BishopAccountability.org
	Gutless Government and Religious Hypocrites As Guilty As the Abusers By Ryle Dwyer Irish Examiner May 30, 2009 http://www.examiner.ie/story.aspx?id=92987&m=5.3.6.0&h=gutless-government-and-religious-hypocrites-as-guilty-as-the-abusers MANY people felt a deep sense of betrayal over the disclosure that Bishop Eamon Casey had fathered a son, but in the last analysis what was betrayed was their own sense of innocence. He became one of the victims of a system that preyed on ignorance. For generations too many Irish people shirked the responsibility to inform their own consciences and think for themselves. They preferred to follow blindly the dictates of the hierarchy with an unquestioning loyalty. Bishops were treated as if they were infallible on matters religious, social and even political. It was the height of naivete to think that anyone in the church, from the Pope down, could live up to the standards espoused by the Roman Catholic religion. The bishops and everyone else should strive for perfection but, given the nature of man, true perfection can never be more than a worthy aspiration. Eamon Casey displayed a deep sense of humanity with his magnificent work for the poor and underprivileged, especially among the Irish in Britain. Was all this forgotten because of his human failings? Sure, as the saying goes, it could happen to a bishop. He was treated as a virtual pariah by the church, which preaches forgiveness. They could not forgive him because he exposed their fallibility. They may never have tired of telling the parable of the prodigal son, but when Bishop Casey came back to this country they shunned him and even silenced him. All the time they were trying to protect their own privileged positions by persisting with the pretence of their own perfection as they covered up the vile abuse that went on in industrial schools. Looking back now, those were veritable concentration camps. The redress board was set up supposedly to allow victims to testify in a non-confrontational setting. The media was excluded so victims could testify without the fear that their stories would be published. Many did not want their children to know what had happened to them, but the system actually had nothing to do with protecting them. It was really all about protecting the religious congregations. Talk to people who were involved in the redress board and they will tell you it was highly confrontational. Anyone who had any doubts had only to listen to Michael O'Brien who let fly from the audience on Questions & Answers last Monday night. It was compelling television that will be replayed many times in the coming years. People got a real insight not only into the abuse that he endured in school but also the pain and humiliation he suffered before the redress board. Normally in a case for damages, any award would be substantially increased if the defence adopted such tactics. But in these cases the religious congregations did not care because they were being indemnified by the State thanks to Michael Woods and the gang who promised zero tolerance. While driving home after testifying, Michael O'Brien was so traumatised he pulled off the road. He considered waiting for a truck to drive along so that he could pull out in front of it and be killed. The only reason he did not do it, he said, was because his wife was with him and he could not do that to her. If he had done so, he would have been a 21st century victim of the vile posturing religious hypocrites — not just those who abused children in the industrial schools but also those who have been trying to cover the whole thing up ever since. They are just as guilty as both the original perpetrators and our gutless Government that has so shamelessly facilitated them. Of course, in the last week the Government has seen the light and called on the religious congregations involved to make bigger contributions. When Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe mentioned this on television after this week's cabinet meeting, he cited the fact that Cardinal Seán Brady and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin had made similar calls on those congregations. It was as if he was suggesting nobody should blame the Government for speaking out because they were only saying what the cardinal and archbishop had already said. Was that his idea of leadership? The Government has again demonstrated that it knows as much about leadership as a pig knows about table manners. President Mary MacAleese spoke out this week calling for the prosecution of the perpetrators of the abuse. When she first ran for the presidency, members of the hierarchy called her "the bishops' woman". They had selected her as their spokesperson before the New Ireland Forum, and frankly in my eyes that disqualified her as ever likely to be an independent voice. I voted one, two and three for the other candidates and left her box blank. But she then demonstrated she was her own woman by attending Protestant services at Christ Church Cathedral and receiving communion there. I was never so pleasantly surprised as when she announced that she would do so again after Archbishop Desmond Connell denounced her actions. She was essentially the first senior office-holder in this country to have the guts to stand up openly to any archbishop of Dublin. In her own way she essentially told him to sit on his mitre and the vast majority of people endorsed her stand. Now she is calling for the prosecution of those who abused the children. "In so far as there are people still alive who are responsible for these criminal acts," the President said, they should be "brought before the proper authorities." TEN years ago five Christian Brothers were prosecuted from what had been St Joseph's concentration camp in Tralee. Passing the court one morning in September 1999 on my way for the paper, I noticed television cameras outside. When I went into a nearby bar for tea, I asked a press photographer inside if the Christian Brothers were in court again. They were, he said, but he was not taking pictures because he was a witness in the case, as he had spent 10 years in the school. The photographer left to get something for somebody and a well-dressed man came in and sat next to me at the counter. He ordered a short. The photographer returned and, from across the bar, repeated that he had spent 10 years in the school and he knew what went on there. As the man beside me reached for his drink, he had a terrible shake and had to lift the glass with both hands. Suddenly it seemed as if he was in the DTs. It seemed sad that anybody should need a drink so badly at that hour of the morning. A woman joined him as he finished his drink and they left. "Did you see him get the shakes when I mentioned that I was there for 10 years?" the photographer asked. The man was one of the accused. The cases dragged on for a few years before all charges were eventually dropped. Maybe it wasn't justice, but that man was obviously suffering his own torment.
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