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What about the Victims, Bishop? You May Have Peace-They Never Will By Terry McGeehan One in Four [Ireland] April 23, 2006 http://www.oneinfour.org/news/news2006/bishopcomiskey/ Terry McGeehan, The Irish Star. Break out the bubbly! Start spreading the news! Bishop Comiskey has found peace! "I have found peace with myself. I feel fulfilled", he said. Well, bully for you, Brendan! You're a mighty man altogether! Now Brendan, why don't you share the secret of salvation with the legion of victims of the paedophile priests that you shielded during your time as Bishop of Ferns? You know the main ones that we're talking about-the utterly evil Sean Fortune and the bestial Jim Grennan, both rapists of the little children you should have been protecting. You see Brennie, before these victims can join in your contentment and salvation, they need to have a little chat with you. And they need you to talk about someone other than the person you love most of all in the whole world-yourself. They need you to depart from your favourite subject-yourself. They need a bit of information other than your usual topic-yourself. They need you to come out of hiding, drop the me feinism, face the music and spill the beans. They desperately need you to open up finally and explain why you allowed paedophile priests to rampage through your diocese abusing children. And there's no argument about that-your serial failure in this matter is there for all to see in the Ferns Report. But after its publication last October, you didn't even have the decency to hold a press conference or face the victims and explain your inaction. Instead all they got was your usual nauseating whine about yourself in a statement making excuses, asking forgiveness, expressing regret. "While I acknowledge and regret my failures, I emphasize that these were not deliberate failings but rather were human failings." Whine, whine, whine. Believe it or not Brendan, the victims of your paedophile priests need more than this hypocritical, self-regarding bullshit in order to get over their pain. They need and deserve exhaustive explanations, detailed accounts of what you did or did not do and why. They need to know why in the name of God you seemed to go out of your way to look after these monsters who abused them but did not spare a thought for the innocent child victims. But what they do not need is further bleating from you about finding peace or feeling fulfilled. You can stick that where the sun don't shine until such times as you follow the gospel of Christ and show some real compassion and love for those raped and abused by Fortune and Grennan. Maybe Brendan, you think that the victims of abuse should just build a bridge and get over it. Maybe you think they are just moaning Minnies who will whinge to anyone willing to listen to them. Well, in that case, Brendan, consider the case of 37-year-old Peter McCloskey who met Catholic Church representatives about his claims of sex abuse at the hands of Fr Denis Daly. Peter killed himself two days later. That's a fairly clear indication of the turmoil that this abuse victim was going through, don't you agree, Brendan? He is not alone. Many's another soul-tormented by pervert priests and the Church's failure to stop them-took the same path. So Brendan, are we going to have less of your pain and more of the victims' pain? Are we going to have less attention paid to your peace and more to finding theirs? Or do we have to listen to more self-pitying sound-bites about you while you cruelly prolong the pain of those who suffered with your cowardly silence. |
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