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	Sickening to Claim That Perpetrators of Abuse Are Victims Too Irish Post June 3, 2009 http://www.irishpost.co.uk/tabId/321/itemId/3197/Sickening-to-claim-that-perpetrators-of-abuse-are.aspx THE RECENT Ryan Commission report on the abuse of children in institutions in Ireland is almost beyond belief. The very people charged with taking care of vulnerable children seized the opportunity to abuse them both physically and sexually. Let’s be perfectly clear about one point in all this. We are not talking about isolated incidents. This abuse was part of a widespread problem that was covered up, ignored and swept under the carpet year after year. It is an evil that cannot be quantified. The only victims in this are the people who were abused. The abusers are not victims and deserve no sympathy whatsoever from any source. I could not care less about their rights. They cared nothing for their victims’ rights. They did it because they wanted to and because they knew they could get away with it because they had the power. The power wielded by the Church was until recently quite awesome. They knew of course that the Catholic Church would protect them because it needed to protect itself and its image in the eyes of the world. The fallout from the report has not been fully felt yet and I have no doubt that there is much more to come. The institutions relied on fresh stock (ie, children) to keep going and so children were sent to these wretched places on the most flimsy excuses. Some were sent because they missed school, were too poor, neglected or because they committed some minor theft. According to a special report compiled for the Ryan Commission it seems that there was conflict between the State and industrial schools because some District Court judges were not committing enough children to the institutions. How sick is this? We can ask questions until we are blue in the face about how it could happen or why it happened but unless the questions are addressed directly to those actually responsible for the abuse, I do not think that the victims’ interests will have been fully served. The Ryan Commission does not name the guilty and there may be all sorts of legal problems that prevent this but they need to be exposed along with the people who covered up for them. The only people who matter in this shocking crime are the victims. It is also a real shame that the fantastic work done by truly good people within the Church will somehow be tainted and this is unfair but ultimately unavoidable. It is also an added reason why as many of the perpetrators as possible should be named and shamed. It is more than a little disappointing — that’s the polite description — to see that the Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols chose to praise the courage of Irish pervert priests in confronting their actions. He quite simply does not get it. The only praise due here is for the people who summoned up the courage to come forward and expose the scum. I cannot recall any instance of a clerical abuser coming forward of his own volition and expressing true remorse for his crimes. This is a point that has not been sufficiently acknowledged. These people committed crimes against children. Those that covered up for them should also be charged. How can it not be a crime to move an abuser to another parish where he can continue his evil practice in order to avoid an embarrassing scandal for the Church? Where was the duty of care obligation? If this is not passive collusion then can somebody please explain to me exactly what it is? The cost of this dreadful scandal is in itself another scandal. The Church somehow managed to secure an indemnity from the Government limiting its liability to ˆ128million. This was a brilliant piece of negotiation on the Church’s part because it was only a small percentage (10 per cent) of the true cost because of what has now emerged. The Church used the threat of having to close some schools to pay for compensation as a weapon in its negotiations with the Government. Whatever else they are they are certainly not stupid. The taxpayer now picks up the massive bill so in effect the victims are now contributing to their own compensation. How crazy is that? The Government should have the courage to tear up the previous agreement and make the Church pay and if the Church does not like it then let it sue. If it has to sell off some of its huge assets then so be it. Why should the taxpayer have to foot the compensation bill for crimes carried out by members of an institution who can well afford to pay? How can you put a price on the stomach-churning ordeals of the victims? The short answer is you can’t. No amount of money will ever compensate them for the evil perpetrated against them but it will serve as an acknowledgement of what they suffered and help to ensure that such things cannot go unchecked ever again.
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