Wednesday, May 20, 2009

1000's beaten, raped in Irish Catholic schools


Pope Benedict and the archbishops who manage the Church and its wealth (AP)

DUBLIN (Shawn Pogatchnik, AP) – A fiercely debated, long-delayed investigation into Ireland's Roman Catholic Church-run institutions says priests and nuns terrorized thousands of boys and girls in workhouse-style schools for decades — and government inspectors failed to stop the chronic beatings, rapes, and humiliation.

Nine years in the making, today's 2,600-page report sides almost completely with the horrific reports of abuse from former students sent to more than 250 Church-run, mostly residential institutions. But victims' leaders said it didn't go far enough — particularly because none of their abusers were identified by name.

The report concluded that Church officials have always shielded their Orders' pedophiles from arrest to protect their own reputations and, according to documents uncovered in the Vatican, knew that many pedophiles were serial attackers.... More>>

PHOTOS: Pope Benedict XVI and other senior Church officials; John Kelly, of the Survivors of Child Abuse (SOCA) group, right, and Kevin Flannagan brother of Mickey Flannagan, victim of child abuse, shout at members of the government-appointed commission to inquire into child abuse in state-funded Roman Catholic Church-run institutions 5/20/09 (AP/Peter Morrison); the Pope allegedly wears Prada (AP).

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