E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Cathal Mcnaughton / Reuters
A ledger from the Hyde Park Magdalene Laundry showing payments for services is seen on display during a "Magdalene Survivors Together" news conference in Dublin Tuesday.
Ireland’s government was directly involved in sending girls and women to work for nothing in laundries run by Catholic orders, a landmark report published Tuesday concluded.
The report by Irish Senator Martin McAleese found that orphans and abused, neglected or unruly children were among more than 10,000 sent to the Magdalen Laundries from 1922 to 1996.
Some had committed minor crimes, others were simply homeless or poor. Women with mental or physical disabilities and some people with psychiatric illness also found themselves in the laundries.
Their average age, the report found, was 23, but the youngest child was just nine and the oldest known entrant was 89.
Activists called on the government to issue a formal apology and pay compensation, with one group saying those affected had been "treated like slaves."
Their plight came to greater public attention when it was the subject of a 2002 film called The Magdalene Sisters, which used a different spelling.
And in June 2011, the United Nations’ Committee on Torture highlighted allegations of "physical, emotional abuses and other ill-treatment" and said it was "gravely concerned" at Ireland’s failure to "protect girls and women who were involuntarily confined."
'Traumatic and lasting'
That prompted the Irish government to set up an inquiry chaired by McAleese and its report was published Tuesday afternoon.
"None of us can begin to imagine the confusion and fear experienced by these young girls, in many cases little more than children, on entering the Laundries — not knowing why they were there, feeling abandoned, wondering whether they had done something wrong, and not knowing when — if ever — they would get out and see their families again,” he wrote in his introduction to the report.
"It must have been particularly distressing for those girls who may have been the victims of abuse in the family, wondering why they were the ones who were excluded or penalized by being consigned to an institution," he said.
"To add to this confusion, most found themselves quite alone in what was, by today’s standards, a harsh and physically demanding work environment. The psychological impact on these girls was undoubtedly traumatic and lasting," he added.
The report found that more than a quarter of referrals were "made or facilitated" by the government. Some 61 percent spent less than a year at the facilities, but 7.7 percent were there for 10 years or more.
Some of the women were brought to the laundries by Ireland’s police, the Gardai, "on a more ad hoc or informal basis, for instance where a woman was temporarily homeless; or where, in the years prior to out-of-hours health services, a juvenile girl needed overnight accommodation," the report said.
The report said that "it cannot be excluded that … a desire to protect rate-payers [tax-payers] from the costs of repeated pregnancies outside marriage may have played a part in some referrals of women to the Magdalen Laundries."
In some cases, the women and children were washing clothes for Ireland’s military, health service and department of education.
The report cited testimony from a number of women about the conditions they experienced:
- One woman who was in three laundries told the inquiry there were "no beatings, only working. Hardest work ever."
- Another woman said "They were very, very cruel verbally — 'your mother doesn’t want you, why do you think you’re here' and things like that."
- One said she was put in "a padded cell" three times and told "if I didn’t work there’d be no food and the infirmary."
- Another woman said that when she wet the bed "they pinned the sheet to me back and I was walking on the veranda with it."
- "You learned not to ask questions or complain. You couldn’t be forward in any way. Talking was a thing that was seen as sinful," another said.
State 'turned a blind eye'
In a statement, campaign group Justice for Magdalenes called on Enda Kenny, Ireland’s prime minister, to issue an apology to the survivors of the laundries and set up a “non-adversarial compensation process.”
"Magdalene survivors have waited too long for justice and this should not be now burdened with either a complicated legal process or a closed-door policy of compensation," the statement said.
Children’s charity Barnardos said in a statement that the report showed the Irish government had "turned a blind eye to the appalling conditions in which Irish citizens lived, while supporting the religious orders who enslaved them in financial and other ways."
"The women who were imprisoned in these Laundries suffered appalling and shaming injustices, often for the whole of their lives, and deserve a full unambiguous apology from the Government," Barnardos' Chief Executive Fergus Finlay said. "These women were treated like slaves and deserve adequate compensation for the work they did."
Responding to the report, Kenny said he was "sorry for those people that they lived in that kind of environment," but stopped short of making a formal apology on behalf of the state, the Irish Times reported.
Related:
Leave a Comment:
Between stuff like this and the Pedophile Protection program that they run, is it any wonder that people don't like the Catholic Church??
Religion at its finest. Amazing that we have fools here that still think religion should be forced down our throats at schools and public meetings.
Wow this may cost the Cathloic Church more than the hundreds of millions they have paid to protect pedophile priests! But, no worries, they have plenty more where that came from, cause there ain't no shortage of suckers born every minute. Pretty soon we will be seeing commercials saying "Please send more tithes to the Catholic Church, as they are having to pay for baby-raping priests and slave launderers and they don't come cheap"
absolutely agree with your comment haggisbingo-what a joke this religion is
The Roman Catholic Church has become a dangerous predatory organization. They have lost all concept of how and why they came about. They no longer represent a positive religious force and instead echo over and over again, from continent to continent all that is evil.
All this from a former catholic; born, baptized, first communion and confirmed. Where did they go so very wrong?
HAS become? Are you living in the 14th century?
Good point Byron,
amend that to: Continues to be a dangerous predatory organization
Why does the Catholic Church still exist? If you take everything that makes a Mafia, Syndicate, or criminal organization evil, the Catholic Church has been caught several times committing the same actions. When will a government finally step up and label the church what they really are.
Ahhh, nothing like doing "God's" work, right? Wow, these people sure are righteous. Praise the Lord. Glad to see that organized religions can be safe havens for underpriviledged youth...
Haggisbingo,
"is it any wonder that people don't like the Catholic Church??"
Yes. In a world full of Protestants, agnostics and atheists, it is no wonder people don't like the Catholic Church.
Throughout history the parisheners of Catholic churches were taught from birth that nuns and priests were God's representitives on earth. The Catholic clergy had dedicated their lives to God and the people of the parishes "knew" that nuns and priests lived their lives in holiness. Their holiness was not to be questioned. I remember being told that priests could not be sent to jail because they were God's representitives and that would equate with putting Christ into a prison. Hence, the chruch has gotten away with a multitude of sins by just covering things up with secret ledgers. P.S. Christ would have done just fine in that prison.
Do you know what it'd take for the Catholic Church to have a more liberal stand towards birth control? If priests started targeting young girls instead of boys.
Makes me wonder why people still go to the catholic church with everything that has happened. Seems the CC has attracted the best or worst of the miscretes in existence and they have abused their power left and right. Then again, I wouldnt be surprised if this happened in every large powerful organization.
Time for the masses to leave and go to a different place. That'll teach them.
The entire Catholic Church, or certain people in the Church?
Not the entire church, just the priests, nuns, popes, bishops, cardinals, oh wait, yeah.... I guess it is the entire church.
Ah, the Catholic Church, combined with the efforts of an over-reaching police state.
Is it any wonder the American Rebels decided against allowing a "state religion" to take hold?
Bottom line: is it okay for the Catholic church to use slaves to do their laundry?
No.
benedetineacc,
"The entire Catholic Church, or certain people in the Church?"
The article doesn't even say it was the Catholic Church that was sending these girls to workhouses. The very first sentence of the article says: "Ireland's government was directly involved in sending girls and women to work for nothing in laundries run by Catholic orders, a landmark report published Tuesday concluded." The workhouses were run by the Catholic Church, but it was the government of Ireland that was sending the girls there. The government of Ireland and the Catholic Church are two distinct entities. And yet we have to put up with all this mindless, anti-Catholic drivel because people can't read.
Yes Mickey...pretty pathetic bunch of comments on this one. Kind of reminds me of the early days when some town peasant hollered "witch" because a young tart flashed him a bit o leg...so they burned her. Ignorance is becoming quite a problem in this country. I can't for the life of me figure out why they stopped teaching reading in school.
So, Mickey, I don't see how the fact that the Irish government sent some percentage of the girls there absolves the actual institutions from abuses? Really? I read the article and I agree that the report has a focus on the role of the Irish government, but surely the government is not responsible for what went on in those places, is it? Or am I just another anti-Catholic peddling drivel because I happen to think that what happened to those girls was wrong and EVERYONE involved bears responsibility?
Oh, and just bye the bye, boondoglez, you do realize which well-known institution was the leader in witch burning, do you not? I am surprised that you brought that up.
Just one more (of thousands) example of religion at its finest....world history is full of examples of God driven abuse in every form you can think of...(here is my shock face)
Ireland is a religous state. It is a Catholic country like Israel is a Jewish country. It is illegal to posses even literature about birth control, for example. Catholic policies and tenets are the basis isd of the laws there. There is no separation of church and state in Ireland. Northern Ireland isn't any better. There you can't be Catholic. All of Ireland is a Religous state.. I can say I am proud of my Irish ancestry but I am ashamed of Ireland.
Mickey
"And yet we have to put up with all this mindless, anti-Catholic drivel because people can't read."
Well, Mickey, the rest of the world has to put up with Catholic pedophiles who can read, but cannot keep their hands off juvenile members of the clergy.
Mickey, this is the perfect example of what happens when the state and the church are enmeshed.
You blame the government for the fact that these places existed? Then blame the government for being too soft on the Catholic Church! And yes, the Church itself is to blame: it is the structure, the hierarchy, the rigidity of teaching unquestioning obedience, that is the heart of the Church.
And Boondoglez, who exactly was it who cried "witch" and burned them? It was the Church. Too bad that they do not teach reading wherever you are; the rest of us learned it quite well, and history, too.
It's a top-down problem with this evil organization. Even the Pope "El Raton" Ratzinger aided the pedophiles in their ranks rather than trying to protect the innocent children. The almighty dollar is this church's god. It's disgusting.
Heck of a job, Catholic Church.
The comments on this page reflect a total lack of reading comprehensionon behalf of the contributers .They make no sense whatsoever and only serve as a hate board for atheists, Catholic bashers , and homosexual sympathizers.
Josephine-1266256 : plenty of Catholics in the North
NHLucky,
"am I just another anti-Catholic peddling drivel because I happen to think that what happened to those girls was wrong and EVERYONE involved bears responsibility?"
You said it yourself. The focus of the article was on what the government of Ireland did; not on what the Catholic Church did, and yet all these comments are focusing on the Catholic Church. The word "Catholic" is like a drop of blood in the ocean. It's all it takes to start the anti-Catholic sharks on a feeding frenzy. According to the article: "One woman who was in three laundries told the inquiry there were "no beatings, only working. Hardest work ever." These were just Catholic laundries, and if there is any blame to be assigned, it is on the government of Ireland that the blame should fall; not on the Catholic Church. It's unfortunate that these girls received verbal abuse while there, but this began in 1922, and times were very different then. It's hard to say when this verbal abuse began and when it occurred.
You know, Mickey, I lived in Massachusetts when the early pedophile priest scandals broke and I heard the exact same argument from those who defend Mother Church no matter what. You might at least acknowledge that bad things happened in these places. "Unfortunate" does not cover it. Methinks that was word Cardinal Law might have chosen to describe his wayward priests.
Why do people attack the Church? Because it and its defenders NEVER admit wrongdoing until absolutely backed into a corner with no other way out. Maybe some genuine remorse and humility would help. Or maybe it is too late. The pattern has been going on for centuries.
NHLucky,
"Why do people attack the Church? Because it and its defenders NEVER admit wrongdoing until absolutely backed into a corner with no other way out."
But this article was not even about the Catholic Church. It was about the government of Ireland. So why are the majority of comments blasting the Catholic Church? Anti-Catholic bigotry. That's why. There's a book you should read entitled The New Anti-Catholicism: The Last Acceptable Prejudice by Philip Jenkins, a professor of history and religious studies at Penn State University. It's very enlightening and helps to explain the kind of feeding frenzy that occurs on Newsvine every time the word Catholic is mentioned.
Your move, Foxconn!
Mickey, Mickey, Mickey. The abuse occurred in Catholic institutions operated by Catholic nuns. Of course it was about the Church. It was abuse that occurred in Catholic institutions that were used by the Irish government as places to stash people in need of help.
A careful reading of the article will locate the sentence that states "more than a quarter" of the placements were done by the government. Where did the rest of them come from? Village priests possibly? Just a guess. They don't really tell us that, do they? I for one would like the answer to that question.
Oh please Mickey, there are lots of "acceptable" prejudices, depending on where you are: racism, anti-semitism, anti-islamic, homophobic, to name a few.
And the article does not pre-judge the Catholic church or Catholics. I
t does say that, as a fact, on the eveidence and by testimony, once the victims were in the Catholic-run laundry, they were worked without pay and mistreated in other ways.
So, what does that say about the values of the organization running the laundry?
One should be excused from the charge of bigotry when you put this evidence together with the evidence of other crimes and misdemeanors already brought forth, that something is very wrong with an institution that allows, encourages, supports and sometimes conceals such behaviors.
Thrash around all you want, the institution of the Catholic church needs authentic reform, urgently and no two ways about it.
NHLucky,
"most found themselves quite alone in what was, by today’s standards, a harsh and physically demanding work environment."
Do you think it is fair to judge people of the past by today's standards? People in every age live according to their own lights, and I have no doubt that many in the future will look back on us and judge us harshly according to the standards that will exist at that time. It's human nature, but do you think it is fair?
Madeline,
"One should be excused from the charge of bigotry when you put this evidence together with the evidence of other crimes and misdemeanors already brought forth, that something is very wrong with an institution that allows, encourages, supports and sometimes conceals such behaviors."
And so all the charitable activities the Catholic Church engages in count for nothing? Only the things they do wrong matter, it would seem, and the other forms of bigotry you mentioned does not make anti-Catholic bigotry any less bigotry.
The Slaughter of the Huguenots, the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition...the deaths of hundreds of thousands of human beings for no other reason than the rejection of Catholic doctrine. Oh, they will say, that was hundreds of years ago, let it go. To be an apologist for the Catholic Church you must close your eyes to hundreds of years of history.
Just keep those eyes closed Mickey.
MICKEY YOU ARE SO BRAINWASHED!! Are you kidding, "But this article was not even about the Catholic Church. It was about the government of Ireland."?? The whole time I was reading this article I was thinking the only crime the government committed was TRUSTING THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH which is full of not only pedophiles, but child abusers. We never talk about the demeaning way nuns were/are allowed to speak to children, the corporal punishments they were/are allowed to inflict, and the lies they teach. There is no BIGOTRY against the Roman Catholic church, there are only those who are attempting to get JUSTICE for the crimes the church continues to be allowed to commit. This article should be FOCUSING ON THE ABUSE AT THE LAUNDRIES. The abuse that is not only condoned, but is the churches STANDARD OF NORMALCY. Wake up!! bishopsaccountability.org click on "survivor's accounts" PROTECT OUR CHILDREN FROM THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.
Bluelake,
"To be an apologist for the Catholic Church you must close your eyes to hundreds of years of history."
No. To be an apologist for the Catholic Church is to be aware of history because the history of Western civilization is pretty much the history of the Catholic Church. As Newman said, "To be steeped in history is to cease to be Protestant." You want to make a big deal of the Huguenots, the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition, but you completely overlook the fact that the two most widespread and destructive wars in the history of mankind were World War I and World War II, neither of which had anything to do with religion.
Doesn't change the fact that the Roman Catholic church covered up pedophilia, hid the perpetrators, moved them to new areas and provided them with fresh victims.
bishopsaccountability.org survivor's accounts
What is the surprise? It's just another Third World country run by the fu_king Catholic Crap church.
A country supporting the cath church to the extent those third world Irish do is pretty scary and shows you that there is no brain matter over there at all.
Next
Brainwashedfrombirth,
"MICKEY YOU ARE SO BRAINWASHED!!"
I think the same could be said about you, judging from your screen name alone!
You know what Mickey?? Unfortunately your argument doesn't wash with me because I WAS in the Catholic educational system for a time, I WAS terrorized and beaten, and I was handled in a sexual manner. I was forced to hand-wash my towels and sheets, as well as underwear and socks (all for the outrageous tuition my parents had to pay) and to even whisper in the hallways was grounds for harsh punishment. I remember my heart skipping a beat when I saw that wicked harpy, the so-called Mother Superior (to none), because I was terrified of her. I saw her slap my favorite teacher to the floor with a full-armed slap once because she audibly giggled in the hallway outside her office.
If you can find anything to defend about this disgusting institution you go ahead and knock yourself out. But I think you can hear the murmuring growing louder among all the earth (just look at it here) and someday soon when you hear "Babylon the Great has fallen!" you better start kissing your butt goodbye. Especially if you happen to be a priest.
Why don't you try and read the best book ever written to improve YOUR comprehension: The Bible. Read how Babylon, the Harlot is dressed....then look at your cardinals and popes. Right down to the colors and styles of their robes. They couldn't have done better if they'd actually read it out of the Bible themselves, but of course we all know how much Catholics try to avoid that at all costs.
We can tell how sick and twisted you are by the ridiculous blind-sided arguments you are putting forth. NUNS abused these people, the POPE has covered for and shipped cardinals out of the US to protect them for prosecution on sex charges, PRIESTS are molesting boys, thousands of them, not just one or two, and your foul and filthy institution is going to fall in a way which will reverberate around the world. You just listen for the call "Babylon the Great has fallen!" and then if you're a priest or a proselyte, you better be kissing your butt goodbye. Or I guess if you're a real young guy you can have your local priest do it.
Yes. Mickey, I WAS brainwashed. By the Roman Catholic church. And it cost me DEARLY.
Btw, Jerry Sandusky had a huge charitable program for underprivileged boys. Does that justify his crimes? Do we allow him to continue along his merry way?
Can the Catholic religion get anymore hideous and unrepentant? 1996 and engaged in the slave trade in the name of profit? What a Godless, money grubbing, pedophile enabling cult.
Mickey-1983943-Yes, their charitable activities ARE undone by what this church continues to do. Can you really be trying to justify that claim against their collusion in this and the ongoing maneuvering of their pedophile priests in their ongoing attempt to cover their activities up? Whether for sick profit or sick pleasure, they obviously never stop abusing children or the poor.
Adela,
"But I think you can hear the murmuring growing louder among all the earth (just look at it here) and someday soon when you hear "Babylon the Great has fallen!" you better start kissing your butt goodbye."
Babylon the Great of the book of Revelation is not the Catholic Church. That's just some wacko Protestant invention. Otherwise, I'm sorry to hear about your unfortunate experience, but I do think a lot of people these days could use a little discipline. Only I can see there is no arguing with prejudice.
Adela
I hear you. And if a public school teacher raped children, would the principal cover up for him/her? Would the system move him/her to another school? WOULD THE PRINCIPAL THEN BE MADE SUPERINTENDANT OF SCHOOLS?? That's what the roman catholic church did- elected the very man who conceived, developed, and implemented the cover-up for priests to be POPE - the head of their organization. There was NO CARING ABOUT VICTIMS, NO GRIEF FOR THE LIVES THEY DESTROYED. Only the development of the Pedophile Protection Program.
BISHOPSACCOUNTABILITY.ORG "SURVIVOR'S ACCOUNTS" Read it and decide if you want more children, YOUR CHILDREN, to go through this.
And during World War II, Mickey, Pius XII, terrified that the Nazis would occupy Vatican City ignored the reports from his parish priests from throughout Europe. Reports of Jews, gypsies, communists and millions of others being enslaved and murdered. He kept his mouth shut and said nothing!! He was little more than a fascist himself and so he shed his cloak of honesty and piety and did and said NOTHING to stop it. Nothing! Keep those eyes closed Mickey!
Bluelake,
"And during World War II, Mickey, Pius XII, terrified that the Nazis would occupy Vatican City ignored the reports from his parish priests from throughout Europe. Reports of Jews, gypsies, communists and millions of others being enslaved and murdered. He kept his mouth shut and said nothing!! He was little more than a fascist himself and so he shed his cloak of honesty and piety and did and said NOTHING to stop it. Nothing!"
Pope Pius XII is everyone's favorite whipping boy, but I have a book entitled Hitler, the War, and the Pope by Ronald Rychlak about that very subject, and the author argues that everything you posted there is bull@!$%#. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, though, so I won't argue with you about it.
Enslave the young women and molest the young boys. The Catholic Church is the most dispicable religious organization on earth. The Pope and the Vatican hierarchy need to face criminal charges and be imprisoned under hard labor for the rest of their days on earth. Everyone with a brain knows that religion is a farce, there is no God, there is no "Lord", there is only pain, torture, and the taking of one's wealth when it comes to the Catholic tyrants hiding behind a myth, the Bible.
Though morally wrong, in the early 1900's this practice was perfectly normal and acceptable. However it lasting until the 1990's, as human rights became more advanced, is extremely odd.
This is nothing new. Listen to the Joni Mitchell song, "Magdalene Laundries", to get a good feel as to how horrible the Catholic church was and is, still.
Ireland's government and the Catholic church owe these women an apology,monetary restitution and paid for psychological counseling if needed.This is despicable knowing that this was was going on into the 1980's.
The RCC is a criminal enterprise and should be treated as such by our government.
The RCC is a criminal enterprise and should be treated as such by our government.
This is what the right wing wants for the unemployed and seniors in the US once the Republicans have destroyed all the New Deal programs. The New Deal was created partly to protect the population from abuses like this, but these abuses WILL return to the US if Republicans have their way.
All Religions are fanciful facades covering mans most imagined horrors. The Paptist's have been around longer and have more experience with the conveniences and exploitations of hells relative qualities.
These actions by the Church in indefensible, but let's be realistic--the Church is a rather de-centralized organization that comprises anywhere from 1/6th to 1/7th of the world's population. Due to its large scale and lack of central control for its various operations (there's no way possible one person or even committee could oversee everything), it's simply not rational to expect perfection from such an organization. I'm flattered that you folks expect me to be perfect, since I'm a Catholic, but sorry to tell you it ain't so.
Are there actions that members and leaders of the Church have made in the Church's name that are heinous and require rectification? Of course. But gov't taxation and suppression are hardly the answer. Just to be clear, do some of you actually want the organization responsible for MKULTRA, the overthrow of a democratically elected gov't in Iran, and chemical dusting experiments on its own cities to be the ultimate moral authority?
(By the way, those incidents aren't collected from fringe web sites. They've all been openly acknowledged by the US gov't.)
Catholic Church and it's blood, slave money. Despicable.
Mickey--There are people who have written books claiming that evolution is bull@!$%#...I haven't read them yet so I can't argue it.
People are jumping on one religion sweepingly
however
THis article is not about Governement. It says plainly, Catholic orders. Catholic CHurch affilated groups ran these laundries. The Government is at fault for refering 1/4 of the girls to these places--I am not sure, in handing custody over to the church, of how much the government knew about what the church did with these girls and how they were treated.
But the main culprit is Catholic Church affilated. They ran institutions that WORKED girls hard for no pay. That is slavery, by definition. And at least, emotional abuse. Many of these were teenaged girls.
One reason but not the entire reason (some of the people pushing against the church I bet are lapsed Catholics and have an ax to grind from personal experience) also that this is particularly heinous is that these slave labor laundries made the Church's professed values a joke.
Ahh, Catholics. The part that completely baffles me is that the most egregious sins are forgiven if you just ask for forgiveness. You can spend a lifetime committing all matter of sin - abusing children, sexually molesting children and other adults, murdering, robbing, committing adultery, etc. and according to the Catholic Church you confess your sins and ask for forgiveness and bang, zoom - all is forgiven. If this is Jesus' way - it all seems just too easy.
As Albert Einstein once proclaimed, " If there is an evil upon this Earth, it is religion, a political establishment which adheres to childish myths of demons and heroes, a political establishment that commands loyalty and obedience for fear of the otherwise."
To survive in ICT age, Roman Catholic church has to reform with times.
Reform should start from Pope and his team.
Also church should permit marriage of priests; gay/lesbian marriages; and women priests.
Bluelake,
"Mickey--There are people who have written books claiming that evolution is bull@!$%#...I haven't read them yet so I can't argue it."
There are many sides to every issue; not just one. You really should try reading some books that disagree with what you already believe sometimes. It's an exercise in open mindedness and a great cure for bigotry!
Your all a bunch of haters. What was done to those poor girls is terrible. I love my Catholic faith. Sure I went thru rough time during 8yrs of Catholic school it made me a stronger person and the nuns have to answer for their sins. We own our sins and each of us will have to answer to our lord Jesus at the end of our lives.
Tawbear
Just because you were brainwashed into accepting abuse from nuns doesn't mean other children should be taught to accept abuse. If we allowed every criminal to run free and waited for them to answer to Jesus, we would not have civilized society. We would have chaos.
Priests and nuns should pay for their crimes in courts of law and spend time in jail. The roman catholic church harbors criminals and leaves children defenseless againsts them.
bishopsaccountability.org "survivor's accounts" Protect children from roman catholic child abuse.
Over 2,000 years of abuse. Sick organization the catholic church.
Jesus was pretty cool. It kind of started going downhill since then.
"All religion is nothing but mankind's fear of the unknown, institutionalized by propitiatory magic, and capitalized on by priests." - H. L. Mencken
Catholic Church= Scum of the Earth
The Magdelene Laundries
I was an unmarried girl
I'd just turned twenty-seven
When they sent me to the sisters
For the way men looked at me
Branded as a jezebel
I knew I was not bound for Heaven
I'd be cast in shame
Into the Magdalene laundries *
Most girls come here pregnant
Some by their own fathers
Bridget got that belly
By her parish priest
We're trying to get things white as snow
All of us woe-begotten-daughters
In the steaming stains
Of the Magdalene laundries
Prostitutes and destitutes
And temptresses like me
Fallen women
Sentenced into dreamless drudgery
Why do they call this heartless place
Our Lady of Charity?
Oh charity!
These bloodless brides of Jesus
If they had just once glimpsed their groom
Then they'd know and they'd drop the stones
Concealed behind their rosaries
They wilt the grass they walk upon
They leech the light out of a room
They'd like to drive us down the drain
At the Magdalene laundries
Peg O'Connell died today
She was a cheeky girl
A flirt
They just stuffed her in a hole!
Surely to God you'd think at least some bells should ring!
One day I'm going to die here too
And they'll plant me in the dirt
Like some lame bulb
That never blooms come any spring
Not any spring
No, not any spring
Not any spring
- joni mitchell
The entire Catholic Church, corona, or certain individuals and circumstances in it?
Put it this way benedict,
If any other "organisation" committed the crimes the catholic church their members would be charged under the RICO act.
The Church should be charged under the RICO act. What difference is there between it and the Mob? Just like Scientology is really a corporation and should be taxed like one.
Look at the structure, the secrecy, the wealth, and tell me that it is not the same as the Mob!
Any roman catholic who gives money to the roman catholic church is supporting peodophilia and child abuse. It continues and the church continues to move them, hide them, and protect them.
bishopsaccountability.org click on "survivor's accounts"
At least they weren't raped. The "church" considered that special and was for boys only. Sick.
Amused Muse - For anything or anyone to be taxed, they should be profiting. However, the Vatican runs at a loss most fiscal years. It's expeditures were $326.4 million in 2011. By comparison, Alabama University's total campus revenue was $660.8 million. It's budget is public information and is meager considering it runs embassies all over the world.
Folks always talk about the "wealth" of the Church, but never back it up. Are you referencing the priceless art and artifacts in the Church's possession? What's your suggestion? That the Church be forced to sell it and have it displayed in a museum? Or maybe have it all destroyed and melted down Taliban-style?
SavvyShopper - Do you really think the pedophilia was exclusive to boys? It happened to little girls, too. This has happened in Catholic, Protestant, Muslim and Jewish religions all over the world. Pedophilia just hides better under the "robes" of the Catholic church.
Culheath - Excellent! - I love Joni Mitchell and what an perfect piece to put up. Thank you very much.
"one group saying those affected had been "treated like slaves.""
Church should also apologize.
What sort of morality Popes and Bishops, who permitted these abuses, have?
They did not understand religion and use it properly!
We are also doing a major blunder. Some get too much hung up on a religion and its interpretations.
If some priests, clerics, gurus, monks or any other title ones try to misuse, we should learn to say: GO TO HELL!
Bryon, except Jesus wasn't christian. The cult of his personality wasn't invented until centuries after his death.
cram, if the church is going to claim poverty then why hasn't it sold all the land it bought up during WWII? How do they keep building gaudy churches? How does it still send missionaries to spread lies about contraception to Africa?
What's your suggestion? That the Church be forced to sell it and have it displayed in a museum?
Sure! That's what happens when any other corrupt organization has to pay its victims. Why should the RCC get special treatment? I say it should return all the property it stole over the centuries back to the original owners or their descendants.
If the Magdalenes win a settlement from the Irish Government (and they should) the government should sue the RC Church for it. They have the deepest pockets of all. The Catholic Church has done more to try to keep Ireland in the Dark Ages than even the British Government has. (and that's saying something).
Wow the Catholic cult has SO much to answer for.
I guess they were the Scientologists of their time and convinced enough simple peoples of the world to buy into it. Damn sure if it was starting up now, there would be all sorts of warnings.
The entire Catholic cult, Phil, or certain individuals in it who should certainly answer for any wrong they have done?
You keep asking this. Rich as it is, the Catholic Church could never compensate for all the crime and harm "certain individuals" have done, most with either the approval of or the turned eye of the Church. The Catholic Church should be dismantled to the last brick and the bricks used on the pedophiles and slave drivers and the hierarchy that sustains them. The innocent and the dumb followers are free to start over.
who was to blame this particular time doesn't matter. these certain individuals were aided and supported by the entire church. so yeah screw the whole thing. it's all corrupt and disgusting.
Benedictineacc, the sincere believers within the Catholic Church should also be compensated for their contributing to their own poverty, tithing, sending their kids to Catholic school, doing charity work, etc. while the hierarchy lives in luxury!
I went to a Catholic university for grad school - I had to, or I had to leave the state to get my Master's. And it was an excellent school, very welcoming and giving and tolerant, with the highest ethical standards - and you know what? That's because the nuns who run it are politically and socially liberal, and thus a target from the Vatican for unorthodoxy! As the Pope said, they cared more about healing the sick, feeding the poor, and comforting the afflicted than for preaching against gay marriage and abortion!
So, there you are! No good deed goes unpunished by the Church.
Please, good hearted Catholics of the world, if you can't be an atheist as I am, seize your power and demand to run your own religion!
Benedictineacc
Anyone who gives ONE PENNY ro thre roman catholic church as it is run today is an accessory to pedophilia and child abuse.
bishopsaccountability.org "survivor's accounts"
...and yet ANOTHER reason to condemn the institution of religion.
I'll add my Atheist Amen to that.
Atheist Amen. That is a bit of a contradiction is it not?
R'amen!
As if we needed any more reasons... Removing "god" from one's life is to truly remove hatred... The "bible" teaches to judge, to hate, to conform, and to intimidate. Belongs in the "fiction" category, and has no place on my shelf.
Evolution has allowed this conversation to go from hating Catholics to hating all religion. Now I believe in evolution.
As much as they treated women like slaves, it's like the Catholic Church was an early version of today's GOP.
Now celtic that is funny. True and funny too.
Wise up curmudgeon.
Another reason the church will not ordain women priests...
The women were needed in the laundry.
The GOP couldn't hold a candle to the atrocities committed by the roman catholic church. The GOP is leftist/liberal next to the roman catholic .
Bishopsaccountability.org "survivor's accounts"
Please tell me the difference between organized crime and some of the practices of the Catholic Church ....
The catholic church is openly sanctioned and supported by the government.
correction : the government of Ireland.
Organized crime does not endorse child molestation...
abby, if you could find an official teaching of the Catholic Church that would be linked to a practice of organized crime, then I would agree with you. They should then RICO the Church.
But if certain individuals in the Church commit crimes, are they committing the crime, or is the entire Catholic Church doing the crime? Think this one through.
I think I see what you are trying to do, benedictine. It is a worthy goal, but the cruelties of a significant number of the representatives of the Catholic Church over the centuries constitute a horrifying pattern that tends to sweep even the "good ones' along with it. Surely you can see that?
I am not entirely sure that's how the RICO act works (bearing in mind I am not a lawyer). From Wikipedia:
The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, commonly referred to as the RICO Act or simply RICO, is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization. The RICO Act focuses specifically on racketeering, and it allows for the leaders of a syndicate to be tried for the crimes which they ordered others to do or assisted them, closing a perceived loophole that allowed someone who told a man to, for example, murder, to be exempt from the trial because he did not actually do it.
There can be no doubt that the Catholic Church as an organisation has committed criminal acts on a world wide scale - with collusion from the highest echelons. They should be held to account.
Perhaps Mr. Benedictineacc...what you may be reading in these posts is not necessarily the "crucifixion" of the teachings of the Catholic church, but rather the realization that the corrupt and criminal acts that exist and have been existing run so deep and far that it seems as though the "whole" church is saturated with blood...so to speak. But, the reality is that there are those directly involved in the acts (guilty), those who ignore the acts of others (guilty by simply knowing and being silent) and those who have directly ordered the crimes covered up (guilty as well).
In conclusion, perhaps you could take your Pius ass to confession and quit fu*king with everyones mind by speaking in parables...your not Jesus.
[snigger]
The entire roman catholic church, and every member thereof, is commiting the crime by supporting and protecting the criminals while villifying and refusing to compensate the victims.
bishopsaccountability.org
Ah, more of that good old-fashioned christian charity, doncha know. These children were enslaved. Call it what it is.
Someone very high up in the Irish government needs to spend many years in prison for this......and perhaps someone high up in the Catholic church needs some jail time also.
Again, the bible is a male guide to abusing women legally and conscience free. Why any women would want these ancient texts of 'manspeak' in their lives is beyond reason. The Pope/church doesn't think anymore of these women then they did at the laundry. Women have been slaves to religion since men stole it from them. The work houses/laundries was one of the reasons that Sinead O'Connor tore the Pope's picture in half on SNL. Everyone knows that women have been washing these sanctified gigolo's underwear their whole lives. Disgusting bunch of religious fanatics always waiting for some unsuspecting woman or child to be their next victim.
I was going to mention the Sinead O'Connor incident but you already did. I remember her saying they would lock her outside and she had to sleep on the ground. At the time, her tearing up the Pope's photo was such a big scandle. She was just ahead of her time.....the whole Irish Catholic abuse was not even known or if it were, people would have accused the children of lying and probably would have been beaten for even thinking a priest or nun could do such a thing.
When I was young, we talked amongst ourselves anout what the priests were doing, including skimming money from the offering baskets. We didn't dare tell our parents because we would have been punished for even suggesting that a priest would do such things. One friend told his parents about the theft of the donation money and his parents said that HE must have been stealing and was trying to blame the priests, so they punished him. Ironically, he was GRATEFUL that they didn't bring him to the rectory to apoolgize because he knew he would be TOTALLY at the MERCY of the priest and his disgusting inclinations if that had happened.
bishopsaccountability.org "survivor's accounts"
Watch the movie.. heart wrenching..............
I started it I could not bear it.
I cannot watch it.
Another day, another article showing how religion is always the problem.
You're "toasted" alright, a rebel without a clue, who blames a religion or all religions for the bad actions of SOME. You think no one ever suffered under atheistic Communism or non-religious Nazism? Of course they did. But using your "logic", Communism and Nazism SHOW how POLITICAL SYSTEMS are always the problem. Damn political systems! Let's get rid of them!
Every time an article like this appears, the anti-religion crowd flocks to it in droves because it justifies their "opinions". I can't stand ultra right religious nut cases who shove religion in my face, but will add that anti-religion nut cases are equally annoying. Both groups have agendas, mantras, and tunnel vision that excludes the possibility of there being goodness in individuals NOT LIKE THEM.
Niko - are you telling me that over the course of 74 years there wasn't a single authority within the Catholic church who had enough guts to stand up and say this was wrong???
Saying NOTHING or looking the other way has the same result as approval.
Niko... Over the course of human history religion has been not about god but about preserving each little organized segment of belief. Each group thinks their was is the one only true path. It's part of what defines a religion.
People also say "nothing" when they don't perceive wrongs as BEING wrongs. The results of the recent civil inquiry into the Magdalene laundry scandal are actually a bit sympathetic to the nuns, stating among other things that the related film was exaggerated, that girls and women never had their heads shaved, etc. Did American authority figures initially have the guts to stand up and say that slavery, segregation, child labor, and not letting women have the vote was wrong? No, they did not, and even after the fact, some disagreed.
I don't excuse abuse in the Church, past or present. I find fault in a FILM being equated to FACT, and in shrill anti-Catholic or anti-religious rhetoric (not speaking of you) that is being spouted as TRUTH. The Church founded schools, orphanages, and hospitals long before the secular world got involved. "Goodness" was the impetus, and the bad behavior of SOME, or the accepted mindset of a particular time, doesn't change that.
Religion itself, or the misuse of religion, toastedrebel?
Nikolaus, While there are some things I agree with you on in both of your comments, I think a couple things are worth noting. Both Nazism/fascism and communism had religions. Nazism was a religious cult in a sense. Both Hitler and Goebbels were instrumental in bringing back a "German paganism" which combined many of the Norse myths with popular occult ideas. Also, in my opinion, communism essentially makes the State a god; in some sense establishing a pseudo-religion based on the appeasement of the State.
My overall opinion is that though religion in and of itself might be good, it is often used as a tool for selfish gains.
In my experience, benedictine, it is kind of hard to separate the two.
Can we avoid breaking Godwin's Law, please? (And is there a comparable law for mentionining Stalin? There ought to be.)
After Ben Stein's piece o'crap film, we are all Hitler-ed and Stalin-ed out. So, effing please! Enough!
As the granddaughter of one of these slaves, I can tell you from first hand experience that the "Sisters" caused severe emotional trauma and the psychological damage was handed to my mother as well because my grandmother knew nothing but abuse (despite what the story says, in some locations there was physical torture - a lot of it) and knew nothing but to heep more abuse on her children.
This is NOT about religion. Jesus would not have stood for this. This is about POWER and nothing more. Power corrupts...even nuns and priests. What needs to happen is that the POWER the church has needs to be abolished. The church should not be recognized as a separate nation and no nation should allow the pope diplomatic status (in the US that should be abhorrent anyway because of the First Amendment). The church should be taxed just as any other business. All regulatory laws should be applicable...i.e. no unlicensed medical providers, no unlicensed counselors. Strip the church of its POWER and the problems will mostly end on their own.
LET ME SUBSTITUTE A WORD or TWO:
"This is about power and nothing more. Power corrupts...even POLITICIANS. What needs to happen is that the POWER the GOVERNMENT has needs to be abolished. Strip the GOVERNMENT of its power and the problems will mostly end on their own."
You agree with this? No? Then what is the real problem? "Power", or its misuse? If a government can have power, then why not an organized church? Clearly, priests and nuns aren't the only "kinds" of people who can abuse power. Atheists, teachers, coaches, cops, soldiers, lawyers, parents, and others, have abused "power". What's needed is OVERSITE, but "oversite" does not equal stripping churches of authority (power) and taxing them. Then again, you call a church a "business" (no bias there, by golly) and cite the Constitution to suit YOUR position.
Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
It doesn't matter if you're a church, government, lawyer, parent, what have you.
Oh, another thing Elsie: the Catholic Church isn't recognized as a "separate nation". Vatican City IS recognized as a sovereign CITY state, and it came into existence in 1929. Vatican City can issue passports and do some other things that "states" do, but the Holy See (not the same thing) which embodies the authority of the universal Catholic Church, cannot.
Ok...you have a valid point, Niko. The other abuse of power here would be the government of Ireland.
Elsie, I must differ ~ this is all about religion as it is nothing more than another type of political party with a lust for power.
No, Jesus would not have and did not stand for the hypocrisy and abuses of religion. He stood against the religious institution of His day. We should do the same.
Niko, this is clearly upsetting for you and I am sorry about that. But I think you will have to admit that much harm has been done in the name of organized religion, and not just the Catholic version. I am willing to concede that good has been done as well. Can we find a middle ground here?
Niko,
Our government does not have the power to rape and otherwise abuse children, with the knowledge of its citizenry, and without any criminal charges or sentences. Our nation does not continue to support a government that has been proven to protect pedophiles and move them around the country to other posiitons of power over children and allow them to victimize over and over and over. President Obama did not create a policy of protecting pedophiles and covering up for them before he was elected, have that policy brought to our attention, and then we elected him. No comparison.
The roman catholic church has MUCH more power world-wide that it accrued through centuries of brainwashing.
bishopsaccoumtanility.org "survivor's accounts"
Bloody Irish.
NO, bloody Irish Catholic Church and Irish Catholic government.
I have that Celtic blood in me, and I cannot for the life of me figure out how an entire nation allowed itself to be in such thrall to the Church. So, there is enough blame to go around, that's for sure.
Ireland is waking up. When families had begun to send their children to public high schools to keep them safe, they discovered after graduation that it was much more difficult for their children to get into college if they hadn't gone to catholic high school. So they sent their children to other countries for university and there began to be a brain drain. Now there are many more public high schools and it is easier to get into university with a public high school education. There is hope for Ireland yet. And if the IRISH CATHOLICS can break free of their brainwashing, there is hope for remaining roman catholics world-wide.
Elsie, I am a product of abuse cascading through generations that started with the roman catholic priests and nuns, which is an added burden for the victims of the priests.
bishopsaccountability.org "survivor's accounts" Protect your children.
From the Irish Examiner
Magdalene nuns 'did their best'
Tuesday, February 05, 2013
Nuns who ran the Magdalene laundries were given a sympathetic hearing in the Magdalene laundries report as the inquiry team noted their profound hurt over the years of public debate.
The investigation committee reported that the four religious orders in charge of workhouses regret any pain caused to women routinely stripped of their identities when locked up.
In their defence the report repeated claims from nuns involved that they did the best they could to care for the residents.
“Their position is that they responded in practical ways as best they could...to the fraught situations of the sometimes marginalised girls and women sent to them, by providing them with shelter, board and work,” the report said.
It went on to find that a play, 'Eclipsed' by Patricia Burke-Brogan, about life in a laundry, and the dramatic film, 'The Magdalene Sisters', were fictionalised accounts and not a narrative.
“What we thought of the Magdalene laundries, it may be that was not true,” said a source close to the inquiry.
Overall the report found that people’s perception of living conditions in the laundries tended to be worse than the reality.
It conceded that, while conditions were harsh at times, and cold and monastic, routine shaving of women’s heads did not take place.
Only one of the 100-plus former residents interviewed said her head was shaved but she later clarified it was done because she had lice.
Some others said they had their hair cut but only on arrival at the laundry, while others claimed their hair was not cut at all.
Elsewhere, the inquiry accepted the religious orders’ explanation for not opening records to researchers – they claimed a strong moral responsibility to protect women’s privacy.
It defended the nuns for working hard to protect the anonymity of women who spent time at the laundries, saying there was no secrecy or self-interest involved.
The orders claimed the “commitment to anonymity” was the reason women were given a “hose” or “class” name on arrival at the laundry instead of their birth name.
“Many of the women who met the committee, however, found this practice deeply upsetting and, at the time, felt as though their identity was being erased,” the report said.
The orders said they regretted any hurt caused by this.
They said they consistently made available all the personal records they hold directly to the women concerned and, in the case of deceased women, to their next of kin.
And of course authors like Nuala O'Faolain, Frank McCourt, and, in her own way, Maeve Binchy got it all wrong. Life was joy upon joy in the Church-controlled Ireland.
Yep, and Jerry Sandusky was doing his best for those boys..and the pedo priests were doing their best.
Of course they say they were doing their best! Did anybody else on here go to Catholic school, for heaven's sake? The cruelty (emotional and physical) of the nuns is not imagined. But I'm sure they were doing their best.
The Church probably epitomizes the adage even better than government, "While power corrupts, Absolute power corrupts absolutely".
Nikolaus
This is just typical roman catholic heirarchy back-pedalling. Get used to it. You'll be seeing a lot more of it.
bishop'saccountability.org "survivor's accounts"
And now let's hear from the now grown Irish boys who were placed in the care of the "Christian Brothers".....absolute horror!
Please notice, it was only women and girls the Catholic Church abused in this instance, as their religious order knows, only low-life women become pregnant, and it's solely their fault, while the benefits of their incarceration are lower costs to the tax-payers who'd otherwise have to support these brazen-lowlifes (tongue-in-cheek).
Face it folks, the GOP and the Catholics go hand-in-hand, whereby they denounce equal rights, view women as worth-less than than their male counterparts, and would if they could, keep them enslaved.
The idea of Religion being the guiding-hand of society, and being our moral-compass makes me nauseous, where I have no problem with people practicing their religious beliefs, but I'd prefer absolute separation of church-and-state, whereby no church can purchase property/land, without being taxed on it, the same as any other organization, and anyone caught abusing someone on church property, would face the same penalties as you and I, were they committed outside of the church... period!
You had to be involved with this stuff to understand..........I was in Catholic schools until the 10th grade..............If my parents had not moved and I was "damned" because I went to PUBLIC school..............I would have probably gone insane or at least not been who I am today.
The Catholic church in the US once did more good than harm.........Now it definitely is harmful to both itself and anything it touches.
The Pope is a Joke............the church in Italy is a crime and worse than a joke. This "church" is EVIL and has always been evil since denying that the earth rotates around the sun and excommunicating people who disagreed...........................How many people has this church killed in the name of God over the centuries...........and how many lives have been ruined because of the greed of the Popes? How much gold and gilt and huge Cathedrals does it take?
NoSalvation$U
OMG the GOP is not nearly as bad as the roman catholic church and I say that as a diehard Dem who campaigned door-to-door for President Obama in two elections. The fact that you can find them at all comparable shows that you do not see how heinous the crimes of the roman catholic church are.
PLEASE READ bishopsaccountability.org "survivor's accounts" Educate yourself. Protect our children.
another great day for the catholic church
The entire Catholic Church, harbor rat, or certain individuals and institutions in it?
Can you separate the two, since the Catholic Church, as a thing, is only able to act through its institutions and the individuals who run them ?
A one time incident is a tragedy; multiple incidents are a crime; ongoing, regimented, routine activities make the church untouchable.
No dirp, he can't. Mr. benedictineacc can only present questions to those who post in an effort to create doubt in what they attempt to say. Similar to many of the teachings and practices of many, some, all, or a few of the Catholic leaders.
A bit of insight into benedictine -- since he has taken Erasmus as his avatar. I admit it is only from Wikipedia, but still interesting:
The entire roman catholic (as opposed to the Anglican Catholic) church, benedictineacc.
The entire roman catholic church is at fault as long as its members continue to support and harbor their criminals.
bishopsaccountability.org "survivor's accounts"
Brainwashed... how does one go about reforming anything that is with thousands of years of "tradition" and is so self-consumed with power and money that it still believes itself to shape the world. Many will condemn the Catholic Church yet forget so easily that all "christian" religions are based upon that very foundation, even as they broke from the church over some disagreements, most tenets are still the same. Small wonder then that the world turns away from religion and from the rantings of those who ABSOLUTELY require blind faith, and that THEY be the dictators of what to believe and do, OVER your own god'given brain, intuition and body. This article about the laundries doesn't surprise me at all. Why we have a POPE who INSISTS that condoms are devil's work, in an age where prevention of AIDS in Africa is of paramount importance. According to the Pope, death of Africans is preferable to the loss of possible future tithing sources. Having had my OWN battles directly with the Vatican.. I can honestly say that those who accuse others of "Devil'S work" are usually the ones carrying it out.
Echoe
I wholeheartedly agree with almost everything in your post. If you believe in God and have a science/math education as I do, it is very difficult to accept the notion of "blind faith". After all, if there is a God and He created all things, why did he create our minds to discover throughout the millenia the very tenets of physics, botany and biology that would lead us to be able to disprove almost everything in the bible?
However, there are organized religions that do not require blind faith. They respect our individual insight and contemplation and our journeys along our own individual paths.
The reason I believe there is possibly a God is that all of the microscopic germs on our skin cannot conceive of our existance as human beings, my cat cannot conceive of the internet, there are tribes in forests who cannot conceive of the MBTA. It is entirely possible that there is a God of which we cannot conceive or understand. We have the infinite in calculus, we can have the infinite in spirituality.
I respect and understand atheists' poinst of view.
I do not understand or respect people who protect and support child rapists.
I do no call for reform of the roman catholic church. I call for DISSOLUTION of the roman catholic church.
bishopsaccountability,org "survivor's accounts" Do you want your child to endure these atrocities?
Also see the important documentary about the Magdalene Asylums (aka Magdalene Laundries). It's called ""Sex in a Cold Climate" and it's avaiable on YouTube. This came out before the movie. It's in 4 parts and also in a full length version.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=relmfu&v=FtxOePGgXPs
...well, I guess by these posts they should have left these women on the street to die or just sent them off to prison to die......that would have been better???...
YES!
You write like forced labor or imprisonment were the only choices. Why is it so hard to imagine someone might just offer a helping hand to someone in need?
Ellen....well, no one came forward to help, not the Protestants, not the Muslims, not the Jews, not the British, not the atheists or any of the bleeding heart posters spewing their hate here......so kill the only entity to reach out at all.....
nycguy: so, if the women had all been sent off to be prostitutes in Asia, or the middle east, that would be okay by you. After all, they'd still be alive, right?
Well, at least the tax payers would not have to take care of them, right?
dirp....no, I didn't say that, and what did you do to help them?....anything?.....I thought so....
Nycguy
They didn't "reach out" to them. They ABUSED them, tortured them, enslaved them, starved them.
They would have fared better in prison where at least there would have been laws to protect them.
bishopsaccountability.org "survivor's accounts"
Joni Mitchell wrote a song about this in 1994: "The Magdalene Laundries" I couldn't believe this was happening so recently. It sounded so Middle Ages. I saw the movie referred to in the article and it is very depressing that this happened. A post on IMDB.com about this movie says the actual situation was worse than depicted. The laundries used the same tactics that cults and kidnappers use to keep captives. They tell the victims that no one wants them and they have nowhere to go. Loneliness, hopelessness and not being wanted must be the worst feelings every! It's so sad...
Ya gotta love those catholics. I'm an ex, saw thru all their bs a long time ago.
I've got to ask people the same question I've asked others so many times:
How come none of the freak priests and nuns go to jail? If any ordinary person did the things they do, our butts would be in jail real quick. Just don't get it.
Because so many of their minions are brainwashed and protect them from the law. If you are ex-catholic, you know what I mean. You know people who NEVER attend mass, but call themselves catholic because they have been taught that to belong to any other denomination means burning in hell for eternity.
bishopsaccountability.org "survivor's accounts"
It's 2013. It's time the Male Palace in Rome have a female as Pope. We wasn't so great in America. When black and white men could vote, but women wasn't allowed to vote years ago. America have changed with the times, now it's time the Catholic Church change. Other wise they shouldn't be exempt from taxes.
Where did the boys go that fell into this category...once again such horrific discrimination of young girls and women as if they are second class citizens. And until 1996?! Are you kidding me...how do these things still go on? They deserve an apology and compensation for their lost lives!
trouble is catherine the catholic church won't apologize for anything
catherine, the priests undoubtedly took care of the boys.
It's Obama's fault!
Once again the catholic church. The Irish have suffered like no other and it is directly related to the church. This stuff is still going on in Latin American and probably Africa.