By Brian Mark Hennessey

The Indian Cardinal Oswald Gracias, who is assisting in drafting the final document of the ongoing Synod of Bishops, says that he believes that the Pope is inclined to entrust more authority to the regional Conferences of Bishops. He gave three examples of matters that could be outsourced from the Vatican – and one of those was clerical sexual abuse – currently dealt with in house by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith!

It is reported in the National Catholic Reporter of 23rd October that Cardinal Gracias said in a press statement that it was “practically and logistically impossible to have one office in the Vatican in Rome dealing with all the cases of clerical sexual abuse in the world”. So – it seems, the administration of crimes of clerical sexual abuse may well be shunted back to the Bishops and Religious Superiors.

It was Pope John Paul II who originally, in modern times, determined in 2001 in his Motu Propio, “Sacramentorum Sanctiatus Tutela”, that, apart from sexual solicitations in the confessional, all allegations of sexual abuse by clerics should be dealt with by the local Bishops and Religious Superiors.

What a calamity that proved to be! The Bishops and Religious Superiors failed consistently and manifestly to take any action at all. The majority of allegations were ignored. Clerics committing sexual abuse were simply moved on to where they could abuse again and where often they could not be discovered by the very Victims whom they had abused. Contrary to Canon Law, the civil law enforcement and welfare agencies were not informed of allegations. No monitoring of the abusers was implemented. Inconsistency and denial reined.

It took decades of the clamour from the voices of Victims of clerical sexual abuse to get a response from the Catholic Church. That response was to ensure that Victims were heard (at least in theory – even if not in practice) – and eventually Victims were led to believe that this Pope cared – and he would lead the charge in Rome to rid the Church of this pestilence. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, formerly known more notoriously as the Papal States Inquisition, was to be the instrument of this root and branch revival.

Yet, it appears, there remains a vast difference between what Vatican says and Vatican does. Recent history relates that neither Bishops nor Religious Superiors gave in the past, nor give in the present, any heed whatsoever to Canon Law, nor Cardinal, nor Pope.

The Mirfield 12 group of sexually abused boy seminarians know very well that nothing has factually changed despite all the virtuous statements. Their only experience has been one of empty promises, silence, ignorance and false accusations of being money-grabbing liars.

So the Vatican experiment in dealing with all the world’s cases of sexual abuse with care, compassion, consistency and rigour may well be over. They have been defeated, it seems, by the huge scale of this criminal activity within church and cloister. What an unintended admission of Cardinal Gracias!

So what now? It seems that the Vatican may well take the opportunity of deflecting criticism of their failed management of clerical sexual abuse by shunting it back to the hoards of corrupt bishops who failed to manage the problem before.

Their is a better solution! Whilst clerical sexual abuse, particularly of minors, may be a “sin” – it is a breach of trust at the highest end of the scale. It is also one of the cruellest, most callous, heinous and abhorrent civil criminal offences known to mankind. Let the Catholic Church do what any other world organisation would do. Let them:

1. Inform the Civil Law authority of the allegation immediately it is received.

2. Suspend the alleged cleric from all duties immediately.

3. Insist that all investigation is undertaken by the Civil authority and make the cleric available promptly.

4. Provide to the Civil authority all pertinent documentation in their possession without delay or obfuscation.

5. Immediately respond to the results of any Court verdict of guilty by instant dismissal of the cleric from the clerical state.

No ifs. No buts! No dilly dallying. No compensation, nor farewell payments, nor pensions. The Catholic Church must meet out to convicted criminal clerics the same standard of punitive terminal measures and treatment that any convicted criminal civilian in the world could expect to receive from any organisation to which that convicted criminal formerly belonged. It really is that simple! Clerics who commit crimes of sexual abuse are criminals – not special cases. The Catholic Church must get real!

Firstly, I would like to thank Gerry and Tony for their supportive comments,advice and wishes, posted on the blog on the 18th and 19th September. I would also like to thank the others who have, in the past, acknowledged me on the blog.

I have spent some time now pondering over Gerry’s advice. I suppose I have missed out so far from the advantages that being connected with the group would possibly bring. I do give the matter a lot of thought but sometimes I wonder if thinking too much just always leads to the reinforcement of the things that invariably lead to inaction. It seems to be a never ending battle between, on the one hand, being a captive to that control through belief in a religion, regardless of how irrational that belief , and reason i.e. rational thought, on the other hand . The battle within myself between belief through indoctrination and reason, has only ever resulted in one outcome. With me, reason has always lost out which only goes to show the power that indoctrination has had over me. Essentially it’s a battle between thoughts that result in negative emotions and thoughts based on good reasoning.

I do admit that my thinking and resulting feelings have been all over the place but I have come to one conclusion It’s something I have known for a long time but have been reluctant to acknowledge or accept it. Organised religion is all about power and control. But knowing and recognising that,doesn’t free me from remaining a captive of that control. Of course, that indoctrination began at the moment of birth. I know that some of the others who were abused have been able to cast off that control,to some extent anyway. But we are all individuals and all victims of our own particular circumstances. I can only speak for myself in this.

I was born on the west coast of Ireland and baptised the day after I was born. That was the beggining of my captivity. The church was the master of all it surveyed. It controlled everything and controlled your very thoughts. You could be sent to hell for thought crime and anything done that displeased the church would lead to being ostracised by the community you lived in. Abused women were tied for ever to their abusive husband, and visa vera. Children born outside of marriage became the ‘disappeared’. They would be ghosted away to Scotland or England, or end up unwanted and in an orphanage where they they were abused,anywhere where the ‘shame’ and the ‘sin’ could not be seen. The church permiated every part of society and every part of your being. Of course the church had and has to keep the ‘flock’ on board regardless of what ‘sin’ they {the flock} commit. The church with their preachments sends you to hell one minute but then offers you the get out, salvation, through confession. When it comes to themselves, why bother the secular courts and judges with matters that can be dealt with by the greatest judge of all, ‘God’. All they have to do is pop into a box,say they’re sorry, and all is forgiven. Contrition of course is important. Being contrite is essential for forgivness and then when it all happens again,which it does, it ‘s easy, just repeat the process. Just repent and be contrite again and again and again. They are ‘saved’ regardless of any evil they do.

There’s another matter that bothers me a lot. It’s a moral question. Inaction shouldn’t be an option. Inaction is immoral in that it allows the evil to continue without a challenge. To turn inaction into action, I need to overcome the hurdle constructed not only by being sexually and emotionally abused, but also by a religion which enslaves the mind to the extent that even when the doors to the prison of the mind are thrown open through reason, it still seems nearly imposible, for me anyway, to walk through those open doors. Until I can free myself of that, unless I can find a way of casting off that indoctrination I will remain in that limbo, a nowhere land where rational thought seems powerless in the face of a lifetime of indoctrination. I don’t want to remain in that place where I am tied by the past and unable, because of that, to do anything. How do I unravel myself from that guilt and shame and fear that I described in an earlier post to the blog as being woven into me and became part of the fabric of who I am. I know I will never be able to free myself totally from the effects of those different forms of abuse, indoctrination into theism and sexual and emotonal abuse. That would be hoping for the impossible. But for me personally, the hope I now have is in being able,even though slowly, to distance myself more and more from theistic belief, which, I hope, would have an impact on the guilt and shame which are the creation of that theistic belief. I suppose I could summarise the whole damb thing by saying the church destroyed my life, as it has countless others, but I suppose I should count myself lucky that I can say that these days without running the risk of being tortured on the rack as a heretic. I suppose we all have, to a great extent, to find our own way through the hell that was forced on us by being abused and by being the captives of a system, a religion, that has always been about control. control of the mind by means of instilling fear, shame and guilt.

When it comes to Mirfield, I must admit that my thoughts and feelings are full of confusion and contradictions. There are things I hate about Mirfield and there are things I love. I can understand why others who were fortunate enough to not be victims of the abuse, have fond memories of Roe Head. The more I remember my early days there, before the abuse started, which ruined my life, the more I know I was once in a place where I was happy. I certainly was not aware of any of the points I made earlier about theism and organised religion, so that didn’t bother me. I suppose that was a case of ‘ignorance is bliss’. I can see the possible benefits that revisiting Mirfield might bring, perhaps the possibility of exorcising some demons. I suppose it would all depend on the intent of the visit. But there is another side to it,something that frightens me even more. I feel that if there is any place in this world that might throw me into still further confusion it would be Mirfield. I ask myself if I really want to revisit a place and time where a big part of me still is. I know this may sound rather off the wall, but I am still drawn to the good things, the good memories. I know that this is a case of emotion defeating reason but perhaps it might have something to do with my memories of the good things being so much in contrast with the bad things, the good things representing the former me,the person I was, the person they killed. That person I was, would have grown into a better person with a different life than the disaster that my life became.

The more I remember my former self the more I long to return to 1963 when I first set foot in Roe Head. It was a wonderful time of my life and I miss it so much. Something I have said before, something that still remains with me, it’s strange how long suppressed memories from over half a century ago escape when allowed to and become just as vivid as things right now . Perhaps it’s better to try and keep them securely locked away even though that doesn’t really help deal with the problem. The faces of friends are as clear as they were then and with that comes that realisation it’s where I have have been all along. I do understand the problem. It’s like never growing up ,never growing old, never moving on, never maturing, just transforming into the unacceptable.It’s being back in a world never really left. It has always linguered there somewhere in my mind but now can become as real as today’s reality. It all comes to life . Forever looking for something lost, something stolen,something precious and irreplaceable.

I did go through a phase just recently when I welcomed remembering more of the good things because it did seem to bring some comfort, But now, it only brings feelings of despair. Despair in knowing that it’s all gone. I don’t know what else to say. Perhaps I’m mourning my dead self, as someone suggested. So that is my dilema. I’m not sure I could face going to Roe Head only to find an empty, bare landscape. It’s the same with reunions. I don’t know that I could face meeting again those I remember from Mirfield and by doing so have to then face the stark reality that Roe Head and my friends are gone forever. It’s just all confusion but I suppose I should be thankful that I am aware of the problem regardless of how painful that is.

But I must move forward. I have to start doing and not just remain in a world of thoughts and emotions. Perhaps the first thing I should do, regardless of the difficulties, is just turn up to the next reunion and see where that takes me.

Besides the prospect of that helping me, I feel I could and would contribute to the fight against that organisation, the church, which has destroyed our lives. It isn’t just about individuals doing evil things, it’s about fighting a system that is evil by it’s very nature.

Boy X

Peter Ball victim: ‘I forgive him from my heart’ —-

link:              http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p034w3yk

Radio 5 Live this morning Saturday Breakfast 6.00 am

A victim of the Bishop Peter Ball told 5 live Breakfast that he forgives him for the sexual abuse he suffered.

The Reverend Graham Sawyer, a vicar in Burnley, described Peter Ball as “a monster” but feels that “justice has been done” and he is able to forgive him.

“Not only do I forgive Peter Ball but I forgive him from my heart. I refuse to become part of this cycle of unpleasantness and nastiness. The only response is one of forgiveness and love”.

Reverend Sawyer received a handwritten letter from the Archbishop of Canterbury apologising unreservedly for the abuse he endured.

This week 83-year-old Peter Ball was sentenced to 32 months for misconduct in public office and 15 months for indecent assaults, to run concurrently. The Church of England said there were “no excuses”.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p034w3yk

Any similarities with Ball, his grooming and abuse,  and the grooming and abuse  that took place at Mirfield……………

The Catholic Church has been strongly criticised at the UN Human Rights Council for obstructing disclosure of child abuse and payment of victims’ compensation.

In an oral statement at the UN Human Rights Council 30th Session in Geneva, the European Humanist Federation rebuked the Holy See for its continued failure to accept the criticisms of the Committee on the Rights of the Child over child abuse.

The UN Human Rights Council was urged to press the Vatican on clerical child abuse and to ensure that justice is done for the victims.

An accompanying written statement, prepared with the assistance of the National Secular Society, accused the Vatican of continuing to “fiercely” obstruct the disclosure of information related to perpetrators of abuse, while dragging out the payment of compensation to victims.

The statement called on the Human Rights Council to press the Holy See to make all information about child abuse perpetrators available to local law enforcement, and urged the Human Rights Council to “instruct the Church worldwide, and its lawyers and insurers, to fairly and expeditiously settle claims and cases against the Church, including for compensation”.

Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society, said: “The Vatican has largely ignored the 67 concluding observations of the UN Committee on the Child to disclose information and report suspected abusers. Instead the Vatican criticised the Committee of experts and set up a powerless Commission on child abuse that has neither authority nor responsibility.

“Similarly, the Tribunal to oversee bishops’ actions over child abuse, cynically created in the wake of convictions of bishops for complicity over child abuse, gives the appearance of being a legitimate alternative channel for dealing with reprobate bishops. Whatever the intention it prevented bishops being reported to relevant law enforcement authorities for investigation and prosecution.

“Both Commission and Tribunal have been a publicity triumph but have compounded the Church’s abuse of victims.”

Meanwhile, in a separate intervention, the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) has told the UN that secularism is essential for the genuine promotion of human rights around the world.

Elizabeth O’Casey, head of IHEU’s delegation to the United Nations, told the UN Human Rights Council that secular democracy is “essential” for the defence and advancement of human rights, and for “guaranteeing inclusivity and ensuring four principles underscoring human rights: freedom, equality, dignity and universalism.”

Ms O’Casey said secularism is “necessary for individual freedom. Its origins are rooted in the principle of free thought, from which many other rights guaranteeing freedoms emanate – such as freedom of religion or belief and expression.

“It is necessary for equality. Underpinning secularism is the equality of all under the law and a rejection of discriminatory traditional, cultural or religious practices.

“It is necessary for human dignity. It identifies individuals as equal citizens and not merely members of a religious or non-religious group; this gives dignity to the individual as a human rights bearer, not to be stereotyped as a member of a particular group or fetishized for the sake of inherently divisive identity politics.

“It is necessary for universalism. Whilst a secular democracy creates space for dialogue and the recognition of diversity, it asks that arguments are presented in universal terms so as to ensure mutual understanding. It is upon these universal foundations our rights and the vocabulary common to all humankind are grounded.

“Secular democracy provides a backdrop essential for the prevention of human rights violations.”

Ms O’Casey added that human rights “will only flourish in a political framework where people are seen as human rights agents and not defined primarily by their beliefs or arbitrary characteristics [such as gender or race].

The statement called on the High Commissioner and Council to explore the role of secularism in the protection of human rights.

The Human Rights Council has attracted serious criticism this week after it emerged that Saudi Arabia had been selected to head a key UN human rights panel.

On Oct. 2, a Chilean news channel brought to light a May 6 recording of Pope Francis defending Bishop Juan Barros, who was recently assigned to Osorno, Chile, despite allegations that the new bishop covered up clergy sex abuse by a priest in the 1980s and 1990s.

Though evidence of the priest’s abuse was verified by Chile’s judicial court, statute of limitations allowed Fr. Fernando Karadima to dodge prosecution. When a separate Vatican investigation found the priest guilty of abuse, he was condemned in 2011 to a life of prayer and penance in a convent outside of Santiago.

“[The diocese] lost its independence once it let its head be filled with what politicians say, who are judging a bishop without any evidence, even after 20 years as bishop,” Francis said in the May 6 recording, before a group of Chilean Catholics in Rome who asked the pope to send a message to those in Osorno disappointed by the arrival of Barros. “Think with your heads and do not be led by the noses by the lefties who orchestrated this whole thing,” he said in Spanish, as translated by NCR.

Though Barros was never tried for covering up Karadima’s abuse, testimonial evidence has suggested Barros destroyed incriminating correspondence, while other victim testimonies claimed Barros was present during the sexual acts. Though Chilean courts uphold the testimonial evidence, Barros has denied the allegations and has never faced a canonical or civil case.

Francis appointed Barros bishop of Osorno in March, meeting stiff resistance by its people, most notably demonstrated by the hundreds of protestors at Barros’ installation Mass March 21. Francis made the appointment despite the objections, which haven’t abated.

In the video from May, Francis said, “The only charges brought against Barros were discredited by the judicial court, so please do not lose serenity,” he continued. “Osorno suffers, yes, but for being foolish, because they do not open their hearts to what God says, and instead get carried away by all this silliness that everyone speaks of.”

The Karadima case touches Francis not just through Barros: In 2013, Francis appointed Cardinal Francisco Javier Errázuriz Ossa – Karadima’s most powerful defender, and Santiago’s archbishop from 1998 to 2010 – as one of nine on the Council of Cardinals, a group that advises the pope. But Juan Carlos Cruz, one of Karadima’s alleged victims who testified that Barros was present during the sexual acts, has long been outspoken in accusing Errázuriz of conspiracy.

Then, in early September, a Chilean newspaper published an email exchange (dated 2013 and 2014) between Errázuriz and his successor, Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati. In the emails, which the archdiocese confirmed were authentic, the two cardinals discussed how to block Cruz from being invited to speak at a meeting of the pope’s child protection commission.

According to the Associated Press, Ezzati’s office said the emails were merely private exchanges of opinion, acknowledging that they had no influence on the Vatican’s decision. But the email scandal reignited outrage throughout Chile just months after Francis appointed Barros as Osorno’s new bishop.

The video of Francis was released two days after Errázuriz testified in a civil lawsuit against the archdiocese, filed by Cruz and two other victims of Karadima’s abuse. The accusations against Errázuriz asserted that the cardinal was fully aware yet chose to ignore the abuse as early as 2003. In his five-hour testimony, Errázuriz admitted that he knew of the allegations against Karadima, but said he failed to act because he sincerely believed the charges were untrue.

“I am the first to try and punish someone with these types of accusations,” Francis continued in the recording. “But in this case there is no proof – on the contrary. I say this from the heart. Do not be fooled by those who only look for fuss, who look for scandal.”

Asked if the children were in some way responsible, he replied: “In many cases, yes.”

“Unfortunately there are children who seek affection because they don’t get it at home and then if they find some priest he can even give in (to the temptation). I understand this,” Flaim said in an interview on the private La 7 network on Tuesday.

The diocese said in a statement that Flaim’s comments did not reflect the diocese’s position on child sex abuse by clergy and ran counter to “the sentiments of the entire Church community” on the scandal.

Pope Francis has met victims of sexual abuse twice since his election in 2013, the latest during his visit to the United States last month.

The pope offered them his most comprehensive comments on the sexual abuse scandal in his 2-1/2 year papacy and used his strongest language yet in condemning it and promising that “all those responsible will be held accountable”.

I feel that the Combonis are just waiting for the whole sordid mess relating to those that were abused at Mirfield to go away.
Many people do not want to hear or read about it anymore.
One terribly disparaging comment I heard recently was that it had become, “a little too long in the tooth.” For me, and I am sure for many others, that comment causes tremendous pain and anguish.
It is not about the abuse that I, and many others, suffered being old news and old stories.
It is not about stories.
It is about people’s lives – it is about my life.
Sexual abuse, on the scale that it happened at Mirfield, was unbelievably appalling.

Sexual abuse such as what happened at the Combonis Junior Seminary at Mirfield  destroys  the lives not only of the children that were abused, but also the lives of those children when they are adults – that is was what I experienced. It can tip you over the edge.
Some children will never understand or come to terms with what happened to them. They block it out. They run away. They do anything to escape from their nightmarish memories. Some kill themselves.
And those that were abused by members of an institution such as the Catholic Church are often more severely traumatised by their experiences. They spend many years, as I did, trying to look and accept the abuse that happened to them. And when they have understood and come to terms with that, they then spend many more years attempting to engage with the abuser, and the abuser’s institution.
In my case, as has been demonstrated and written about in the last couple of days by the Combonis, it shows just how difficult this can be.

The twenty years of attempting an engagement and a meeting with the Combonis  have been to no avail.
However, in my opinion,  the abuse that happened by the Comboni Missionaries at Mirfield – and still happens psychologically to this day – has not yet  become “too long in the tooth.”

Mark Murray

I hope, as I am sure that many others do, that the Brothers and Priests of the Comboni Missionary order, see the appointment of a new Father General as a route to truth and justice when dealing with the present abuse crisis that surrounds the Comboni order.

Do not be afraid of the truth – do not be afraid of listening.

You are all anonymous on this Blog if that is what you wish.
We look forward to some writings from Combonis, those that are strong and those that want to live their life the way your Gospel wants.

Mark Murray