Ritual abuse of children: the awful truth
Those that have claimed that the ritual sexual and psychological abuse of children is nothing but a media invention were disproved this week. A report commissioned by the government of Ireland revealed, after a nine year investigation that ritualised and sustained abuse of children had been carried out by a shadowy and secretive cult over a period of 60 years.
These black-robed figures used their power and influence to prevent their crimes against children from ever being found out. If a member fell under suspicion, then the accusing child would be liable to worse abuse, while the perpetrator was moved to a place of safety to continue his work.
The BBC went as far as to name the cults involved: The Christian Brothers and the Sisters of Mercy.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8059826.stm
The report (an executive summary can be found here:
http://www.childabusecommission.ie/rpt/ExecSummary.php)
Here are just a selection of its findings:
“The physical abuse of boys in Daingean was extreme. Floggings which were ritualised beatings should not have been tolerated in any institution and they were inflicted even for minor transgressions. Children who passed through Daingean were brutalised by the experience and some were damaged by it.”
“Sexual abuse was a chronic problem [at Letterfrack]. For two thirds of the relevant period there was at least one sexual abuser in the school, for almost one third of the period there were two abusers in the school and at times there were three abusers working in Letterfrack at the same time. Two abusers were present for periods of 14 years each and the Congregation could offer no explanation as to how these Brothers could have remained in the School for so long undetected and unreported. “
“Sexual abuse by staff was not as persistent a problem in Tralee as in Artane or Letterfrack, although one Brother was cited by complainants and by Brothers who had been on the staff in Tralee as ‘behaving inappropriately’ with the boys. He was on the staff for 20 years and his behaviour was known to at least three Superiors who did not attempt to stop it.”
“The documents revealed that a system of harsh and pervasive punishment existed in Glin during the relevant period. The documents also revealed that Brothers with a known propensity for sexual abuse were transferred to Glin indicating a serious indifference to the safety of children.”
“The documents showed that violent Brothers who were moved around from one school to another continued their violent behaviour. In Salthill, one Brother, who had been described as cruel in Letterfrack, continued his severe treatment of boys in Salthill and another continued his harshness in schools he was assigned to after Salthill. Internal Christian Brothers’ Reports identified a ‘severity in attitude’ towards the boys in the 1950s and the records would indicate a concern with six Brothers who had served in Salthill with regard to physical punishment.”
The catalogue of offences against children carried out systematically, over decades by these Catholic organisations puts the lie to the ‘one rotten apple’ defence. It is Catholicism’s morbid obsession with sex which has set the stage for these crimes, and despite this investigation being carried out over nine years, what has been done other to say sorry? – and the kinds of apologies offered so far have been along the lines of ‘I’m sorry we got caught’ .
June 1st, 2009 at 8:06 pm
It’s not talked about much, but a significant minority of clergy abuse survivors report organised ritualistic abuse.
I know that Satanists think that “satanic ritual abuse” is a big Christian fundamentalist propaganda scam, but people reporting SRA have consistently reported Christian priests leading the abuse, or participating in the abuse. Take a look at Margaret Smith’s 1993 book on “Ritual Abuse” – in a survey of 52 adults reporting ritual abuse, almost one in five reported that a Christian priest as part of the abuse.
The survivors of the Boston clergy abuse scandal published in their accounts a few years ago in a book called “Survivor’s Lullaby” – it contains details of organised and ritualistic abuse by Catholic priests.
Just an FYI.
June 2nd, 2009 at 11:06 am
Thanks for your comments. The short answer of course is that not all ritual abuse is Satanic.
Applying Occam’s razor to the subject of ritual satanic abuse, it can no more be true that ‘everyone is lying’, than it can be the case that ‘everyone is telling the truth’. From my own experiences of seeing paedophiles being processed through the courts, those inclined towards abusing children are very good at insinuating themselves into positions of power or trust over children, in schools, the church, youth groups. It is not too hard to imagine some using black robes and a copy of the Satanic Bible to terrify children into silence in the same way that priests and teachers use their power.
It is not shocking that some priests abuse children (given the nature of the ‘celibacy’ required of them). What is shocking is the extent to which the sexual and sado-sexual abuse of children did indeed become ritualised, and the extent to which the church has deliberately covered up evidence and protected those who were offending, deliberately putting other children at risk.
Also, for at least two decades while this was happening, the church was instigating a Satanic panic: police and childcare services were kicking down the doors of the innocent and seizing their children.
It could, of course, be that just a handful of fundamental Christians found a good paying gig in propagating the myth of RSA and it snowballed, but depending on how paranoid you feel, RSA could have been a sideshow that took attention (and police resources) away from real abuse happening in church institutions.
Given the Pope’s recent attempt to blame child abuse in his church on American secularism and pornography: http://archive.opusdiaboli.info/2008/04/17/pope-calling-the-kettle-black.aspx – the question you have to ask is, are you paranoid enough?