Thursday, September 22, 2011

Women also covered up abuse, claims priest

A PRIEST in the Diocese of Ferns has launched a stinging attack accusing the "wives and mothers of Ireland" of failing to deal with the abuse of their children by other family members.

Fr Paddy Banville said: "There is another category of people that will match the failure of the bishops, and probably surpass it; the wives and mothers of Ireland, not exclusively wives and mothers but far too many who failed miserably to deal with the abuse of their children by other family members.

"In time, I believe Ireland will discover that there is nothing particularly unique in the Catholic bishop’s bungling attempts to deal with clerical abuse... In fact, I believe that covering up is a typical response to child abuse right across the board, at least until very recently."

In an article published in the Irish Catholic, Fr Banville said regarding the exposure of clerical abuse: "We have opened the door to hell and stepped inside the front porch, and standing there in horror some have dared to peer further, into the hallway and reception areas of a very dark and unexplored house."

While saying his comments about "the wives and mothers of Ireland" were "so politically incorrect", he said: "A multitude of people are implicated in this cover-up. I believe it is a significant percentage of the population. Nobody in this once sovereign democratic republic wants to hear this.

"Let me conclude by adapting the words of the Taoiseach: There is no shortage of dysfunction, disconnection, elitism and narcissism in the Republic of Ireland 2011, where the rape and torture of children are downplayed or managed, to uphold instead the primacy of the family, the family name, its power, standing and reputation, and where multitudes living in our midst, have turned a blind eye: Not my business!"

Mary Crilly, the director of the Cork Sexual Violence Centre, said Fr Banville "might want to concentrate on the clean-up of his organisation".

"Nobody has ever denied that people find it hard to deal with a victim’s disclosure of abuse. It is very difficult to deal with disclosure. Often people around the victim don’t know where to go," she said.

"But when we talk of the Church and abuse, that is a different matter. This priest’s comments are the stuff of deflection. When we talk of the Church and abuse, we talk about priests and an organisation who were involved in the formulation of guidelines and best practice and yet chose to ignore this."