New Brady case doesn’t look like cover up
The Guardian’s veteran political commentator Michael White takes world weariness to new heights by predicting that the Catholic Church has the stamina to sit out the media firestorm. These things blow themselves out in time, as all Westminster watchers know. In Britain perhaps, where the abuse crisis hasn’t reached the same level but there’s no sign of a firebreak in Ireland and indeed worldwide, where the storm is gaining second wind and is now engulfing the Vatican. But balance and fairness are essential and never more so than when the cause is just. I see that the Church’s sclerotic spokemen have taken care to spell out that the latest cases under the microscope were reported to the police. This applies to the Bishop Hegarty case . Not for thre first time, the issue here implicates the State which has to answer why a private civil settlement was deemed appropriate for a rape case. Responsibility seems clearer in a 2001 rape case in Cardinal Brady’s Armagh archdiocese reported by UTV tonight. This came to trial, resulting in acquittal but also a follow up compensation settlement. According to a lengthy statement issued hastily to the Irish Times, the cardinal was not bound by the confidentiality agreement of the civil action and suspended the priest, named only as “Father X”. His identity was at first withheld to protect the victim. Then late tonight the suspended priest was named as Father Joseph Quinn. While the priest seems to have been named under pressure, making his life difficult beyond the immediate circle of those in the know, the cardinal’s position appears not to have worsened. But the case again puts him under the closest scrutiny. What other cases will come out in the Irish wash? Interestingly the Economist declares that “ removing the Irish primate, who has said he will only go if the pope requests it, could signal that the era of cover-ups is finally over ” a view which I believe fails to rise to the level of events.Back to Mike White, who links to an interesting court ruling reported in the Daily Mail, market leader in turned-on crossness, which upholds the right of conscience of Catholic adoption agencies not to permit adoptions by gays. I must admit I’ve some sympathy with this view although I wouldn’t have any, if gays didn’t have recourse to other agencies.
Mr Justice Briggs said because an exemption in the 2007 Sexual Orientation Regulations allowed gay charities to restrict their help to homosexuals, it was right that Catholic Care should also be allowed to discriminate. The judge added that the good work carried out by the charity outweighed the importance of European anti-discrimination legislation…However, he sent the case back to the Charity Commission to reconsider in light of his ruling, which means it could yet find reasons to force the adoption agency to close.
I’m not sure where this thread will go. As an agnostic, non-Catholic, perhaps I shouldn’t care.
And yet … (and here I’m borrowing from personal experience and various postings on politics.ie)
For eighty years the Republic has had theocratic elements in its Constitution. de Valera was elusive as ever in avoiding the wholesale commitment to Quadragesimo Anno, which Salazar imposed on Portugal (and which the hierarchy, and others, wanted for the 1937 Constitution). Alas, though, there was “back-wash” at lower levels in the policing and judicial system.
It pains me to admit it, but Dev could only work with what he’d got. If anyone’s reputation should be called for trial there, it should be O’Duffy’s, following the instruction of O’Higgins, to recruit from a particular, and partisan sub-section of the populace.
Similarly, in the Six Counties (where the Law could have been applied), the Craig, Andrews and Brookeborough administrations wanted nothing more than a segregation of the two communities, and closed their eyes to … whatever. Of course, it goes without saying, there was absolutely no, never, none of that happening in the Prod schools. Despite those gross rumours about Portora …
Then, again, the UK permitted coporal punishment (a mild form of sexual exploitation) until the dying-days of the Thatcher administration.
My … errm, bottom line … comes down to the welfare of individual kids. Not grand statements about human rights and all that guff.
That was then. This is now. Let’s keep our eyes open. Stop frothing about what is lost and gone. End the exploitation (far more subtle: it’s called “selection”) that still persists.
Certainly the crisis in the Catholic Church in Ireland is manna from heaven (so to speak) for those who like to go on about the whore of Babylon in big tents near Ballymena. And the new more sophisticated “intellectual” sectarianism found on Internet message Boards.
Will happily repost my views from another thread.
But on the precise details of today and yesterday.
Yesterday I thought Cardinal Brady wasa broken man on the point of resignation. As I understand it the applause from his congregation was more a gesture of sympathy than actual support. My belief is that they sensed he was a “goner”.
We have the case of Miss X and Father Quinn. As I understood one radio report today, the priest was named only as Father X as revealing his identity might compromise the victim. As the UTV interview with the victim was enough to just about identify her…..27 ex-grammar school girl Archdiocese of Armagh (Dungannon, Armagh possibly Newry although in Dromore)…reported to teachers……left home for a while …it certainly was “enough” to make Cardinal Brady feel that if the victim (deserving of anonymity) had broken her own cover…….then the man accused could be identified (Brady saying that he himself was not bound by confidentiality).
There is something slightly disquieting about the fact that a UTV reporter John Cooke has been in contact with the victim for some months. While negotiations were going on?
In this PARTICULAR instance I dont see how Cardinal Brady has done much wrong. After all the case had been seen by the Police etc (had it actually gone to court and an acquittal?)
I note Mr Walkers time stamp of 9.33pm. Presumably he has not seen the 10.30pm edition of UTV live…which carried an interview “recorded earlier” with a Mr O’Gorman from 1 in 4 Victims Group who spoke quite reasonably but it was the same interview carried on the 6pm News and asked questions of Cardinal Brady which he had addressed in a statement made after Mr O’Gormans interview.
At best that was bad editing.
I full expected Paul Clark to say at its end “that interview recorded before Cardinal Bradys statement”. That would have clarified things a lot.
Finally I pay tribute to another excellent balanced piece from Mr Walker….in marked contrast to others.
Malcolm Redfellow
I agree with most of what you said, but surely corporal punishment, like any other punishment, is only sexually oriented if the administrator of said punishment is that way inclined.
A slap on the wrist is not sexual, and whilst I can see where a cane, might be said by the extremely imaginative, to be some kind of phallic symbol, its administration in most instances, was as far as I know, according to strict rules, on either the palm of the hand of the back of the shins.
We cannot, here or in the UK, be made at this late stage to feel our occasional slap or cane was a sexual assault. To do so actually belittles the very real and brutal assaults, both physical and sexual carried out by some priests etc.
Church tribunals operate both independently and parallel to a civil court. The complaint about Fr Smyth was made to the diocese, not to the police. The oath of secrecy administered would not have precluded the victim from reporting the crime to the Gardaí. They obviously chose not to. The secrecy demanded only applies to information given in the tribunal. This is not limited to tribunals for suspension; most tribunals, including those for marriage annulments, are ordinarily conducted in secret. According to Vatacanista John Allen, of the National Catholic Reporter: “First, it is designed to allow witnesses and other parties to speak freely, knowing that their responses will be confidential. Second, it allows the accused party to protect his good name until guilt is established. Third, it allows victims to come forward without exposing themselves to publicity.”
For Cardinal Brady to have reported the incident to the Gardaí would have required specifying a complaint and providing evidence hence ‘outing’ a victim who had given this information in confidence. Personally if one of my friends told me she was raped, I doubt I would inform the Guards against her wishes.
Paedophilia is different because we know paedophiles have a high reoffending rate. But that is a fact which is only relatively recently established; the first academic study into repeat offending was done in the late 70s (1979?). Freud, mystified by the high incidence of abuse reported to him, taught that these children were merely projecting guilt about sexual issues onto adults.
According to Dr GP Lewis:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/letters/2009/1231/1224261476404.html
Madam, – Niall O’Donohoe (December 7th) referred to Prof Neil O’Doherty’s lecture in 1980 concerning sexual abuse of children and the resulting severe criticism Prof O’Doherty received for even suggesting such things were happening in Ireland of that time.
Now I feel strongly that it is in the context of that time and later that this issue should be studied and not the partially media driven witch-hunt and scapegoating of auxiliary bishops of Dublin past and present. Truth and justice is not served in such scapegoating.
As was revealed, of course serious errors of judgment were made by the church authorities, but they were made in the context of the time. This is not by way of making excuses for the great damage that so many suffered by these crimes of depravity committed by men who totally betrayed the scared trust given to them at ordination.
Less than 20 years ago most educated people had never heard of the word paedophilia. As far as I am aware, professional and statutory bodies did not know how to deal with the problem when it arose. The judiciary would give out suspended sentences with a warning to offenders. The social services and Garda would often ignore information given to them of allegations in their area. They were extremely hesitant to intrude into the privacy of a family where such abuse might be happening.
The psychological/psychiatric professions sent offenders on treatment programmes and would often certify such people back to their location, or ministry in the case of priests, not realising that a very high percentage reoffended.
Finally. the Department of Education more often than not ignored very abusive teachers in primary and secondary schools throughout the country for decades and teachers’ unions likewise did very little to remove such teachers.
It was only about 15 years ago, when survivors of abuse felt free to tell their stories and be heard in the process, that it finally dawned on society – and not just the church – how appalling a crime sexual abuse is and the great damage it has caused.
Of course one can say the leaders in the Catholic Church should have known better, but in the context of the time they unfortunately did not. They failed – as other professions likewise failed. If bishops have to resign, then, in justice, leaders of other professions and statutory bodies who made serious errors of judgment in this matter should likewise resign. (Letter to the Editor of the Irish Times; Thursday, December 31, 2009)
fitzjameshorse: in pretty much all media reporting/commentary (the line can get blurry) on church abuse scandals the same people keep being inteviewed: Colm O’Gorman, Andrew Madden and Marie Collins.
FitzjamesHorse: Certainly the crisis in the Catholic Church in Ireland is manna from heaven (so to speak) for those who like to go on about the whore of Babylon in big tents near Ballymena. And the new more sophisticated “intellectual” sectarianism found on Internet message Boards.
You have said it very succinctly. I have been mentioning this at much more length on a couple of other threads. The only thing I might disagree with you is your defining the sectarianism as “sophisticated”. Ignorant, hating and intense would be better adjectives.
And thank you Brian for creating these threads in an even-handed manner, without prejudice as the legal eagles would say.
shane
This would be the same people who have been abused and speak on their own and on behalf of other victims.
TellMeMa
I am not sure I believe your disinterest is as disinterested as you say.
Talk of a media witch hunt (which there
undoubtedly is) and of the distortion of applying standards of today to the past, leaves out that outside of the church, most of us knew/know that always sexual abuse is wrong. In professions such as teaching we knew it was wrong and would have expec ted the rigors of the law to prevail.
Only personnel within the priesthood seem to have found mental gymnastics ways and words to avoid that. ie they have lost their moral compas (as others on Slugger have said).
I keep returning to a cultural explantion for such a situation, which I link to the dominance of the rule of celebacy and lack of women and children in the mix.
pippakin, by what means did they acquire the right to speak on behalf of other victims?
granni trixie
I am not convinced by the celibacy argument. It may be true but does not explain similar problems in other faiths.
I have known of incest victims disowned by their family for reporting the abuse.
I do not have a clue how the Catholic church ever got itself into this situation. It certainly was not the only institution to abuse children, but its cover up appears to have been stronger, more threatening (in some cases) and over a far longer period.
Those who say that those who protected, yes, protected, paedophiles are innocent of wrongdoing because there were no written rules should examine their consciences. I know, you know, and certainly the bishops knew, that this was morally repugnant. Protecting the Institution was far more important to the church princes than protecting the children.
tellmema,
Thank you.
I put the word “intellectual” in quotation marks and of course it would have been more clear if I had done the same with “sophisticated”.
I make the point that the unsophisticated preacher in the big tent outside ballymena would claim to love catholics and hate Catholicism and then launch into anti catholic vitriol.
The “sophisticated intellectual” on Internet Message Boards would probably think he was superior in some way to the ballymena preacher man but essentially its the same poison with a coat of “respectability”.
granni trixie..not for the first time gets to the heart of the issue. Celibacy itself. And the role of Women.
When Pope Paul VI spoke out against contraception…when most of his Flock were in favour, it led to the same Faithful turning attention to other matters….celibacy, gay clergy, women priests, married priests.
A Church still clinging to that cant be credible. The influx of Anglicans largely because of ordination of women has shown the Church to be a refuge for right wing nut jobs. Liberal Catholiism a real factor in the 1960s and 1970s is all but gone.
Theres a certain irony that Republicanism is linked to the Catholic Church in Ireland.
And Unionism is linked to Monarchy and the Whig Revolution.
In an ideal world Republicans would be Protestant and Unionists/Monarchists would be Catholic.
But as the MP for North Antrim once said “the best Protestants in Ireland are the Catholics”
FJH et al
Celibacy does not make a man a paedophile.
It does not make a nun or priest a sadist.
It does not explain the cover up of abuse over decades.
As for extremists of whatever colour or church, what has that got to do with the price of eggs? The Catholic church has, yet again, been caught in a lie and a cover up. All that is needed is for the Catholic church to obey the same laws that apply to all of us and for the state to play a full and proper role in the education and protection of our children.
shane,
on the question of the same people getting interviwed Colm O’Gorman,Andrew Madden, Marie Collins, I think thats normal. After all they are extremely articulate.
Michael O’Brien, another regular interviewee, is obviously not as conventionally articulate….but his passion and shee honesty is his greater strength.
The Victims deserve our respect.
But teasing out nuance witha Victim……Jamie Bulgers mother or locally Willie Fraser…is often a fairly thankless task.
We must always worry about the extent to which “Spokespersons” are representative but in the absence of any other spokespersons, the regulars on Prime Time and UTV News have to be accepted.
As I have said in relation to Victims threads on political violence, I dont know how i would react as a victim or parent of victim……willie fraser or alan mcbride.
Likewise if I was a victim of clerical abuse, I dont know how Id react.
Undoubtedly some victims spokespersons have an agenda but that agenda is driven by the crimes committed against them.
oh its quite true that celibacy does not make paedophiles.
after all the paedophiles have broken that vow so they arent celibate.
its not celibacy itself…..its a distorted view of sexuality.
Man is an animal, One wonder’s how many celibate lion’s there are, And how they fit in with the rest of the lion society.
FJH: Celibacy itself
In one of the articles I noted (too late in the day to find it), it was argued that celibacy was not the issue, because paedophilia and child sex abuse occurs in non-celibate institutions (both religious and secular) at the same or higher rate as in the Catholic Church.
Only 0.8% of the Catholic clergy were paedos (I am assuming most of them have now been outed and expunged so I say it in the past tense). While there would have been other sex abusers in the 99.2% non-paedo clergy, at least 95% would still be practising celibates.
I wish I was as confidant that most if not all paedos were “out”. I doubt it.
While obviously figures are vague, I read some years ago that the Catholic Church in Ireland believed that only about 60% of (then current)priests had not broken the celibacy vow. The vast majority of these of course were not in any way “criminal”.
We also have to factor in people ho have left the priesthood (not necessarily because of celibacy issues).
As there are more Catholic priests in Ireland IN THEIR NINETIES than in their 30s, I reckon celibacy is not much of an issue for them.
at least 95% would still be practising celibates
I deny that. A large percentage, reportedly as high as 60% in some jurisdictions are practising homosexuals, and there is nothing wrong with that, apart from the incongruity of such being advisors to women on matters of sexuality or family planning.
JoeCanuck
I think these figures are very suspect.
Further to my post #18 it was assumed that the percentage who had broken celibacy was about 50-50 gay and straight.
So if my figures are more accurate that would mean that 25% of 40% ie 10% are “practising homosexuals”.
I suppose we could assume that the ratio of homosexuality among the celibate is the same at 10% ut even allowing for bisexuality and asexuality I doubt it would ever reach 60% of practising homosexuals.
oops spot the error……25/75 gay/straight……too late at night for maths.
I wonder if, in some way, some of the sexual abusers of children, managed to convince themselves that assaulting a child was not the same as having sex with an adult. Its just an errant thought, but why would the church protect them? The church has had absolutely no problem booting out priests who had heterosexual affairs. In such cases the dust really did not touch their heels…
I cannot wholly agree with FitzjamesHorse’s contention that in “an ideal world Republicans would be Protestant and Unionists/Monarchists would be Catholic”, but it raises interesting questions.
Unionism, as I understand it, involves loyalty, attachment and allegiance to the British state. The British state has been a Republic, implicitly, since the 1688 Revolution. In the Georgian era it was an aristocratic republic, in the Victorian era it became a bourgeois republic, in the modern era it is a general democratic republic. The flexible political structures layed down by the Glorious Revolution is the real reason Britain is distinguished in Europe as never having suffered a violent revolution.
Irish Republicanism is a Franco-American import and has relatively recent origins. The Catholic masses were sentimentally Jacobite well into the latter half of the 18th century, but Gaelic Ireland’s attachment to the Stuart cause was motivated more out of expediency and bore little resemblence to the doctrinaire legitimism professed by Tories and High-Church Anglicans in England. The tenuity of this attachment facilitated an easy transition to Republicanism. Pearse said that the history of 19th century Ireland might be summarized as the efforts of a mob to realise itself as a nation. It was O’Connell (an English Whig in the pay of the Protestant Ascedancy) who roused this mob and gave them coherent political expectations.
In any society a church usually reflects the society in which it operates. A people make up a church not vice versa. In Europe, the feudal order that developed with the creeping collapse of the Roman Empire was easily combined with Catholic hierarchy; whereas in Ireland Catholicism was acculturated to the local society (hence the priest replaced the druid, and the local lord’s son became the hereditary abbot). Thus Catholicism was usually seen as allied to the forces of ‘progress’ in Ireland and ‘reaction’ in Europe. French Catholics hankered over a restoration of the Bourbons; while Irish Catholics, soliciting Anglican Disestablishment, were advancing arguments about confessional equality which would have been anathema to Pius IX.
FitzjamesHorse,
You missed my two caveats; reportedly and some.
I have had extensive mathematical, including statistical, training to know that surveys, polls etc, have to be approached with a high degree of understanding of their limitations and the errors which can be associated with them.
To go back to the heading on this thread, don’t forget that it wasn’t a low level burglary of an office that brought about the unprecedented ignominious resignation of a President of the USA but a needless, stupid, cover-up.
shane,
youre right of course. to some extent I was playing with definitions.
Jacobotism is my alleged field of expertise and I like to throw the word or thought into these threads……on some occasions its even vaguely relevant.
what I said was a gross generalisation….youve summed up the quasi republic of Britain accurately. Jacobites and Legitimists are quick to point out that the British monarchy is not a monarchy at all…it is too compromised by the events beginning with the 1688 coup d’etat as they would see it.
the point i was making…badly…was that the unionists/protestants tend to rally round the portrait and imagery of monarchy but their true ally is the defacto republic of the glorious revolution.
conversely in the 19th century Irish Catholicism offically hostile to the republicanism of 1798….became entwined with republicanism which many in mainland Europe would perceive as a contradiction.
in some ways this alliance of REPUBLIC and Catholic Church is unlikely …the church in Ireland has arguably behaved like a monarchy.
and those chickens are coming home to roost with a vengeance
FJH
I completely agree with you.
The Catholic Church in Ireland has behaved like an old style monarchy and the chickens are indeed coming home to roost.
Perhaps it will now evolve into the ‘constitutional’ monarchy it needs to be to survive!
This site has been taken over by gobshites.
Tell Me Horseholes.
When I think of the talent that was here….
Fair play to you Drifter, JoeC, Darth, and the ever erudite and excellent fear dearg, stalingrading it out.
I’ve looked at my comrades and I’m thinking of converting to Unionism.
Good Night.
Why!, I thank you George. I have been thinking I am but one of Mick’s barflies and am close to retirement from Slugger.
Far from being a cover up he did everything right on this one. Can it be that this was more in line with how cardinal Brady deals with these matters?
I have to admit that I was so mad watching the UTV shock revelations which sensational question the authority of two bishops. Such nonsense. Absolute twaddle. Two cases which were referred to the police. The one involving Brady was said to be a cover up. As a lawyer, I was taken aback by that misleading story. A settlement has a confidentiality clause and is now considered a cover up! Every employer who settles an discrimination case is covering up discrimination then. Every hospital that settles a negligience case is covering up negligience. Confidentiality and No admission of liability are the two mainstays of most settlements. Why exaggerrate these scandals to tarnish unjustly someones reputation? The scandals are bad enoughto sell papers on their own!
I’m with you on this one, Lionel Hutz, attorney at law.
I think the story is like oilmen drilling a mile deep when there are pools of oil on the surface.
There is enough of a story in the Church/Sex scandals that are just plain awful without making such mountains out of molehills as this.
Colm O’Gorman is not a victim. He was of Leaving Cert age when he was cavorting with the late Fr sean Fortune. He has made a careeer and a few lucrative globe trotting documentaries of of his experiences.
Shane: People here do not want well thought out posts like yours. They want posts that conform to their shallow prejudices.
georgieleigh,
If it helps, I should prolly tell you that I will be out of the country for a couple of weeks and not have as ready access to the internet.
[b]‘the Church’s sclerotic spokemen ‘[/b]
[i]ageism, agism [ˈeɪdʒɪzəm]
n
(Sociology) discrimination against people on the grounds of age; specifically, discrimination against the elderly[/i]
Its wonderful how Anti- Catholic hate can peak out some times like a dirty pair of nickers from under an attempt to put on a classy dress.
The terrible indictment of the Church here appears to be that its leaders are too old. At least for Brian.
Ahhh its a hard old life.
I am not anti-Catholic. I think that overall the Catholic Church has often been a huge force for good in the world and in promoting civilisation – despite its many mistakes over centuries. What the hell, its made up of fallible human beings.
I also don’t think Brady should go at all. At the time he attended the meeting that started all this he was a very small cog in a very big authoritarian wheel. Had he spoken up it would not have made a difference and he would have been crushed or sent for ‘re-education’, probably somewhere nice and tropical.
What’s being missed in all of this is that Ireland wasn’t an isolated case. What do we see in the US and Germany too – victims being asked to sign contracts with offers of compensation – €20k in Germany and similar amounts in Ireland – with a clear ‘no publicity’ clause and a commitment that they will never speak again to anyone about what happened to them. I also understand that some of the Irish contracts went further and the victims had to agree that the case would be dealt with by the Church under Canon Law not the civil authorities. The contracts also seem to have remarkably similar terms
Now forgive me, but when I see this but am told that it was local Bishops doing all this, I am forced to remember that I didn’t come up the Lagan in a bubble. It appears we actually have at work a central policy directed by the Vatican and implemented in different jurisdictions across the world.
It is clear that there was an immense cover up of what appears to have been institutionalised corruption that put the interest of Mother Church over those of abused children.
Indeed, we shouldn’t be surprised at this. At the time this was at its peak in the early 1980′s the curia was partly controlled by a group of corrupt men linked to some very shady financial dealings with the mafia and the Vatican Bank was a vehicle for a major money laundering scam. Some even allege that a Pope was murdered as part of a cover up.
Even leaving aside the wilder allegations, against that backdrop, what was the problem of a few kiddie fiddling priests? But this slow unpeeling of the evidence is immensely damaging to the Church. Its shameful and the Pope needs to out it and set the tone of the future. However, I genuinely fear that he won’t and in the longer term the Church will suffer.
“cavorting with FR Sean Fortune” – shame on you Paddy. No ifs or buts.
80% of clerical acts of sexual abuse re against boys while in society at large 80% of sexual abuse is against girls. There has to be a message here. And by the way when was celibacy introduced to the catholic church and why? it is a relatively new invention is it not?
Bryan, do take into account that priests were usually much more likely to be around boys alone than girls. Up until the early 90s, serving at the altar was restricted to boys. Priests also taught exclusively in boys’ schools.
Shane
Get real. If I work in an all male environment and am straight, I am not going to start fancying colleagues just because of availability. The priesthood in most Christian faiths seems to attract a significant % of gay people. And good luck to them
Cynic2,
ER suppos you were locked up for 25 years in an all male prison?
BryanS,
80% of clerical acts of sexual abuse re against boys while in society at large 80% of sexual abuse is against girls.
Where did you get those figures? Could you provide a source?
Cynic, I’m not sure we can compare paedophilia to homosexuality. The former seems to be a psychological disorder. Even heterosexuals abuse male boys.
George, this report in the Sunday Business Post from a few years back is instructive:
Sunday, December 07, 2003
By Vincent Browne
http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2003/12/07/story315403517.asp
The scale of sexual abuse and rape in Irish society is shocking, as revealed in a report by the organisation that undertook the survey of clerical abuse for the Irish Catholic Bishops.
Only a tiny fraction of abusers are members of the clergy and only a miniscule proportion of these sexual crimes are reported to the gardai or, indeed, to anyone else. It is an epidemic of enormous proportions, one largely ignored or diminished by the state, politicians and commentators.
The startling facts of abuse are:
* One in five women (20.4 per cent) reported experiencing contact sexual abuse in childhood and a further one in ten reporting non-contact sexual abuse. (That is 30 per cent of all women being sexually abused as children.)
* More than one in 20 women (5.6 per cent), over 110,000 in all,were raped as children.
* One in five women reported experiencing contact sexual assault as adults with 6.1 per cent of women experiencing unwanted penetrative sex (ie rape). That is over 76,000 women raped during their adulthood.
* One in six men (16.2 per cent) reported experiencing sexual abuse in childhood, with a further one in 14 reporting non-contact abuse.
* 2.7 per cent of all men were subjected to penetrative sex (anal or oral sex) in childhood. That is around 12,000 men raped as children.
* One in ten men (9.7 per cent) experienced contact sexual assault as adults and 0.9 per cent of men were subjected to unwanted penetrative sex as adults.
* Most of the perpetrators of child sexual abuse were men (89 per cent) acting alone.
* In the case of those who abused girls, a quarter were family members, half were nonfa m ily but known to the abused girl and a quarter were strangers.
* In the case of the abuse of boys, only one in seven (14 per cent) was a family member, two-thirds were non-family but known to the abused boy and only one in five were strangers.
* Only a small fraction of child sex abusers (3.7 per cent) were members of the clergy and a smaller fraction (2.5 per cent) were fathers.
* In the case of sexual violence against adult women, one-quarter of the perpetrators were partners or ex-partners.
These startling revelations are in a report, Sexual Abuse and Violence in Ireland (SAVI), undertaken by the Health Services Research Centre at the Department of Psychology, Royal College of Surgeons, the body that conducted the recently published report on clerical abuse.
The report was commissioned by the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre. Over 3,000 people, randomly selected, were interviewed anonymously by telephone.
This information was published a year ago, but caused little fuss. Remarkably, only 47 per cent of those who disclosed information to the interviewers for this survey said they had reported the abuse to anybody else. The remainder had never previously disclosed it.
A tiny fraction (1 per cent) of men who had been abused as an adult, and only 7.8 per cent of women had reported their experiences to the gardai. In the case of child sex abuse, only about 10 per cent of victims reported their abuse to the gardai.
The phenomenon of sexual crime is by far the most startling of all criminality in the state andyetalmostno attention is focused on it, apart from clerical sex abuse, which is a minor, almost incidental, part of the problem, although, obviously neither minor nor incidental for the victims of clerical abuse.
For those of us who have ranted for ages about clerical abuse, perhaps a more balanced assessment of the phenomenon is overdue.
(The report commissioned by the Irish bishops on clerical child sexual abuse, Time to Listen, is published by Liffey Press.The SAVI report is published under the title Sexual Abuse and Violence in Ireland is also published by Liffey Press.)
I am really disappointed in Bishop Donal McKeown’s response on TV just now,when asked would he welcome an investigation in NI as in the South. While saying that was fine,he also went down the well worn road of saying that such an investigation must take in not just the Church but on all of society.
Now as I have previously posted, I do believe myself that there is much to be learnt by contextualising this abberation within the social and cultural context from which it emerged. But that is not the same as McKeown’s attempt to water down placing the focus of initial enwuyiries where it belongs – on culpabile individuals and systemic coverup within the Catholic church.
As indicated I thought better of Donal McKeown and am disappointed.
granni trixie, I do think a comprehensive sex abuse inquiry is needed. Sexual abuse of children knows no political or denominational confines. Currently Germany is undertaking an inquiry into industrial schools operated by the Lutheran Church (the industrial school system originated in Germany); it’s said that it’ll be the equivalent of the Ryan Report.
I was also disappointed at Bishop McKeown. He is more media savvy and decent than he appeared but my thought was that this was going to be the tone of the Papal Letter….sexualisation of children and the family environment.
Of course if done for right reason, there is no issue.
But Bishop McKeown came accross as trying to deflect criticism.
Of course decent ordinary priests are a bit concerned that the Church has not fought back more stridently. That there is a lot of abuse that they know about which is under seal (properly in most catholics views) and that they alone are taking flak.
But how would the Church ‘fight back’, stridently or otherwise? Fight back implies to me ‘no case to answer’. What analysis would suffice other than to agree that there was systemic and individual failures, and to show that there is the will now at least to cooperate with relevant info and then to ensure that there is an adequate system in place better it right by cooperating in uncovering all relevant info.
Tell you what, they better start praying that Ian Elliot does not jump ship – his leadership and expertise seems to be their last hope (how ironic).
I genuinely pity any young man who is actually considering the priesthood, a normal enough aspiration in the early 1970s for many young men. To consider such a career/vocation then would have been considered a bit strange in another world kinda way.
Of course many of those same young men did not pursue it or left soon afterwards as they realised that the Church and the late 20th century were growing further apart.
One such person that I know (he left after about 8 years and is now happily married) claims that “obedience” is actually harder than “chastity”.
Certainly with £45,000 available to settle a law case, poverty is not a major problem (for some!!!).
To their credit, the mission tent firebrands dont seem to be making much of an issue of it all. The sophisticated bigot who despise religion (people who think like Polly Toynbe) are making the running along with those who find Tommy Tiernan, Ed Byrne and Dara O’Briain hilarious in their 2010 “No Pope Here-ism”.
Its a mess.
A strident fight back???
I dont know. But the Truth has to involve saying some unpalatable things about other people…maybe.
Cardinal Brady obviously has no time for this Father Quinn. And as Ive said I think he looked in a better position last night than he did on Wednesday.
There is a feeling that the UTV report on Miss X and Father Quinn misfired. The Cardinal actually emerging with more credit (IN THIS INSTANCE) than UTV.
The Cardinal has certainly come out better in my eyes. One of the reasons for the reactions of many Catholics is a sense of disbelief that Sean Brady would be implicated in any way in cover up. That’s why his credibility has taken more of a knock than Hegarty, in short because Brady had alot of credibility to be knocked. This latest allegation would most likely be more akin to how he handles the problems when he is ‘the manager’ perhaps explaining his incredulity last sunday.
I didn’t think he would survival until two things happened, martin mcguinness’ comments and now this. Both will have the faithful backing him. Prior to that, Andrew Brown’s comments were hard to disagree with.
Anyone know why my hyperlinks don’t work?
The commentary was here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2010/mar/16/religion-catholicism-brady-guilt-resignation
Sins of omission or carelessness are not just a Catholic hierarchy thing. One of countless examples:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tees/8576246.stm