School Climate & Safety

Archbishop Slams Irish Catholic Orders Over Abuse

By The Associated Press — May 26, 2009 3 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin slammed Irish Catholic orders Monday for concealing their culpability in decades of child abuse, and said they needed to come up with much more money to compensate victims.

The comments from Martin, a veteran Vatican diplomat, were the harshest yet by a Roman Catholic leader following last week’s report detailing widespread abuse in scores of church-run industrial schools from the 1930s to the 1990s.

Martin said the orders of nuns and Catholic brothers who ran the workhouse-style schools must drop their refusal to renegotiate an intensely criticized 2002 agreement with the Irish government over compensation for victims.

At that time the orders agreed to pay €128 million ($175 million) to the government to be protected from victims’ civil lawsuits. In return, the government expects to pay approximately 13,800 victims of physical, sexual and mental abuse and their lawyers more than €1.1 billion ($1.5 billion).

All those who accept the state settlements, which average €65,000 ($90,000), must waive their right to sue both the church and the government. Their abusers’ identities are also kept secret.

Scores of alleged victims have refused the offer and sued church and state authorities, with mixed results.

The archbishop — whose archdiocese contains more than 1 million of the island’s 4 million Catholics — said in an Irish Times column that the church in Ireland has lost credibility because of its weak response to 15 years of revelations of chronic child abuse within its ranks.

Martin said many church leaders remained “in denial” following a nine-year investigation by a commission, which published a devastating 2,600-page report five days ago.

He said the report documented beyond any doubt “church institutions where children were placed in the care of people with practically no morals.” The last of those schools for Ireland’s poorest children closed more than a decade ago.

Ireland’s national police force, the Garda Siochana, announced Monday that a senior detective, Assistant Commissioner Derek Byrne, would study the report to see if it provided any new evidence for prosecuting clerics for assault, rape or other criminal offenses. The report, however, did not identify any abusers by name because of a right-to-privacy lawsuit by the Christian Brothers order.

Martin accused the orders of falling short on the €128 million amount they promised to the government. He said their failure to complete transfers of cash and property worth that much over the past seven years “is stunning.”

“There may have been legal difficulties, but they are really a poor excuse after so many years,” he wrote.

The Conference of Religious in Ireland, the umbrella body for the church’s 138 orders of Catholic priests, brothers and nuns in Ireland, said its members were open to the idea of increasing funds for counseling and educational services for victims and their families.

But the conference said the 18 orders that ran industrial schools did not want to surrender the existing financial and legal agreement.

“Rather than reopening the terms of the agreement reached with (the) government in 2002, we reiterate our commitment to working with those who suffered enormously while in our care,” the 18 orders said in a joint statement.

The government declined to comment. It previously has reported receiving about €62 million in cash and church-funded counseling services for abuse victims, while the outstanding €66 million was coming in the form of 64 church properties — many of which remain in church ownership today.

Analysis by independent experts indicates that the offered properties are worth much less today. Ireland’s 2008 property market collapse and plunge into recession have slashed values by between 25 percent and 50 percent.

One of Ireland’s most prominent abuse victims, Colm O’Gorman, said the orders could not reasonably claim to be too poor to pay more. He noted they still owned hundreds of properties and several hospitals, and had profited handsomely from Ireland’s property boom of 1994-2007.

He said the church should be forced to pay half of Ireland’s compensation bill — the government’s own original position in negotiations seven years ago.

“If accountability means bankruptcy, then so be it,” said O’Gorman, who founded a group for abuse victims, and authored a book about his efforts to sue the church for the rapes he suffered as an altar boy. “Let the Vatican, one of the wealthiest institutions on the planet, come in and underwrite this awful lack of accountability.”

Related Tags:

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Assessment Webinar
Reflections on Evidence-Based Grading Practices: What We Learned for Next Year
Get real insights on evidence-based grading from K-12 leaders.
Content provided by Otus
Artificial Intelligence K-12 Essentials Forum How AI Use Is Expanding in K-12 Schools
Join this free virtual event to explore how AI technology is—and is not—improving K-12 teaching and learning.
Federal Webinar Navigating the Rapid Pace of Education Policy Change: Your Questions, Answered
Join this free webinar to gain an understanding of key education policy developments affecting K-12 schools.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

School Climate & Safety Spotlight Spotlight on Enhancing School Safety and Emergency Response
This Spotlight will help you explore proactive measures and effective strategies for enhancing school safety and emergency response.
School Climate & Safety States Emphasize School Violence Prevention, Not Just Security
In the wake of school shootings in their states last year, legislators hope to avert future tragedies.
7 min read
Local residents pray during a candlelight vigil following a shooting at Perry High School, on Jan. 4, 2024, in Perry, Iowa.
Local residents pray during a candlelight vigil following a shooting at Perry High School, on Jan. 4, 2024, in Perry, Iowa. The deaths in school shootings last year have led to new legislation in a half-dozen states.
Charlie Neibergall/AP
School Climate & Safety Leader To Learn From One Leader’s Plan to Cut Chronic Absenteeism—One Student at a Time
Naomi Tolentino helps educators in Kansas City, Kan., support strong school attendance.
9 min read
Naomi Tolentino Miranda leads a meeting on student attendance at J.C. Harmon High School on Jan. 16, 2025 in Kansas City, Kansas. Tolentino Miranda showed school administrators recent data reflecting positive progress in combating chronic absenteeism.
Naomi Tolentino leads a meeting on student attendance at J.C. Harmon High School on Jan. 16, 2025 in Kansas City, Kansas. Tolentino showed school administrators recent data reflecting positive progress in combating chronic absenteeism.
Erin Woodiel for Education Week
School Climate & Safety Q&A What a 'Positive, Proactive Approach' to Chronic Absenteeism Looks Like
A Kansas City, Kan., leader explains how her district shifted its approach to chronic absenteeism.
6 min read
Naomi Tolentino Miranda walks into J.C. Harmon High School on Jan. 16, 2025 in Kansas City, Kansas. Tolentino Miranda is the Coordinator for Student Support Programs and often visits school administrative teams to check on their progress combating chronic absenteeism among their students.
Naomi Tolentino walks into J.C. Harmon High School on Jan. 16, 2025, in Kansas City, Kan. Tolentino is the coordinator for student support programs and often visits school administrative teams to check on their progress in lowering chronic absenteeism among their students.
Erin Woodiel for Education Week