Blind Faith in Ireland leads to abuse

[Ian David]

Blind Faith in Ireland leads to abuse

A new but predictable story out of Ireland was released today. The Irish institutions for juveniles (old tern for the jailing of juvenile criminals and incorrigibles) were often run by religious groups including the Catholic Chruch. It was announced that abuses had certainly occurred from 1940 to the mid 80's at "Endemic" rates.

The abuses ranged from emotional to physical beatings for no known reason to sexual abuse. The children lived in fear not knowing if the abuse was going to come from someone in control such as a priest or an older "student".

This is the problem with blind faith. It generates absolute power and we all know that leads to corruption. I remember hearing a story of a boy in New York reporting the sexual abuse by his priest to his mother and she beat him for the accusation. We cannot turn a blind eye an defer total control to any group, especially when it comes to raising our children.

A truly disturbing aspect of this is the Catholic Church knew of the abuses and pedophiles in these institutions. This is clearly laid out in the report. You would think that an institution that had to apologize for not speaking up about the Concentration Camps would speak up about the sexual abuse of children. I guess that they aren't sincere about either problem.

More:
http://www.thinkatheist.com/profiles/blogs/blind-faith-in-ireland-leads

[Warpy]

1. My sainted granny

was a true believer, spent an hour every evening mumbling her prayers (I timed her), very church centered, always told us, "He is a priest but he's a man first."

In other words, we were taught to respect the office but watch our food stamps around the guy in the cassock.

My granny might have believed a lot of nonsense from my point of view, but she was no fool.

[groovedaddy]

2. ny times article on this subject

Report Details Abuses in Irish Reformatories
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/world/europe/21ireland.html?th&emc=th