Catholic League: Hysteria over Irish Clergy Abuse

5/21/2009
Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights (www.catholicleague.org/)

The Irish report suffers from conflating minor instances of abuse with serious ones, thus demeaning the latter.

NEW YORK (Catholic League) - After nine years of investigation, Ireland�s Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse has published its findings. More than 30,000 children, most of them delinquents, passed through one or more of Ireland�s Catholic-run institutions from the 1920s through the 1980s.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the report today:

"Reuters is reporting that �Irish Priests Beat, Raped Children,� yet the report does not justify this wild and irresponsible claim. Four types of abuse are noted: physical, sexual, neglect and emotional.

"Physical abuse includes �being kicked�; neglect includes �inadequate heating�; and emotional abuse includes �lack of attachment and affection.� Not nice, to be sure, but hardly draconian, especially given the time line: fully 82 percent of the incidents took place before 1970.

"As the New York Times noted, �many of them [are] now more than 70 years old.� And quite frankly, corporal punishment was not exactly unknown in many homes during these times, and this is doubly true when dealing with miscreants.

Regarding sexual abuse, �kissing,� and �non-contact including voyeurism� (e.g., what it labels as �inappropriate sexual talk�) make the grade as constituting sexual abuse. Moreover, one-third of the cases involved �inappropriate fondling and contact.� None of this is defensible, but none of it qualifies as rape.

"Rape, on the other hand, constituted 12 percent of the cases. As for the charge that �Irish Priests� were responsible, some of the abuse was carried out by lay persons, much of it was done by Brothers, and about 12 percent of the abusers were priests (most of whom were not rapists).

"The Irish report suffers from conflating minor instances of abuse with serious ones, thus demeaning the latter. When most people hear of the term abuse, they do not think about being slapped, being chilly, being ignored or, for that matter, having someone stare at you in the shower. They think about rape.

"By cheapening rape, the report demeans the big victims. But, of course, there is a huge market for such distortions, especially when the accused is the Catholic Church."

- - -

The Catholic League is the nation's largest Catholic civil rights organization. Founded in 1973 by the late Father Virgil C. Blum, S.J., the Catholic League defends the right of Catholics � lay and clergy alike � to participate in American public life without defamation or discrimination. It is led by its' President, William A. Donohue, Ph.D.

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1 - 10 of 33 Comments

Iron Cross
3 years ago
Thanks for a well reasoned article outlining how abuse is defined. The project of defaming the Church is paramount to the secular left. The secular left has defined the terms of the argument and hold Innocent devout Catholics as accessories by means of denigration of the Catholic Church.

In all fairness, public school system have turned out far more cases of abuse (in all of it's broad modern definitions) including numerous open accounts of statutory relations of female teachers with students than the Church has ever had.

Anyone commenting here that factual statistics that indicate that the portrayal of the this "abuse scandal" is overblown probably has little interest in the well being of an institution that helps millions of the world's needy on a yearly basis.

Here is a reality check - it is proven that the secular left is far outspent by the conservative right in regards to charity.... This says a lot about the haters of the Church.
John Cuthand
3 years ago
The church attempts to minimize, deflect and isolate themselves from criticism. These are all clinical characteristics of a sex offender profile.When ever Christ expressed anger it was toward the church. People have a right to their out rage and the church must face the realty of their actions.
Zak
4 years ago
Shame on you, Bill Donohue. By trying to minimise the report, you are displaying the attitude that will hasten the Church's decline.
Micheal
4 years ago
Disgraceful carry-on altogether, the Catholic Church should be ashamed of themselves and all the guilty parties should be behind bars.

They have some nerve preaching about morals, rights and wrongs. The ones that raped and abused these children, where are their morals now and why won't they do the right thing and confess, but sure what would you expect from a Church who's leader goes round in a white dress, prada shoes, surrounded by gold and other luxuries, what a joke.
Simon Jennings
4 years ago
To Whom it may concern,
The statement to your paper by the Catholic League is misleading and false.
The independent report shows the longterm systematic and extreme sexual, physical and emotional abuse of children.

The league has no grounds for their statement.

The 2,600-page report paints a picture of institutions characterized by violence, abuse, privation and cruelty.

�A climate of fear, created by pervasive, excessive and arbitrary punishment, permeated most of the institutions,� the report says.
In the boys� schools, it says, sexual abuse was �endemic� - and it was.

The report took 9 years preparation by a state-appointed commission, but because of a deal done by the Irish Government does not name any of the hundreds of individuals accused of abuse and thus cannot be used as a basis for prosecutions.

There is very heavy pressure on the orders, from the public and the hierarchy for this to change.

His statement trivialises the gravity of the situation, it is the same attitude that perpetuated the abuse.

He says
"Regarding sexual abuse, �kissing,� and �non-contact including voyeurism� (e.g., what it labels as �inappropriate sexual talk�) make the grade as constituting sexual abuse.
He goes on to say
"one-third of the cases involved �inappropriate fondling and contact.� None of this is defensible, but none of it qualifies as rape."

No one said it was, it is - however - still sexual abuse.

We are dealing with a culture where srvivors were made feel shamed and at fault.
Men of a certain age will not speak openly, but inappropriate contact would include forced masturbation and forced oral sex.

Voyerism, and forcing children - or anyone for that matter - to speak in a sexual way IS sexual abuse.

He trivialises the beatings, the deprevation of heat as punishment. He trivialises the kicking - I can tell you, as an 11 year old boy being kicked to the floor by two adults - it is not trivial.

In Ireland the nation, church and state failed systematicaly, and most of us are trying to make good the mistakes of the past.

Mr. Donohue has no business commenting on the proper legal process of another country which was supported by the vast majority of lay and clergy.

Simon Jennings
netron
4 years ago
i would suggest that everyone look at the video of Michael O'Brien on RTE "Questions & Answers"

its on youtube here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jHqndf9Kx4
M. Acosta
4 years ago
Tom and Bulbajer you 2 should be ashamed.. ashamed for being willfully blind stooges for the anti-religious left! Either you cannot read beyond a 4th grade level or you have a selective reading & comprehension disorder.

Nobody is making excuses for abuse on here. No the truth is plainly clear to see for anyone that CAN actually read and comprehend all at the same time! Mr. Donohue has specifically separated the heavy amount of exaggerations, disingenuousness and misleading conflation from the actual facts in this so-called report which is dressed up more like a propaganda attack piece against the Church.

If you 2 and every self-hating, MSM-watching, anti religious agenda embracing, notre dame style faux-catholic out there gave a damn about the truth you would be at least somewhat interested in finding the validity of these charges leveled against purportedly your own clergy instead of dismissing any attempts to encourage debate on these matters as 'excuse making'. You and your type are exactly what is wrong with Catholicism these days.
Tom
4 years ago
Mr. Donohue - I find your comments regarding this nightmare in Ireland to be nothing but more "Catholic Leadership" denial of another nightmare within the church which along with what we Catholic's have had to endure regarding the US clergy, clearly indicative of how pervasive the reality of evil is that has not only penetrated the churches core, but found its lay leadership arguing how overly broad legal definitions and overly inclusive statistics have somehow overstated the reality of this unspeakable evil - I am ashamed to be a Catholic and pray that God will have mercy on us all.
Chris Treborn
4 years ago
If this was abuse in schools it would not even make the news. Once again the Catholic faith is being abused by people what has a secret agenda against us.
Bulbajer
4 years ago
Once again, abuse within the Church has been covered up, and now when the light comes, we Catholics try to defend these abusers. What's wrong with admitting some fault? Stubbornness can be a good thing when it comes to not backing down on abortion, but not when it comes to admitting evil that has infiltrated the Church!

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