Nuns that ran Magdalene laundries are willing to meet
with abuse victims in an effort to promote healing, the Catholic
Church’s abuse support service has revealed.This comes after survivors of the Magdalene laundries have described as “utterly pointless” a reported recommendation that there should be a reconciliation forum between them and the religious orders who ran the institutions.
A reconciliation forum and mediation are among a number of leaked recommendations claimed to be in the report prepared by a retired High Court judge, appointed to advise the Government on a redress scheme for women and girls held in the laundries.
However, a reconciliation process is already in place, according to Towards Healing, a Church-funded counselling and support service for victims of institutional, clerical and religious abuse.
Speaking at the launch of Towards Healing’s annual report, Clinical Director Dr Melissa Darmody said the service “has developed a professional team of facilitators who would be available to arrange and mediate meetings between survivors, their families and members of the Catholic Church and Religious Congregations”.
Thirty-one abuse victims have engaged in the ‘Restorative Justice’ process which has been implemented by Towards Healing since January 2012, Dr Darmody told The Irish Catholic.
“Some of those have completed the process while for others it is still ongoing,” she said.
However, Magdalene Survivors Together spokesman Steven O’Riordan told The Irish Catholic he was unaware that the Towards Healing reconciliation service was available to Magdalene survivors.
He reiterated his previous stance that such a process would be “utterly pointless” and said that the women he had spoken to were “very upset at the idea of going through another process and meeting the religious orders”.
“The religious orders have consistently denied the extent of the abuse in the laundries, so why would the victims go and meet with them face to face,” he asked. “They don’t want to keep going back any more,” he said. “They want to move on.”
The women had received an official State apology in the wake of the McAleese report into the laundaries, prepared by an inter-departmental committee chaired by former senator Martin McAleese.
The report was published earlier this year and Justice Minister Alan Shatter then appointed former judge Mr Justice John Quirke to investigate the most appropriate form of compensation scheme for the women.
It is understood that the Department of Justice have received the report which will be considered prior to being submitted to Government.