BishopAccountability.org
	Irish Abuse Report Sparks Fears By Joel Gibson Sydney Morning Herald May 22, 2009 http://www.smh.com.au/national/irish-abuse-report-sparks-fears-20090521-bh6n.html A MAMMOTH government report into "endemic" child abuse in Catholic Church institutions in Ireland has sparked fresh calls for a royal commission into historical child abuse in Australia. Victims groups say the culture of abuse in Catholic institutions here last century could have been as shocking as what is revealed in a nine-year Irish commission's report, and that as many as one in 10 priests, brothers and nuns could have a case to answer for sexual, emotional or physical abuse. The 2600-page report by Ireland's Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse found rape was endemic in more than 250 Irish-Catholic care institutions from the 1930s to the 1990s, and the church protected pedophiles from prosecution. Twelve of 1090 witnesses interviewed for the report now live in Australia and New Zealand and it estimates 4 per cent of Irish victims moved here. An unknown number of alleged perpetrators also moved to Australia, such as Father Denis McAlinden, who moved from Ireland in 1949 to the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese and died in 2005 with a trail of child sex allegations, a compensation payout and an outstanding warrant for his arrest for sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl. Chris McIsaac, from the victims support group Broken Rites, said the culture of abuse had been exported to Australia. "The founding fathers of the Catholic Church here, most of them came from Ireland," he said. Dr Wayne Chamley, who has represented victims in mediation with the church, said the Irish report added weight to calls for a royal commission where victims would feel safe to give evidence about the extent of the issue in Australia. "I think what has gone on in Australia is that … a small number of people go to police and initiate criminal prosecutions against pedophiles or go through the church's schemes but we don't see the full scale of it, which is now being seen in Ireland and the US." A former Sisters of Mercy nun, who left the order in her 20s after a nervous breakdown, said she had no doubt that the findings would be similar here. The former nun, who asked not to be named, said: "There were incredible problems, but there was this naive belief that you give them to the religious and the problems will be solved." The retired bishop Geoffrey Robinson, who headed Australian efforts to tackle abuse, said Ireland's problems had resulted from untrained brothers or nuns being put in charge of up to 50 vulnerable children due to a lack of resources. But he said it would be a mistake to assume that the Irish findings can be transplanted to Australia. Any commission here would have to broaden to include state-run institutions and pedophilia generally, he said. The Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, released a statement saying he was deeply moved by the brutality and cruelty suffered by Ireland's children, but that "Ireland is not Australia" and that the church here had established the Towards Healing protocol 13 years ago to investigate allegations of sexual abuse in the church, and to provide support, pastoral care and justice to victims of abuse. VICTIMS ANGRY As the shocking scale of abuse reverberates across Ireland, victims are furious there will be no charges.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.