A country in state of shock

Ireland and not only, has been deeply shattered by the findings of an inquiry on sexual and physical abuses that “hundreds” of Catholic Irish priests and nuns inflicted for years upon the minors in public institutions across Ireland. Accordingly, thousands of Irish children were victims of physical, mental and sexual abuse. The Report – presented in Dublin on May 20 – was drawn up by the “Child Abuse Commission”, that carried out the largest survey ever on Irish religious orders – nine years were devoted to collecting interviews on thousands of victims. The Commission was set up in 2002 by Premier Bertie Ahern after a TV documentary brought to the fore a long story of violence against minors in institutes run by religious orders. An ad interim report with the testimonies of 700 men and women was submitted in 2003. The Irish Catholic Church conveyed its “sorrow” and “shame”, and mostly, a serious condemnation. The Report. The Report (3.500 pages divided into 5 volumes) chronicles stories of abuse on 2500 children dating back to the 1940s-1980s. Some of the abuses date back to sixty years ago and many of the alleged culprits died in the meantime. Investigation involved some 100 institutions run by religious orders – reformatories, schools for “difficult children” and homes for the disabled – where 35,000 children were held. The Report states, “school were run in a severe, regimented manner that imposed unreasonable and oppressive discipline on children and even on staff”. Sexual abuse was less present in nuns’ residential homes for girls, but frequent aggression and emotional humiliation was designed to make the girls feel “useless”. The Report describes also “ritualized” beating, and concludes that the religious shielded their orders’ paedophiles from arrest. The Commission criticized state inspectors who failed to stop the beating, rape and humiliation of the children held in the institutions. Investigators said consistent testimony from still-traumatized 50-80 year-old men and women show that the entire system treated children like prisoners and slaves, and not as people with legal rights. “The reformatories and the special schools were permeated by rigid control and physical punishments. The harsh regime, passed down by generations of priests, nuns and confreres, was endemic, and was not the result of individual abuse on the part of people operating outside the establishment”, states the Report. The voice of the victims. John Kelly, “Survivors of Child Abuse” spokesman, said that many of these schools were “gulag”, and “not reception homes”. Kelly was held in a former barracks: “I was not John Kelly, I had been given a number, 253, I shall never forget it”. Many of the abused victims claimed the Report didn’t go far enough since it confirmed the violence without asking that justice be made. “A shameful catalogue”. The leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady said he is “profoundly sorry” and “deeply ashamed that children suffered in such awful ways in these institutions”. ” This report makes it clear that great wrong and hurt were caused to some of the most vulnerable children in our society,” he said. “It documents a shameful catalogue of cruelty: neglect, physical, sexual and emotional abuse, perpetrated against children”, ” Children deserved better, and especially from those caring for them in the name of Jesus Christ”. Cardinal Brady said he hopes the document may serve to soothe the wounds of the victims and amend past wrong. The Christian Brothers and Sisters of Mercy religious orders – which ran some of the schools were the harshest abuses were inflicted – apologized and expressed their contriteness for the “suffering inflicted” on the children. They conveyed their “sorrow and shame since many of those reporting abuses were not taken into due consideration”. It must never happen again. Strong words of condemnation were conveyed by the archbishop of Dublin Msgr. Diarmuid Martin. The victims’ “stories of horrible abuse are, in many cases, stomach-turning; their courage in telling their stories is admirable,” he said. “We must find ways of ensuring that the cries and anxieties of children are heard and listened to,” he said. “This is not a report to be put on a shelf — it’s a real cry for a new look at the way we care for our children. If we truly regret what happened in the past, we must commit ourselves to a very different future”, the archbishop declared. In June, the archdiocese of Dublin will present a similar Report documenting abuses committed in the archdiocese.