By Matthew Crow
The Irish Emigrant
December 15, 2009
http://www.irishemigrant.com/ie/go.asp?p=story&storyID=5673
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| Irish singer Sinead O'Connor |
Sinead O’Connor has found herself in hot water with the Catholic Church again. Known for being a controversial figure and adversarial to the church, the Irish singer protested the Irish Catholic sex abuse scandal in a scathing letter to news editors sent December 8.
“I feel strongly that we are proud of our faith and feel completely betrayed,” O’Connor said in the statement.
O’Connor is famous for her 1992 protest against the Catholic Church on “Saturday Night Live”, when she tore a photo of Pope John Paul II to pieces on stage.
The Catholic sex abuse scandal in Ireland has hit full force in Ireland, with the publishing of two reports this year, including the results of the Dublin Archdiocese Commission of Investigation, which was released over the summer. The nine-year internal investigation revealed decades of widespread abuse in Catholic-run institutions and cover-up by the church and has prompted some clerics to step down.
Dozens of priests abused hundreds of children, especially at Catholic schools and reformatories, while the church tried mainly to keep it hidden from the public. The latest report, commissioned by the Irish government, found that the bishops were obsessed with “the maintenance and secrecy, the protection of the reputation of the church, and the preservation of its assets.”
All three have taken a huge hit since the since the scandals broke. Pope Benedict XVI recently said he shares the “outrage, betrayal and shame felt by so many of the faithful in Ireland,” in a statement from the Vatican. This apparently prompted O’Connor to brake her silence on the issue.
Here is the letter in its entirety,
Dear sir,
I am sending this in the hope that it will be printed in your letters page. Should you wish to contact me to confirm this letter is from me I can be contacted at (redacted).
On behalf of all irish artists.. Though most have kept their mouth shut.. I demand the irish government expel the papal nuncio and recall the Irish ambassador from the vatican city in order to respect the people of ireland who are outraged by the contempt displayed by the vatican for the suffering endured by survivors of clerical abuse and for the people of ireland in general.
I demand also the pope himself stand down for his contemptible silence on the matter and his acts of non cooperation with the enquiry.
Popes have had no problem voicing their opinions when we wanted contraception or divorce. No problem criticising the da vinci code. No problem declaring harry potter books as evil. No problem criticising naomi campbell for wearing a bejewelled cross.. Yet when it comes to the evils done by paedophiles dressed as priests they are silent. It is grotesque.. Unbelievable.. Bizarre and unprecedented. They stand for nothing now but evil. And our ancestors gave up anything that would have given them a moments joy.. Because they believed these liars.
They have brought catholicism and the idea of God into direpute. We need to take back the church.. Which is OURS.. Not theirs. They are not fit to call themselves representatives of christ. They represent nothing but evil any more.
They never believed that God was watching. And they still act as though they don't think God is watching.. But every one of them will have to meet their maker in the end.. Even the pope himself. And if I were them I would be very afraid.
I also demand that brian cowan step down for his having no testicles in the matter. He has no clue what irish people want. He should stand down and admit he has behaved in this matter as a coward.
Sincerely
Sinead O'Connor.
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