Comboni Missionaries | Do they have no shame? Have they no Conscience?

Posted on by gerambo

Comboni Missionaries

I don’t know about other readers but it fills me with anger to hear how this Boy X’s life was ruined by a serial child rapist and paedophile priest. See the article below Comboni Missionaries – They still control me. I’m still at Mirfield

To think that the Comboni Missionaries won’t even apologise for the abuse and the cover up, which goes up to the highest levels of the Comboni Missionaries.

Indeed Missioneros Combonianos don’t even admit it happened. Callously, they even say that paying those abused out was just a bean count, It was the cheapest option.

Boy X hasn’t even claimed aginst them.

I remember a psychologist who once said that when a bad thing happens to you when you are a 12 year old, you close down that part of your personality. While the rest of your personality develops into adulthood, some aspects of your personality, which have been surpressed and locked away, don’t grow at all. Parts of your personality stay as just a 12-year-old.

This is what appears to be the case with Boy X.

Boy X’s Suffering

Boy X needs to somehow unlock that door and let the supressed parts of his personality out, so that they too can grow up as well, and he can become an all round adult.

As he says, he is still at Mirfield and feels that he will be there forever, locked up there by what happened to him.

We wish him well!

Comboni Missionaries Holy Men

As for those rapers of 11-14 year old boys, and those who are still covering it up, and saying that it never happened……..how could they? How can they?

And they are out there every day acting as ‘holy men’ lecturing Catholics on their morals.

As Jesus once said “By their followers ye shall know them”.

I wonder what Jesus would have made of priests who committed statutory rape on little boys.

I wonder what Jesus would have thought about those who covered it up and who protect statutory rapists and paedophiles from the clutches of the UK police.

To read about Boy X’s abuse at the hands of Comboni Missionary Paedophiles click on Boy X’s Story of Abuse

Comboni Missionaries – They still control me. I’m still at Mirfield

Posted on by gerambo

Comboni Missionaries

This was sent to us anonymously by Boy X. In pevious articles he has told us of his time at the Comboni Missionaries (then Verona Fathers) seminary at Mirfield in Yourkshire. He claims to have been tormented by Bishop Lorenzo Ceresoli, who was then Father Lorenzo Ceresoli, and chased into the hands of serial paedophile Father John Pinkman. A previous article also explains how he met Father Pinkman again in King’s Cross or Waterloo station, where he now plied his trade as a rent boy.

Here he tells us about his feeling of sadness at Christmas and the man he should have become.

Boy X’s Christmas Story

I’ve always found Christmas particularly depressing and have to force myself to pretend all is well especially for the sake of those close to me. Christmas should be a happy time and maybe that’s what brings the unbearable sadness to the front , making it almost impossible to hide.

There have been times I’ve felt like I am standing on the edge of the abyss, having asked all the questions and finding all the answers and with that realizing there is no meaning and purpose to anything.

All there is is complete emptineess and despair. But something has always held me back from taking that final step into oblivion. That damned religion still lingers there. Fear maybe,in the sense as Hamlet said ‘Conscience makes cowards of us all’. The fear in the possibility of hellfire. Also there is guilt knowing the pain caused to others, those I care about most. I don’t know.

Mirfield Has Haunted Him Forever

Consumed always with guilt. A hundred good things done, do not assuage the guilt of one bad thing done. It haults forever. Guilt about finding comfort in the caress of someone who was destroying me. Someone who I thought cared for me. Even after the sexual abuse started, rape I would call it, I would run towards that abuser to escape what i felt to be a worse fate.

The complete indifference , far more than that, the humiliation and ridicule heaped upon me by another, the complete feeling of utter sadness and fear I felt because of it, driving me further towards a more subtle abuser.

What an idiot. What worse fate could there have been than being victim to the unnatural affection of the one who destroyed me for ever out of his own need for self gratification.

With Me Forever

The way I feel right now, I don’t know if I have moved forward or not. Right now, I don’t want to see their faces anymore. I buried them most of my life but now they are here, vivid and real. I don’t want to even write their names or say their names but maybe that is silly and trivial considering their presence is forever.

Maybe I was right in what I said when I first had something posted on the blog. the acknowledment to myself that I am still there. in Mirfield, after all these years . I will always be there. It’s where something precious was stolen from me, that something being , me. The person I was before it all happened, the person I would have become.

To read about Boy X’s abuse at the hands of Comboni Missionary Paedophiles click on Boy X’s Story of Abuse

Comboni Missionaries | Christmas 2014 Appeal

Posted on by gerambo

Comboni Missionaries Christmas Appeal

They are known in English-speaking countries as the Comboni MIssionaries (ex-Verona Fathers), in Italy as Missionari Comboniani, in Spanish-speaking countries as Misioneros Combonianos, in German-speaking countries as Comboni-Missionare and in Portuguese-speaking countries as Missionarios Combonianos.

They have, in 2014, paid out £120,000 to 11 men who claimed to have been abused by Comboni Missionaries, Father John Pinkman, Father Domenico Valmaggia and Father Romano Nardo at their seminary in Mirfield in Yorkshire in the Sixties and Seventies.

Misioneros Combonianos

However, whatever the language, the one thing that Missionarios Combonianos have not done is apologise. As even little children know, if you don’t apologise, it means that you don’t think that you have anything to apologise for.

This is despite the current Superior General, Father (Padre) Enrique Sanchez, the boss of the Comboni Missionaries, admitting to Mark Murray that they brought Father Roman Nardo home in 1997, after 27 years in Uganda, after Mark’s accusations of abuse against him. He assured Mark that father Nardo was now under house arrest in a home for the sick in Verona and would be allowed no access to children.

Missionari Comboniani

And, yet, there has been no apology from Padre Enrique Sanchez or previous bosses of Missionari Comboniani like Father (Padre) David Glenday. Indeed, Missionari Comboniani are saying, callously, that paying out 120 grand to those accusing them of abuse, and the cover-up of abuse, was just the cheapest option for them. That really is a kick in the groin to those whose groins were so abused by Comboni Missionaries when they were just 11, 12, 13 and 14  years of age.

The same defence was used by Michael Jackson, and his representatives, when they paid out $20m to the father of a boy who accused Michael Jackson of abuse.

Comboni-Missionare

The closest that anyone from Misioneros Combonianos has come to apologising has been Father Martin Devenish, head of the Order in Britain who said  “We know that anyone subjected to abusive behaviour will experience suffering and we are dismayed to think such suffering may have been caused to youngsters who attended our junior seminary. If that is the case, we are deeply sorry to anyone who has been hurt in this way.”

However, there are a dozen, or more, men who were at the seminary as youngsters, who believe that the ‘if’ needs to be removed. There was no ‘if’ when they were being abused by Padre John Pinkman, Padre Domenico Valmaggia and Padre Romano Nardo of the Comboni Missionaries.

Pope Francis

Pope Francis has already apologised for the rampant abuse perpertrated on Catholic boys by priests of the Catholic Church. The Franciscans have already apologised to 14 boys abused by priests of their Order, to whom they had already paid out millions of dollars.

By not apologising, Missionarios Combonianos are out of step with the rest of the Catholic Church as far up as its very leader.

Missionarios Combonianos

2014 was the year that the Comboni Missionaries paid out £120,000 to 11 boys who were at their seminary in Mirfield. Despite what they said, those ‘boys’ have taken this as tacit admission that the abuse occurred.

Now, 2015 must be the year when the Comboni Missionaries, finally, apologise not only for the abuse that occurred but for decades of cover-up of the abuse at the very highest levels of the Order.

The longer they delay, the less any apology will be believed as being sincere.

This is the Christmas Appeal of the Mirfield 12 to the Comboni Missionaries on Christmas Day 2014.

Happy Christmas to everyone!

Let’s make it a better 2015!

Let’s make it the year that it is all over!

That would be better for everyone!

Let’s make it the year that everyone moves on!

Comboni Missionaries Caused my Christmas Depression

Posted on by gerambo

For 2015: The Comboni Missionaries to admit that sexual abuse of children took place at Mirfield.

 

Comboni Missionaries

Two years ago – it was just before Christmas, I was in my local Sainsbury store and I began to cry. I was on my own, which, in some ways, was a good thing. I carried on shopping, going through my list, and the tears carried on streaming down my face.

I did not know why I was crying. All I remember is feeling very sad, feeling very alone, feeling empty and thinking why am I like this. It was not the first time it had happened – it had happened before.

However, this was the first time I felt completely alone in the world. I sat down. It was like I was in a bubble or a vacuum.

Depression

I could not communicate with anyone. And the people I saw outside could not communicate with me. I remember, looking at people – all different kinds of people: children, families out together, old people, teenagers, and the more I looked, the more I thought about their lives. And the more I thought about their lives the more I cried. The more I looked at them, the more I thought about their existence.

The more I looked, the more I thought about their joys, their sorrows and their futures. Looking back – and I have discussed this with my psychologist – it was my life through them that I was looking at. I was experiencing depression at its bleakest.

Abuse by Comboni Missionaries

I have said in my previous post that I can now look at the abuse that happened to me at Mirfield and have come to terms with it. For many years I have been unable to do that. When I tried it became too difficult and I retreated back – maybe into the bubble, I am not sure – to a secure place.

As the American theologian Rienhold Niebuhr, wrote in his Serenity Prayer: ” God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

There is still a lot that has to change. People, may say, it was all in the past. Move on. Forget about it. It is all historical. It is not historical.

The abuse carries on. In the case of the Mirfield 12, the inaction of the Comboni Missionaries compounds the historical sexual abuse to the present day psychological abuse. And therefore the Mirfield abuse carries on.

I hope 2015 will be a year in which the Comboni Missionaries have the courage to state that sexual abuse happened at Mirfield.

Comboni Missionaries (Misioneros Combonianos) may face Statutory Enquiry over Abuse

Posted on by gerambo

Comboni Missionaries (Misioneros Combonianos)

The Comboni Missionaries, known in Spanish speaking countries as Misioneros Combonianos and in Italy as Missionari Comboniani, are likely to face a Statutory Enquiry into the sexual abuse that took place at Mirfield, Yorkshire in the UK in their seminary there in the Sixties and Seventies by Father John Pinkman of Liverpool, Father Domenico Valmaggia from Como and Father Romano Nardo from Italy.

This would mean that priests like Father Martin Devenish, Father John Fraser, Father David Glenday and Father Robert Hicks could be forced to appear before the Home Affairs Select Committee.

Indeed Comboni Missionaries abroad, like Father Enrique Sanchez and the Paedophile priest Father Romano Nardo, who is hold up at the Mother House in Verona in Italy, with no access to children, may be asked to appear as well as Father Enrique Sanchez, the Superior General of Misioneros Combonianos.

Father David Glenday of Dundee

Misioneros Combonianos highest ranking priest, Father David Glenday, is now in a senior position in the Vatican. He has access to Pope Francis. He is from Dundee in Scotland, originally.

Although there is no suggestion that he was, in any way, involved in sexual abuse, he was head of the order in the UK, Father Provincial, in the UK and head of the whole order, the Superior General, in the nineties around the time that Mark Murray first complained about being sexually abused by Father Romano Nardo.

He also went to the Comboni Missionaries seminary in Mirfield at the same time as many of the boys who were abused and who reported the abuse. As a Dundee man, Father David Glenday may find it even more difficult than Father Enrique Sanchez, to refuse to attend an enquiry into sexual abuse by the Comboni Missionaries at Mirfield to answer questions as to what he knew about the sexual abuse and the cover-up.

Father Romano Nardo

There’s a possibility, too, that the serial abuser, paedophile priest, Father Romano Nardo, could be the subject of an extradition order as an outcome of the committee’s findings.

Said Home Secretary Theresa May “An inquiry into historical child abuse should be able to compel witnesses to give evidence,

The panel still has no chairperson. Theresa May had previously left the decision as to whether there would be statutory powers to a new chairperson. However, this statement seems to go further than that.

Mrs May had previously said the inquiry could become statutory if that was requested by the person leading it.

Said Mrs May: “The overwhelming message I’m getting from those that I have been meeting, survivors and survivors’ representatives that I’ve been meeting, is that it’s important to make sure that we do get this right.

“I’m very clear that the inquiry should have the powers of a statutory inquiry.”

Statutory Powers for the Enquiry

This is something for which campaigners have been calling. Labour MP, Keith Vaz, asked if it was now accepted that the Committee would have Statutory Powers to call witnesses.

Mrs May replied “The message I am very clearly getting is that this is an inquiry that should have the powers to compel people to give evidence and to enforce.”

Instant Karma’s Gonna Get Ya

This is very good news for those seeking the truth about sexual abuse at the Comboni Missionaries Seminary in Mirfield and very bad news for Misioneros Combonianos and those who have shielded, or are shielding, paedophile priests.

There are even men who were abused as boys at the seminary at Mirfield who became part of the cover-up. They will be forced to attend the enquiry too and forced, under oath, to tell the truth. They are on the wrong side of history.

We live in interesting times. One feels the word Karma coming up. Another expression that comes to mind is ‘what goes around, comes around’.

One also feels is that time is running out for the Paedophile priests of Misioneros Combonianos and those who have protected and shielded them for some long. The time and tides are against them.

Thank you Father Martin Devenish

Posted on by markmurray1

Comboni Missionaries (Missionari Comboniani)

I recently wrote a letter to the Father General of  the Comboni Missionaries asking to meet Father Romano Nardo   or the Father General, Father Enrique Sanchez.

I wanted a different reply than the one I received .

The reply, i received, stated that I  could  not meet Romano Nardo as his mental state is still  too fragile.

I have wanted, and requested,  for many years,  to meet my abuser, Father Romano Nardo

If that had been made possible in 2001,  when I requested such a meeting, through a letter I wrote  to Father Martin Devenish, the then Father Provincial, I would not be writing this now.

Comboni Missionaries Blog

This blog  would not exist,  and the sordid abuse that happened at Mirfield would, also possibly,  not now be out in the public domain.

I am, now able to say to  Father Martin Devenish, that I am glad you responded in the way you did.

Because of your inaction to my letter, then in 2001, you have enabled,  and you have empowered, many people to have the  courage to speak out about their suffering and abuse at Mirfield.

The Blog exists because of your refusal to accept and have honest and truthful, dialogue with me.

Father Martin Devenish

I never thought I would say  this: “thank you, Father Martin Devenish.”

You have always offered me and my family prayers. But those prayers Father Martin  Devenish are hard to accept. I cannot embrace such prayers.

The prayers, because of your past actions are empty. And how dare you offer me prayers when  you have no idea of my religious beliefs or non religious beliefs.

I am sure there are many people that are now able to thank you for your inaction in 2001. You should feel good that there are now many people that, have for the first time, been able to talk and write about the abuse that happened to them at Mirfield.

Mark Murray

If I can not meet up with father Romano Nardo, I would still be willing to meet Father David Glenday and Superior General Father Enrique Sanchez.

Comboni Missionaries and Pope Francis’s Attitudes to Sexual Abuse

Posted on by gerambo

Comboni Missionaries (Missionari Comboniani)

We received this from Danny Sullivan who is the Chair of the National Catholic Safeguarding Commission for England and Wales.

A clear statement from the pope

The Roman Catholic church will always be judged on how it engages with victims and survivors of abuse (“Sins of the Fathers”, Magazine). Unfortunately, the account of the experience of victims in relation to the then Verona Fathers (now Comboni Missionaries) reflects a stark difference of attitude from that of Pope Francis.

I was present at the mass where Pope Francis addressed all victims and survivors of abuse in a Catholic church setting.

Where the leader of the now Comboni Missionaries indicates that if anyone (and note the qualification) has been hurt by one of its priests his thoughts and prayers are with them, Pope Francis identified the experience of survivors of abuse and humbly asked forgiveness.

He even more profoundly begged forgiveness of those who were not believed or listened to and he praised the courage of survivors in coming forward, recognising how difficult that is in itself.

Evidence shows that paedophiles have on average at least four victims and often significantly more the longer they remain undetected, a profoundly painful reality that all of us in the Catholic church need to recognise.

Victims and survivors of abuse will only believe statements from the church when private practice matches public pronouncements.

Pope Francis this year, by approving the removal from ministry of an archbishop accused of abuse who was a papal nuncio and placing him under house arrest and subject to trial in Vatican State, is making a clear statement of intent to all victims.

“The sins of our fathers” shows just how far we yet have to go. Thank you for publishing it.

Danny Sullivan

Chair, National Catholic Safeguarding Commission for England and Wales

Marks’ New Comboni Missionaries (Missionari Comboniani) Story

Posted on by gerambo

Comboni Missionaries – Mark’s New Story

These days I am certainly dealing with my life in a much more calm and settled way than  I had before.

I am not desperate to see Father Romano Nardo. Yes, Father Enrique Sanchez’s  reply annoyed me,  and upset me – it was half-expected wasn’t it?

And my world will not fall apart if I never have the opportunity to see Nardo. However, it will keep on being awkward for  the Comboni Missionaries when it is  highlighted  that they refused to let me meet with Nardo,  especially  when the possible outcome of such a meeting could have been me offering forgiveness to him.

My offer of forgiveness to Nardo is not my raison d’etre in what I am doing. It never has been.

Organisation Change

So why am I doing what I am doing. It is for change. Change within organisations, especially powerful institutions like the Catholic Church. We talk about apologies and acknowledgements but that really does not matter. It certainly does not to me now – it used to, but not now. Apologies and acknowledgements come about through dialogue, honest dialogue where truth and humility are ever present. I can not see that happening just yet.

I may have said and used certain words in the past. However, it was often said because I did not know what I really wanted to happen and consequently did not know what to say. Justice, apology, acknowledgment and listening  were often banded about. Easy words – especially if they come from the abusers or the abusers’ organisations like  the Comboni Missionaries. It can get  them off the hook. Now It is easier for me to  say what I want to say, and I will certainly say what I believe to be the truth when given  the  opportunity.

Father Nardo Romano

I have moved on considerably – for the better – especially in the last year.

I feel that there has been a line drawn under the abuse that Nardo perpetrated on me. Call it closure, call it moving on or call it  peace with myself; it does not matter –  but it is there and it is within me.

The moving on and drawing a line underneath the  Comboni Missionaries behaviour and how their actions has affected aspects of my life is harder. However, I can deal with most of those feelings as well.

I am undertaking activities and interest that i would have been unable to do two years ago. I am not preoccupied for most of the day with the Comboni Missionaries.

 

Abuse at Mirfield

The above are all activities i would be unable to undertake if i had not come to terms with the abuse at Mirfield.

There are many good days now – and a couple of bad days. I have a good psychotherapist that I can relate to. He has helped enormously. And yes, we have talked about forgiveness and meeting with Nardo.

The Mirfield 12 have had an enormous positive effect on me: not being alone when fighting for change; the strength that comes from being part of a group; the humour  at times between  us  and the concern we have for each other.

We  are a  unique group. There is no other like us in the world. I  believe  we can make things happen,  and make change a reality for many children who have suffered or are suffering abuse within institutions and organisations .

Click on Mark’s Story to read about his abuse at the  hands of the Comboni Missionaries.

Mark
seriously serious

Tony’s New Story

Posted on by gerambo

Comboni Missionaries (Missionari Comboniani)

I have just clocked up 1500 emails on the subject of the Comboni Missionaries (Verona Fathers), since this all started for me in September 2013. What i have achieved in the last 15 months is:-

1 Proof to myself, my ex-wife, my children and grandchildren that I was sexually abused in 1965/66 by the Comboni Missionaries, formerly known as the Verona Fathers. Also proof to my siblings, all my relations, and the people who knew and know me, that abuse by the Comboni Missionaries took place at that age of 11/12.

2 I have become united with the Mirfield 12, which is very important to me. I am in contact with the very people I need to be, as we all have the scars.

3 I have seen it in black and white in The Observer national paper, my local papers for all to see, and various other copy around the country. It is available online around the world. I have even been on TV, which was not in my plan. The Comboni Missionaries abuse is out in the open for everyone to see, and not to hide from anymore.

4 There is a chance that something may come off the Theresa May inquiry, but I am too sceptical to hold my breath.

5 There is a chance, although I think it is a very slim one, and again I will not hold my breath, that Father Romani Nardo will face British Justice.

6 I am free off all illegal narcotics, and so have a chance to make my life worth living.

7 I am engaged with the Psychological services in the area, and I am hoping to get on the right track. Although I have been seeing somebody or another for 40 years, so we will see.

8I don’t expect any honest dialogue with those cowards in Italy. I would like to be in their face with Google etc for ever though.

To find out about the abuse perpertrated on Tony as a 11/12 year old, click on Anthony;s Story

New Twitter account: Comboni Abuse

Posted on by bedethebuilder

Comboni Missionaries (Missionari Comboniani) Abuse

A Twitter account has been set up ‘Comboni Abuse’  and is linked to this blog site. New post to this site will be tweeted and hopefully gain a bigger audience. Please pass on information about our Twitter account and encourage as many as possible to follow and tweet. Use  #comboniabuse #catholicabuse #vefonafathersabuse in your tweets. Let’s build the community of followers like we have done for the blog site