Catholic diocese accepts responsibility for harm done to children by priests.

This may well be the first time in North America that an official of the Catholic Church, the bishop of a Nova Scotia diocese, has accepted accountability in advance of a court judgement in favour of the victims of sexual abuse by priests employed by the religious institution.

Bishop Raymond Lahey of the Antigonish diocese, where the abuse is alleged to have occurred, said the agreement is the first step in recognizing the alleged abuse of children as young as eight years old.

“I want to formally apologize to every victim and to their families for the sexual abuse that was inflicted on them,” he said at a news conference in Halifax. “Money can never compensate fully, but we are trying ... to be fair, responsible, respectful and, most of all, compassionate.”

This is different from legal decisions rendered in the matter of individual priests, where the victims of childhood sexual abuse have won settlements that validated their claims against the perpetrator and the Catholic Church, such as the case of Charles Sylvestre.

Perhaps the Catholic officials in Ireland could follow the example of the diosese of Antigonish and its bishop and take responsibility for the decades of psychological and physical violence done to thousands of children in their care, as reported last May. But then, that might take a bite out of the corporate coffers of the Church and the Vatican Taliban would probably prevent such an action, compassionate and responsible though it would be.

Too delicious to hide away.

Over at Dawg's Blawg, a lively discussion about pedophile priests in the comment box here, Christ 1; Church 0, has moved on and spilled over into this more recent one - Organized religion and child abuse, Part 3. The neo-con blogger known as Raphael 'Ruffles' Alexander who has achieved minor recognition for the shallowness of his knowledge as well as for his propensity for non sequiturs, misogyny and xenophobia offered the following nugget:

"The biggest obstacle I see to child abuse being cleansed in the Roman Catholic Church is liberal reforms that allow priests to marry, and becoming more accountable and responsive to allegations of abuse from those priests."

Huh? Child abuse can be "cleansed"? WTF does that even mean? And what's that about "liberal reforms" being the "biggest obstacle"? And whatever the point of that incoherent statement is, does it even begin to address the MASSIVE campaigns of sexual terror waged by serial pedophile priests such as Charles Sylvestre?

Nonetheless, Peter - a frequent commenter at Dr Dawg's - had a witty rejoinder to Ruffles:

"Yes, Raphael, we defenders of traditional marriage often argue that it's good for children, but I don't recall ever seeing that particular angle. I don't know if you are married, but if you are, do you silently thank your wife on your anniversary for helping to save the neighbourhood kiddies from you?"

That exchange was simply too delicious to leave tucked away in a combox.

In 1 ... 2 ... 3 .... Shrieeek!

This was completely predictable, of course.

A Senior Vatican figure, Spanish Cardinal Antonio Canizares, prefect for the Congregation of the Divine Worship, this week appeared to downplay the findings of the Ryan report when suggesting that the millions of lives lost through abortion represent a much more serious crime against humanity than clerical sex abuse.

How candid. Feminazis that we are here at DAMMIT JANET! we thought that the logic behind his statement deserved a closer look.

Oh, looky here.

Christine Buckley, barely a month old was found guilty of being the child of an unwed mother. For decades, such “sins” were sufficient to land children — and more than 30,000 others — in workhouse-style schools for girls and boys run by the
Roman Catholic Church.

At such schools, according to a long-awaited report Wednesday, children were beaten, sexually abused and emotionally terrorized for more than half a century.

A “culture of silence” protected victimizers rather than the children in their care — consigning generations of Ireland’s poorest children to misery, Ireland’s Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse has concluded. ...

These are some of the findings of the controversial 2,600-page report unveiled in Dublin on Wednesday after a nine-year investigation. Drawing on the testimony of nearly 2,000 witnesses, men and women who attended more than 200 Catholic-run schools from the 1930s to the 1990s, the commission painted a damning picture of a church engaged too often in covering up misdeeds instead of rooting out their perpetrators.

The panel found that sexual molestation was “endemic,” committed by offenders who were often transferred to other institutions rather than dismissed or turned over to authorities. ...The five-volume report is a major blow for a religious institution that continues to wield significant influence on Irish society, especially on moral issues such as divorce and abortion.

Nonetheless, it wasn’t tough enough for some of the victims who lobbied long and hard for an official investigation. Many are angry that the report includes no names of alleged offenders, an omission that one of the religious orders under investigation fought for — and won — in court. Only pseudonyms are used, making slim the chances of criminal prosecution based on the report’s findings.

“I do genuinely believe that it would have been a further step towards our healing if our abusers had been named and shamed,” said Buckley, now 62.

She spent the first 18 years of her life in a Dublin orphanage where she said children were forced to manufacture rosaries — and were humiliated, beaten and raped whether they achieved their quota or not.

Rosaries, hmmm. Who knew the Vatican Taliban was concerned with the loss of enslaved child-labour in Ireland? It's no wonder then that Blob Blogging Wingnut is so ecstatic about the growing encroachment of Catholicism in China. If "sinful" women are forced to carry unwanted pregnancies to term, then it would certainly be financially salutory for such children born "in sin" to labour in rosaries-manufacturing sweat-shops run by the Catholic Church - covertly of course.

Try a Little Gentleness ...

Last month we blogged about how curious it seemed that the religious zealotry disorder-impaired somehow couldn't get behind campaigns for the purpose of preventing violence against infants, toddlers and children.

This in part demonstrates the connection between an adherence to religious authoritarism and support for using physical abuse as a form of discipline to exact obedience from children.

And then of course, there are those who defend, rationalize, justify and tolerate the decades of physical, sexual, emotional and spiritual violence that members of the Catholic Church clergy and those under their authority inflicted upon children in their care.

It's inspiring to see that the Canadiens hockey player Georges Laraque lends his support to efforts to educate parents about the dangers of Shaken Baby Syndrome.

They hate children, don't they?

Canadian Cynic: The Catholic Problem - pretty shaved ape has posted a cohesive and comprehensive round-up of the latest disclosures about the Catholic Church enabling and seemingly sanctioning the violence that members of the Roman Catholic clergy (or non-clergy under their authority) directed towards thousands and thousands of children in Ireland, as well the exalted bishops who rationalize somehow that it's not really evil but actually tolerable if you're a "good Catholic."

Go read it.

The only element missing, as the coup-de-farce would be the pope granting a MASSIVE pardon to the sexual predators who "regret" their actions.

As for those malevolent Catholic Church clergy and administrators who derived moral satisfaction from the savage physical, emotional and spiritual violence they inflicted upon the children in their care, they were merely enforcing religious doctrine, that is, they were faithfully "following orders".

"... self-serving secrecy ..."

If you guessed that this post will address the Catholic Church and its attitude towards pedophile priests, you are partly correct.

In Ireland, there is so much more behind that fundamentalist and dogmatic religious "self-serving secrecy".

Victims of child abuse at Catholic institutions in the Irish Republic have expressed anger that a damning report will not bring about prosecutions.

The report, nine years in the making and covering a period of six decades, found thousands of boys and girls were terrorised by priests and nuns.

Government inspectors failed to stop beatings, rapes and humiliation. ... The victims were among 35,000 children who were placed in a network of reformatories, industrial schools and workhouses until the early 1990s.

As always, the Catholic Church is God's bully when it claims to defend the interests of the fertilized ovum, the zygote, the embryo and the fetus. And after women have been forced to carry their unwanted pregnancies to term, a number of clergy have persevered in tormenting, beating and violating these children to remind them that the Church believes they are no longer the innocent unborn, but the product of their parents' sins and should be made to suffer for them.

More news stories about the Commission of inquiry into the physical, sexual and emotional abuse of Irish children in reform schools, orphanages and hospitals run by the Catholic Church.

Slow news day at the Beeb - maybe.

In order to get the blogging engines revved up, bloggers often check out a range of information sources for inspiration and intellectual grist. Sometimes the posts almost writes itself since a news item can provide a choice argument to a post in construction. Or it can be the last straw, when the brain switches to RANT mode.


Today, aside from the latest updates on the Somali pirates story, the BBC has 4 top stories about the boggling range of pleasure-seeking behaviours that confound and delight human beings. Hard versus soft news.

High-speed sex costly in Norway - A man faces a hefty fine and a driving ban after being caught having sex with his girlfriend while speeding on a motorway in Norway, police have said.

Who knew Norwegians take that whole orgasm = la petite mort metaphor to extreme limits? Now we know why the parrot pined for the fjords.

Scientists find 'pleasure nerves' Mothers use touch to sooth their babies. Scientists say they understand more about how the body responds to pleasurable touch.

Touch deprivation as well as physical contact with the intent to cause pain has been demonstrated to cause mental health disorders. It's high time research was done to chart the specific ways that touch is positive, appropriate and enhances brain development.

Woman with lingerie turned away - A Brazilian woman was refused entry to the UK when she arrived at Newcastle Airport with luggage containing only T-shirts, a dressing gown and lingerie. UK Border Agency officials said they suspected the 32-year-old of being involved in the sex industry.

If those officials are so vigilant about such things, then how do criminal organizations manage to traffick thousands of girls, boys and young women for the purpose of physical and sexual enslavement?

Paraguay leader admits love-child - The ex-bishop admitted having an affair with a woman 30 years his junior. Paraguay's President Fernando Lugo has admitted he is the father of a child who was conceived when he was still a Roman Catholic bishop.

Perhaps if the Vatican accepted the consecration of women as clergy and gave permission for priests to marry, the opressive reign of its abusive power would end and the Catholic Church could follow through on the humane transformations that John XXIII proposed. Just saying.

And those who defend pedophilia crawl out ...

from the underside of a big rock that was lifted to shed some light upon the sexual exploitation of children (emphasis ours).

oldowleyes wrote: "Wow, if your male your not even allowed to pay cash or ask for a quiet private room w/o out being suspected of being a pedophile. What a bunch of clowns Canadian governments are turning out to be, go back into your holes of institutional discrimination. While your at it, I suggest you get those illegal Family Relation Laws* off your books, or someday soon your going to be on the hook for billions in a class action law suit."

boardhead wrote: "Great. Now any 35 year old man with a young looking 20 year old girl will get a label. I'm all for the initiative as well, but most 18 yr. old girls these days are promiscuous with older men, and some look younger than 18, which will cause problems for some guys who are doing nothing wrong."

Most of the commenters who responded favourably to this campaign appeared to be women. The purpose of this initiative from the government of Alberta, Child and Youth Services division is to target adults who sexually exploit vulnerable girls and boys in rooms rented from commercial lodging establishments such as resorts, hotels and motels.

I have traveled with my daughter and her girlfriend, when they were teenagers. If I had seen hotel staff chat informally with them to ensure that neither had been kidnapped or were being coerced to participate in child prostitution, as part of precautionary measures that screened all guests, I would not have reacted in anger or fear. But perhaps men like Dickie Evans who engage in duplicitous sexual behaviour know that they have something to hide.

* This appears to be the legislation that oldowleyes finds objectionable.

“We believe this bill is designed to bankrupt the Catholic Church."

Because, of course, that would be the one and only reason that a woman or a man who was sexually abused by a priest would want to initiate a lawsuit against a Church who silenced any attempt to hold their clergy or religious institution accountable for the great harm that was caused.

Perhaps, had the Church Fathers had responded in a humane, caring and responsible manner when children and parents approached them with evidence of these transgressions, instead of sweeping these crimes under the carpet, such legislation would not now been necessary.

A friend recently lent me a novel by Ariana Franklin, Mistress of the Art of Death. The author admits that she allowed an anachronism or two to slip in so that the narrative flowed.

The basic historical background is rigorous however, and there is one issue critical to the storyline that returns in Franklin's subsequent novel, The Serpent's Tale. The Catholic Church maintained then that members of its clergy were not obliged to obey man-made laws. This was the question that divided Henry II and Thomas Beckett:

"The clergy have Christ alone as King and under the King of Heaven; they should be ruled by their own law."

Centuries later, the Catholic Church perseveres in following medieval principles and maintaining that its ecclesiastical rules are the only ones that are God-given and irrevocable.

Un grand merci to JJ who blogged the news item quoted.

Men In Fur, Again.

In the comments to fern hill's blogpost, "Anonymous" suggests that criticizing and ridiculizing the Vatican is the same as spreading hatred against blacks, Hispanics or Jews.

"Anonymous" conveniently overlooks the historical facts about the men in fur. The Vatican's clerics choose to elevate themselves above the rest of humanity, with their ritual, their pomp, and their arcane rationalizations for establishing themselves as religious royalty. They are the ones who exclude, judge, condemn others from their gilded palaces.

It is revealing that their ecclesiastical rule is rooted in principles that, century after century, conveniently dismiss the real harm and destruction that pedophile priests have caused to girls and boys.

Hold on to your delusions, "Anonymous". But if you - or the Vatican - can't stand a little heat now, just imagine what it'll be like when you arrive in the hell of your own vision and making.

doubts about Doubt

Yesterday evening I saw the movie Doubt with friends, some who are recovering Catholics and one who was once a nun.

As the end credits rolled up on the screen I turned to a friend and whispered, "Well, that movie won't be sending anyone rushing back into the arms of the Church!"

Doubt was directed and written by John Patrick Shanley who adapted it from his own stage play. Shanley has mined his New York Bronx Irish Catholic background brilliantly in the past and produced many theatrical and cinematic gems. I was seduced and transported by Moonstruck, which was directed by our own Norman Jewison.

But Doubt left me cold. It is a parable, there is no doubt about that, but its adaptation into a movie did not feel entirely successful. As drama, it must have been riveting to the audience who witnessed the verbal confrontations between Sister Aloysius and Father Flynn.

"Doubt has gotten a bad reputation. People who are utterly certain are vulnerable to a brand of foolishness that people who maintain a level of doubt are not." - John Patrick Shanley, explaining why audiences are left to decide for themselves whether Sister Aloysius is wise or overly zealous in her determination to expose the charismatic Father Flynn as a pedophile. (11/20/04 New York Times, interview with David Cote).

In the sixties, nuns never challenged the actions of priests, to do so was to transgress the hierarchal authority of the clergy. The dialogue is minimalist and powerful. But the direction and cinematography of critical scenes did not do justice to the words and to the rigour of the actors' performance, in my opinion.

Doubt was a good movie, it simply didn't have the power and the cinematic excellence of another film that it brings to mind, Agnes of God.

I wanted to entitle this blog post “Catholic priests molest little girls” ...

... when unrepentant old hippie did her blogpost about the batshit craziness of Blob Blogging Wingnut. I felt that I should blog about priests who sexually abuse female children.

Pope Benny Ratzo recently pontificated upon the harm done to children. It was not an apology for the centuries of tacit complicity between the clerics who abuse children and those who don't. It was not an admission the Catholic Church and its refusal to be accountable for the actions of abusive priests, its hypocrisy that denies and evades responsibility, and its arrogance are morally bankrupt.

While the focus remains fixed on priests (men) who abuse boys, it is likely that more girls than boys have been subjected to sexual exploitation by members of the RCC clergy.

Why would a church committed to purging from its ranks potentially predatory clerics focus its scrutiny on prospective priests with homosexual tendencies? That would imply two things we know not to be true: that the crisis in the church was triggered by sexual orientation, not by sexual misconduct and its coverup, and that the victims of rapists in Roman collars were all male.

Why would a church that claims to be intent on healing and reconciliation effectively erase the traumatic experiences of so many women and girls? Kathleen M. Dwyer thinks she knows why. ''In order to be successful in blaming gays, the hierarchy knows that the sexual abuse of girls must be swept into invisibility and be internalized in the culture as a rare exception," said Dwyer, herself victimized by a priest.

''I can only assume that women victims simply aren't newsworthy, regardless of what we have to say," concluded a dispirited Ann Hagan Webb, a psychologist who heads the New England chapter of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Fifty percent of the organization's members are women. ''The Vatican's decision to ban gay men from the priesthood is an insult to survivors of either gender. The vast number of girls and women abused by priests underscores the obvious, that banning gay priests will not solve the problem of sexual abuse in the church."

Thousands of women who have been sexually abused by priests in their childhood have remained invisible and silent, some by choice, some shamed by RCC doctrine that implies that as little girls, their 'female allure' made priests commit these sins and thus, are the cause of their own abuse.

That's quite the racket you have there, Benny Ratzo.