We Are Here to Help Church Tells Victims of Abuse, Jersey Evening Post, May 22, 2009

We Are Here to Help, Church Tells Victims of Abuse

Jersey Evening Post
May 22, 2009

http://www.thisisjersey.com/2009/05/22/we-are-here-to-help-church-tells-island-victims-of-abuse/

Canon France

THE Catholic Church in Jersey is offering sympathy and help to any residents living in Jersey who were victims of child abuse at former Irish institutions.

Monsignor Nicholas France, the Catholic Dean, was speaking after a long-awaited report was released this week detailing the abuse suffered by thousands of children in residential institutions in Ireland.

The fiercely debated nine-year investigation into Ireland’s Roman Catholic-run institutions has revealed that priests and nuns terrorised thousands of boys and girls in workhouse-style schools for decades and that government inspectors failed to stop the beatings, rapes and humiliation.

More than 2,000 told the inquiry into child abuse that they had suffered physical and sexual abuse while there. Hundreds of the victims moved away from Ireland once they left the care homes and went to live in other parts of Britain. It is believed that some may be living in Jersey.

In a statement to the JEP, Mr France said: ‘If any victim of child abuse at former Irish institutions now lives in Jersey, the Catholic Church in our Island offers compassionate sorrow and the openness of a listening ear if that might be helpful.’