a report released in ireland this week details abuses in orphanages, reformatories and industrial schools run by the catholic church from the 1930's to the 1990's when the last of them were shuttered. the study took 9 years to complete, with much of that time spent being stymied by a lawsuit from the christian brothers, who ran most of the places. the lawsuit ultimately succeeded in its aim in keeping the names of the abusers unavailable. while i assume many of the guilty nuns and priests are dead, now nobody will be accountable, punished or shamed.
during the 60 years, over 30,000 children were sent to these homes. many were orphaned and starving. many came from abusive, alcoholic or neglectful homes. some had been borne out of wedlock. most were remanded against their parents' wishes by a powerful priest. it took decades for them to learn their true names and that their parents had tried to get them back but failed.
directly from the report, for the boys:
"Punching, flogging, assault and bodily attacks, hitting with the hand, kicking, ear pulling, hair pulling, head shaving, beating on the soles of the feet, burning, scalding, stabbing, severe beatings with or without clothes, being made to kneel and stand in fixed positions for lengthy periods, made to sleep outside overnight, being forced into cold or excessively hot baths and showers, hosed down with cold water before being beaten, beaten while hanging from hooks on the wall, being set upon by dogs, being restrained in order to be beaten, physical assaults by more than one person, and having objects thrown at them.”
also directly pasted, for the girls:
"Girls were routinely sexually abused, often by more than one person at a time, the report said, in “dormitories, schools, motor vehicles, bathrooms, staff bedrooms, churches, sacristies, fields, parlors, the residences of clergy, holiday locations and while with godparents and employers.”
the report details the passive collusion of the government, with the ireland ministry of schools conducting toothless inspections and declaring the dickensian conditions "just fine", year after year after year, with no outcry or repercussions.
here in the u.s. our scandals saw the light of day much sooner than those of our neighbor across the pond. clergy sodomy jokes became a regular gag on late night tv, so perhaps we are more jaded in thinking that "of course priests are kid-fuckers."
however, it has been a century since the catholic church held much power over u.s. irish catholics. the symbiotic nature of church and state in a place like ireland is difficult for many here to grasp. until the irish tiger set the economy on a fever pace, the power of the local parish was felt by families everyday, in all things.
try to imagine being a hungry little kid taken forcibly from your mom. try to imagine being at the mercy of nuns and priests who are being paid nothing, and given a pittance with which to run their school. their mercy and empathy shrivel and harden into resentment and disgust as they see countless huddled masses of stinking shoeless rags brought to the home for gruel and a pallet, month after month. try to imagine being that kid with nowhere to turn. try to imagine being that kid and instead of learning to read, being forced to string rosary beads 7 days a week, or do laundry by hand in giant boiling vats or make soap. try to imagine being that kid and having the only grown-ups in your life violate you in ways so degrading and so inhuman it kills you inside. try to imagine these fierce depraved men and women are servants of *god*. try to imagine being surrounded by other sad little kids suffering in the same ways.
midway through the investigation, in 2002, the catholic church in ireland agreed to pay $175 million to compensate victims of clergy sexual abuse. a separate group has paid out some $1.5 billion so far to more than 10,000 people who have claimed they were abused in state and church-run institutions.
the vatican has not issued a statement.
how much is childhood worth? what price innocence?
re-read the treatment quoted above suffered by the boys. sound familiar? these were the pictures at abu ghraib that so shocked the world. those violated were adults, wrongly or rightly apprehended in the name of war.
who was running the prison and who was running the catholic children's homes? low-level flunkies, who had nobody watching them.
people make me sick. and very very sad.
"power tends to corrupt. absolute power corrupts absolutely."
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