The Ryan Report: Part 1 of 3 - What Is It and What Happened?

Tag: ireland

While the mainstream media is busy overanalyzing every little step Obama makes, they are blatantly ignoring a lot of very important stories and refusing to discuss any of them at length.

The story of the year thus far has got to be the report released on May 20th by the Irish government’s Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, commonly referred to as the “Ryan Report” (after presiding judge Seán Ryan), yet I’ve seen hardly any mention of it on any American television news station since the 20th and only a few articles here and there by their respective websites.



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Thankfully, I rarely receive my news from cable news programs, but millions of other Americans do, so I am appalled that this is not getting the attention it deserves.

The 2002 clergy sexual abuse scandal in the Archdiocese of Boston was covered and debated for months on end, so much so that it left a permanent scar on the Catholic Church’s credibility and drove many away from that abominable organization. The sick and disturbing findings of the Ryan Report make the Boston scandal look like a minor hiccup in the Church’s history, so where is the outrage? It is palpable in Ireland, and rightfully so, but almost everyone I know has never even heard of the Ryan Report. To right this wrong and spread much-needed awareness, I’m writing a three part series on the Ryan Report, starting with this post, which will explain what the report is and what the CICA found.

The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse was formed by the Irish government in 1999 to investigate child abuse throughout Ireland, specifically in orphanages, schools, and institutions run by Catholic organizations in conjunction with the Irish government and the Department of Education from the 1930s until as recently as the 1990s. This report was delayed for years by the Catholic Church through several lawsuits, particularly by a group called the Christian Brothers, because they feared prosecution for crimes they had long assumed they had gotten away with or wished to cover up the names of those already prosecuted. Corrupt government officials also helped to delay the findings, and a culture of silence lasting 70 years had built up around the abuse. While many Irish citizens knew what was going on, anyone who talked about it was often regarded as a liar, and even though thousands were victimized, very few spoke out about it publicly.

Now that the silence has finally been broken, counseling and help lines have been inundated with stories of survivors, many talking about their experiences for the first time. The report gathered evidence from over 2,000 witnesses, victims, and religious leaders, and more than 800 nuns, priests, and brothers were implicated in their investigation. More than 170,000 children were sent to these Catholic orphanages, industrial schools, reformatories, and hostels because they were judged as petty thieves, truants, or members of dysfunctional families (re: their mothers were unwed) simply because they were poor. The government saw this as a way to clean up the streets and keep “unwanted” children out of their hair and busy working menial jobs no one else wanted, so consistent complaints and reports of abuse were purposely ignored and systematically covered up. If any priest was removed because of problems with sexual abuse, he was simply placed in another institution to do it again (an all too familiar story).

So what kinds of abuse are we talking about? Speaking on a general level, the crimes are horrific enough – daily beatings, starvation, inedible food, forced labor, unhealthy working hours and conditions, habitual sexual abuse and rape, neglect, humiliation, ridicule and belittlement, unfit living situations, a climate of constant fear, etc. But when specific victims relate their stories, that’s when it really starts to sink in. One victim tried to tell nuns how he had been molested, only to be stripped naked and beaten by four nuns with canes. Boys were lined up and made to walk around naked while brothers flicked their genitals. A slow learner had his head slammed onto a desk until he bled from the face. One woman still wakes up at night, hearing the screams of children down the hallway who were randomly taken from their beds and beaten or molested. A man detailed how he was tied to a cross and raped by a priest as others watched and masturbated. Every article I’ve read tops the last, and each story makes me sicker and sicker. Some have called this “Ireland’s Holocaust,” and I’m inclined to agree. Sure, they weren’t shot and thrown into mass graves or burned alive in ovens, but the fact remains that thousands of children were methodically abused and mentally ruined by decades of mistreatment and neglect. The word “holocaust” means “a great or complete devastation or destruction” and “any reckless destruction of life.” I would not throw this term around lightly, and I can say without hesitation that this horrifying situation more than fits the bill.

I suppose you can now see why I’m so upset by the lack of controversy and debate here in the States. I guess when it happens in other countries, we really don’t think it affects us like the Boston scandal did, or maybe the media has gone soft with its criticism of the Church. Either way, this story is one that needs to be told, especially to every Christian who thinks nothing of leaving a few dollars on the collection plate every week. Think about where your money is going, and more importantly, who it’s really helping. In part two, I will delve more into what is being done by the Church and the Irish government since the report has been released (spoiler: not very much) and the bold and heartwrenching reaction of the Irish people.

http://www.muckmakers.com/the-ryan-re...-happened/