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RELIGIOUS ABUSE Timeline on Abuse TIMELINE ON ABUSE Ireland Timeline
1987 – Insurance taken out by dioceses around the country to cover them against allegations of clerical child sex abuse.
1988 – Desmond Connell appointed Archbishop of Dublin. 1990 – Irish Catholic Church establishes internal committee (chaired by Bishop of Ossory Laurence Forristal) to assess legal implications for Irish priests of child abuse revelations in the future. No Irish case has yet been made public. June 1994 – The scandal breaks – Fr Brendan Smith is sentenced to 4 years in prison for abuse of children in Northern Ireland. October 1994 – Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference refuses to comment on reports that two Kerry priests were removed from their duties on foot of allegations of child sexual abuse. November 1994 – Government falls, over divisions between coalition partners Fianna Fail and Labour and the Attorney General’s mishandling of extradition requests for Fr Brendan Smith to Northern Ireland. April 1995 – Andrew Madden is the first victim of clerical child sex abuse to go public. The Irish Press reports that he has received a compensation payment in respect of his abuse as a child. May 1995 – Archbishop Desmond Connell announces that the archdiocese has never paid compensation to any victim of clerical child abuse! He later explains that the money used to compensate Andrew Madden was a “loan” from the archdiocese to Ivan Payne on foot of mature reflection and with mental reservation no doubt. June 1995 – a Dublin priest receives 12-month sentence for child sex abuse; Belfast priest Daniel Curran sentenced to seven years for child sex abuse. A number of other priests charged with abuse during following months. September 1995 – RTÉ Prime Time programme names Ivan Payne as abuser of Andrew Madden. Archbishop Desmond Connell threatens to sue over suggestions that he facilitated the compensation payment to Andrew. No case is ever taken. October 1995 – The Irish Times reports that another Dublin priest paid £50,000 compensation to a man he abused as a child. November 1995 – Bishops issue fullest apology to date. November 1995 – Wexford priest Fr Sean Fortune charged with child sex abuse. January 1996 – Bishops publish new guidelines on child sex abuse cases – The Framework Document, otherwise known as ‘the green book’. June 1997 – A Dublin priest received an 18-month jail sentence for sexually abusing a young girl during the 1970s. July 1997 – Fr Brendan Smyth jailed in Dublin for 12 years for abusing children south of the border. February 1998 – Taoiseach Bertie Ahern announces that mandatory reporting of child sex abuse will be introduced within lifetime of current government. (To date, this has still not happened.) June 1998 – Irish priest Fr Patrick Maguire (Columban) jailed in London for child abuse - a sentence of 18 months. June 1998 – Fr Ivan Payne jailed for sexual abuse of eight young boys. His two-year sentence is criticised for being too light. July 1998 – Fr Gus Griffin (Holy Ghost Fathers) sentenced to seven years for abusing young boys. July 1998 – Fr Thomas Naughton sentenced to three years for abusing four young altar boys. March 1999 – Fr Sean Fortune commits suicide on the eve of his trial on multiple charges of child abuse. June 1999 – Pope John Paul II rejects any linkage between child sexual abuse and priestly celibacy. September 2001 – retired judge Gillian Hussey appointed by hierarchy to chair Church’s Child Protection Committee. Audit of all dioceses announced. March 2002 – BBC television broadcasts Suing the Pope on the abuse of boys in the Ferns diocese by Fr Sean Fortune. April 2002 – Bishop of Ferns Brendan Comiskey resigns in response to evidence that he covered up child sex abuse in his diocese. April 2002 – Government announces establishment of independent inquiry into child abuse in the Ferns diocese. June 2002 – Maynooth trustees announce inquiry into allegations of improper behaviour by its former vice-president, Monsignor Micheál Ledwith. October 2002 – RTÉ’s Prime Time broadcasts Cardinal Secrets on the mishandling by a number of bishops of clerical child sex abuse allegations in the archdiocese of Dublin. November 2002 – Government pledges to establish full independent judicial inquiry into Dublin archdiocese’s handling of abuse allegations. December 2002 – Hierarchy disbands its own national audit committee. January 2003 – Mervyn Rundle, abused by Fr Thomas Naughton, receives one of largest settlements to date, reported to be over €300,000. May 2003 – Diarmuid Martin named as successor to Desmond Connell as Archbishop of Dublin. April 2004 – Cardinal Desmond Connell steps down as Archbishop of Dublin. October 2005 – Ferns Report is published, detailing extensive child abuse and cover-up. November 2005 – Judge Yvonne Murphy appointed to head up Commission of Investigation into the Dublin archdiocese. January 2008 – Cardinal Desmond Connell seeks to refuse access by the Commission of Investigation to over 5,000 documents which he claims are confidential. He eventually drops his challenge. March 2009 – Bishop Magee of Cloyne steps aside from his duties after it is revealed he did not follow proper child protection guidelines. Government extends remit of Dublin Commission of Investigation to examine the diocese of Cloyne. Report not yet finished. May 2009 – publication of Ryan Report on widespread abuse of children in Ireland’s instiutions. 1984 – The first case of clerical child sex abuse to go public – Fr Gilbert Gauthé in Louisiana , USA, is revealed as a serial paedophile. 1985 – Fr Tom Doyle, a US canon law expert, warns of dire consequences if scandal is not dealt with openly and effectively. He is ignored and removed from his position in the Vatican embassy in Washington. 1993 – Pope writes to US bishops – “I share your sadness and disappointment” – but points out that the child sex abuse problem concerns only a small group of priests. His spokesman, Dr Navarro-Valls, sums up the Vatican attitude: “One would have to ask if the real culprit is not a society that is irresponsibly permissive, hyperinflated with sexuality and capable of creating circumstances that induce even people who have received a sound moral formation to commit grave immoral acts.” 1993 – Canadian bishop Hubert O’Connor resigns after being convicted of molesting teenagers at a boarding school. 1995 – Austrian Cardinal Hans Herman Groer resigns as head of the Austrian Catholic Church amidst allegations that he sexually abused boys. He remains on as Archbishop of Vienna. 1995 – Two German Catholic bishops investigated for covering up clerical child abuse
2000 – UK Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor rejects calls for his resignation over his mishandling of Fr Michael Hill, who received a five-year jail sentence for child sex abuse. 2001 – French bishop Pierre Pican on trial for failure to report his knowledge of sex abuse crimes by a priest against children. He receives a three-month suspended sentence. 2001 – Reports made to Vatican of widespread sexual abuse of nuns by priests throughout Africa. No response from Vatican. 2001 - Archbishop of Cardiff, Dr John Aloysius Ward, resigns in midst of controversy over his handling of paedophile priests. January-February 2002 – Clerical child sexual abuse scandal explodes in US with release of thousands of documents implicating Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston in a major cover-up. March 2002 - Archbishop Juliusz Paetz resigns over allegations of improper behaviour with seminarians. April 2002 – US cardinals summoned to Rome by Pope as their child sex abuse crisis spreads nationwide. June 2002 – Third US bishop resigns over abuse allegations. Bishop of Lexington Kentucky Kendrick Williams joins Bishops Anthony O’Connell (an Irishman) and Bishop Rembert Weakland, both forced to resign earlier in 2002. October 2002 - Archbishop Edgardo Storni of Argentina resigns amidst allegations that he sexually abused seminarians. December 2002 – Boston Cardinal Bernard Law resigns over evidence of cover-up. June 2003 – ex-Governor of Oklahoma Frank Keating resigns as head of US Catholic Church sex abuse oversight panel after comparing some bishops to the mafia.
February 2004 – report finds 10,600 children abused by US priests since 1950. July 2004 – Diocese of Portland is first in world to sue for bankruptcy in the face of compensation claims from clerical child abuse victims. April 2005 – Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger becomes new Pope (Benedict XVI), following the death of John Paul II July 2008 – Pope apologises for clerical child sex abuse scandal in Australia. September 2009 – Canadian bishop Raymond Lahey resigns after his arrest for distributing and selling child pornography.
And so it goes on and on and on and on ....... Where will it all End? In the United States 10,667 people have made complaints of child sexual abuse between 1950 and 2002 against 4,392 priests. 81% of the victims were male, and that of all the victims. 22% were younger than the age of 10. 51% were between the ages of 11 and 14. 27% were between the ages to 15 to 17 years. One priest, Rev. Murphy, who worked at a renowned school for deaf children from 1950 to 1974 molested over 200 young and vulnerable boys. Pope Benedict, learned of the accusations, did nothing, and stopped the prosecution of Murphy after he made a personal appeal to the future Pope asking for mercy. Murphy was quietly moved to the Diocese of Superior in northern Wisconsin in 1974, where he spent his last 24 years working freely with children in parishes and schools. He died in 1998, still a priest. News Correspondents discovered a church document kept secret in the Vatican archives for 40 years that explained the secrecy and silence. This document presents a church policy, written in 1962, calling for complete secrecy on the subject of cleric sexual abuse, the unspoken rule for centuries before. The document instructs bishops to pursue cases "in the most secretive way...restrained by a perpetual silence...and everyone (including the victim) ...is to observe the strictest secret, which is commonly regarded as a secret of the Holy Office...under the penalty of excommunication." Larry Drivon, a lawyer for child abuse victims, calls this self-condemning text a “blueprint for deception. It is an instruction manual on how to deceive and protect pedophiles, and to avoid the truth coming out." A poll conducted from March 29 to 1 April 2010 found the Pope's unfavorable rating jumped to 24 per cent, up from a mere four per cent in 2006, and his favorable rating plummeted to 27 percent. When it came out this year that Cardinal Sean Brady was involved in forcing children to swear an oath not to reveal their sexual abuse to anyone, he refused to resign. Instead he now champions himself as the best protector of children. This was the oath the children were forced to sign “I will never directly or indirectly, by means of a nod, or of a word, by writing, or in any other way, and under whatever type of pretext, even for the most urgent and most serious cause (even) for the purpose of a greater good, commit anything against this fidelity to the secret, unless a…dispensation has been expressly given to me by the Supreme Pontiff.” The priest who abused the children went on to abuse many more because of that oath before he was arrested. This is what Brian Cowen, Ireland Prime Minister, said about the whole affair: "The leadership I’m giving is that clearly it is important that the state maintains its base and the Church maintains its base-it’s not a question for the state to get involved in Church matters nor the Church to get involved in state matters" One bishop said he did not even know the rape and sodomy of children was a crime. This is what he said: “We all considered sexual abuse of children as a moral evil but had no understanding or idea of its criminal nature. It was not necessary to worry about the affects on the youngsters. Either they would not remember or that they would grow out of ” Archbishop Weakland. In Germany there has been over 300 accusations of sexual or physical abuse by catholic priests in 18 of the 27 dioceses. Allegations include the abuse of more than 170 children by priests at a Jesuit school and three Catholic schools in Bavaria, and at the prestigious Regensburg Domspatzen school boys' choir that was directed for 30 years by the Pope's own brother. This March, Father Peter Hullermann was convicted of molesting boys during his time in the archdiocese of Munich A poll stated that almost a fifth of German Catholics have considered leaving the Church because of the abuse and scandal and only 17% of Germans now trust the Church as an institution. In Italy, 67 former students of Antonio Provolo Institute for the Deaf named 24 priests, brothers and lay religious men who they accused of all forms of abuse. Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Malta and the Netherlands also have all reported hundreds of cases of abuse. The numbers continue to rise, the cover up goes on, children still suffer, victims still do not have closure. Where will it all end? Barry Clifford May 2010 Bethany infants buried in unmarked graves Report by Joe Little Friday, 21 May 2010 07:41 The unmarked graves of 40 children from a Protestant residential institution have been discovered in a Dublin cemetery. They contain the bodies of former residents of the Bethany Home in Rathgar, and date from 75 years ago. A group of survivors, who say they suffered gross neglect there, are demanding access to the State's redress scheme which applies to similar institutions. Bethany was a combined maternity and children's home and a place of detention for women convicts. According to recently-discovered records, 40 infant-residents were buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery during 1935 and 1936. On average, two died each month out of a floating population of 19 babies. Researcher Niall Meehan has also established the names of all 40 babies in and around two adjoining common graves. Derek Leinster, who spent his first four years in Bethany, will convene the home's first survivors' group there next Wednesday. He says he and other residents were grossly neglected and still suffer poor health as a result. He also says the State regulated Bethany and should apply its redress scheme to its survivors. A spokesman for the Church of Ireland agreed. He said the home was run by independent trustees drawn from the Protestant community at large. He called the deaths 'tragic'. Illegal Adoptions Any adoption agency which engages in illegal practices should be de-registered and if necessary the case referred to An Garda Síochána, the chairman of the Adoption Board has said. The case of Thessa Reeves, whose son was illegaly adopted and falsely registered as the natural child of the adoptive parents. This was done by St Patricks Guild Adoption Agency which remains fully accredited by the Adoption Board despite knowing about Thessa Reeves case for 9 years The boards chairman, Geoffrey Shannon, guaranteed that any case would be investigated and if necessary referred to the relevant authorities. He may even report the case to the Police. Nine years is a long time waiting for a child report that is classed as a priority. The Adoption Agency has the power to de-register adoption agencies engaged in wrongdoing though they are waiting for even more powers to provide better answers. St. Patrick's Guild, a Catholic run agency, was involved in the secret export of 572 children to the US for adoption from the 1940's to the 1970's, which was more than any other adoption agency. Barry Clifford May 2010 No Penalties for not reporting Abuses Reuters/Berlin German churches have said that they opposed legal action against people who fail to report child abuse cases, many of them linked to Roman Catholic clergy. A Church spokeperson said: “We’re thinking of the victims". May 2010 |
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