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	Two Avenging Angels in Ireland By Paula Kirby Washington Post December 29, 2009 http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/paula_kirby/2009/12/two_avenging_angels.html Q: What was the most important religion story of 2009? 2009 was the year in which - finally - thousands of Irish victims of child abuse on an unimaginable scale had the extent of their suffering acknowledged in the form of two reports, issued under the chairmanship of Mr Justice Sean Ryan and Judge Yvonne Murphy, respectively. The Ryan Report, published in May, shocked a normally phlegmatic world with its catalogue of physical, sexual and emotional abuse perpetrated on generations of Irish children, mostly at the hands of Roman Catholic monks, nuns and priests. More shocking still was its conclusion that this savage abuse, far from being the random acts of a few out-of-control mavericks, was both endemic and systemic and, furthermore, was actively covered up by the Church, whose only concern was the preservation of its own reputation. The Murphy Report, which was published just a month ago, focused on the way allegations of sexual abuse were dealt with in the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin, by both church and state authorities. This report found that: The Dublin Archdiocese's pre-occupations in dealing with cases of child sexual abuse, at least until the mid 1990s, were the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the Church, and the preservation of its assets. All other considerations, including the welfare of children and justice for victims, were subordinated to these priorities. The Archdiocese did not implement its own canon law rules and did its best to avoid any application of the law of the State. One would have to spend a considerable amount of time, as I have, reading these two reports to grasp the sheer enormity of the crimes that were perpetrated on children over many decades at the hands of the Church, and the hideousness of the suffering they endured. Unbelievably, children suffering from physical or mental impairments were even more likely to be victims of the severest forms of abuse, though in many of the institutions investigated, no child could hope to escape unscathed: the religious orders running them depended on the fear that came from the arbitrary infliction of brutal punishments to maintain the atmosphere of disciplined order they were seeking. These reports qualify as the most significant religion story of 2009 for a number of reasons. Most importantly, they represent a welcome step towards justice for the Church's victims. At last the world knows how they suffered. True justice still eludes them, however: Many religious orders made it a condition of their participation in the investigation that their priests would be guaranteed anonymity, and the Murphy Report is littered with pseudonyms and blanks where the names of the perpetrators should be. Consequently, no prosecutions will be possible in these cases, and those perpetrators still alive remain free and unpunished - and in many cases, free to abuse again. Whilst some of the bishops involved in the decades of cover-ups have resigned within the last few days, their claims that they have done so in the hope that it will bring peace to the victims might ring less hollow had they taken this step before the publication of the extent of their complicity left them with precious little choice in the matter. And in further twists of the knife, a number of Irish Congregations have consistently refused to apologize to their victims, others have apologized in terms which were, according to the Ryan Report, not conducive to the healing of the people concerned, and yet others have apologized but have refused to accept responsibility for their behavior. Nevertheless, the victims' suffering is now known and acknowledged and believed, and this is a comfort that was denied them by the Church for far too long. The second reason is that these reports have shined a spotlight on the rottenness at the core of the Roman Catholic Church, and the Church's response has, if anything, made that light more revealing still. Yes, now, finally, when there is no room for maneuver left, there have been a few resignations at a senior level, but this was preceded by years of cover-up and denial, and months (since the Ryan Report) of wriggling and obfuscation and excuse-making. The extent of the sadistic cruelty inflicted on those children was shocking enough; the extensive Church cover-up - now known to have reached as high as the Vatican itself - more shocking still; but then came yet more vileness, as Catholic after Catholic attempted to wave the allegations away as examples of anti-Catholic prejudice, or as no worse than anyone else was doing at the time. Bloggers on one Catholic website (here and here, for example) blamed the abuse variously on Vatican II, homosexuals and secularism, then denied that it had happened to the extent reported, and then claimed that the whole thing was really just an exercise in Catholic-bashing and the kind of persecution Christ had led his followers to expect. This was how Catholics waved away the reports; but the Ryan Report also showed how Catholic practices had actively led to the abuse and the cover-ups in the first place. It highlights the way the vow of chastity, for example, was understood in the Christian Brothers (the order behind the worst of the abuse) to demand totally impersonal relationships with others, with anything gentler being considered unspiritual. The vow of obedience, which included the requirement to serve the interests of the Congregation above all else, was frequently cited as the reason why Brothers who were concerned at the treatment of children in their care did not dare to raise the issue, for fear of being accused of criticizing their superiors and therefore breaking their vow. Indeed, it is not difficult to see how the withdrawal from all things connected with 'the world', the absence of women and the emphasis on silence, all created an atmosphere that was clearly going to create significant emotional and psychological turmoil: humans are, after all, social animals. We thrive on human warmth and friendship and companionship. Remove those and we remove the source of much of our health and wellbeing. Perhaps we should not be surprised if some people subject to such an abnormal and unhealthy way of life were frequently overcome with uncontrollable surges of anger, hatred, violence or lust. The Roman Catholic church is a huge institution and will, of course, include amongst its number its fair share of violent and abusive individuals; but it seems likely that the very nature of the unnatural and unwholesome life imposed on its religious seriously added to the problem. The final reason these reports are significant is just as sobering, and one which should give all of us, religious or non-religious, pause for thought. Secular bodies such as the Garda (Irish police) were aware of the abuse that was going on - and for many years did nothing about it. How could this possibly have happened? It happened because they did not feel entitled to tackle the Church. Indeed, the Murphy Report concluded that A number of very senior members of the Gardai, including the Commissioner in 1960, clearly regarded priests as being outside their remit. This is the perfect example of how tragically misplaced society's automatic respect for religion is, and what devastating consequences it can have. Because of an automatic, knee-jerk, unconsidered respect for all things religious, the assumption that religion is good and benign and necessary for stability and morality, the taboo on publicly criticizing it, the unspoken assumption that it must be shielded, protected and privileged at all costs - because of these things, thousands of children had their formative years turned into seemingly endless nightmares, in which they were brutally flogged, punched, hurled around classrooms, humiliated, semi-starved, mocked, degraded and raped. Anything rather than bring the Church into disrepute. In the words of the Murphy Report, Institutions and individuals, no matter how august, should never be considered to be immune from criticism or from external oversight of their actions [...] The State authorities facilitated the cover up by not fulfilling their responsibilities to ensure that the law was applied equally to all and allowing the Church institutions to be beyond the reach of the normal law enforcement processes [...] It is the responsibility of the State to ensure that no similar institutional immunity is ever allowed to occur again. Powerful words. Words that apply to us as individual citizens just as much as to the organs of State. Ryan and Murphy have shown us beyond any shadow of doubt that it is time to kick religion off its pedestal - it never deserved to be up there anyway - and to start treating it exactly the same as every other human institution. If these two reports mean that we all, finally, come to realize that, then this will have been a very important news story indeed.
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