SURVIVORS KNOW THEIR STORIES WILL BE CONTESTED AS THEY ARE ISOLATED

Sex Abuse cover-ups
Sex Abuse cover-ups

ALL MY life I have found it impossible to communicate the devastating, life-changing, utterly permanent effects childhood sexual abuse has on victims. If you’re lucky enough never
to have been abused, you will,
thankfully, never understand
what life after abuse is like.

UNDERSTANDING

That indifference is now as
painful as the original abuse is.
I often have to listen to colleagues priests who they know were abusers.
I force myself to stay in their company hoping there might be a word of understanding for their victims.
But there never is.
That is why, even today, the sexual abuse of children by priests can never be ruled out. Far too many clerics
still have not accepted responsibility for their own culpable negligence.
The powers that be have set up structures to prevent abuse; they have handed safeguarding over to salaried lay people.
Nothing wrong with that.
But my advice is to trust your instincts and mind your children.
Research at Xavier University in Cincinnati is turning up alarming results about the lasting effects of sexual abuse.
Already, their research proves that the sexual abuse of children and the subsequent cover-up caused persistent psychological distress as well as spiritual anguish, moral confusion, social isolation and legitimate, ongoing distrust of institutions.
“When the perpetrator of sexual abuse is a priest… and represents the holy, the sacred or the entire church or even God, the trauma of abuse takes on an added weight,” they concluded.
The Xavier team will continue to refine research and unravel the implications. They are dealing principally with adult survivors of child abuse. It is not only the survivors who are permanently traumatised by abuse but their family, friends, employers and most of all their partners.
Professor Marcus Mescher of Xavier University believes “it is likely that this crisis has really affected every corner of the church… we are all carrying a piece of the fallout.”
The confusion resulting from a breakdown of trust, a shaken confidence in one’s goodness and the goodness of others, and the absence of a reliable moral order have yet to be fully realised. Victims lose trust in those in authority. They feel lost, weak, useless, guilty and lose the ability to have a genuine relationship with God.
After all, a person claiming to be God’s representative groomed, mislead and abused them (us).
Victims, years afterwards, have an overwhelming need to suppress what happened in a blanket of unhealthy secrecy – usually through alcohol or some other damaging drug.
The study concludes that abuse is not something survivors get over – this shattering experience is a life sentence.
Interestingly the team found it difficult to get church workers to cooperate with the survey.
They fear that partaking even anonymously would be punished by their pastor.

WEARY

That in itself is evidence that Church people still don’t get it.
The same weary dysfunctional attitudes persist.
Survivors know that their stories will be contested; every effort will be made to make the victim go away.
“There is a system in place that continues to enable and protect perpetrators of abuse and stigmatise and isolate survivors,”
Professor Mescher concluded.
We still have a very long way to go before we have a full and accurate picture of the wounds people are carrying and what it will take to heal us.

LIVES ARE DESTROYED:
Abuse survivors have long-term trauma

With many thanks to: Father Brian D’Arcy (https://muckrack.com/fr-brian-darcy) can be contacted here by Email: (father.brian@sundayworld.com)




Neo-Nazis and the Catholic Priest!

https://farrightobservatory.medium.com/the-neo-nazi-and-the-priest-an-extremists-journey-to-west-cork-3a2271d66a2e

Catholic Church admits responsibility for Pedo priest

https://amp-abc-net-au.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/amp.abc.net.au/article/100383664

The great unanswered question of good and evil – SCO News

http://www.sconews.co.uk/opinion/58996/the-great-unanswered-question-of-good-and-evil/?fbclid=IwAR0tV3_VlzmNa554B0AdImYipnLB4fakYQfMzbDynPaZYz12r1XPuDyV-ME

George Pell (The Pope’s money man): Cardinal found guilty of sexual offences in Australia

George Pell is the most senior Catholic cleric to be convicted of such crimes

Cardinal George Pell has been found guilty of sexual offences in Australia, making him the highest-ranking Catholic figure to receive such a conviction.

Pell abused two choir boys in the rooms of a Melbourne cathedral in 1996, a jury found. He had pleaded not guilty.

The verdict was handed down in December, but it could not be reported until now due to legal reasons.

Pell is due to be sentenced on Wednesday. His lawyers say they will appeal against the conviction.

As Vatican treasurer, the 77-year-old cardinal is one of the Church’s most powerful officials.

His trial was heard twice last year because a first jury failed to reach a verdict.

A second jury unanimously convicted him of one charge of sexually penetrating a child under 16, and four counts of committing an indecent act on a child under 16.

The Catholic Church worldwide has in recent years faced a damaging series of allegations relating to sex abuse by priests, and claims that these cases were covered up.

Pell’s case has drawn huge interest at a time when the Pope is attempting to address the scandals, including by holding a four-day summit in the past week.

What did the court hear?
Pell was in his first year as archbishop of Melbourne in 1996 when he found the boys in the rooms of a cathedral following a mass, the jury was told.

After telling them they were in trouble for drinking communion wine, Pell forced each boy into indecent acts, the court heard.

Pell’s case has drawn huge attention around the world

The court heard testimony from one of the victims. The other victim is no longer alive.

A jury rejected an argument by Pell’s lawyer, Robert Richter QC, that the allegations were fantasies contrived by the victims.

What has Pell said?
He denied all allegations against him, saying in 2017: “I am innocent of these charges – they are false. The whole idea of sexual abuse is abhorrent to me.”

He has been on an extended leave of absence from the Vatican amid the court proceedings in Melbourne.

Why was the case kept secret?
Last May, a judge handed down a legal order which prevented any reporting of Pell’s trial and conviction.

It was designed to prevent a separate trial from being influenced by the first trial.

But the later trial – which involved accusations against Pell dating to the 1970s – will no longer go ahead, after prosecutors dropped all charges.

This publication ban – known as a suppression order – was unsuccessfully challenged by Australian media outlets, who argued that reporting about the case was in the public interest.

Why Pell’s conviction was kept a secret

With many thanks to: BBC News for the original story

 

Pope Francis confirms priests forcing nuns into “sexual slavery” led to dissolution of Saint Jean order of nuns in France – CBS News

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pope-francis-priests-nuns-sexual-slavery-abuse-saint-jean-order-france/

At least 231 children abused at Catholic boys’ choir run by Pope Benedict’s brother

George Ratzinger, Benedict’s older brother, ran the famous Regensburg choir from 1964 to 1994.

Germany Pope Georg Ratzinger, brother of Pope Benedict

AT LEAST 231 children at a famous Catholic boys’ choir in Germany were victims of physical abuse, a lawyer commissioned to investigate the scandal said today.

The Domspatzen, a 1,000-year-old choir in Regensburg, Bavaria, was dragged into the massive sexual abuse scandal plaguing the Catholic Church in 2010, when allegations of assaults that took place several decades ago went public.

The choir was run by Pope Benedict’s elder brother, Georg Ratzinger, from 1964 to 1994 when most of the claimed abuses took place.

Ratzinger has said that the alleged sexual abuse was “never discussed” in the time that he ran the choir attached to the boarding school.

Lawyer Ulrich Weber, who had been commissioned by the diocese to look into the cases, said at a press conference today that his research, which included 70 interviews with victims, uncovered abuse that took place from 1945 to the early 1990s.

“I have here 231 reports of physical abuse,” he said, announcing a figure far higher than had previously been assumed.

These ranged from sexual assault to rape, severe beatings and food deprivation, said Weber.

The reported cases of sexual abuse in Regensburg were mostly concentrated in the period of the mid to end 1970s.
Weber added that “50 victims spoke of ten perpetrators”.

GERMANY POPE VISIT Pope Benedict is applauded by members of the Regensburger Domspatzen choir, now the subject of a wide – ranging abuse scandal, in 2oo6.

The director and composer Franz Wittenbrink, a former pupil of the boarding school, had told Der Spiegel magazine in 2010 that there was a “system of sadistic punishments connected to sexual pleasure”.

Several other German institutions have also been engulfed by the ongoing clerical abuse scandal, including an elite Jesuit school in Berlin which had admitted to systematic sexual abuse of pupils by two priests in the 1970s and 1980s.

Most of the priests concerned are not expected to face criminal charges however, because the alleged crimes took place too long ago.

However, there had been calls for a change in the law and for the church to pay compensation to victims.

In February last year, the Regensburg diocese had said there were 72 victims of abuse, and had offered compensation of €2,500 each.

With many thanks to: The Journal for the original story.

 

Band playing at church ‘an act of defiance’ !!!

A FLUTE band played music outside a Catholic church in “a concerted act of defiance” at parading restrictions, a court heard on Monday. Fists were pumped in the air as Pride of Ardoyne passed St Patrick’s Church in Donegall Street, North Belfast, prosecutors claimed.

kr

A judge was told of the alleged  demeanor and behaviour of some as two drummers denied a charge of knowingly flouting a condition imposed by the Parades Commission. Co Down man Thomas Beresford, was sentenced to three months for the offence during last year’s Ulster Covenant centenary parade. On Mr Michael Cosby and Richard Dunn insisted they were unaware that only a single drum beat was to be played on the contentious stretch of their route along Donegal Street. Eyesight and reading limitations formed part of the defence case. Their case, in which the verdict was reserved, comes less than a week after a bandsman was jailed for flouting a Parades Commission determination by playing sectarian tunes while passing St Matthew’s Catholic Church in East Belfast. Mr Cosby (51) of Wheatfield Drive, and Mr Dunn (26) from Alliance Road – both in Belfast – are jointly accused of failing to comply with the determination in August last year. The alleged breach occured as their band made its way into the city centre during the Royal Black Institution parade. Belfast Magistrates Court heard police had put signs along the route and on Land Rovers warning of the restriction.

Co Down man Thomas Beresford, sentenced to three months for playing sectarian music.

The band appeared to be playing The Dambusters tune as it passed the Catholic church. CCTV footage of the incident also showed protesters holding a banner stating: “Respect St Patrick’s Church”. John O’Neill QC, prosecuting, argued that band members should have realised from the signs and conter-demonstration that it was not an ordinary situation. Dealing with the demeanour of some of those in and following Pride of Ardoyne, he said: “There are fists being pumped in the air and there are shouts at the crowd. “The prosecution suggest this isn’t a band innocently and accidentally playing music they shouldn’t. “Rather, it’s a concerted act of defiance.” He acknowledged, however, that neither defendant was seen pumping their fists. Both men insisted they were never told of the single drumbeat condition and spotted no notifications. Mr Cosby, a bass drummer who has been in the band for 35 years, told the court he only had vision in one eye. “I just didn’t see the signs,” he said. “I wasn’t told on the day about the determination.” Mr Dunn, a side drummer who joined Pride of Ardoyne 21 years ago, was just as adamant. As part of his defence he said his focus was on his two children parading directly in front of him. His limited reading abilities were also cited. “I can read but not great. The wife helps the kids with homeworks,” he said. Keith Gamble, defending, argued that neither of his clients had a case to answer. “It should be for the prosecution to prove that the defendant knowingly failed to comply,” he said. “It’s not enough to say we put signs up and they should have seen the signs.” However, District Judge Amanda Henderson refused the defence attempt to have the case thrown out. She will study the CCTV footage again before giving her verdict later this month.

With thanks to: The Irish News.

Loyalist bandsman jailed for playing The Sash outside Catholic church

A LOYALIST bandsman has been jailed for breaching a Parades Commission determination by playing The Sash outside a Catholic church.

1048715_529348203779766_1439700756_o-1

In what is beleived to be the first case of its kind, Co Down man Thomas Beresford was sentenced to three months behind bars for flouting the ban on playing sectarian music during last year’s Ulster Covenant centenary parade. A co-accused had his three-month jail term suspended yesterday at Belfast Magistrates Court, while another member had his case adjourned until the new year. The banbsmen had been identified in footage of the Holywood True Blues band playing The sash as they passed St Matthew‘s on Newtownards Road in east Belfast on September 29. The commission had ruled that only hymns or a single drumbeat could be played as they passed the church.

The development came as police cobfirmed they had closed their investigation into a loyalist bandsman caught on camera urinating outside St Matthew’s during the same parade. There was outrage in the wake of the incident, with the Orange Order describing the bandsman’s actions as “outrageous and unacceptable”. Although it is known which band he belonged to, police have never been able to identify the bandsman. A police spokesman said the “corresponding police investigation into this summary of evidence could not conclusively identify the individual”. “As with any summary offence, it becomes statute-barred after a six month period, which therefore means that this investigation is now closed.” The covenant parade – which brought thousands of Orangeman, bands and supporters onto the streets to mark the centenary of the signing of the document opposing Home Rule – had been marred by sectarian scenes and multiple parade ruling breaches. Loyalist residents held up banners that read ‘We don’t want hymns’ and ‘Play Loud and Proud’ during the march near St Matthew’s. Some stopped brefiy outside the church while banned tunes such as The sash and the Famine Song were played. Beresford, of Strathearn Court in Holywood, has been released on bail pending a date for appeal.

Police close probe into urinating loyalist!

“Outrageous and unacceptable”

POLICE have closed their investigation into a loyalist bandsman caught on camera urinating outside a Catholic church during an Orange Order parade in Belfast last year.

Reroute the fucking flute

The man, a member of Burnside Sons of Ulster from near Doagh, Co Antrim was photographed urinating outside St Matthew’s Catholic Churh during the Ulster Covenant centenary parade last September. Police said yesterday that they had not managed to identify the man and have now closed their investigation in line with the law. The Orange Order launced their own probe (ha,ha,ha,) but the bandsman was never identified. The Orange Order would only say that the band had expressed “regret” (another fucking joke) and sent its members on a “good relations course” (are they having a fucking laugh). The development comes after a bandsman was jailed on Tuesday for breaching a Parades Commission ruling at the same parade. Thomas Beresford is beleived to be the first person jailed for breaching a determination after playing sectarian songs outside the Catholic church. There were angry scenes in Belfast Magistrates Court as the 21-year-old, from Strathearn Court in Holywood, was sentenced to serve three months in jail for floutinga ban on playing non-sacred music while passing St Matthew’s. Relatives of the bass drummer were warned to be queit after they shouted in court that the sentence was “a disgrace”. A district judge said having “considered a pre-sentence report” was of the opinion that the offence “was so serious that only such a sentence can be justified”.

His co accused 28-year-old Stephen Walker, from Church Green in Holywood, had a three-month jail term suspended for 18 months. A third band member Darren Walker (20), from Thornleigh Park in Lisburn, had his case adjourned until the new year. Breaching a parades commission ruling is a summary offence, which was normally dealt with in the past by way of a fine of probation orders. The men had been identified in footage of the Holywood True Blues band playing The Sash as they passed the Newtownards Road church in east Belfast, on September 29. The parades body had ruled that only hymns or a single drum beat could be played by bands as they passed the church. Police displayed flashing signs warning ‘Sacred tunes, hymns only from this point’ as bandsmen approached. At a previous hearing a judge described claims by bandsmen that they had not seen flashing warning signs as “inconceivable and incredible”. Beresford was released on bail pending a date for the appeal. There were a catalogue of breaches of the commissions determination amid sectarian scenes at the east Belfast flashpoint during last year’s Covenant parade. Loyalist residents held up banners stating ‘We don’t want hymns’ and ‘Play Loud and Proud’ during the march. Many of the bands taking part in the return leg of the march breached the parades commission ruling. Some stopped briefly outside the church while banned tunes such as The Sash and The Famine Song were played. Bands who adhered to the ruling and played a single drum beat were jeered by some of those lining the route.

With many thanks to: Allison Morris and Claire Simpson, The Irish News.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-25214268

SINN FEIN MLA: PUB THREAT HARKS BACK TO THE TROUBLES ‘

‘Looking back, a lot of Catholic pubs were targeted. This is just a bad reminder of that – Alex Mackey.

A LOYALIST paramilitary warning to publicans not to serve Catholics is reminiscent to a very sinister period during the Troubles, a Sinn Fein MLA has said.

2013-09-05 17.20.52

Alex Mackey spoke out about the threat in Larne, Co Antrim, after unearthing a piece of Troubles-related memorabilia – a flyer which was once distributed warning Protestants not to drink in Catholic bars because to do so could “seriously damage your health”. Mr MMackey said the leaflet found in a Protestant bar in the Ravenhill Road area of east Belfast was given to him in 1972. He said it had been distrbuted at a time when Catholic bars were being targeted by loyalist paramilitaries, resulting in murders and soundings in bomb and gun attacks. Mr Maskey said the leaflets, used as beer mats, were issued to Protestants to warn them not to frequent Catholic bars because they might be bombed.

Loyalist paramilitaries are said to have visited at least five bars in Larne last Saturday to warn staff not to serve Catholics. The move led some publicans to consider increasing security at their premises and prompted another Sinn Fein MLA to urge police to “look at Larne as a priority”. Mr Maskey said the threat was “reminiscent of a very sinister period, whenever people were being killed in bombs and shooting attacks on bars”. The latest warnings were “a twist” on the decades-old leaflet, he said. Mr Mackey said it was a “sickening reminder” of the past when bars were targeted “because of the religion of patrons and owners”. “Looking back, a lot of Catholic pubs were targeted,” he said. “There was a campaign on that sector. This is just a bad reminder of that.”

With many thanks to : Marie Louise McCrory, The Irish News.

%d bloggers like this: