LONDON � For decades, boys and girls in Ireland were
beaten, sexually abused and emotionally terrorized in
workhouse-style schools run by the Roman Catholic Church, a
long-awaited report concludes.
Excessive and arbitrary punishment created "a climate
of fear" in which students lived "with the daily
terror of not knowing where the next beating was coming
from," the report said.
Through it all, government inspectors failed to stop what
was going on, despite attempts by some individuals to bring
their abusers to account.
These are some of the findings of the 2,600-page report
unveiled Wednesday in Dublin after a nine-year investigation
by Ireland's Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse.
Drawing on the testimony of nearly 2,000 witnesses, men and
women who attended more than 200 Catholic-run reform schools
and orphanages from the 1930s to the 1990s, the commission
painted a damning picture of a church engaged 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, albeit
declining, influence on Irish society, especially on moral
issues such as divorce and abortion.
Nonetheless, it wasn't tough enough for some of the
victims. Many are angry that the report includes no names of
alleged offenders. Only pseudonyms are used, making slim the
chances of criminal prosecution based on the report's
findings.
"We expected that these people would be named and
shamed and that some of them would be convicted," John
Barrett, who testified before the commission, told an Irish
radio station. "At the end of the day, some of us won't
sleep tonight. We're still nowhere near the truth."
Barrett, 55, was sexually abused in the 1960s while at a
school for boys with learning disabilities.
Cardinal Sean Brady, the leader of Ireland's 4 million
Catholics, offered an apology Wednesday.
"I am profoundly sorry and deeply ashamed that
children suffered in such awful ways in these
institutions," he said. "Children deserve better and
especially from those caring for them in the name of Jesus
Christ."
The Irish government has taken steps to compensate abuse
victims, making payments averaging about $87,000 to 12,000
people. Claims from 2,000 more victims await adjudication.
Los Angeles Times,
The Associated Press
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/world/stories/DN-abuse_21int.ART.State.Edition1.10c3.html
