Irish Report Details Catholic Child Abuse

9-Year Probe Reveals Decades Of Beatings, Rapes Ignored By Government, At Church-Run Institutions

(CBS/AP)  A fiercely debated, nine-year investigation into Ireland's Roman Catholic-run institutions says priests and nuns terrorized thousands of boys and girls in workhouse-style schools for decades - and government inspectors failed to stop the chronic beatings, rapes and humiliation.

High Court Justice Sean Ryan on Wednesday unveiled the 2,600-page final report of Ireland's Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse, which is based on testimony from thousands of former students and officials from more than 250 church-run institutions.

More than 30,000 children deemed to be petty thieves, truants or from dysfunctional families - a category that often included unmarried mothers - were sent to Ireland's austere network of industrial schools, reformatories, orphanages and hostels from the 1930s until the last church-run facilities shut in the 1990s.

The report found that molestation and rape were "endemic" in boys' facilities, chiefly run by the Christian Brothers order, and supervisors pursued policies that increased the danger. Girls supervised by orders of nuns, chiefly the Sisters of Mercy, suffered much less sexual abuse but frequent assaults and humiliation designed to make them feel worthless.

"In some schools a high level of ritualized beating was routine. ... Girls were struck with implements designed to maximize pain and were struck on all parts of the body," the report said. "Personal and family denigration was widespread."

For years the church here claimed the abuse was a bad-apple problem, reports CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips. Now that excuse is gone. There were hundreds, if not thousands of bad apples who were systematically hidden by the church so they could abuse again.

Andrew Madden wanted to be a priest until he was abused by one. "It took the form of molestation most of the time," he told Phillips.

Colm O'Gorman's whole life centered around the church. "The abuse and then rape continued for about two and a half years until I fled," O'Gorman' told Phillips.

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Watch More Of The Interview With O'Gorman

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Christine Buckley tried to tell the world what she was going through. "I received a beating which opened up my flesh on my left thigh," she told Phillips.

Victims of the system have long demanded that the truth of their experiences be documented and made public, so that children in Ireland never endure such suffering again.

But most leaders of religious orders have rejected the allegations as exaggerations and lies, and testified to the commission that any abuses were the responsibility of often long-dead individuals.

Wednesday's five-volume report sides almost completely with the former students' accounts. It concludes that church officials always shielded their orders' pedophiles from arrest amid a culture of self-serving secrecy.

"A climate of fear, created by pervasive, excessive and arbitrary punishment, permeated most of the institutions and all those run for boys. Children lived with the daily terror of not knowing where the next beating was coming from," the report concluded.

The commission said overwhelming, consistent testimony from still-traumatized men and women, now in their 50s to 80s, had demonstrated beyond a doubt that the entire system treated children more like prison inmates and slaves than people with legal rights and human potential.

The report proposed 21 ways the government could recognize past wrongs, including building a permanent memorial, providing counseling and education to victims and improving Ireland's current child protection services.

But its findings will not be used for criminal prosecutions - in part because the Christian Brothers successfully sued the commission in 2004 to keep the identities of all of its members, dead or alive, unnamed in the report. No real names, whether of victims or perpetrators, appear in the final document.

Irish church leaders and religious orders all declined to comment Wednesday, citing the need to read the massive document first. The Vatican also declined to comment.

The Irish government already has funded a parallel compensation system that has paid 12,000 abuse victims an average of euro65,000 ($90,000). About 2,000 claims remain outstanding.

Victims receive the payouts only if they waive their rights to sue the state and the church. Hundreds have rejected that condition and taken their abusers and those church employers to court.

Wednesday's report said children had no safe way to tell authorities about the assaults they were suffering, particularly the sexual aggression from church officials and older inmates in boys' institutions.

"The management did not listen to or believe children when they complained of the activities of some of the men who had responsibility for their care," the commission found. "At best, the abusers were moved, but nothing was done about the harm done to the child. At worst, the child was blamed and seen as corrupted by the sexual activity, and was punished severely."

The commission dismissed as implausible a central defense of the religious orders - that, in bygone days, people did not recognize the sexual abuse of a child as a criminal offense, but rather as a sin that required repentance.

In their testimony, religious orders typically cited this opinion as the principal reason why sex-predator priests and brothers were sheltered within the system and moved to new posts where they could still maintain daily contact with children.

But the commission said its fact-finding - which included unearthing decades-old church files, chiefly stored in the Vatican, on scores of unreported abuse cases from Ireland's industrial schools - demonstrated that officials understood exactly what was at stake: their own reputations.

It cited numerous examples where school managers told police about child abusers who were not church officials - but never did this when one of their own had committed the crime.

"Contrary to the congregations' claims that the recidivist nature of sexual offending was not understood, it is clear from the documented cases that they were aware of the propensity for abusers to re-abuse," it said.

Religious orders were chiefly concerned about preventing scandal, not the danger to children, it said.

The commission also condemned Ireland's Education Department for aiding the abusive culture through infrequent, toothless inspections that deferred to church authority.

Inspectors were supposed to restrict the use of corporal punishment and make sure the children were adequately fed, clothed and educated - but the report called those inspections "fundamentally flawed."

It said a lone inspector was responsible for monitoring more than 50 industrial schools, schools were told about the visits in advance and inspectors rarely talked to the children.

Wednesday's report also highlighted the rarity of human kindness in the institutions.

"A word of consideration or encouragement, or an act of sympathy or understanding, had a profound effect. Adults in their 60s and 70s recalled seemingly insignificant events that had remained with them all their lives," the report said.

"Often the act of kindness, recalled in such a positive light, arose from the simple fact that the staff member had not given a beating when one was expected."

[Audrey_Dern]

openeyes~ I agree with you about the bible. It was man who found things written on cave walls and all over the place and they wrote it....not Jesus or God. I do believe in God, but, as far as the bible goes....it was written by man. I don't even go to church. Sunday mornings I sit out on my porch with my coffee and look at the birds eating out of the feeder I have for them. I look at the sky and the trees This is what God created. A church was built by man....not my God. I have been doing this for years. I sit out there and, in my mind, speak to my God.

[Audrey_Dern]

You people blame GOD for these pedifiles and other horrible people. It is not GOD'S fault...he gave man free will and we made this mess.....he just sadly watches. So don't go blaming GOD for all this....he has nothing to do with it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ttinsly]

We do not need organized religion. We do not need pharisees posing as Christ followers. We do not need any people with worldly power saying they have to be intermediaries to us for spirituality or any form of truth for that matter. These priests have used their power to abuse boys just as many protestant heterosexual men that are perverts and even married have abused their own children, and yes boys too. I personally know of 2 cases of this (for Protestants). This is the tip of the iceberg. At least the survivors of Catholicism are talking about it. I would like everyone to do it too without blaming minorities; and realizing how our messed up values of worshiping abusive "macho" men over the "weak" contribute to this abuse as well as our worship of violence and our "treat people as objects to be exploited" materialist culture. Re-work it, revision it. Claim your own space, individuality, and sacredness without all this ego business of power starved hierarchicalists.

[Audrey_Dern]

All you people that state that you are atheist...what are you going to do when you meet GOD...and you will...What will you say....oooopppsss!!!!!!! That is not going to work. It will be too late for you.

[Audrey_Dern]

Blogfever~ I truly believe the end of this sad world is near it's end. I really feel badly for all you atheist out there, well, there aren't that many, but, you better smarten up before it is too late!!!! I don't believe in hell perse, I believe that hell is here on earth, but for atheist and horrible people, GOD has a special place for you. It is not nearly as nice as heaven. So smarten up before it is too late. AND none of you athiest ever answered my question about how a perfect little baby is born and how it was conceived if GOD did not have a hand in it. Please one of you....if you have the guts....answer my question.

[Audrey_Dern]

American11~ Please don't talk about....and it is not Ed....it is Ted Kennedy and he has done more for the Middle and low income people than anyone else. Where you spelled his name wrong....you probably don't know that he has been dignosed with a brain tumor and I pray he gets better so he can do more good. Please know what you are talking about before you post anything else!

[Audrey_Dern]

To all you stupid atheist out there....I wrote this once on here but don't know on which page it is now. If there is no GOD, how do you then explain how a little, beautirul baby is born so perfectly with ten little toes and toenails and ten fingers and nails and all its insides in sync? AND, to go back a little, how GOD made a man and a women so perfectly formed for each other to conceive this baby in the first place. How can this be explained away? If one on you atheist can answer me this I would be interested in your answer. If you are going to say that some babies are born "not so perfect" this is Karma which is another story for another time.

[toldyouso29]

davicar5~ I can see you are one of the "brainwashed" catholics. There are many like you and it is dangerous....especially to our young children who have to go through this. AND for the people saying that it happens in Protostant churches.....where is your proof? If you have any.....please post it! You brainwashed people are so in denial and it is dangerous. Wake up before it is too late!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by Audrey_Dern at 9:27 AM : May 21, 2009


I was brought up in the Pentecostal church. When I was 13, a good friend of mine who was 11 told me that our pastor was her boyfriend. I thought she was making things up.Then in the 1970s and 1980s, it was divulged that this pastor had sexxx with over 20 women in the church and fathered at least 9 babies. My cousin, who was 14 at the time her 'romance' with the pastor began, had a child by this man too. In the end, the man had to step down, though he has a bigger church now--and he married my old friend after fathering 3 kids with her--and the stories she told as a child? In court, it was divulged that this girl had been having sexxx with the pastor since she was 9 and he was almost 30.

And yes, many/most Protestant churches have their sexual demons and problems too, the man who replaced this pastor was found to be having sex with 12 year olds and his cousin, who was from another church had a thing for young boys. Stuff like this is not limited to one religion, it is about men and their ******* and the ability of those in power to exploit others--can happen anywhere, but in churches who specialize in laity and in schools for kids and in celibacy for men--that is the perfect storm for male pedophiles with homosexual tendencies to line up--imagine an entire congregation of potential victims who dote and believe your every word, now imagine the employer doing all he can to protect his worker and shield their crimes--but what do we expect?

What do we think all those young boys do in the seminary--when hormones are raging and the only outlet is themselves or each other? Some may go in as homosexual--but some are introduced to that mindset while in the seminary. Bet on it.

[Audrey_Dern]

JMCGILVRAY~ I forgot....you asked me to explain why horrible people hurt children...if you had read my original statememt I told you....God gave men free will to do with as they want....so, some sick bistards do what they want and it is not GODS fault....it is theirs! So, think about that for awhile. Maybe even you, THE ATHEIST can understand unless you are stupid, also!

[toldyouso29]

The report proposed 21 ways the government could recognize past wrongs, including building a permanent memorial, providing counseling and education to victims and improving Ireland's current child protection services.


How do memorials and improving child protection services account for and compensate for years of beatings, rapes, humiliation and torture?

Give them each a million dollars straight from the pockets of the Vatican--when it is no longer profitable, the church will stop shielding its abusers.

[Audrey_Dern]

jmcgilvray~You are allowing your ignorance to overestimate your intellectual capacity! If you say you don't answer any questions then to me that is a cop out. I don't have to worry about anything....when my time comes to die, I will meet my maker knowing I have done my very best to be good to other people, help other people when I can and live a good life. You are the one who has to worry. I feel so badly for you....I pity you. What an empty life you must lead. I hope that GOD can forgive you....he probably will. as he forgives all fools. Go get a life. Explain to me about how a baby is born, how it was conceived, and how it is born so perfectly. See, I believe in Karma, also. AND you have some bad karma going on. I am so very sorry for you. What are you living for if you have nothing to look forward to.I am not a religious nut, I just know there is a GOD.

[openeyes1]

You really need to read my posts more carefully, or do you not understand what I am saying. When I say Paul's letters do not have the knowledge of Jesus, I mean the Jesus most people have been raised to believe in. You know the divine, all knowing, all powerful, SON OF GOD. Many early Christian texts do not refer to Jesus as divine and even in the Bible the stories of his birth are not the same thorought the gospels. When you actually look at the Bible as a historical document and all the possible flaws of a text during that time you find out some interesting things. I'm sorry if you can separate your book and your faith.

[blog_fever2]

Dear Audrey,
We do not explain such things. We do not know and are honest enough to say so. We do not fabricate *Daddy In The Sky* myths and lie to children to *explain* such things.
The god myth is YOURS. YOU explain it. We have no such obligation.

Seems to me you have bigger things to worry about than such unanswerable questions as why babies have toenails. Perhaps you might ask yourself how religious nuts can be stopped from abusing children. Work on that one for a while, will you?
Posted by jmcgilvray at 11:27 AM : May 21, 2009
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Funny how every response on everything is just a rebuttal. "We dont explain such things." "The burden of proof is not ours" blah, blah, blah. Sounds to me like you do not have an opinion on anything, but just want to discredit others for their beliefs. This reminds me of those hard-core atheists that do not believe in God until tragedy. They are the first ones to yell "OH MY GOD" or "Help Lord" during these times. Just be honest with yourself. I have a question for you. What are your morals and where does your morality come from?

[blog_fever2]

As for Paul's knowledge of Jesus there is even evidence in Paul's letters that he was not aware of the virgin birth or the other gospel text. The only gospel that is even suspected to be written by an apostle is the gospel of John; even this evidence is slim at best. It?s hard to believe that the Bible is a perfect representation of God?s words when it is filled with contradictions.
Posted by openeyes1 at 11:25 AM : May 21, 2009
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Once again inaccurate. The Apostle Paul was very aware of the Gospel of Jesus Christ because he originally was named Saul and would persecute Christians under the guidance of Nero. Ironically when Paul converted to Christianity, it was Nero that had him beheaded. Many of his gospels he wrote himself while in prison in Rome in 62 A.D. Dont take my word for it, read it for yourself.

[openeyes1]

You need to go back and re-evaluate that time line. 13 books of the New Testament (Covenant in NASB) were written by the Apostle Paul and he was beheaded by Nero in 62 A.D. That's only 29 years after Christ's crucifixion. Those were the last books written in the Bible, every other scribe was collected before then.

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I'm sorry but you are the one who has been misled. Go take a real theology course or simply read a few books on the history of the Bible and you find you are mistaken. I never said that the texts weren't written until the 4th century, I said put together but the scriptures that you read in the New Testament were not complete by the 1st century anyway. There were no printing presses at that time and all copies had to be scribed. The original documents had text changed on purpose and accidentally and they even omitted large portions. It is common knowledge that not all Christian texts are included in the canon that was finally official in the 1500?s. As for Paul's knowledge of Jesus there is even evidence in Paul's letters that he was not aware of the virgin birth or the other gospel text. The only gospel that is even suspected to be written by an apostle is the gospel of John; even this evidence is slim at best. It?s hard to believe that the Bible is a perfect representation of God?s words when it is filled with contradictions.

[Audrey_Dern]

You atheist out there who are writing in that there is no God, how do you explain a new born baby who has evelashes, arms and legs, toenails, all there insides perfect. If you say there is no God....please explain to me how this happens and who created ths perfect little child. I feel so sorry for you. God gave man freedom to do what he wants and look what we have done with that. Don't blame God....it is man who created all this with their free will!They will have to answer for their sins one day. No one gets away with anything when they die and meet God and have to explain all these things they have done.

[Audrey_Dern]

If I were a catholic...which I am not...I would get the hell out of this cult. I certainly leave the catholic church. Just say 3 hail mary's and all is washed away.....wonderful...so then they go out and commit more crimes. If I am going to talk to anyone about anything I feel I have done wrong.....I talk to the main man......GOD.

[Audrey_Dern]

davicar5~ I can see you are one of the "brainwashed" catholics. There are many like you and it is dangerous....especially to our young children who have to go through this. AND for the people saying that it happens in Protostant churches.....where is your proof? If you have any.....please post it! You brainwashed people are so in denial and it is dangerous. Wake up before it is too late!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[blog_fever2]

The Bible is a canonization of the documents gathered from various churches and different sects of Christianity and put together in the late 300's AD, 4 centuries after Christ.Posted by openeyes1 at 5:39 AM : May 21, 2009
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You need to go back and re-evaluate that time line. 13 books of the New Testament (Covenant in NASB) were written by the Apostle Paul and he was beheaded by Nero in 62 A.D. That's only 29 years after Christ's crucifixion. Those were the last books written in the Bible, every other scribe was collected before then.

[blog_fever2]

I'm sorry that you have no real proof for your beliefs, that's why it called faith. I personally decided that there is more proof of our origins in science than the Bible. Religion controls and apparently it controls you.
Posted by openeyes1 at 5:39 AM : May 21, 2009
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I have plenty of proof, but there is no reason in going into detail with you, because you try so hard not to fathom God's existence, but yet when I ask your reasoning behind your non-belief, you shy away from the question stating "It's not for atheists to prove." Sad. I hope gives you understanding. The bible teaches that God will prove Himself through miracles wonders and signs. Have you seen any lately?