at the interview of two victims of paedophile priest Brendan Smyth first emerged.
One of the young victims, Brendan Boland, gave the names and addresses of several other children he knew were being abused by Smyth.
Despite this evidence nothing was done to warn the children’s parents or inform the police, and Smyth went on to abuse dozens more children over subsequent decades until he was finally brought to justice in the 1990s, dying in prison in 1997.
He had been abusing children since the 1940s.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/as-cardinal-sean-brady-turns-his-back-on-calls-to-quit-pressure-mounts-on-police-to-get-involved-16154168.html
Dr. Phil - "My Husband, My Kids and My Multiple Personalities"
Thursday - May 10, 2012
Tracy is a married mother of four who says her life was forever changed the day she was diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder, more commonly known as multiple personality disorder. She says she has five personalities, or “alters:” Emily, a frightened 5-year-old child; Becky, who cuts, bruises, chokes and has threatened to kill Tracy; Susie, an innocent 10-year-old child; Samantha, “the CEO;” and Miss Anne, “the caretaker.” Tracy says that she’ll often times black out when an alter takes over and that the transition back to being Tracy can make her physically ill. Joined by her husband, Tyler, the couple says Tracy's alter egos and unpredictable moods are causing strain on their marriage, and they're struggling to explain her erratic behavior to their children. Is Tracy’s diagnosis real? Then, in a Dr. Phil first, Tracy transitions between her alters onstage. Speaking as Becky and Emily, can Dr. Phil gather insight into Tracy’s disorder? Tracy’s therapist, Dr. Peggy Avent, joins the show and explains her diagnosis. Could a secret from Tracy’s childhood hold the key to understanding her illness? Tracy’s mom, Sandy, weighs in and shares why she blames herself.
http://www.drphil.com/shows/
Friday, May 4, 2012
Cardinal Brady should face criminal probe says Smyth child victim, Human Trafficking in Canada
articles:
- Church crisis: Cardinal Brady should face criminal probe says Smyth child victim
- Abuse survivor: Without courage or integrity Cardinal Brady failed and it is unforgivable
- In full: Cardinal Brady responds to allegations over role in abuse inquiry
- Professor Perrin Appointed Special Advisor to the Prime Minister (first book, Invisible Chains: Canada's Underground World of Human Trafficking)
Church crisis: Cardinal Brady should face criminal probe says Smyth child victim
By Independent.ie reporters
Friday May 04 2012
A WOMAN, who was sexually abused as a child by paedophile priest Brendan Smyth, today called for a criminal investigation into the actions of Cardinal Sean Brady.
American lawyer Helen McGonigle, (50) who now campaigns for survivors of clerical sexual abuse, said the All Ireland Primate should resign for not alerting other families to Smyth’s horrific catalogue of abuse.
She was molested by Smyth in the late 1960s in Rhode Island, New York.
Speaking to BBC Radio Ulster today, Ms McGonigle said she was "outraged" by Cardinal Brady's response to allegations in a BBC documentary broadcast this week.
She said Cardinal Sean Brady's "duty as a human" was to protect children and his failure to act properly on Brendan Boland's complaint – when he named other five other children being abused - was "unforgivable".
The Cardinal had shown "arrogance and insensitivity", Ms McGonigle said.
She was just six-years-old and preparing for the sacrament of penance when she was abused by Smyth, who led her from her classmates into the sacristy of the church where he molested her....
Smyth was already known to have sexually molested children when he was sent to the McGonigles' parish in the summer of 1965. Using his usual modus operandi, he befriended the family and they bonded over a shared Irish ancestry.
Speaking to the Irish Independent two years ago, Ms McGonigle, who is an attorney living in Connecticut, said: "From 1967 until about 1970 he molested me. He was caught in my parish molesting children as early as 1968....
While any intervention by Cardinal Brady in 1975 would have been too late to save the children of East Greenwich, Ms McGonigle said many others could have been protected....
She said Cardinal Brady must resign and he should be charged with obstruction of justice.
"He sat on this knowledge for 35 years, from 1975 through to 2010, and Brendan Smith continued to abuse children. It is only because of the lawsuit one of his victims has brought that he has had to show his hand."
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/church-crisis-cardinal-brady-should-face-criminal-probe-says-smyth-child-victim-3099251.html
Abuse survivor: Without courage or integrity Cardinal Brady failed and it is unforgivable 5/3/12
....Now an executive director of Amnesty International Ireland, O’Gorman was not satisfied with the similar but weak defence offered by Scicluna and Brady yesterday that back in 1975 Brady was only a ‘notary’ in the interviews.
“Authority is not needed to walk into a Garda station to report the abuse and rape of children. It takes courage and a sense of moral decency,” he said, adding that it was important to remember that Brady was a highly-educated and qualified Canon lawyer at the time. He was also 35-years-old.
Commenting on the atrocious acts of Smyth that spanned a forty-year period, O’Gorman recalls the level of terror still visible in Brendan Smyth’s victims years later as something “extraordinary”.
http://www.thejournal.ie/abuse-survivor-without-courage-or-integrity-cardinal-brady-failed-and-it-is-unforgiveable-437703-May2012/
In full: Cardinal Brady responds to allegations over role in abuse inquiry 5/2/12 http://www.thejournal.ie/in-full-cardinal-brady-responds-to-allegations-over-role-in-abuse-inquiry-437208-May2012/
Professor Perrin Appointed Special Advisor to the Prime Minister
UBC Law Professor Benjamin Perrin has recently been appointed as Special Advisor, Legal Affairs & Policy in the Prime Minister's Office in Ottawa....
In 2010, Professor Perrin published his first book, Invisible Chains: Canada's Underground World of Human Trafficking (Penguin Canada, 2010). The book, an expose on the issue of human trafficking in Canada, was named one of the top books of the year by The Globe and Mail.
He has testified before a number of Parliamentary committees studying the issue of human trafficking and child sexual exploitation. In 2010, Parliament adopted Bill C-268, a private members' bill calling for mandatory minimum sentences for child traffickers. Professor Perrin proposed and helped draft the bill, which was first introduced to the House of Commons in January 2009 by Member of Parliament Joy Smith....
Professor Perrin...is co-editor of Human Trafficking: Exploring the International Nature, Concerns and Complexities (CRC Press, 2011), and editor of Modern Warfare: Armed Groups, Private Militaries, Humanitarian Organizations and the Law (UBC Press, 2012). http://www.law.ubc.ca/news/2012/may/05_01_12_perrin.html
- Church crisis: Cardinal Brady should face criminal probe says Smyth child victim
- Abuse survivor: Without courage or integrity Cardinal Brady failed and it is unforgivable
- In full: Cardinal Brady responds to allegations over role in abuse inquiry
- Professor Perrin Appointed Special Advisor to the Prime Minister (first book, Invisible Chains: Canada's Underground World of Human Trafficking)
Church crisis: Cardinal Brady should face criminal probe says Smyth child victim
By Independent.ie reporters
Friday May 04 2012
A WOMAN, who was sexually abused as a child by paedophile priest Brendan Smyth, today called for a criminal investigation into the actions of Cardinal Sean Brady.
American lawyer Helen McGonigle, (50) who now campaigns for survivors of clerical sexual abuse, said the All Ireland Primate should resign for not alerting other families to Smyth’s horrific catalogue of abuse.
She was molested by Smyth in the late 1960s in Rhode Island, New York.
Speaking to BBC Radio Ulster today, Ms McGonigle said she was "outraged" by Cardinal Brady's response to allegations in a BBC documentary broadcast this week.
She said Cardinal Sean Brady's "duty as a human" was to protect children and his failure to act properly on Brendan Boland's complaint – when he named other five other children being abused - was "unforgivable".
The Cardinal had shown "arrogance and insensitivity", Ms McGonigle said.
She was just six-years-old and preparing for the sacrament of penance when she was abused by Smyth, who led her from her classmates into the sacristy of the church where he molested her....
Smyth was already known to have sexually molested children when he was sent to the McGonigles' parish in the summer of 1965. Using his usual modus operandi, he befriended the family and they bonded over a shared Irish ancestry.
Speaking to the Irish Independent two years ago, Ms McGonigle, who is an attorney living in Connecticut, said: "From 1967 until about 1970 he molested me. He was caught in my parish molesting children as early as 1968....
While any intervention by Cardinal Brady in 1975 would have been too late to save the children of East Greenwich, Ms McGonigle said many others could have been protected....
She said Cardinal Brady must resign and he should be charged with obstruction of justice.
"He sat on this knowledge for 35 years, from 1975 through to 2010, and Brendan Smith continued to abuse children. It is only because of the lawsuit one of his victims has brought that he has had to show his hand."
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/church-crisis-cardinal-brady-should-face-criminal-probe-says-smyth-child-victim-3099251.html
Abuse survivor: Without courage or integrity Cardinal Brady failed and it is unforgivable 5/3/12
....Now an executive director of Amnesty International Ireland, O’Gorman was not satisfied with the similar but weak defence offered by Scicluna and Brady yesterday that back in 1975 Brady was only a ‘notary’ in the interviews.
“Authority is not needed to walk into a Garda station to report the abuse and rape of children. It takes courage and a sense of moral decency,” he said, adding that it was important to remember that Brady was a highly-educated and qualified Canon lawyer at the time. He was also 35-years-old.
Commenting on the atrocious acts of Smyth that spanned a forty-year period, O’Gorman recalls the level of terror still visible in Brendan Smyth’s victims years later as something “extraordinary”.
http://www.thejournal.ie/abuse-survivor-without-courage-or-integrity-cardinal-brady-failed-and-it-is-unforgiveable-437703-May2012/
In full: Cardinal Brady responds to allegations over role in abuse inquiry 5/2/12 http://www.thejournal.ie/in-full-cardinal-brady-responds-to-allegations-over-role-in-abuse-inquiry-437208-May2012/
Professor Perrin Appointed Special Advisor to the Prime Minister
UBC Law Professor Benjamin Perrin has recently been appointed as Special Advisor, Legal Affairs & Policy in the Prime Minister's Office in Ottawa....
In 2010, Professor Perrin published his first book, Invisible Chains: Canada's Underground World of Human Trafficking (Penguin Canada, 2010). The book, an expose on the issue of human trafficking in Canada, was named one of the top books of the year by The Globe and Mail.
He has testified before a number of Parliamentary committees studying the issue of human trafficking and child sexual exploitation. In 2010, Parliament adopted Bill C-268, a private members' bill calling for mandatory minimum sentences for child traffickers. Professor Perrin proposed and helped draft the bill, which was first introduced to the House of Commons in January 2009 by Member of Parliament Joy Smith....
Professor Perrin...is co-editor of Human Trafficking: Exploring the International Nature, Concerns and Complexities (CRC Press, 2011), and editor of Modern Warfare: Armed Groups, Private Militaries, Humanitarian Organizations and the Law (UBC Press, 2012). http://www.law.ubc.ca/news/2012/may/05_01_12_perrin.html
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Vatican Recalls Ireland Envoy, Ritual Abuse Conference Scotland, Caylee's Law
Vatican Recalls Ireland Envoy Amid Abuse Uproar
By VICTOR L. SIMPSON 07/25/11
VATICAN CITY -- Chafing under extraordinary criticism, the Vatican made the rare move of recalling its ambassador to Ireland on Monday following accusations that the Holy See sabotaged efforts by Catholic bishops to report clerical sex abuse cases to police.
A Vatican spokesman said Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza was recalled to help prepare an official response to Irish complaints, but that the decision "does not exclude some degree of surprise and disappointment at certain excessive reactions."
The spokesman, the Rev. Ciro Benedettini, acknowledged the recall of an ambassador was a measure rarely used by the Holy See, underlining "the seriousness of the situation."
The deepening crisis follows a July 13 report that the Irish diocese of Cloyne failed to act on complaints against 19 priests from 1996 to 2009. It further alleged the Vatican encouraged bishops to ignore child-protection guidelines including the requirement that abuse claims be reported to civil authorities....
Prime Minister Enda Kenny denounced to lawmakers last week what he called "the dysfunction, disconnection, elitism – and the narcissism – that dominate the culture of the Vatican to this day."
It was the first time in the past 17 years of pedophile-priest scandals in Ireland that parliamentarians have taken on the Vatican rather than local church leaders. Revelations of widespread abuse have eroded Catholic authority in a nation where the church still owns most schools and several hospitals, and state broadcasters still toll a twice-daily call to Catholic prayer....
A confidential 1997 Vatican letter – originally published by The Associated Press in January – instructed Irish bishops to handle child-abuse cases strictly under terms of canon law. It warned bishops that their 1996 child-protection policy, particularly its emphasis on the need to start reporting all suspected crimes to police, violated canon law.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/25/vatican-recalls-ireland-envoy_n_908462.html
10TH ANNIVERSARY CONFERENCE ON RITUAL ABUSE
Host organisation IZZY’S PROMISE
Location DUNDEE, Scotland
November 3, 2011 09:30 AM
Izzy’s Promise is hosting a conference for survivors, support workers and organisations on the subject of RITUAL ABUSE IN THE UK 10 YEARS ON. Izzy’s Promise formerly (Tayside Ritual Abuse Support and Helpline Project TRASH) has been up and running for 10 years. It was started in 2001 by volunteers and service users out of a direct demand for services by survivors of ritual/organised abuse.
The main speaker will Laurie Matthew, who has 30 years of experience working with ritual abuse survivors. The charges are £50 for statutory/funded organisations, £25 smaller charities and £10 for survivors.
Website http://www.izzyspromise.org.uk
Enquiries josephlumbasi@aol.com
http://www.thirdforcenews.org.uk/2011/07/10th-anniversary-conference-on-ritual-abuse/
Lawmakers will study Wyoming 'Caylee's Law'
By JOSHUA WOLFSON Star-Tribune staff writer Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Public outcry following Casey Anthony’s acquittal has prompted Wyoming lawmakers to explore legislation that would punish parents who fail to report missing children within a certain time frame.
The Legislature’s Joint Judiciary Interim Committee will study the need for a “Caylee’s Law” when it meets next month in Sundance, a committee chairman said.
More than 20 states are considering versions of Caylee’s Law, which would make it a felony for parents or guardians to wait more than 24 hours to notify authorities of missing children. Other states are also contemplating making it a felony to wait more than an hour to report a child’s death.
An Oklahoma woman proposed the legislation in an online petition created after a jury acquitted Anthony of murdering her daughter, Caylee. Anthony waited a month before reporting her daughter missing.
The online petition has collected more than 1.25 million signatures. Many state lawmakers have also received emails from constituents urging passage of a Caylee’s Law in Wyoming, said judiciary co-chairman Sen. Drew Perkins. Instead of individual lawmakers pursuing a bill, the Legislature’s Management Council assigned the judiciary committee to study the issue.
http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/article_8c07f961-0e6b-5af0-995d-b83bd396333f.html
By VICTOR L. SIMPSON 07/25/11
VATICAN CITY -- Chafing under extraordinary criticism, the Vatican made the rare move of recalling its ambassador to Ireland on Monday following accusations that the Holy See sabotaged efforts by Catholic bishops to report clerical sex abuse cases to police.
A Vatican spokesman said Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza was recalled to help prepare an official response to Irish complaints, but that the decision "does not exclude some degree of surprise and disappointment at certain excessive reactions."
The spokesman, the Rev. Ciro Benedettini, acknowledged the recall of an ambassador was a measure rarely used by the Holy See, underlining "the seriousness of the situation."
The deepening crisis follows a July 13 report that the Irish diocese of Cloyne failed to act on complaints against 19 priests from 1996 to 2009. It further alleged the Vatican encouraged bishops to ignore child-protection guidelines including the requirement that abuse claims be reported to civil authorities....
Prime Minister Enda Kenny denounced to lawmakers last week what he called "the dysfunction, disconnection, elitism – and the narcissism – that dominate the culture of the Vatican to this day."
It was the first time in the past 17 years of pedophile-priest scandals in Ireland that parliamentarians have taken on the Vatican rather than local church leaders. Revelations of widespread abuse have eroded Catholic authority in a nation where the church still owns most schools and several hospitals, and state broadcasters still toll a twice-daily call to Catholic prayer....
A confidential 1997 Vatican letter – originally published by The Associated Press in January – instructed Irish bishops to handle child-abuse cases strictly under terms of canon law. It warned bishops that their 1996 child-protection policy, particularly its emphasis on the need to start reporting all suspected crimes to police, violated canon law.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/25/vatican-recalls-ireland-envoy_n_908462.html
10TH ANNIVERSARY CONFERENCE ON RITUAL ABUSE
Host organisation IZZY’S PROMISE
Location DUNDEE, Scotland
November 3, 2011 09:30 AM
Izzy’s Promise is hosting a conference for survivors, support workers and organisations on the subject of RITUAL ABUSE IN THE UK 10 YEARS ON. Izzy’s Promise formerly (Tayside Ritual Abuse Support and Helpline Project TRASH) has been up and running for 10 years. It was started in 2001 by volunteers and service users out of a direct demand for services by survivors of ritual/organised abuse.
The main speaker will Laurie Matthew, who has 30 years of experience working with ritual abuse survivors. The charges are £50 for statutory/funded organisations, £25 smaller charities and £10 for survivors.
Website http://www.izzyspromise.org.uk
Enquiries josephlumbasi@aol.com
http://www.thirdforcenews.org.uk/2011/07/10th-anniversary-conference-on-ritual-abuse/
Lawmakers will study Wyoming 'Caylee's Law'
By JOSHUA WOLFSON Star-Tribune staff writer Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Public outcry following Casey Anthony’s acquittal has prompted Wyoming lawmakers to explore legislation that would punish parents who fail to report missing children within a certain time frame.
The Legislature’s Joint Judiciary Interim Committee will study the need for a “Caylee’s Law” when it meets next month in Sundance, a committee chairman said.
More than 20 states are considering versions of Caylee’s Law, which would make it a felony for parents or guardians to wait more than 24 hours to notify authorities of missing children. Other states are also contemplating making it a felony to wait more than an hour to report a child’s death.
An Oklahoma woman proposed the legislation in an online petition created after a jury acquitted Anthony of murdering her daughter, Caylee. Anthony waited a month before reporting her daughter missing.
The online petition has collected more than 1.25 million signatures. Many state lawmakers have also received emails from constituents urging passage of a Caylee’s Law in Wyoming, said judiciary co-chairman Sen. Drew Perkins. Instead of individual lawmakers pursuing a bill, the Legislature’s Management Council assigned the judiciary committee to study the issue.
http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/article_8c07f961-0e6b-5af0-995d-b83bd396333f.html
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Parental Alienation Disorder: Why Label Children with a Mental Diagnosis?
also: Revealed, six decades of 'ritual' child abuse: Catholic schools and orphanages damned in report
Parental Alienation Disorder: Why Label Children with a Mental Diagnosis?
Journal of Child Custody Volume 7, Issue 4, 2010, Pages 266 - 286 Authors: Lenore E. Walker; David L. Shapiro
DOI: 10.1080/15379418.2010.521041
Abstract
The proposal to include Parental Alienation Disorder (PAD) in the new proposed Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-V) creates a host of problems. The first major problem is the labeling of children with a mental disorder who may simply be reacting with anger to the changes in their lives from the separation and divorce of their parents by rejecting one parent and aligning with the other. Diagnosis may bring with it shame and have a chilling impact on parents report of domestic violence.
Although proponents of PAD are aware that it is inappropriate to diagnose children who have been exposed to child abuse and/or domestic violence with PAD, they do not clarify how to make such differential diagnoses. It is suggested that there are insufficient empirical data to differentiate abused and traumatized children from those who are alienated or estranged from the rejected parent.
Nor are there sufficient scientific data to account for other child vulnerabilities such as neurological immaturity, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), other anxiety and mood disorders, or oppositional defiant disorder. There are too few comparisons between the risks and benefits of adding a new diagnosis of childhood disorders to justify its inclusion in the DSM-V.
Appropriate intervention strategies recommended for PAD children include contact with the rejected parent, which differ widely from trauma victim/survivors who need assurance of safety and healing before contact is re-established. Ethical standards that may be impacted by this new diagnosis and admissibility issues raised by its predecessor, Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS), are also discussed by the authors.
"As discussed, alienation is almost always alleged when the child does not want to be with a parent when there does not appear to be any ‘rational’ reason for these feelings. Of course, the definition of ‘‘rational’’ in these cases remains totally subjective to the person making the evaluation. Although proponents of labeling these children with PAD claim that using this label will assist in formulation of treatment goals and techniques, there are no empirical data to support this position (Bernet, 2010). Using the definition put forward by the American Psychological Association (APA) which requires two scientific studies replicating each other, there are no empirically validated interventions that support evidence that forcing a child to be with an unwanted parent will promote mental health." (p.270-271)
"PROPOSED DIAGNOSTIC CRITERIA FOR PAD AND MAKING A DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS....Perhaps the most egregious part of this newly proposed diagnosis is the impossibility of making a differential diagnosis based on the child’s signs and symptoms and not the parents’ alleged behavior. Johnston (2010) discussed the confusion currently in the courts dealing with PAS=PAD and, in particular, defining who is alienated, the rejected parent or the child? There are so many explanations other than alienation for a child’s rejection of a parent during separation or divorce that to give children a new mental illness diagnosis is neither necessary nor appropriate. Surely anxiety disorders including PTSD from abuse are primary as has been discussed herein, as are other mood disorders, particularly depression. The criteria for children’s depression often include acting-out behavior and rejection of people and things that they used to like to do.
(p. 276 - 277)
"It is not appropriate to diagnose a child with a mental illness based on the parents’ behavior. In many cases known to the authors, both in practice and in supervision of other forensic evaluators, the child’s behavior could have been diagnosed as an adjustment disorder with anxiety or depression. Separation and divorce often means a new home or even two homes, new schools, new friends, and new schedules. Even when all goes well this can be a daunting challenge for most children." (p. 277) http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all?content=10.1080/15379418.2010.521041
full article pdf and web page until 12/31/11 http://pdfserve.informaworld.com/903178__930160339.pdf http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/section?content=a930160339&fulltext=713240928
Revealed, six decades of 'ritual' child abuse: Catholic schools and orphanages damned in report
By Tom Kelly 21st May 2009
Abuse was 'endemic' in childrens' institutions
Safety of children in general was not a consideration
No abusers will be prosecuted
Victims banned from launch of shocking report
Church leaders and government watchdogs covered up 'endemic' and 'ritualised' abuse of thousands of children in Roman Catholic schools and orphanages in the Irish Republic, a shocking report revealed yesterday.
For six decades, priests and nuns terrorised boys and girls in the workhouse-style schools with sexual, physical and mental abuse.
But officials in Ireland's Catholic Church shielded paedophile staff from arrest to protect their own reputations despite knowing they were serial attackers, according to the 2,600-page report, which took nine years to complete.
Irish government inspectors also failed to stop the chronic beatings, rape and humiliation, it found.
About 35,000 children and teenagers who were orphans, petty thieves, truants, unmarried mothers or from dysfunctional families were sent to Ireland's network of 250 Church-run industrial schools, reformatories, orphanages and hostels from the 1930s up until the early 1990s.
The report by Ireland's Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse found 'a climate of fear, created by pervasive, excessive and arbitrary punishment, permeated most of the institutions and all those run for boys'.
It added: 'Children lived with the daily terror of not knowing where the next beating was coming from.'
Judge Sean Ryan, who chaired the commission, said that when confronted with evidence of sex abuse, religious authorities responded by moving the sex offenders to another location, where in many instances they were free to abuse again.
'There was evidence that such men took up teaching positions sometimes within days of receiving dispensations because of serious allegations or admissions of sexual abuse,' the report said.
'The safety of children in general was not a consideration.'....
The report found that molestation and rape were 'endemic' in boys' facilities, chiefly run by the Christian Brothers order.
Girls supervised by orders of nuns, chiefly the Sisters of Mercy, suffered much less sexual abuse but frequent assaults and humiliation designed to make them feel worthless.
'In some schools a high level of ritualised beating was routine,' the report said. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1184828/Revealed-decades-ritual-child-abuse-Catholic-schools-orphanages-damned-report.html
Parental Alienation Disorder: Why Label Children with a Mental Diagnosis?
Journal of Child Custody Volume 7, Issue 4, 2010, Pages 266 - 286 Authors: Lenore E. Walker; David L. Shapiro
DOI: 10.1080/15379418.2010.521041
Abstract
The proposal to include Parental Alienation Disorder (PAD) in the new proposed Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-V) creates a host of problems. The first major problem is the labeling of children with a mental disorder who may simply be reacting with anger to the changes in their lives from the separation and divorce of their parents by rejecting one parent and aligning with the other. Diagnosis may bring with it shame and have a chilling impact on parents report of domestic violence.
Although proponents of PAD are aware that it is inappropriate to diagnose children who have been exposed to child abuse and/or domestic violence with PAD, they do not clarify how to make such differential diagnoses. It is suggested that there are insufficient empirical data to differentiate abused and traumatized children from those who are alienated or estranged from the rejected parent.
Nor are there sufficient scientific data to account for other child vulnerabilities such as neurological immaturity, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), other anxiety and mood disorders, or oppositional defiant disorder. There are too few comparisons between the risks and benefits of adding a new diagnosis of childhood disorders to justify its inclusion in the DSM-V.
Appropriate intervention strategies recommended for PAD children include contact with the rejected parent, which differ widely from trauma victim/survivors who need assurance of safety and healing before contact is re-established. Ethical standards that may be impacted by this new diagnosis and admissibility issues raised by its predecessor, Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS), are also discussed by the authors.
"As discussed, alienation is almost always alleged when the child does not want to be with a parent when there does not appear to be any ‘rational’ reason for these feelings. Of course, the definition of ‘‘rational’’ in these cases remains totally subjective to the person making the evaluation. Although proponents of labeling these children with PAD claim that using this label will assist in formulation of treatment goals and techniques, there are no empirical data to support this position (Bernet, 2010). Using the definition put forward by the American Psychological Association (APA) which requires two scientific studies replicating each other, there are no empirically validated interventions that support evidence that forcing a child to be with an unwanted parent will promote mental health." (p.270-271)
"PROPOSED DIAGNOSTIC CRITERIA FOR PAD AND MAKING A DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS....Perhaps the most egregious part of this newly proposed diagnosis is the impossibility of making a differential diagnosis based on the child’s signs and symptoms and not the parents’ alleged behavior. Johnston (2010) discussed the confusion currently in the courts dealing with PAS=PAD and, in particular, defining who is alienated, the rejected parent or the child? There are so many explanations other than alienation for a child’s rejection of a parent during separation or divorce that to give children a new mental illness diagnosis is neither necessary nor appropriate. Surely anxiety disorders including PTSD from abuse are primary as has been discussed herein, as are other mood disorders, particularly depression. The criteria for children’s depression often include acting-out behavior and rejection of people and things that they used to like to do.
(p. 276 - 277)
"It is not appropriate to diagnose a child with a mental illness based on the parents’ behavior. In many cases known to the authors, both in practice and in supervision of other forensic evaluators, the child’s behavior could have been diagnosed as an adjustment disorder with anxiety or depression. Separation and divorce often means a new home or even two homes, new schools, new friends, and new schedules. Even when all goes well this can be a daunting challenge for most children." (p. 277) http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all?content=10.1080/15379418.2010.521041
full article pdf and web page until 12/31/11 http://pdfserve.informaworld.com/903178__930160339.pdf http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/section?content=a930160339&fulltext=713240928
Revealed, six decades of 'ritual' child abuse: Catholic schools and orphanages damned in report
By Tom Kelly 21st May 2009
Abuse was 'endemic' in childrens' institutions
Safety of children in general was not a consideration
No abusers will be prosecuted
Victims banned from launch of shocking report
Church leaders and government watchdogs covered up 'endemic' and 'ritualised' abuse of thousands of children in Roman Catholic schools and orphanages in the Irish Republic, a shocking report revealed yesterday.
For six decades, priests and nuns terrorised boys and girls in the workhouse-style schools with sexual, physical and mental abuse.
But officials in Ireland's Catholic Church shielded paedophile staff from arrest to protect their own reputations despite knowing they were serial attackers, according to the 2,600-page report, which took nine years to complete.
Irish government inspectors also failed to stop the chronic beatings, rape and humiliation, it found.
About 35,000 children and teenagers who were orphans, petty thieves, truants, unmarried mothers or from dysfunctional families were sent to Ireland's network of 250 Church-run industrial schools, reformatories, orphanages and hostels from the 1930s up until the early 1990s.
The report by Ireland's Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse found 'a climate of fear, created by pervasive, excessive and arbitrary punishment, permeated most of the institutions and all those run for boys'.
It added: 'Children lived with the daily terror of not knowing where the next beating was coming from.'
Judge Sean Ryan, who chaired the commission, said that when confronted with evidence of sex abuse, religious authorities responded by moving the sex offenders to another location, where in many instances they were free to abuse again.
'There was evidence that such men took up teaching positions sometimes within days of receiving dispensations because of serious allegations or admissions of sexual abuse,' the report said.
'The safety of children in general was not a consideration.'....
The report found that molestation and rape were 'endemic' in boys' facilities, chiefly run by the Christian Brothers order.
Girls supervised by orders of nuns, chiefly the Sisters of Mercy, suffered much less sexual abuse but frequent assaults and humiliation designed to make them feel worthless.
'In some schools a high level of ritualised beating was routine,' the report said. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1184828/Revealed-decades-ritual-child-abuse-Catholic-schools-orphanages-damned-report.html
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Vatican allowed pedophile to remain in priesthood, report says
Vatican allowed pedophile to remain in priesthood, report says
Dublin leaders had attempted to dismiss abuser
By Shawn Pogatchnik Associated Press December 18, 2010
DUBLIN — The Vatican prevented Dublin church leaders from dismissing a particularly dangerous pedophile priest and relented only after he raped a boy in a pub restroom, an investigation reported yesterday.
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin said he fully accepted the findings of the latest chapter in Ireland’s investigation into child abuse by Dublin priests who were shielded from the law by Catholic leaders.
Martin called Tony Walsh an “extremely devious man’’ who should never have been ordained a priest and said the report highlighted how the church had grown too powerful and arrogant in 20th-century Ireland.
A state-ordered investigation into Dublin Archdiocese coverups reported last year that Catholic officials had shielded scores of priests from criminal investigation over several decades and did not report any crimes to the police until the mid-1990s.
A chapter dealing with Walsh was censored from the original report because he was still facing a criminal trial. The Department of Justice published the chapter yesterday, following the 56-year-old Walsh’s Dec. 6 conviction for raping three boys over a five-year period three decades ago. He received a 12-year prison sentence.
The investigators concluded that Walsh raped and molested hundreds of boys and girls as a Dublin priest from 1978 to 1996, a reign of terror that church leaders never effectively stopped.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2010/12/18/vatican_allowed_pedophile_to_remain_in_priesthood_report_says/
Dublin leaders had attempted to dismiss abuser
By Shawn Pogatchnik Associated Press December 18, 2010
DUBLIN — The Vatican prevented Dublin church leaders from dismissing a particularly dangerous pedophile priest and relented only after he raped a boy in a pub restroom, an investigation reported yesterday.
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin said he fully accepted the findings of the latest chapter in Ireland’s investigation into child abuse by Dublin priests who were shielded from the law by Catholic leaders.
Martin called Tony Walsh an “extremely devious man’’ who should never have been ordained a priest and said the report highlighted how the church had grown too powerful and arrogant in 20th-century Ireland.
A state-ordered investigation into Dublin Archdiocese coverups reported last year that Catholic officials had shielded scores of priests from criminal investigation over several decades and did not report any crimes to the police until the mid-1990s.
A chapter dealing with Walsh was censored from the original report because he was still facing a criminal trial. The Department of Justice published the chapter yesterday, following the 56-year-old Walsh’s Dec. 6 conviction for raping three boys over a five-year period three decades ago. He received a 12-year prison sentence.
The investigators concluded that Walsh raped and molested hundreds of boys and girls as a Dublin priest from 1978 to 1996, a reign of terror that church leaders never effectively stopped.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2010/12/18/vatican_allowed_pedophile_to_remain_in_priesthood_report_says/
Thursday, December 16, 2010
U.S. Illegal Experiments Went Beyond Guatemala, Ireland clergy abuse cover up
also:
CIA-Sponsored Child Abduction & Prostitution - The Franklin Scandal
New investigation into abuse cover-up 16 December 2010
Hundreds of children could have been saved from paedophile priest Father Brendan Smyth had the sex abuse scandal been dealt with properly by the Catholic Church, a new UTV Insight Special programme reveals. The Resurrection of Brendan Smyth - to be aired on Thursday - follows the trail of broken lives left behind by the sex predator who raped and assaulted children in Ireland, Britain and America as the Catholic Church covered up his crimes. Journalist Chris Moore....documentary in 1994 revealed Smyth's history of serial child sex abuse and how the church admitted it had known about it and had moved him around, where he was able to continue to abuse other children. In a new investigation, he hears from some of the victims Fr Smyth abused in America....Father Smyth was later jailed and died, aged 70, in August 1997, a month into his 12-year prison sentence. Earlier this year, the head of the Catholic church in Ireland confirmed he was present at a 1975 meeting where two teenagers abused by Father Smyth were asked to take a vow of silence. Cardinal Sean Brady apologised for failing to alert the authorities about the serial abuser.
http://www.u.tv/News/New-investigation-into-abuse-cover-up/b3920548-dce7-44b8-8a03-2b2644859fca
Insight Special 16 December 2010 The story of the priest who was convicted of multiple cases of child abuse, examining the lives he affected and the impact his crimes had on the Catholic church. http://www.u.tv/utvplayer/video/134183
U.S. Illegal Experiments Went Far Beyond Guatemala 14 December 2010
GUATEMALA - The illegal experiments conducted on human beings by a U.S. medical team in the 1940s went far beyond Guatemala, according to local news reports. The team headed by Dr. John Cutler did the same thing in the United States, India, and African nations, said Leon Arango, member of the commission in charge of investigating the experiments on Guatemalans, quoted in the Diario de Centro America newspaper on Monday. Cutler headed a team that from 1946 to 1948 intentionally infected 610 Guatemalans with venereal diseases, including prostitutes, prisoners, soldiers, and mentally disabled people, according to a report published by a U.S. investigator....
Arango said he had information that showed the experiments were also conducted on U.S. prison inmates and citizens from a community in Alabama, as well in African countries and in India.
http://www.insidecostarica.com/dailynews/2010/december/14/centralamerica10121402.htm
A Carefully Crafted Hoax - CIA-Sponsored Child Abduction & Prostitution - The Franklin Scandal - A Carefully Crafted Hoax? is a feature investigative documentary that examines child prostitution and sexual exploitation in America by focusing on the well-documented story of Johnny Gosch, a paperboy adbucted in Des Moines, Iowa, and its connection to a notorious pedophile network based in Nebraska. http://rumur.com/hoax
CIA-Sponsored Child Abduction & Prostitution - The Franklin Scandal
New investigation into abuse cover-up 16 December 2010
Hundreds of children could have been saved from paedophile priest Father Brendan Smyth had the sex abuse scandal been dealt with properly by the Catholic Church, a new UTV Insight Special programme reveals. The Resurrection of Brendan Smyth - to be aired on Thursday - follows the trail of broken lives left behind by the sex predator who raped and assaulted children in Ireland, Britain and America as the Catholic Church covered up his crimes. Journalist Chris Moore....documentary in 1994 revealed Smyth's history of serial child sex abuse and how the church admitted it had known about it and had moved him around, where he was able to continue to abuse other children. In a new investigation, he hears from some of the victims Fr Smyth abused in America....Father Smyth was later jailed and died, aged 70, in August 1997, a month into his 12-year prison sentence. Earlier this year, the head of the Catholic church in Ireland confirmed he was present at a 1975 meeting where two teenagers abused by Father Smyth were asked to take a vow of silence. Cardinal Sean Brady apologised for failing to alert the authorities about the serial abuser.
http://www.u.tv/News/New-investigation-into-abuse-cover-up/b3920548-dce7-44b8-8a03-2b2644859fca
Insight Special 16 December 2010 The story of the priest who was convicted of multiple cases of child abuse, examining the lives he affected and the impact his crimes had on the Catholic church. http://www.u.tv/utvplayer/video/134183
U.S. Illegal Experiments Went Far Beyond Guatemala 14 December 2010
GUATEMALA - The illegal experiments conducted on human beings by a U.S. medical team in the 1940s went far beyond Guatemala, according to local news reports. The team headed by Dr. John Cutler did the same thing in the United States, India, and African nations, said Leon Arango, member of the commission in charge of investigating the experiments on Guatemalans, quoted in the Diario de Centro America newspaper on Monday. Cutler headed a team that from 1946 to 1948 intentionally infected 610 Guatemalans with venereal diseases, including prostitutes, prisoners, soldiers, and mentally disabled people, according to a report published by a U.S. investigator....
Arango said he had information that showed the experiments were also conducted on U.S. prison inmates and citizens from a community in Alabama, as well in African countries and in India.
http://www.insidecostarica.com/dailynews/2010/december/14/centralamerica10121402.htm
A Carefully Crafted Hoax - CIA-Sponsored Child Abduction & Prostitution - The Franklin Scandal - A Carefully Crafted Hoax? is a feature investigative documentary that examines child prostitution and sexual exploitation in America by focusing on the well-documented story of Johnny Gosch, a paperboy adbucted in Des Moines, Iowa, and its connection to a notorious pedophile network based in Nebraska. http://rumur.com/hoax
Saturday, December 11, 2010
WikiLeaks Vatican - US abuse cables, Morgellons and the CIA’s MK/NAOMI Project
includes:
Cables show Ireland irked Vatican on sovereignty
WikiLeaks cables: Vatican refused to engage with child sex abuse inquiry
CIA FILES - Operation ARTICHOKE
Leaked Cables Show Vatican Tensions and Diplomacy With U.S.
By RACHEL DONADIO December 10, 2010 ROME - Recently released diplomatic cables show the Vatican fighting to shore up its eroding control over sexual abuse scandals in the United States and Ireland, highlighting complex tensions between the Vatican hierarchy, local bishops and civil authorities. The cables were obtained by WikiLeaks and made available to The New York Times and other news organizations. They do not appear to contain any bombshells about the Vatican, but they provide a telling glimpse of how American diplomats often rely on the Roman Catholic Church’s worldwide network of prelates for intelligence.
Some cables read in part like thrillers, like when Opus Dei, the powerful religious order, took pains to distance itself from one of its members: Robert P. Hanssen, an F.B.I. agent who in a dramatic case in 2001 pleaded guilty to being a longtime Russian spy.
Others reveal some of the complex diplomacy between the United States and the Vatican during the abuse scandal that hit the United States in 2002. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/11/world/europe/11vatican.html
Cables show Ireland irked Vatican on sovereignty (AP) – 12/11/10 VATICAN CITY (AP) — Newly released U.S. diplomatic cables indicate that the Vatican felt "offended" that Ireland failed to respect Holy See "sovereignty" by asking high-ranking churchmen to answer questions from an Irish government commission probing decades of sex abuse of minors by clergy.
That the Holy See used its diplomatic immunity status as a tiny-city state to try to thwart Ireland's government-led probe has long been known. But the WikiLeaks cables, published by Britain's The Guardian newspaper on Saturday, contain delicate, behind-the-scenes diplomatic assessments of the highly charged situation. The Vatican press office declined to comment on the content of the cables Saturday, but decried the leaks as a matter of "extreme seriousness." http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i_GXdub34VCz5Deiq3s52q4L5IFQ?docId=c1ef34ff867b4f048918320d1c6ce20a
WikiLeaks cables: Vatican refused to engage with child sex abuse inquiry - Leaked cable lays bare how Irish government was forced to grant Vatican officials immunity from testifying to Murphy commission Heather Brooke The Guardian, 11 December 2010
The Vatican refused to allow its officials to testify before an Irish commission investigating the clerical abuse of children and was angered when they were summoned from Rome, US embassy cables released by WikiLeaks reveal.
Requests for information from the 2009 Murphy commission into sexual and physical abuse by clergy "offended many in the Vatican" who felt that the Irish government had "failed to respect and protect Vatican sovereignty during the investigations", a cable says.
Despite the lack of co-operation from the Vatican, the commission was able to substantiate many of the claims and concluded that some bishops had tried to cover up abuse, putting the interests of the Catholic church ahead of those of the victims. Its report identified 320 people who complained of child sexual abuse between 1975 and 2004 in the Dublin archdiocese.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/10/wikileaks-vatican-child-sex-abuse-investigation
Morgellons and the CIA’s MK/NAOMI Project (Part 2)
by Hank P. Albarelli Jr., Zoe Martell
Why is it that the U.S. state apparatus is standing in the way of any serious medical investigation into Mogellons disease? For the simple reason that it would inexorably lead to the covert biological war programmes of the 1950’s. Hank Albarelli lifts the veil on a period - which may not necessarily be over - when the military-industrial complex proclaimed to safeguard the "free world" while testing new experiments on the civilian population that it purported to protect; a period when members of the medical profession - including the CDC - developed diseases that they should have been preventing but
which they used instead to contaminate the very people they were supposed to protect.
One of the many pages from the MKNAOMI and MKULTRA declassified documents. MKNAOMI was the code name for a joint Department of Defense/CIA research program lasting from the 1950s through the 1970s. It is generally reported to be a successor to the MKDELTA project and to have focused on biological projects including biological warfare agents—specifically, to store materials that could either incapacitate or kill a test subject and to develop devices for the diffusion of such materials.
( List of declassified MK-Ultra Project Documents http://www.michael-robinett.com/declass/c000.htm )
....MK/NAOMI was the cryptonym for an ultra-secret project instituted by the CIA for its partnership with the Special Operations Division (SOD) of the U.S. Army’s biological warfare center at Fort Detrick, Maryland. The general objectives of MK/NAOMI, as stated in contemporaneous CIA documents, were:
- To provide for a covert support base to meet clandestine operational requirements.
- To research, develop, and stockpile severely incapacitating and lethal materials for the specific use of CIA’s Technical Services Division.
- To maintain in operational readiness special and unique items for the dissemination of biological and chemical materials.
- To provide for the required surveillance, testing, upgrading, and evaluation of materials and items in order to assure absence of defects and complete predictability of results to be expected under operational conditions.
Recently obtained CIA documents reveal that in the mid-1950s, scientists at Fort Detrick’s SOD undertook intensive research and experimentation with a large number of “paralysis agents.” This phase of MK/NAOMI was referred to in-house at Fort Detrick as the “K Project” and the “K Problem.” According to CIA documents, K indicates both “knockout” and “kill”, depending upon the circumstances under which researched biological products were employed by CIA operatives in the field operations conducted under "Project Artichoke" and later programs.
http://www.voltairenet.org/article166027.html
CIA FILES - Operation ARTICHOKE - BACM RESEARCH -
WWW.PAPERLESSARCHIVES. About BACM Research – PaperlessArchives.com
http://www.paperlessarchives.com/FreeTitles/ARTICHOKECIAFiles.pdf
Cables show Ireland irked Vatican on sovereignty
WikiLeaks cables: Vatican refused to engage with child sex abuse inquiry
CIA FILES - Operation ARTICHOKE
Leaked Cables Show Vatican Tensions and Diplomacy With U.S.
By RACHEL DONADIO December 10, 2010 ROME - Recently released diplomatic cables show the Vatican fighting to shore up its eroding control over sexual abuse scandals in the United States and Ireland, highlighting complex tensions between the Vatican hierarchy, local bishops and civil authorities. The cables were obtained by WikiLeaks and made available to The New York Times and other news organizations. They do not appear to contain any bombshells about the Vatican, but they provide a telling glimpse of how American diplomats often rely on the Roman Catholic Church’s worldwide network of prelates for intelligence.
Some cables read in part like thrillers, like when Opus Dei, the powerful religious order, took pains to distance itself from one of its members: Robert P. Hanssen, an F.B.I. agent who in a dramatic case in 2001 pleaded guilty to being a longtime Russian spy.
Others reveal some of the complex diplomacy between the United States and the Vatican during the abuse scandal that hit the United States in 2002. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/11/world/europe/11vatican.html
Cables show Ireland irked Vatican on sovereignty (AP) – 12/11/10 VATICAN CITY (AP) — Newly released U.S. diplomatic cables indicate that the Vatican felt "offended" that Ireland failed to respect Holy See "sovereignty" by asking high-ranking churchmen to answer questions from an Irish government commission probing decades of sex abuse of minors by clergy.
That the Holy See used its diplomatic immunity status as a tiny-city state to try to thwart Ireland's government-led probe has long been known. But the WikiLeaks cables, published by Britain's The Guardian newspaper on Saturday, contain delicate, behind-the-scenes diplomatic assessments of the highly charged situation. The Vatican press office declined to comment on the content of the cables Saturday, but decried the leaks as a matter of "extreme seriousness." http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i_GXdub34VCz5Deiq3s52q4L5IFQ?docId=c1ef34ff867b4f048918320d1c6ce20a
WikiLeaks cables: Vatican refused to engage with child sex abuse inquiry - Leaked cable lays bare how Irish government was forced to grant Vatican officials immunity from testifying to Murphy commission Heather Brooke The Guardian, 11 December 2010
The Vatican refused to allow its officials to testify before an Irish commission investigating the clerical abuse of children and was angered when they were summoned from Rome, US embassy cables released by WikiLeaks reveal.
Requests for information from the 2009 Murphy commission into sexual and physical abuse by clergy "offended many in the Vatican" who felt that the Irish government had "failed to respect and protect Vatican sovereignty during the investigations", a cable says.
Despite the lack of co-operation from the Vatican, the commission was able to substantiate many of the claims and concluded that some bishops had tried to cover up abuse, putting the interests of the Catholic church ahead of those of the victims. Its report identified 320 people who complained of child sexual abuse between 1975 and 2004 in the Dublin archdiocese.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/10/wikileaks-vatican-child-sex-abuse-investigation
Morgellons and the CIA’s MK/NAOMI Project (Part 2)
by Hank P. Albarelli Jr., Zoe Martell
Why is it that the U.S. state apparatus is standing in the way of any serious medical investigation into Mogellons disease? For the simple reason that it would inexorably lead to the covert biological war programmes of the 1950’s. Hank Albarelli lifts the veil on a period - which may not necessarily be over - when the military-industrial complex proclaimed to safeguard the "free world" while testing new experiments on the civilian population that it purported to protect; a period when members of the medical profession - including the CDC - developed diseases that they should have been preventing but
which they used instead to contaminate the very people they were supposed to protect.
One of the many pages from the MKNAOMI and MKULTRA declassified documents. MKNAOMI was the code name for a joint Department of Defense/CIA research program lasting from the 1950s through the 1970s. It is generally reported to be a successor to the MKDELTA project and to have focused on biological projects including biological warfare agents—specifically, to store materials that could either incapacitate or kill a test subject and to develop devices for the diffusion of such materials.
( List of declassified MK-Ultra Project Documents http://www.michael-robinett.com/declass/c000.htm )
....MK/NAOMI was the cryptonym for an ultra-secret project instituted by the CIA for its partnership with the Special Operations Division (SOD) of the U.S. Army’s biological warfare center at Fort Detrick, Maryland. The general objectives of MK/NAOMI, as stated in contemporaneous CIA documents, were:
- To provide for a covert support base to meet clandestine operational requirements.
- To research, develop, and stockpile severely incapacitating and lethal materials for the specific use of CIA’s Technical Services Division.
- To maintain in operational readiness special and unique items for the dissemination of biological and chemical materials.
- To provide for the required surveillance, testing, upgrading, and evaluation of materials and items in order to assure absence of defects and complete predictability of results to be expected under operational conditions.
Recently obtained CIA documents reveal that in the mid-1950s, scientists at Fort Detrick’s SOD undertook intensive research and experimentation with a large number of “paralysis agents.” This phase of MK/NAOMI was referred to in-house at Fort Detrick as the “K Project” and the “K Problem.” According to CIA documents, K indicates both “knockout” and “kill”, depending upon the circumstances under which researched biological products were employed by CIA operatives in the field operations conducted under "Project Artichoke" and later programs.
http://www.voltairenet.org/article166027.html
CIA FILES - Operation ARTICHOKE - BACM RESEARCH -
WWW.PAPERLESSARCHIVES. About BACM Research – PaperlessArchives.com
http://www.paperlessarchives.com/FreeTitles/ARTICHOKECIAFiles.pdf
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Stern: Terrorism Expert No Longer in 'Denial' About Her Rape, clergy abuse
clergy abuse articles : Italy, Ireland, Belgium
Books of The Times - Violence Expert Visits Her Dark Past By DWIGHT GARNER
June 24, 2010 Jessica Stern is among the world’s experts on violence and evil, a woman who spends her time thinking about bad men and bad deeds. She has lectured at Harvard about terrorism and is the author of a respected book, “Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill” (2003). During the Clinton administration she was on the staff of the National Security Council....
“Denial” is Ms. Stern’s plainspoken and very raw account of why, long before 9/11, she was driven to study terrorism and to put herself repeatedly into danger as she flew around the world, like some scholarly twin of the former CNN war correspondent Christiane Amanpour, interviewing committed terrorists. Central among the reasons, it turns out, was her own experience of terror. On Oct. 1, 1973, when Ms. Stern was 15 and her sister 14, the two of them, alone in a suburban house in leafy Concord, Mass., were raped by a man who cut the house’s telephone lines before walking inside and leading them upstairs.
Ms. Stern describes that evening in brutal detail. It was a night that changed her and taught her a dire lesson: “Shame can be sexually transmitted.” The crime wasn’t properly investigated. The police didn’t believe her when she said the rapist was a stranger. Because her story and those of others were not publicized or taken seriously enough by the police, the same man was able to rape some 44 girls — an incredible, heart-collapsing number — from 1971 to 1973. “The entire community,” she writes, “was in denial.” http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/25/books/25book.html
Terrorism Expert No Longer in 'Denial' About Her Rape Andrea Stone Senior Washington Correspondent 6/25/10 WASHINGTON (June 22) -- Jessica Stern, one of the world's foremost authorities on terrorism, never made the connection between her chosen profession and the terror she suffered as a teenager. Stern was 15 and her sister Sara 14 when a blue-eyed stranger carrying a small handgun entered their home in Concord, Mass., on the evening of Oct. 1, 1973. The man threatened to kill them. Then he raped them. There was no one for the girls to turn to -- their mother was dead, their father on a business trip in Europe, the baby sitter had left them alone. The police refused to believe the girls didn't know the man. They were in denial. Worse, their father refused to cut short his trip to rush home.
A few months later -- his daughters' rapist still at large -- he told police they had gotten over it. He was in denial. But it took more than 30 years for Stern to discover that she, too, was in denial....Stern knew from therapy that she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a diagnosis she had denied for years....Stern was not content to confine herself to the personal. She talked to a fellow victim and met a veteran who was injured in Iraq and suffers from PTSD. While she doesn't equate rape with being maimed by a roadside bomb -- "I was not a victim of terrorism. That is much more serious and has a political element" -- she was struck by how many symptoms she shared with the soldier....
Connecting her trauma to a wider circle, she wrote: Denial helps the bystander. We don't want to know what the boys we send to Iraq have done to others out of terror, or what others have done to them. We would rather not know about terror or be confronted with evil. This is as true about Abu Ghraib as it is about personal assaults and more private crimes, the crimes that occur inside families. But the victim, too, cannot bear to believe. She may bury or disassociate from or disown her pain.
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/terrorism-expert-jessica-stern-no-longer-in-denial-about-her-rape/19524354
Abuse Loosens Church’s Culture of Silence in Italy
By RACHEL DONADIO June 26, 2010 ROME — One afternoon last month, a rare thing happened in Rome’s main courthouse: for perhaps the first time ever, an Italian bishop took the witness stand in the case of a priest accused of the sexual abuse of children.
Soon after, another rare thing happened. The leader of the Italian bishops’ conference acknowledged at a news conference that it was “possible” that bishops in Italy had covered up abuse, while his deputy said that in the past decade, 100 Italian priests had faced church trials in connection with the sexual abuse of minors.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=132214§ionid=351021820
Irish priest resigns over abuse case 27 Jun 2010 A priest in charge of protecting children in a rural diocese in Northern Ireland has been forced to resign over a case of child sex abuse filed against another priest under his authority. Earlier, an Irish Examiner report said Fr Bermingham in charge of the Diocese of Cloyne, in County Cork had received a note from a woman claiming abuse by a priest under his ministration. Bermingham had hushed up the matter and let his colleague know of the note before referring him to the police.
Bermingham said he had turned in the abuse statement which he received in May 2009 to the police and the Health Service Executive in the Irish Republic right away....This spring, a group of deaf men in Verona were granted a rare hearing on national television to denounce the priests they said serially molested them as children in a school for the deaf. “We just want justice,” said one of the men, Gianni Bisoli.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=132214§ionid=351021820
Pope denounces 'deplorable' raid on Belgian church - Raids come amid fresh claims of sex abuse in Catholic Church Agence France-Presse June 27, 2010
VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday accused Belgian police of "deplorable methods" for raiding a bishops' meeting as part of a pedophilia probe, as Brussels said the Vatican was overreacting....Thursday's raids came amid new claims of child abuse by members of the Catholic Church in Belgium, one of the countries rocked by recent revelations of pedophilia by priests in Europe and North America. http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/Pope+denounces+deplorable+raid+Belgian+church/3208676/story.html
Books of The Times - Violence Expert Visits Her Dark Past By DWIGHT GARNER
June 24, 2010 Jessica Stern is among the world’s experts on violence and evil, a woman who spends her time thinking about bad men and bad deeds. She has lectured at Harvard about terrorism and is the author of a respected book, “Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill” (2003). During the Clinton administration she was on the staff of the National Security Council....
“Denial” is Ms. Stern’s plainspoken and very raw account of why, long before 9/11, she was driven to study terrorism and to put herself repeatedly into danger as she flew around the world, like some scholarly twin of the former CNN war correspondent Christiane Amanpour, interviewing committed terrorists. Central among the reasons, it turns out, was her own experience of terror. On Oct. 1, 1973, when Ms. Stern was 15 and her sister 14, the two of them, alone in a suburban house in leafy Concord, Mass., were raped by a man who cut the house’s telephone lines before walking inside and leading them upstairs.
Ms. Stern describes that evening in brutal detail. It was a night that changed her and taught her a dire lesson: “Shame can be sexually transmitted.” The crime wasn’t properly investigated. The police didn’t believe her when she said the rapist was a stranger. Because her story and those of others were not publicized or taken seriously enough by the police, the same man was able to rape some 44 girls — an incredible, heart-collapsing number — from 1971 to 1973. “The entire community,” she writes, “was in denial.” http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/25/books/25book.html
Terrorism Expert No Longer in 'Denial' About Her Rape Andrea Stone Senior Washington Correspondent 6/25/10 WASHINGTON (June 22) -- Jessica Stern, one of the world's foremost authorities on terrorism, never made the connection between her chosen profession and the terror she suffered as a teenager. Stern was 15 and her sister Sara 14 when a blue-eyed stranger carrying a small handgun entered their home in Concord, Mass., on the evening of Oct. 1, 1973. The man threatened to kill them. Then he raped them. There was no one for the girls to turn to -- their mother was dead, their father on a business trip in Europe, the baby sitter had left them alone. The police refused to believe the girls didn't know the man. They were in denial. Worse, their father refused to cut short his trip to rush home.
A few months later -- his daughters' rapist still at large -- he told police they had gotten over it. He was in denial. But it took more than 30 years for Stern to discover that she, too, was in denial....Stern knew from therapy that she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a diagnosis she had denied for years....Stern was not content to confine herself to the personal. She talked to a fellow victim and met a veteran who was injured in Iraq and suffers from PTSD. While she doesn't equate rape with being maimed by a roadside bomb -- "I was not a victim of terrorism. That is much more serious and has a political element" -- she was struck by how many symptoms she shared with the soldier....
Connecting her trauma to a wider circle, she wrote: Denial helps the bystander. We don't want to know what the boys we send to Iraq have done to others out of terror, or what others have done to them. We would rather not know about terror or be confronted with evil. This is as true about Abu Ghraib as it is about personal assaults and more private crimes, the crimes that occur inside families. But the victim, too, cannot bear to believe. She may bury or disassociate from or disown her pain.
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/terrorism-expert-jessica-stern-no-longer-in-denial-about-her-rape/19524354
Abuse Loosens Church’s Culture of Silence in Italy
By RACHEL DONADIO June 26, 2010 ROME — One afternoon last month, a rare thing happened in Rome’s main courthouse: for perhaps the first time ever, an Italian bishop took the witness stand in the case of a priest accused of the sexual abuse of children.
Soon after, another rare thing happened. The leader of the Italian bishops’ conference acknowledged at a news conference that it was “possible” that bishops in Italy had covered up abuse, while his deputy said that in the past decade, 100 Italian priests had faced church trials in connection with the sexual abuse of minors.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=132214§ionid=351021820
Irish priest resigns over abuse case 27 Jun 2010 A priest in charge of protecting children in a rural diocese in Northern Ireland has been forced to resign over a case of child sex abuse filed against another priest under his authority. Earlier, an Irish Examiner report said Fr Bermingham in charge of the Diocese of Cloyne, in County Cork had received a note from a woman claiming abuse by a priest under his ministration. Bermingham had hushed up the matter and let his colleague know of the note before referring him to the police.
Bermingham said he had turned in the abuse statement which he received in May 2009 to the police and the Health Service Executive in the Irish Republic right away....This spring, a group of deaf men in Verona were granted a rare hearing on national television to denounce the priests they said serially molested them as children in a school for the deaf. “We just want justice,” said one of the men, Gianni Bisoli.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=132214§ionid=351021820
Pope denounces 'deplorable' raid on Belgian church - Raids come amid fresh claims of sex abuse in Catholic Church Agence France-Presse June 27, 2010
VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday accused Belgian police of "deplorable methods" for raiding a bishops' meeting as part of a pedophilia probe, as Brussels said the Vatican was overreacting....Thursday's raids came amid new claims of child abuse by members of the Catholic Church in Belgium, one of the countries rocked by recent revelations of pedophilia by priests in Europe and North America. http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/Pope+denounces+deplorable+raid+Belgian+church/3208676/story.html
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Cardinal Sean Brady refuses to quit, Spain Catholic sex abuse claims
Abuse victims' fury as Cardinal Sean Brady refuses to quit From Times Online
May 18, 2010 Survivors of clerical child sexual abuse called on Irish Roman Catholics to make their voices heard today after Cardinal Sean Brady ended months of speculation about his future by saying he would not resign. The cardinal, the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, is under pressure to stand down after it emerged that he took part in a secret canonical tribunal in 1975 at which two minors were made to swear oaths of silence about their allegations against the paedophile priest Father Brendan Smyth. Smyth went on to rape hundreds more children across Ireland, the UK and the United States before he died in prison in 1997.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7129779.ece
Spain struggles with new Catholic sex abuse claims
18 May 2010 By Sarah Rainsford BBC News, Cordoba
For almost 50 years, the Franciscan Brothers of the White Cross have run care homes across Spain, looking after the sick and the needy. Now the Catholic order and its centre in Cordoba are the focus of allegations of sex abuse that have shocked the city....Since 2001, Spain has reported 14 confirmed cases of clerical sex abuse to the Vatican. But this month brought two fresh accusations: one against a Carmelite monk in eastern Spain, the other against Franciscan brothers in the south.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/europe/10122305.stm
May 18, 2010 Survivors of clerical child sexual abuse called on Irish Roman Catholics to make their voices heard today after Cardinal Sean Brady ended months of speculation about his future by saying he would not resign. The cardinal, the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, is under pressure to stand down after it emerged that he took part in a secret canonical tribunal in 1975 at which two minors were made to swear oaths of silence about their allegations against the paedophile priest Father Brendan Smyth. Smyth went on to rape hundreds more children across Ireland, the UK and the United States before he died in prison in 1997.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7129779.ece
Spain struggles with new Catholic sex abuse claims
18 May 2010 By Sarah Rainsford BBC News, Cordoba
For almost 50 years, the Franciscan Brothers of the White Cross have run care homes across Spain, looking after the sick and the needy. Now the Catholic order and its centre in Cordoba are the focus of allegations of sex abuse that have shocked the city....Since 2001, Spain has reported 14 confirmed cases of clerical sex abuse to the Vatican. But this month brought two fresh accusations: one against a Carmelite monk in eastern Spain, the other against Franciscan brothers in the south.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/europe/10122305.stm
Thursday, April 22, 2010
300 abuse cases one defrocking, German bishop ‘who beat orphans’ resigns
Victims want 'abuse' priests defrocked April 22, 2010 AAP
A church-related victims' group is calling on the Vatican to defrock about 100 Melbourne priests implicated in sexual abuse claims which have been substantiated by church investigations.
The Melbourne Victims' Collective, a group of 27 primary and secondary alleged sex abuse victims, wants the priests stripped of their titles and privileges.
A Fairfax newspaper (The Age) reported on Thursday that almost 300 sexual abuse allegations had been substantiated in Melbourne by the Catholic church since 1996 but only one priest had been defrocked.
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/victims-want-abuse-priests-defrocked-20100422-tfhk.html
300 abuse cases, one defrocking NICK MCKENZIE AND RAFAEL EPSTEIN April 22, 2010 VICTORIA Police has called for sweeping changes to the way Melbourne's Catholic Church deals with sex crime allegations, as The Age reveals that only one priest has been defrocked for abuse in the past 14 years.
Nearly 300 allegations of sexual abuse have been substantiated by church investigations since 1996, when the ''Melbourne Response'' was set up to deal with complaints. It is believed the abuses were perpetrated by approximately 100 priests, a figure the church will not confirm. Just one priest has been defrocked as a result. Some other priests lost their role serving a parish full-time.
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/300-abuse-cases-one-defrocking-20100421-szz6.html
Wikipedophilia, Wikipedia child abuse misinformation http://eassurvey.wordpress.com/2010/04/22/wikipedophilia-wikipedia-child-abuse-misinformation-clergy-abuse-suit/
Suit: Vatican No. 2 Got Letter From Abuse Victim - Lawsuit claims Vatican official got letter from victim on Wis. abuse earlier than known before By DINESH RAMDE and ERIC GORSKI MILWAUKEE April 22, 2010 (AP) A neatly typed letter dated March 5, 1995, is addressed to the No. 2 man at the Vatican and recounts the story of a priest who preyed on deaf boys trapped in dormitories with no chance of escape. The letter to Cardinal Angelo Sodano from one of the Rev. Lawrence Murphy's alleged victims is more evidence for those trying to learn what Vatican officials knew about abuse claims at St. John's School for the Deaf outside Milwaukee and when. The document was revealed Thursday in yet another lawsuit aimed at the highest reaches of the Roman Catholic Church. It's also significant because it involves Sodano, a strong defender of Pope Benedict XVI's handling of the global clergy sexual abuse crisis and a man whose own record on a separate high-profile case has come under scrutiny. The Vatican's U.S.-based attorney, Jeffrey Lena, said in a statement Thursday that the lawsuit was a publicity stunt with no merit and it rehashes theories already rejected by U.S. courts.
Murphy, who died in 1998, is accused of sexually abusing some 200 boys at the deaf school from 1950 to 1974. He was put on a leave of absence when the allegations were revealed in the early 1970s. The lawsuit claims Murphy was still allowed to serve in ministry and work with children in another Wisconsin diocese into the early 1990s....Sodano has long been accused in news reports in U.S. Catholic publications and other outlets of stalling a Vatican probe of the Rev. Marcial Maciel, the discredited founder of the Legionaries of Christ. The order has admitted that the late Maciel fathered at least one child and molested young seminarians.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=10445461
Civil suit filed against former Hawaii priest for sex assault of teen 4/21/10 A former Roman Catholic priest who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2000 for sexually abusing a 13-year-old O'ahu boy is at the center of a civil lawsuit filed yesterday in Denver, Colo. The lawsuit alleges Mark Matson repeatedly assaulted a 15-year old boy while the teen was attending St. Andrews Seminary in Denver in 1976.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the former student, identified only as "John Doe," who is now 49 years old and a resident of the Denver area. The complaint contends that when the student confronted Matson about a series of sexual assaults, the priest claimed to have found marijuana in the boy's belongings and had him expelled from the Denver seminary.
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/201004211622/BREAKING01/100421055
German bishop ‘who beat orphans’ resigns From Times Online April 22, 2010 Roger Boyes, Berlin
The resignation of the conservative Bishop of Augsburg – accused of thrashing orphans with a carpet beater – has given a powerful boost to reformers in the German Catholic Church who are trying to stop the mass desertion of believers. It took almost three weeks to persuade the controversial bishop, Walter Mixa, 68, to step down and restore the credibility of the Church as it attempts to tackle and contain the growing scandal of physical and sexual abuse of children in its care.
The bishop is a close ally of Pope Benedict XVI and he had evidently counted on papal support as he stood firm against claims from at least six former pupils at a Catholic-run orphanage in Bavaria.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7104574.ece
Irish Bishop Resigns Over Abuse Scandal By AP / NICOLE WINFIELD and MELISSA EDDY Apr. 22, 2010
(VATICAN CITY) — Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation Thursday of an Irish bishop who admitted he didn't challenge the Dublin church's policy of covering up the sexual abuse of children by priests. Bishop James Moriarty of Kildare is the third Irish bishop to resign in the past four months as a result of the Irish abuse scandal, and two more have offered to go. He said he was stepping down because he realized that "renewal must begin with accepting responsibility for the past." Moriarty, 73, offered to resign in December after admitting he didn't challenge the Dublin Archdiocese's past practice of concealing child-abuse complaints from police.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1983755,00.html
Rabbi Sentenced 32 Years For Sexually Abusing Teen (WPIX)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvyB5ZzntAQ
joel engleman, Rabbi Baruch Lebovits (WPIX)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ3x98Zp7h8&NR=1
A church-related victims' group is calling on the Vatican to defrock about 100 Melbourne priests implicated in sexual abuse claims which have been substantiated by church investigations.
The Melbourne Victims' Collective, a group of 27 primary and secondary alleged sex abuse victims, wants the priests stripped of their titles and privileges.
A Fairfax newspaper (The Age) reported on Thursday that almost 300 sexual abuse allegations had been substantiated in Melbourne by the Catholic church since 1996 but only one priest had been defrocked.
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/victims-want-abuse-priests-defrocked-20100422-tfhk.html
300 abuse cases, one defrocking NICK MCKENZIE AND RAFAEL EPSTEIN April 22, 2010 VICTORIA Police has called for sweeping changes to the way Melbourne's Catholic Church deals with sex crime allegations, as The Age reveals that only one priest has been defrocked for abuse in the past 14 years.
Nearly 300 allegations of sexual abuse have been substantiated by church investigations since 1996, when the ''Melbourne Response'' was set up to deal with complaints. It is believed the abuses were perpetrated by approximately 100 priests, a figure the church will not confirm. Just one priest has been defrocked as a result. Some other priests lost their role serving a parish full-time.
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/300-abuse-cases-one-defrocking-20100421-szz6.html
Wikipedophilia, Wikipedia child abuse misinformation http://eassurvey.wordpress.com/2010/04/22/wikipedophilia-wikipedia-child-abuse-misinformation-clergy-abuse-suit/
Suit: Vatican No. 2 Got Letter From Abuse Victim - Lawsuit claims Vatican official got letter from victim on Wis. abuse earlier than known before By DINESH RAMDE and ERIC GORSKI MILWAUKEE April 22, 2010 (AP) A neatly typed letter dated March 5, 1995, is addressed to the No. 2 man at the Vatican and recounts the story of a priest who preyed on deaf boys trapped in dormitories with no chance of escape. The letter to Cardinal Angelo Sodano from one of the Rev. Lawrence Murphy's alleged victims is more evidence for those trying to learn what Vatican officials knew about abuse claims at St. John's School for the Deaf outside Milwaukee and when. The document was revealed Thursday in yet another lawsuit aimed at the highest reaches of the Roman Catholic Church. It's also significant because it involves Sodano, a strong defender of Pope Benedict XVI's handling of the global clergy sexual abuse crisis and a man whose own record on a separate high-profile case has come under scrutiny. The Vatican's U.S.-based attorney, Jeffrey Lena, said in a statement Thursday that the lawsuit was a publicity stunt with no merit and it rehashes theories already rejected by U.S. courts.
Murphy, who died in 1998, is accused of sexually abusing some 200 boys at the deaf school from 1950 to 1974. He was put on a leave of absence when the allegations were revealed in the early 1970s. The lawsuit claims Murphy was still allowed to serve in ministry and work with children in another Wisconsin diocese into the early 1990s....Sodano has long been accused in news reports in U.S. Catholic publications and other outlets of stalling a Vatican probe of the Rev. Marcial Maciel, the discredited founder of the Legionaries of Christ. The order has admitted that the late Maciel fathered at least one child and molested young seminarians.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=10445461
Civil suit filed against former Hawaii priest for sex assault of teen 4/21/10 A former Roman Catholic priest who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2000 for sexually abusing a 13-year-old O'ahu boy is at the center of a civil lawsuit filed yesterday in Denver, Colo. The lawsuit alleges Mark Matson repeatedly assaulted a 15-year old boy while the teen was attending St. Andrews Seminary in Denver in 1976.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the former student, identified only as "John Doe," who is now 49 years old and a resident of the Denver area. The complaint contends that when the student confronted Matson about a series of sexual assaults, the priest claimed to have found marijuana in the boy's belongings and had him expelled from the Denver seminary.
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/201004211622/BREAKING01/100421055
German bishop ‘who beat orphans’ resigns From Times Online April 22, 2010 Roger Boyes, Berlin
The resignation of the conservative Bishop of Augsburg – accused of thrashing orphans with a carpet beater – has given a powerful boost to reformers in the German Catholic Church who are trying to stop the mass desertion of believers. It took almost three weeks to persuade the controversial bishop, Walter Mixa, 68, to step down and restore the credibility of the Church as it attempts to tackle and contain the growing scandal of physical and sexual abuse of children in its care.
The bishop is a close ally of Pope Benedict XVI and he had evidently counted on papal support as he stood firm against claims from at least six former pupils at a Catholic-run orphanage in Bavaria.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7104574.ece
Irish Bishop Resigns Over Abuse Scandal By AP / NICOLE WINFIELD and MELISSA EDDY Apr. 22, 2010
(VATICAN CITY) — Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation Thursday of an Irish bishop who admitted he didn't challenge the Dublin church's policy of covering up the sexual abuse of children by priests. Bishop James Moriarty of Kildare is the third Irish bishop to resign in the past four months as a result of the Irish abuse scandal, and two more have offered to go. He said he was stepping down because he realized that "renewal must begin with accepting responsibility for the past." Moriarty, 73, offered to resign in December after admitting he didn't challenge the Dublin Archdiocese's past practice of concealing child-abuse complaints from police.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1983755,00.html
Rabbi Sentenced 32 Years For Sexually Abusing Teen (WPIX)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvyB5ZzntAQ
joel engleman, Rabbi Baruch Lebovits (WPIX)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ3x98Zp7h8&NR=1
Monday, March 15, 2010
Priest's victims forced into vow of silence (Ireland), sexual assault statistics
Priest's victims forced into vow of silence 3/15/10
The leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland resisted calls for his resignation yesterday, despite admitting that he took part in meetings where the victims of a paedophile priest were forced to take a vow of silence.
Cardinal Sean Brady, the Primate of All Ireland, has confirmed he was present at a closed canonical tribunal in 1975 when two child victims of Father Brendan Smyth were ordered to sign agreements under oath that they would not discuss what happened to them with anybody other than an approved priest....He said that three weeks after he submitted a report to the Bishop of Kilmore, Smyth was suspended from practising as a priest in the Diocese of Kilmore and throughout the country.
However, Smyth continued to sexually abuse children and later confessed he had done so until at least 1993....One of the reports found that the Government had colluded with the Church and legal authorities to cover up almost four decades of sexual abuse and beatings by priests and nuns of thousands of children in state care. The other revealed a litany of cover-ups by senior clergy in the Dublin diocese to protect the Church's reputation....Smyth was accused of sexually assaulting a ten-year-old altar boy and a 14-year-old girl. The boy and girl were required to sign affidavits swearing they would not talk to anybody except priests who had been given special permission by the tribunal. The church authorities did not inform police of the allegations. In court, Smyth admitted dozens of counts of sexual abuse of children in nine counties over 35 years to 1993.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/ireland/article7061540.ece
Latest Today with Pat Kenny Podcasts - Carindal Sean Brady/Fr. Brendan Smyth Controversy.
Helen McGonigle, was abused by Fr. Smyth, Monsignor Maurice Dooley, Former Professor of Canor Law, Mary Raftery, Journalist, Seamus and Bernie - their children were abused by Fr. Smyth....
The opening lines of Mary Raftery's column in today's Irish Times where she goes on to say that the Nuremberg defence " only following orders" did not work in 1945, and should not be permitted to work now" in relation to the controversy surrounding Cardinal Brady.
The cardinal has once again this morning said that he doesn't intend to resign following weekend revelations about his involvement in a 1975 canonical inquiry into child abuser Brendan Smyth. He admits that he didn't pass the information on to the Gardai.
http://www.rte.ie/radio1/todaywithpatkenny/
Older Than America - IFC Entertainment
About Older Than America - A woman"s haunting visions reveal a Catholic priests sinister plot to silence her mother from speaking the truth about the atrocities that occurred at a Native American boarding school. A contemporary drama of suspense, Older Than America delves into the lasting impact of the cultural genocide that occurred at Indian boarding schools across the US and Canada.
http://www.ifcfilms.com/films/older-than-america
Rape and Sexual Assault
According to the National Crime Victimization Survey, there were 198,850 rapes and sexual assaults measured in 2003. (Bureau of Justice Statistics. 2004. Criminal Victimization, 2003. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice.)
Among female victims of rape and sexual assault, 70 percent of the crimes were committed by intimates, other relatives, friends or acquaintances. (Ibid.)....
In 2003, 38.5 percent of rapes and sexual assaults were reported to the police. (Ibid.)....
More than one in four victims of a juvenile or adult sex offender was a family member. (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. 2004. Victims of Violent Juvenile Crime. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice.)....
Only 36 percent of completed rapes were reported to the police during the years 1992 to 2000. Thirty-four percent of the attempted rapes, and 26 percent of the completed and attempted sexual assaults were reported. (Bureau of Justice Statistics. 2002. Rape and Sexual Assault: Reporting to Police and Medical Attention, 1992-2000. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice.)
A recently published eight-year study indicates that when perpetrators of completed rape are current or former husbands or boyfriends, the crimes go unreported to the police 77 percent of the time. When the perpetrators are friends or acquaintances, the rapes go unreported 61 percent of the time. When the perpetrators are strangers, the rapes go unreported 54 percent of the time. (Ibid.)
A recent report based on the 1995 National Survey of Adolescents (NSA) found that 13 percent of girls and 3.4 percent of boys surveyed had been sexually assaulted. (National Institute of Justice. 2003. Youth Victimization: Prevalence and Implications. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice.)
Of the sexual assault victims in the NSA, 74 percent reported that the assault was committed by someone they knew well. Almost one-third (32.5 percent) of sexual assault cases involved perpetrators who were friends, 21.1 percent were committed by a family member, and 23.2 percent were committed by strangers. (Ibid.)....
The majority of adolescent sexual assaults (86 percent) went unreported. (Ibid.)....
Between 1995 - 2000, 86 percent of all rapes/sexual assaults committed against college students were not reported to police, compared to 12 percent that were reported. Bureau of Justice Statistics. 2003. Violent Victimization of College Students. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice.)
http://www.ojp.gov/ovc/ncvrw/2005/pg5o.html
The leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland resisted calls for his resignation yesterday, despite admitting that he took part in meetings where the victims of a paedophile priest were forced to take a vow of silence.
Cardinal Sean Brady, the Primate of All Ireland, has confirmed he was present at a closed canonical tribunal in 1975 when two child victims of Father Brendan Smyth were ordered to sign agreements under oath that they would not discuss what happened to them with anybody other than an approved priest....He said that three weeks after he submitted a report to the Bishop of Kilmore, Smyth was suspended from practising as a priest in the Diocese of Kilmore and throughout the country.
However, Smyth continued to sexually abuse children and later confessed he had done so until at least 1993....One of the reports found that the Government had colluded with the Church and legal authorities to cover up almost four decades of sexual abuse and beatings by priests and nuns of thousands of children in state care. The other revealed a litany of cover-ups by senior clergy in the Dublin diocese to protect the Church's reputation....Smyth was accused of sexually assaulting a ten-year-old altar boy and a 14-year-old girl. The boy and girl were required to sign affidavits swearing they would not talk to anybody except priests who had been given special permission by the tribunal. The church authorities did not inform police of the allegations. In court, Smyth admitted dozens of counts of sexual abuse of children in nine counties over 35 years to 1993.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/ireland/article7061540.ece
Latest Today with Pat Kenny Podcasts - Carindal Sean Brady/Fr. Brendan Smyth Controversy.
Helen McGonigle, was abused by Fr. Smyth, Monsignor Maurice Dooley, Former Professor of Canor Law, Mary Raftery, Journalist, Seamus and Bernie - their children were abused by Fr. Smyth....
The opening lines of Mary Raftery's column in today's Irish Times where she goes on to say that the Nuremberg defence " only following orders" did not work in 1945, and should not be permitted to work now" in relation to the controversy surrounding Cardinal Brady.
The cardinal has once again this morning said that he doesn't intend to resign following weekend revelations about his involvement in a 1975 canonical inquiry into child abuser Brendan Smyth. He admits that he didn't pass the information on to the Gardai.
http://www.rte.ie/radio1/todaywithpatkenny/
Older Than America - IFC Entertainment
About Older Than America - A woman"s haunting visions reveal a Catholic priests sinister plot to silence her mother from speaking the truth about the atrocities that occurred at a Native American boarding school. A contemporary drama of suspense, Older Than America delves into the lasting impact of the cultural genocide that occurred at Indian boarding schools across the US and Canada.
http://www.ifcfilms.com/films/older-than-america
Rape and Sexual Assault
According to the National Crime Victimization Survey, there were 198,850 rapes and sexual assaults measured in 2003. (Bureau of Justice Statistics. 2004. Criminal Victimization, 2003. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice.)
Among female victims of rape and sexual assault, 70 percent of the crimes were committed by intimates, other relatives, friends or acquaintances. (Ibid.)....
In 2003, 38.5 percent of rapes and sexual assaults were reported to the police. (Ibid.)....
More than one in four victims of a juvenile or adult sex offender was a family member. (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. 2004. Victims of Violent Juvenile Crime. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice.)....
Only 36 percent of completed rapes were reported to the police during the years 1992 to 2000. Thirty-four percent of the attempted rapes, and 26 percent of the completed and attempted sexual assaults were reported. (Bureau of Justice Statistics. 2002. Rape and Sexual Assault: Reporting to Police and Medical Attention, 1992-2000. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice.)
A recently published eight-year study indicates that when perpetrators of completed rape are current or former husbands or boyfriends, the crimes go unreported to the police 77 percent of the time. When the perpetrators are friends or acquaintances, the rapes go unreported 61 percent of the time. When the perpetrators are strangers, the rapes go unreported 54 percent of the time. (Ibid.)
A recent report based on the 1995 National Survey of Adolescents (NSA) found that 13 percent of girls and 3.4 percent of boys surveyed had been sexually assaulted. (National Institute of Justice. 2003. Youth Victimization: Prevalence and Implications. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice.)
Of the sexual assault victims in the NSA, 74 percent reported that the assault was committed by someone they knew well. Almost one-third (32.5 percent) of sexual assault cases involved perpetrators who were friends, 21.1 percent were committed by a family member, and 23.2 percent were committed by strangers. (Ibid.)....
The majority of adolescent sexual assaults (86 percent) went unreported. (Ibid.)....
Between 1995 - 2000, 86 percent of all rapes/sexual assaults committed against college students were not reported to police, compared to 12 percent that were reported. Bureau of Justice Statistics. 2003. Violent Victimization of College Students. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice.)
http://www.ojp.gov/ovc/ncvrw/2005/pg5o.html
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