IRELAND
One in Four
by Michael Brennan of The Irish Examiner
THE sexual abuse of children at an industrial school in Galway was viewed by the Christian Brothers as a moral failure rather than a crime, an inquiry heard last night.
Two brothers have been found guilty of sexual abuse at St Joseph’s school in Letterfrack and four more as well as a lay person were disciplined by the Christian Brothers for similar offences in the 1930s, ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s.
At the Child Abuse Commission, provincial leader Brother David Gibson said the congregation had not reported the abuse to the gardaí because of their beliefs at the time. “In the ‘30s, ‘40s and ‘50s, when incidents of child abuse came to the attention of brothers, this was seen as a moral failure on the part of the brothers.
“Strange as it may seem, it wasn’t seen as a crime,” he said.
He said a brother who had not been professed (spent nine years in the congregation) would have been dismissed for the abuse and a brother who was professed would have been given a canonical warning and transferred from the “scene of the crime” in the belief that he would not be likely to re-offend.