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Column Have we become numb to the figures on clerical child abuse?
I am one of the fortunate survivors to have secured a criminal conviction against one of two Spiritan priests who sexually abused me. Last week’s national audits of the Catholic clergy show others are not so lucky, writes campaigner Mark Vincent Healy.
THE RELEASE LAST week of eight more national audits of the Catholic clergy by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland (NBSCCCI) reveals a consistent trend that few religious perpetrators of the sexual abuse of children are being held to account by the Catholic Church or State in Ireland.
The audits of 22 dioceses and six congregations show allegations were made against 796 religious where only 48 priests, or 6 per cent, were convicted. The cold statistics utterly fail to portray what such figures represent to survivors and their families.
It is too hard to comprehend that 1,933 people raised allegations of abuse against 796 religious in 28 audits over four tranches conducted by the NBSCCCI so far.
The aggregate figures seem unable to shock or appal. They have all been heard before. People do not want to be reminded of that stomach churn and anger they experienced when such news was far more visceral the first time they heard it.
A 94 per cent chance of getting away with clerical child sexual abuse sends out all the wrong signals.
As a survivor, I would like to take a look at what’s in a figure; examine the differences between Diocesan and Congregational child abuse data; review missionary child sexual abuse and see if the future holds out any hope for survivors and their families.
What’s in a number?
First let us look at the figures – what’s in a figure, a single count or conviction? As a survivor, I have no wish to feed any prurient interest in the details of such abuse of children. Perhaps when one considers what a conviction actually means, it might help put some perspective on the gravity of what has been reported in the figures presented to the public concerning the participants in the latest audits by the NBSCCCI.
Figures matter, so let us look at the facts in the public domain behind the audits remembering each figure represents enormous distress and lifelong suffering.
In the St Patrick’s Missionary Society audit, there is one conviction reported, where in fact there should have been two. The single figure in the report represented the conviction of Fr Thomas Naughton and the missing figure represented laicised Peter Kennedy. Both men were convicted and reported in the news media.
On 17th December 2009, Fr Thomas Naughton, a 78-year-old member of the St Patrick’s Missionary Society, was convicted and sentenced to two years imprisonment having pleaded guilty to indecent assault of a victim, which began in 1982 when the victim was only six years old and Naughton was 51 years of age.
On 9th July 2013, former priest Peter Kennedy, a 74-year old former Kiltegan, was convicted and sentenced to ten years imprisonment having pleaded guilty to indecent assault of 18 victims in over 100 incidents between 1968 and 1986. One the victims was only eight years old when his abuse began. Kennedy was 29 years of age when he began abusing these boys.
Now read the St Patrick’s Missionary Society report where it says one priest was convicted. It doesn’t reveal the half of it; the bravery of the abused to seek justice, the devastation to the lives of so many, nor the fact when you increase the number from one to two for those convicted how many lives that increment by one represents. You suddenly are presented with 18 brave survivors and countless family members affected by such crimes and intergenerational lifetime devastation.
Survivors rarely obtain justice
In the eight dioceses of Derry, Dromore, Limerick, Elphin, Killala, Waterford and Lismore, Achonry and Archdioceses Cashel and Emly, there are now a total of 198 allegations against 109 priests for which there have been no convictions.
The fact none, or so few, are ever held to account would not encourage others to come forward – especially when one considers the high risks involved in doing so.
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The question is simply this: would you take such risks, or even encourage someone dear to you to raise their complaint, in light of this information and the odds stacked against them? If you loved them at all, you would probably implore them to come away from such an action, fearing for them greatly.
Many times survivors are told how brave they are, how courageous they are but they are also described as ‘money grabbers’ or seeking attention for a failed this or that life. Their suffering is minimised or trivialised in the multiplicity of lifespan burdens, which are all too often theirs to carry alone, if they can carry them.
Have we become inured or numbed to the headlines and desensitised to the realities behind the figures? Can we no longer sense the heartache and life span devastation of those so abused and indeed their families and communities?
Missionary child sexual abuse
If the average rate of accountability is only 6 per cent for clerical child sexual abuse that lowers to only 4.6 per cent for missionaries who are convicted, compared with 7.8 per cent for diocesans recorded in 22 of the 26 dioceses in Ireland.
Not all survivors involved are from Ireland as revealed by missionary audits and reviews. Missionary child sexual abuse presents enormous complexity. For this reason, I have felt compelled to raise awareness of missionary child sexual abuse notwithstanding the enormous good in the world achieved by most missionaries for which the Irish people can be rightly proud. However we must not shirk any responsibility to offer ‘Rescue Services’ and ‘Safe Space Provisioning’ which I am calling for to those survivors abused by Irish missionaries at home and overseas.
It has been very difficult to report on missionary child sexual abuse since the RTÉ fiasco, “Mission to Prey”, aired on 23rd May 2011. Following the release of the programme, the former head of the Irish Missionary Union, Fr Eamon Aylward said it would be difficult to investigate crimes in 83 different countries, but that in Ireland 99.9 per cent cooperation with state authorities is in place.
To date there have been six missionary orders audited where a total of 452 priests have had 1,208 allegations raised against them but only 4.6 per cent or 21 priests have been convicted. This is a very sad reality which ought to raise calls for investigations into clerical sex abuse in Africa by Irish missionaries.
In the audit reports to date, seven of those brave enough to come forward were from Africa where the risks are far greater to them in coming forward due to the very unsympathetic reception facing survivors of missionary child sexual abuse in Africa. Three are reported to have come forward in the Kiltegan report and four came forward in the Spiritan (Holy Ghost Fathers) audit report in the last tranche.
One particular case involves an African who reported his abuse by a member of the Spiritans to the National Board for Safeguarding Children in May 2012 but it was not recorded in the audit report issued in September 2012 some five months after notifying the auditors. Only due to pressure to publish a correction was the error and oversight recorded on the NBSCCCI website in an amended Spiritan report. The number of priests against whom a complaint had been raised was incremented by one to 48 but notification to the Gardaí or HSE has not been incremented.
Indeed it has only been reported that the safeguarding board has “no remit” to deal with abuse by Irish priests abroad. Not only are these African victims bereft of any justice by and large, but their legal rights are not protected where they have been contacted directly by agents for the religious orders involved.
As a survivor, I would think it is not the place of the religious orders or their agents to compromise any survivor’s well-being or take high risks of re-traumatising them in the guise of support for them. Investigations are for the civil authorities due to the risks involved to any victim, both legally and medically.
Conviction rates for sexual crimes
Obtaining a 6 per cent conviction rate for clerical child sexual abuse actually seems high when you consider that the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre noted in its Annual Report for 2012 that only three cases of rape out of 322 known cases actually succeeded in a criminal conviction. This shows that the crime of rape in general has less than a 1 per cent chance of a conviction for 2012 in Ireland.
If anything, these odds are a frightening and powerful argument against personally reporting such abuse where justice demands so much from the victim and their families. Certainly, from a perpetrator or facilitator’s perspective, the policy of denial, collusion and cover up, pays too big a dividend in deferred minimal sanction imposed on perpetrators and an enormous financial gain over decades in accrued reputational standing to a diocese or congregation earned at the expense of sexually abused children. It is this sort of ‘return on deception’, which can motivate the facilitation of such heinous crimes against children. Financial restitution is the very thing that is so begrudgingly offered, if at all, and is invariably the cause of further humiliation and re-traumatises victims who seek what they most justly deserve.
Safeguarding policy may well be improving and for that, mandatory reporting is needed – but so too then are ‘Rescue Services’ and ‘Safe Space Provisioning’ for survivors. Safeguarding should mean far better services to survivors and their families not just abuse prevention.
Mark Vincent Healy is a survivor campaigner seeking ‘Rescue Services’ and ‘Safe Space Provisioning’ for survivors of clerical child sexual abuse.
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I don’t care how old the perpetrators are, they should rot in jail until they die. What happened was sick beyond sick, and I will never understand how people continue to turn a blind eye to the cover up and the continued actions of the church. I for one will never attend mass again.
Very true. There are still a lot of people who turn a blind eye to it, most of them from the old school catholic Ireland days, they will go on and on about god Jesus etc, but when you bring up clerical abuse and their thoughts on it- silence
What almost no-one knows is that it wasn’t the church that paid the State for the abuse claims indemnity but their insurance company. So the filthy animals continue to sit on piles of money and laugh as the tax payer continues to cough up money as a result of the deal they reached with the State. It’s all wrong. Strip the church and compensate the victims and the taxpayer!
I’m a (bad) catholic. I (try to) go to Mass every Sunday (if I don’t have a hangover). This despite a young priest once telling me once that “the Sabbath and holy days of obligation are non-negotiable”.
I truly believe that the current generation of clergy are doing everything they can to persuade those lapsed in the faith that there is hope beyond this lonely planet that we inhabit.
I was at Mass in a university chaplaincy today and I’d say it was 70% retired people who happen to live close by, 20% staff members (including Opus Dei, Knights of Malta, Knights of St. Columbanus, etc.) and 10% students.
Personally, I find that praying for the holy souls suffering in purgatory and to Our Lady helps me to stand tall against the growing tide of secularism. Surely the youth of today yearn a lot more than that which is temporary, earthly, fickle and a distraction to our ultimate fate?
But I don’t have all the answers — I’m just a pleb.
Much easier for most people to deny abuse, than admit it happened in their cult.
Cognitive dissonance is generally the order of the day.
Also the old patriarchal beliefs that all children born of Eve ill women are evil too and liars.Yet stats show only a tiny % fabricate sexual abuse.
If people of Ireland accepted the truth re child abuse- rape of children, then the churches would be empty on Sundays.
Any solicitor will tell you, there is no such thing as justice for victims in Ireland.
I prefer the term VETERAN OF ABUSE personally as there is a different energy attached to it.
Richie what has child rape and sexual abuse got to do with your personal beliefs system. Your posting in the wrong area . Judging by your selfish post you have no support for the victims/survivors of clerical sexual assault . No-one gives a jot for your personal beliefs .Your on the mark for calling yourself a pleb though .
The church has also had time to shift its money offshore and into trusts, so will avoid paying .
If people do not see now that this RC cult is about money and power over others, then we have learned nothing from being used and abused since these men of god landed on our shores and drove the spirit of Eire herself out,
I fully accept that the institutional church is guilty of the most appalling crimes in this matter. Prosecute them to the full extent of the law.
None of that has anything to do with my attending Mass. My saviour Jesus Christ was not party to these crimes and the crimes themselves have nothing to do with religion. Abuse happens all over the place, not just in the church, and the cover-up was to defend the institution. None of this has anything to say about my faith in Christianity.
So you are well groomed to see life as separate- heaven, hell, etc? and you believe that with no proof?
Praying for the souls- ah yes that will be the souls trapped by the RC church in order to feed off their energy.
Surely your role would be to free them? but then your masters would have no soul food and die.
No you are not a pleb, but a soul entrapped by the RC cult and so a slave and unable to evolve further for the moment.
The answers you seek are all inside YOU and not out there in the mouth of any man in a dress.
The Roman Catholic church cult has nothing to do with Christ.
History told you all the Christians and Catholics it murdered in order to take over and control all through fear, threats , burnings etc.
You can also only save yourself. Jesus only showed the way to do it. http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/murderers.htm
“The Church, which, with a satanic twist of humour, claimed to be the instrument of ‘Christ’s loving kindness’ , taught a brutalised and impoverished people new meanings to the words pain and suffering…”
“If every church, chapel and cathedral in the country crumpled into dust overnight, I’d wake up tomorrow morning and celebrate it.”
That puts you in the same category as Lenin, Stalin, Hitler (who hated Christianity because he regarded it as being “tainted” by Judaism), Hoxha and Pol Pot.
“That puts you in the same category as Lenin, Stalin, Hitler (who hated Christianity because he regarded it as being “tainted” by Judaism), Hoxha and Pol Pot.”
A tired old argument that gets dragged out any time someone says they’d like to see the end of religion, often made by people who cannot comprehend that religion does not equal morality (I’m not talking about you specifically Ciaran, as I don’t know you).
It’s perfectly possible to live a good life without being religious. I’m an atheist and I never intentionally do harm to other people. It’s really not that difficult to be a good person.
I would also be perfectly happy to see every church, chapel and cathedral in the country crumpled into dust overnight too. And I’d love to see playgrounds and schools and parks and sports centres and libraries take their places.
The church both perpetrated and covered up the child abuse that happened (and is probably still happening in some places). This alone is enough for me to wish for all organised religion to disappear in a puff of smoke.
“It’s perfectly possible to live a good life without being religious.”
I never said that it wasn’t. Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists have have as much right to practise their beliefs as atheists and agnostics have to be free from religion.
“The church both perpetrated and covered up the child abuse that happened (and is probably still happening in some places). This alone is enough for me to wish for all organised religion to disappear in a puff of smoke.”
The Church has learned from the past. There was a cover-up that was carried out by members of the hierarchy. However, you must not lose sight of the fact that child molesters in the Church have always constituted a small minority of ordinary priests. Please do not tar all priests with the same brush.
“Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists have have as much right to practise their beliefs as atheists and agnostics have to be free from religion…”
Absolutely. But that does not mean they are immune from criticism, no more than atheists are. I expect my views to be challenged as much as those who are religious should also expect to be challenged. Being religious is no protection from criticism.
“The Church has learned from the past. There was a cover-up that was carried out by members of the hierarchy. However, you must not lose sight of the fact that child molesters in the Church have always constituted a small minority of ordinary priests. Please do not tar all priests with the same brush.”
Until the church fully admits culpability (and not just lip service) and has paid reparations to each and every victim of their terrible abuse and until ALL the people who were involved in the abuse (both the abusers and those who helped cover it up) are in prison or are made pay for their crimes, then sorry, I’m going to keep the opinion that the church has learned NOTHING.
I find all religion abhorrent. Good deeds and good acts do not require a belief in a god or gods. I am free to believe this. Just as you are free to continue to have your faith. :)
Ian Watkins has been jailed for 35 years for sex abuse. No Irish judge would ever hand down such a sentence. If the judges continue to hand down mediocre sentences, almost always suspended, is it any wonder people roll their eyes when they hear about sex abuse on radio or TV? If our govt and our courts aren’t prepared to take the abuse of children seriously why should anybody else? It’s high time our nation took its constitutional duty of cherishing its children seriously
For me and anyone I know in the general public, no. I’m just as disgusted as I was the first time I heard the stories and saw the numbers.
I personally think that the current pope is the PR guy for the Vatican, all smiles and acts like his different but in reality they’ve not changed one bit.
How they can claim this is beyond me, considering that the Bishops in all the countrys followed the Vaticans directions on how to move around priests and swear victims to silence.
Good to see you back writing here Mark. As usual, a stunning article, filled with facts. You are singularly the best writer on this topic I’ve seen in this country. Hats off.
Some of the religious people who comment on the journal (usually the most pious) defend the indefensible.
If any non religious organisation had the same track record the only verdict would be an unanimous uproar of condemnation.
But Religion gets to play by a different set of rules! Regardless if an organisation believes in one God or multiple Gods or no Gods at all the same set of rules should apply and regardless of beliefs non should be above the law.
I know of one congregation in Ferns who happily dipped into their pockets when the priest asked them to donate to the compensation fund for the church’s victims.
There are many practising catholics like yourself Sinead who are appalled at what’s happened. But there are many more who side with the church, who don’t believe the priests could ever abuse little children, who simply won’t have any criticism of their beloved institution.
I think we’ve overdosed on it unfortunately. I think the public have ‘moved on’ and it has become exhausted mediawise. Likely, not many will read this article, likely were it on the radio right now people would reach for the dial. Honestly, I’d probably reach for the dial myself at this point.
Catholic and charities assets need to be seized by government to pay compensation to survivors, and recover moneys for the tax payers of Ireland who have helped get justice for survivors. This is a national disgrace.
As an Irish survivor living in Australia I had to wait until I was over 60 years of age to get redress and counselling. I had post traumatic stress syndrome disorder for most of my life and it took nearly 80 sessions with a psychologist to get me near recovery at the cost of Irish tax-payers.
The churches and charities have no idea regarding the terrible pain that has been caused to the victims to satisfy the lust of their clergy and staff, and yet their buildings stand triumphantly as if nothing had happened. If the churches want to show their repentance, they need to pay the bills to bring proper recovery to the victims. Why should the Irish tax payer have to foot the bills?
This is Ireland’s holocaust there should be a memorial erected in memory of all the victims / survivors/ veterans of clerical abuse . Lest they be forgotten . I would definitely contribute.
Beabad. Do you know what.. I reckon the word holocaust describes it well.
No one knew the horrors inflicted on innocent children. And that wasnt the worst of it. The children were liars. And even that wasnt the worst of it. The perpetrators were moved and allowed find new victims. And after all that the “bishops” didnt even report the rape and buggery of children.
I would class it up there with the famine on the damage that was done to our citizens
“The question is simply this: would you take such risks, or even encourage someone dear to you to raise their complaint, in light of this information and the odds stacked against them?”
Likely, no.
Not if I read your article and it was laid out as you have done. But, honestly, I’d give them your email instead. I mean that sincerely.
Last night I was watching Miss Fisher investigates. The plot initial plot, which turned out not to be the main plot was about the laundries in Australia. The lead character was discussed at the treatment of the workers (inmates) and took her business elsewhere. However the copper stated that the laundries were exempt from child labour laws. It had me thinking was this the case here in Ireland, that the state had in place laws that protected or exempted the laundries. If so this not just the church (which most of us are part of) but the politicians who were in power at the time. I do not know what religion these politicians were, but it can be safely assumed that they were not all catholic, and for them to sit idly by was just as bad.
It would appear ,and sentencing reflects this ,that being a member of the clergy somehow is treated as a mitigating circumstance.The attitude of the judiciary in sentencing clerics would leave one almost convinced that this is as a result of ‘influences’.Rome rules from a distance and we have to settle for its hollow apologies and its halfhearted co-operation.
In Ireland, even when if the perpetrator is not a man of god, the child victim is generally re abused by the so called professionals who are usually not trained to begin with.
Or what about HSE agents who threaten abused children with a mental institution and ECT , Never see their siblings again, etc unless they recant the abuse?
The use of ECT is used to burn out memories of abuse, so child can be placed back with abuser.
What kind of social workers do such things to child victims of abuse in the name of child protection, while innocent parents get blamed at times too.
“Have we become numb to the figures on clerical child abuse?”
I think so, Mark. Yes.
I think I’ve – not we – have not only become numb, but I now consider it historical in my own mind. If there was court case of abuse and a rare conviction or case in itself reported tomorrow, and I was typically sitting at the kitchen table with my 2 year old, and watching the RTE 6 news, and a visual of a priest entering and leaving the court house was shown, while I was doing the day to day things one does with a toddler, I’d have forgotten about it by the time she was giving out about her teddy not being within arms reach. That’s a horrible thing to say.I know that.
My broader point is there is a detachment from specifically, clerical abuse – in my head, and I suspect its true of wider society too. It’s as if clerical abuse was almost like a 1960′s rock n roll band breaking new ground, and then some other group came along afterwards, and though they played music too, they were just ‘the next big thing’. I know that’s an insensitive analogy, but it’s also pretty much accurate.
I’m being honest here, Mark. Not dismissive.
If a new case of sexual abuse conviction by a member of the clergy was reported on tomorrow, I’d neither think of the priest nor child in visual terms. Yet, if I heard a story of a conviction of a child by the childs father, brother, mother, Uncle etc – straight away my brain would put a face to the child and abuser too – though I’ve never seen them, and the imaginative faces of both abuser and abused my brain would conjure up instantly. – My brain would give me the image there and then.
But, when I hear the same of clerical abuse – I only envisage a collar. I never see the child’s face in my mind’s eye. I have a detachment, Mark. You know what I mean? I’ve never been abused by a priest. So I’m uncomfortable even posting this to be honest.
I’m hoping Mark you can see it through my eyes though.
Lets hope we follow up on the SF sex abuse and cover up that has being exposed. Child sex abuse that didn’t exist according to dopey Doherty, was also funny how Mary lous opinion on how to deal with those who cover up child sex abuse doesn’t extend to her own party. The baron should be jailed for covering up the abuse if a member of his family- what a evil bastard
Clerical child abuse is horrific I’m sure, and the perpetrators need to be held accountable. However it’s rare to see an article on child abuse with out a link to the Catholic Church. I’d imagine the people who were abused by people from different walks of life feel voiceless & forgotten.
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Ensure security, prevent and detect fraud, and fix errors 82 partners can use this special purpose
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Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Deliver and present advertising and content 92 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Match and combine data from other data sources 65 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Link different devices 48 partners can use this feature
Always Active
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Identify devices based on information transmitted automatically 81 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
Save and communicate privacy choices 60 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
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