clergy abuse recovered memory Ireland/US, ritual abuse

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 09:46:55 +1100

By eassurvey

Child abuse monster Father Brendan Smyth ruined my life By APRIL DREW, Irish Voice Reporter

2/10/10 Helen McGonigle, 48, was just six years old when Father Brendan Smyth, a notorious sex offender from Co. Cavan, first abused her.

McGonigle, now a successful attorney in Connecticut, says Smyth destroyed her family. She blames Smyth for the death of her sister and brother and the demise of her beautiful mother.

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After years of suppressing the memories of the horrendous abuse, McGonigle is now dealing with her past and hoping other victims will do the same….Helen wasn’t the only sister to encounter Smyth’s evil ways. The Cavan priest also sexually abused her older sister Kathleen. In the past few years, both Kathleen, 48, and her brother Gerard, 53, died of drug overdoses. McGonigle claims it was the abuse Kathleen suffered at the hands of Smyth that made her dependent on antidepressants….

It was finally her sister’s tragic death in 2005 that lead McGonigle to face her worst nightmares, nightmares from the past she thought she would never need to resurrect.
“It was because I observed my sister rapidly deteriorating and fearful for her life that I began my investigation into the past about our childhood in Rhode Island,” said McGonigle during a lengthy interview with the Irish Voice.

While her sister was ailing, McGonigle’s father said accusingly, “It was that priest from Rhode Island that gave your sister alcohol that started her problems.” Not only did this statement shock and frighten McGonigle, it got her thinking back into her past. Was Smyth really responsible for his sister’s problems? “People who do not walk in these shoes cannot comprehend how it (abuse) impacts adults and can be life threatening as in the case of my family,” said McGonigle. http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Hele...85092.html

In 1968, McGonigle said Smyth was caught molesting children in her parish and sent to Purdysburn Mental Hospital in Northern Ireland for treatment. After his time was served in Ireland, Smyth was allowed to return to Rhode Island, said McGonigle….During the abuse, McGonigle knew nothing but fear. Smyth told her she would “end up like the body in the woods” if she ever told a soul about what he was doing to her. “I took that as a real death threat and was terrified and confused and very young,” she says. McGonigle also witnessed Smyth molesting her sister. They had a bedroom with a door directly to the outside that he could enter. Smyth’s evil antics didn’t stop at the McGonigle sisters either. Their mother also spent time in a mental institution.
According to McGonigle’s childhood neighbor who she located after 36 years, in 1968 her mother caught “Smyth sodomizing a little boy behind the stone wall and she shouted, ‘What are you doing to that little boy.’ http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Hele...tml?page=2

The abuse stopped when the family moved from Rhode Island in 1973 but the scars were left for life. McGONIGLE got on with her life. She put her abuse behind her and did her best to lead a normal life. It wasn’t until her sister’s death five years ago that she began to delve into their pasts. She began to question why her sister suffered from depression in the first place. After a little investigating she too discovered and remembered that Kathleen was a victim of Smyth’s lurid acts. After burying her sister McGonigle took time to deal with her own issues http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Hele...tml?page=3

Not wanting to let Smyth ruin any more of her life, McGonigle reported the sexual abuse inflicted on her to the Diocese of Providence, Rhode Island in 2006. They told her she wasn’t the first to report Smyth. “I was informed that I was the sixth to come forward, yet newspaper accounts that I located indicated there were no problems whatsoever in our parish,” she said.

McGonigle attended a meeting where she said the Vicar General, Paul Theroux, of the Providence Diocesan, offered her $25,000 compensation, or she could “privately arbitrate with a cap of $50,000 (meaning there would be no public record and everything would once again be kept secret).”

McGonigle became infuriated with the financial offer. McGonigle said the diocesan victim outreach coordinator, Michael Hansen, told her to “just send us all your bills.”

“I refused their hush money,” said McGonigle. The Diocese of Providence has paid for therapy and medical expenses McGonigle has incurred as a result of the abuse by Smyth.

McGonigle, who still has a case pending against the Diocese of Providence, realizes that it’s too late for Smyth to be brought to justice, but she longs for the Catholic Church to recognize the abuse he inflicted on the children of her parish while he served his time there. http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Hele...tml?page=4

Smyth was convicted on 91 counts of child molestation – 17 in Northern Ireland and 74 in the summer. http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Hele...tml?page=5

describes crimes
Teachers get advice on how to spot signs of ritual abuse….
Lucy Ward, social affairs correspondent The Guardian 2/2/07 ….’

Drawing on research showing 38 known cases of child abuse linked to alleged spirit possession in England since January 2000, the government guidance aims to raise awareness of the practice and help those coming into contact with youngsters to recognise indicators of abuse. The signs they are told to look out for, listed in draft advice published today, include marks such as bruises or burns on a child’s body, a child becoming “noticeably confused, withdrawn, disorientated or isolated”, and “deterioration in personal care” including weight loss, unkempt or dirty clothes, or even faeces smeared on the body.

Children may also report directly that they have been accused of being evil, or that they are having the “devil beaten out of them”, according to the advice, which says teachers and others should follow child protection guidelines and pass their concerns to social services or the police.

The most common forms of abuse youngsters may suffer include physical assaults such as beating, burning, cutting, stabbing, semi-strangulation and having chilli peppers rubbed on to their eyes or genitals. Emotional forms of abuse, says the guidance, range from isolation from other family members to threats to abandon the child, who may also be subjected to sexual abuse and neglect extending to denial of food and warmth.
The 38 documented cases involved 47 abused children.

The vast majority of known instances of ritual abuse concerned first or second generation migrants from African countries including Congo, Nigeria, Angola and Ghana as well as south Asia and the Caribbean, but also white English families, according to the document….

The children’s minister, Beverley Hughes, said: “While a very small proportion of all abuse cases are linked to spirit possession the impact on the children can be substantial and serious. Faith-based abuse can be hard for professionals to recognise and deal with and we want them to have all the guidance they need to help them tackle this.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/200...es.schools

http://eassurvey.wordpress.com/2010/0...ual-abuse/

Clergy sex abuse victim reacts to Pope's address

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 10:12:38 +1100

(Stephen Iandoli, NECN) - The church sexual abuse scandal broke in Boston, so many New Englanders are watching the Pope's visit through a very discriminating lens.

Many clergy sex abuse victims would have liked to see the Pope in person when he addressed the sex abuse scandal...but that didn't happen.

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One victims says it is another "slap in the face," and wants more of an outreach. William Oberle, who was abused in 1969, says the scars left by the pain of his suffering can not be soothed by the Pope's words.

He says actions speak louder than words. Oberle insists it was never about the money but about accountability.

He doesn't think the church handled it correctly, and for that, he doesn't think he will ever be able to forgive. NECN's Stephen Iandoli has more.

http://www.necn.com/pages/landing?blo...agID=20329

Colm O’Gorman – Survivor

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 11:19:51 +1100

Colm O’Gorman (born 1966) is an Irish survivor of clerical sexual abuse, from County Wexford, who first came to public attention by speaking out against those involved.

Colm subsequently founded One in Four, an Irish charity which supports men and women who have been sexually abused and/or suffered sexual violence. He is also a former director of that organisation.

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Colm was a member of the 22nd Seanad Éireann, representing the Progressive Democrats, one of the smaller Irish political parties. He is currently executive director of Amnesty International in Ireland.

Colm O’Gorman was born in County Wexford. His father was Seán O’Gorman, of Adamstown, County Wexford — a farmer, builder and local Fianna Fáil politician. Seán O’Gorman was a member of Wexford County Council, and later moved with his family to live in Wexford town. He twice stood unsuccessfully as a Fianna Fáil candidate in general elections: in 1969 and 1973.

In 2002, Colm O’Gorman settled near Gorey, Co. Wexford. Later he moved to a house close to Courtown, where he lives with his partner, Paul Fyffe. They are raising two children, of whom they have joint legal guardianship. When this was revealed it generated debate on fosterships in the Irish media.

As an adolescent in County Wexford — between the age of 15 and 18 — O’Gorman was sexually abused by Friar Seán Fortune. The abuse occurred between 1981 and 1983. He became the first of Fortune’s many victims to come forward and report the assaults to the Irish Police. In 1998, he sued the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ferns and the Dublin Papal Nuncio, who later claimed diplomatic immunity. His case against the Catholic Diocese of Ferns was settled in 2003 with an admission of negligence and the payment of damages — in April 2003, O’Gorman was awarded €300,000 damages. O’Gorman documented his lawsuit in the BBC documentary Suing the Pope.

He successfully campaigned to set up the Ferns Inquiry, the first Irish state inquiry into clerical sexual abuse. He founded the charity One in Four in London in 1999 and established its sister organisation in Ireland in 2002. He is a well-known figure in Irish media as an advocate of child sexual abuse victims and a commentator and campaigner on sexual violence. He was named one of the ESB/Rehab People of the Year and received a TV3/Daily Star “Best of Irish” award in 2002, one of the Sunday Independent/Irish Nationwide People of the Year in 2003 and in the same year he was also awarded the James Larkin Justice Award by the Irish Labour Party for his contribution to social justice in Ireland.

In 2006 O’Gorman filmed Sex Crimes and the Vatican for the BBC Panorama documentary series, which claimed that the Vatican has used Crimen sollicitationis secret document to silence allegations of sexual abuse by priests and also claimed Crimen sollicitationis was enforced for 20 years by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he became pope Benedict XVI.

In April 2006, he announced that he would stand for the Progressive Democrats in the 2007 general election in his native county of Wexford. On 3 May 2007, he was appointed to the Senate by the Taoiseach to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Senator Kate Walsh.

He was not elected in the 2007 general election in Wexford polling three percent of the vote. He had run in spite of the national swing against the party and the fact that the constituency had no history of electing a Progressive Democrat TD. He polled slightly higher than the national average of 2.7 percent. Compared to other Progressive Democrat Senators he polled much more favourably, reaching the highest number of first preference votes in the 2007 election.

He was not re-appointed to the 23rd Seanad in July 2007.

http://colmogorman.com/

http://innocentvoicesuk.com/2010/02/0...-survivor/

Actor Gabriel Byrne tells of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of the clergy

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 21:28:12 +1100

By Daily Mail Reporter

Hollywood actor Gabriel Byrne has revealed he was sexually abused as a child in Ireland and later as he trained as a priest in England.

Byrne, who starred in The Usual Suspects and Enemy of the State told Irish television he was abused by Christian Brothers when he was an altar boy in Dublin, the Telegraph reported.

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He said: 'It was a fact of life amongst us that there was this particular man, and you didn't want to be left in the dressing room with him.'

Byrne was abused by a member of the clergy when he moved to England at the age of 11 to train as a priest.

He revealed to Irish broadcaster Gay Byrne: 'It didn't go on over a prolonged period but it happened at a very, very vulnerable moment.'

Byrne, a father of two, admitted the abuse he endured had left him 'deeply hurt' and had taken him many years to come to terms with.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/artic...lergy.html

‘In Treatment’ Star Gabriel Byrne Reveals Past of Childhood Sex Abuse

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 08:56:05 +1100

Gabriel Byrne plays therapist Paul on HBO’s hit series In Treatement, delving out advice to his patients while simultaneously battling his own neuroses with a personal therapist played by Dianne Wiest.

Gabriel has just revealed that his off-screen life has some hidden skeletons in the closet. The actor admitted on an Irish talk show this week that he was sexually abused when he was an 11-year-old altar boy.

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“Unfortunately, I experienced some sexual abuse,” Gabriel said on the Irish show The Meaning of Life and reported via PopEater. “It was a known and admitted fact of life amongst us that there was this particular man, and you didn’t want to be left in the dressing room with him.”

The sexual abuse occurred when Gabriel went to England for 4 1/2 years to train for the priesthood. He was molested by a member of the clergy during his religious practice.

“It took many years to come to terms with it and to forgive those incidents that I felt had deeply hurt me,” Gabriel continued. “It didn’t go on over a prolonged period but it happened at a very, very vulnerable moment.”

“Again, I didn’t think it severely impacted me at the time. But when I think about my later life, and how I had difficulties with certain issues, there is the real possibility they could have been attributable to that.”

In the interview, the actor opened up about what he referred to as “black periods” in his life, including depression and alcoholism. He admits he was “beaten very regularly” as a child, but denies ever laying a hand on his two kids and ex-wife Ellen Barkin.

He abandoned seminary after he decided his love of women outweighed his desire to become a priest.

http://www.okmagazine.com/2010/01/in-...sex-abuse/

Sex abuse hurt me deeply, says actor Byrne

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 02:42:31 +1100

By Lynne Kelleher

HOLLYWOOD star Gabriel Byrne has revealed how he was "deeply hurt" by sexual abuse inflicted on him as a child by the Christian Brothers.

The film star opened up about the abuse in the first show of Gay Byrne's 'Meaning of Life' series on RTE television last night.

The actor talked frankly about his battles with alcoholism and depression in the past and expressed shock at the drinking culture among Ireland's young people.

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Byrne was an altar boy during his childhood in Dublin and went at the age of 11 to train as a priest in England.

"Unfortunately, I experienced some sexual abuse. It was a known and admitted fact of life amongst us that there was this particular man and you didn't want to be left in the dressing room with him," he said.

"It took many years to come to terms with it and to forgive those incidents that I felt had deeply hurt me."

Another priest sexually abused him when he was 11 at the English seminary.

"It didn't go on over a prolonged period but it happened at a very, very vulnerable moment," Byrne recalled.

Vulnerable

"Again I didn't think it severely impacted me at the time but when I think about my later life and how I had difficulties with certain issues, there is the real possibility they could have been attributable to that."

Byrne said he left the priesthood four and half years later because of his love of women.

"I went down to London during a break and we got on the bus and I walked up the stairs behind two girls in mini-skirts and that was the end of it for me," he said.

The actor, who has been open previously about his experiences with alcoholism and depression, said he had gone through very black periods in his life

He believes alcohol is linked to depression and is shocked at the amount of alcohol consumed by young people here.

"I think we've a huge problem in this country with alcohol and depression, they are often intertwined," Byrne said.

"I walked down Grafton Street a couple of months ago on a Saturday and it was scary beyond description."

The actor said it was "really sad to see young people vomiting in doorways".

"There is this plague of binge drinking where the idea is to get as out of it as you possibly can as quick as you can. That's alcoholism. Part of the disease is to remove yourself from reality as quickly as possible."

- Lynne Kelleher

Irish Independent

http://www.independent.ie/national-ne...18300.html

The Survivor’s Dream

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 07:47:42 +1100

The Survivor’s Dream

I have a dream that one day the pain of clergy abuse survivors will be recognized by the Roman Catholic Church and the laity will grasp the immense harm done to all the victims of clerical abuse.

I have a dream that one day the red hats of the hierarchy will openly admit the length and breadth of the clergy abuse without having the courts impose their will upon the church.

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I have a dream that one day even the Vatican, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice in the path of the Lord.

I have a dream where all little children will one day be allowed to grow up without having to fear sexual abuse. Where children are not looked upon as baubles or sex objects to be used and discarded by so called “men of God,” but respected as the human beings they are.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, in the Vatican, with its vast hypocrisy, with its pope having his lips dripping with the words of “We didn’t know” and “I’m deeply disturbed” — one day right there in the Vatican survivors, men and women, will be able to join hands and be recognized for the living hell the church put them through.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day truth and justice shall be exalted, and every participant responsible for clergy abuse shall be laid low, the extent of their hypocrisy made plain, and the crooked crosiers will be made straight; and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and the flesh of all children will be safe from predators.

And in my dream, Dr. King said, “Amen”

http://reform-network.net/?p=2538

Surviving Catholic Pedophile Priest Abuse

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 11:10:02 +1100

Skip Shea of Boston performs one-man show with slides of his art, telling history of molest by a pedophile priest.

Eric's story - Child abuse in rural Ireland; 1955

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 12:05:47 +1100

Crime, cruelty and concealment

This is a story of cruel abuse. A day in the life of Eric, a neglected 10 year-old child from a large poverty-stricken family, living in a two room cottage. His father was dead and his poor mother worked long hours for a pittance in a wet, cold, apple-peeling plant.

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The Murphy report of 2009 lifted the cover on sexual abuse of children within the Catholic church in Ireland and exposed those who colluded with its concealment. In separate investigations, the church's education system has also been rightly condemned for turning a blind eye to the physical brutality suffered by children at the hands of many Christian Brothers in earlier times.
But it wasn't only a Catholic problem and it wasn't only the bishops who turned a blind eye to such criminal excess. Eric knows. I know.

A silent schoolmate
Over 50 years ago I was a pupil at a small village school in Tyrone where I saw, from time to time, cruelty inflicted on the weakest who had no one to speak up for them. There were many abuses, but one in particular, perpetrated on my friend Eric, has troubled me all my life and always will; because I sat mute when I should have spoken out.

Colluders
I share the rising tide of disgust for churchmen who concealed or ignored the evil within their ranks towards children. I hear and support the calls for resignation and other punishments. These colluders with evil were mature adults.
Not fearful children like me and Eric's classmates who, if we overcame our cowardice and spoke out, were subject to the same brutality as the victim we tried to protect. But nonetheless, the effect of our neglectful collusion was as telling as that of the bishops and allowed the same evil consequences for Eric.

Eric goes to school
Early on a chill winter's morning, it was raining heavily when Eric left home to cycle the 4 miles to school. He had no waterproof clothing. Just a thick wool hand-me-down pullover, short flannel trousers and wee lace-up black boots that I saw him in every day. Eric always had holes in his battered boots and he never looked well washed, clean or cared for. But he was tough and cheerful and one of my pals.

Eric's teachers
For some reason the teachers regularly picked on little scruffy vulnerable Eric, but no matter what happened to him - and he was often beaten at school - he never whimpered or cried. I thought he was so strong.

I was a year ahead of Eric, in the Headmaster's class. The class below that was taught by a severe elderly lady who gave great attention to her favourites from better-off families, left the bulk of us alone, and mercilessly picked on the poorer children.

Eric's 'crime'
As Eric pedalled through the rain on his old heavy bicycle, she overtook him in her car and, according to her, he wobbled because he looked backward at her, causing her to swerve.
The Headmaster's class was just about to start when this teacher brought the shivering soaked boy into the room, the water still running out of his leaking boots. She told her story, following which the Headmaster, a pillar of the local community and leading figure in the Church of Ireland, took a cane to poor wee trembling Eric.

Eric's beating
I knew what was coming and I was sick to my stomach - and silent. With the first 6 on the left hand Eric flinched but was quiet. The next 6 on the right hand brought tears but no cries.
This was worse than I had expected and my own eyes filled with tears. My heart pounded and I almost shouted aloud in protest, but conformance and cowardice choked me and stopped my mouth.
Then he was put out alone to the outside toilets across the yard with two final sadistic cane-slashes at the back of his cold wet bare legs.

'Will, don't tell anybody I cried'
The school carried on.
Ten minutes later I was sent out to bring Eric back to his class. He was shaking with deep racking sobs. He couldn't speak. Swollen hands and seared red weals on his legs. When he could, all he said was, "Will, don't tell anybody I cried".

I washed his face, cleaned him up and he walked pathetically and cowed back to the classroom, showing no signs of crying as a result of his trauma. But he carried the physical marks. Everyone had seen the brutal physical abuse. I alone had seen the beaten, crying, broken, shattered spirit.
That wee boy had no love, no respect, no standing, no protection, no hope. The only thing he had to cling onto for survival was a pathetic inner desperate defiance and determination that nobody should see him cry.
I never told that Eric cried sore. I never told. I never told anything.

Sin of silence
My sin was that I told nobody. My puerile weak defence is that I was only ten years old and anyway, this sort of thing happened all the time. God forgive me. I should have told my parents or somebody in authority.

Like most people, I have had my share of ups and downs in life, but the number of regrets I have are few; very few. Today, neglect in failing to intervene for Eric is my only regret that still has the power to reduce me to tears of shame.
That unhappiest day of my childhood materially influenced the way I have interacted with people ever since.

Who casts the first stone?
When the inflamed mob lifts its missiles of righteous anger to target all abusers and their protectors - with shame I remember my own silent sin. I may not be entitled to cast the first stone.
But when I think of Eric's long-dead tormentors I'll lift and let fly anyway.

http://willmckee.blogspot.com/2010/01...rural.html

Clergy sex abuse victim speaks out on John Jay reports

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 03:38:28 +1100

THE JOHN JAY JOKE - A Clergy report of nonsense

by Joey Piscitelli

I am a victim of sexual abuse by Clergy of the Catholic Church. I won a California court jury trial against the Clergy predator who abused me, and personally fought with Cardinal Levada for years for protecting him. I have been a SNAP coordinator and advocate for abuse victims for 7 years. The Catholic Church seems to flaunt the John Jay Criminal Justice reports, claiming that the report states that only 4% of Priests are accused child abusers.

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This fallacious jokebook of a report, was based on information given to the gullable John Jay Clowns who wrote the report, by the Catholic Church themselves. How convenient.

Given the Catholic Hierarchys history of rape, sexual abuse, lies, coverups, payoffs, denial, shredding evidence, and criminal negligence,do the goofballs at John Jay really think that the reports of abuse given to them by the criminals of the Church are accurate? Surely John Jay Criminologists know what criminals are. Have the naive people at John Jay forgotten that criminals lie?

The goofball investigators at John Jay might have just as well have walked into an auditorium full of sociopathic child rapist clergy, and asked, “Will all of you who have criminally raped, sodomized and violated innocent kids, please raise your hand, so that we can take a count”.

I have met several ex-seminarians and ex-priests who have quit the church because they were molested themselves.

Most of them did not report the abuses, so they are not in the John Jay study. I have communicated with several hundred victims through SNAP support, most of them did not file a report to anyone. I have talked to fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles, sons, and daughters of victims who never made a report to anyone. I have talked to police and therapists who know dozens of victims who never reported to the church. I know of dozens of victims who went to their graves without reporting it to anyone.I know of dozens of victims who became addicts and alcoholics who never made a report. Most victims do not report abuse at all for 25 years, so none of these victims are included in the John Jay report either.Given the fact that MOST victims never reported, The real percentage of abusers in the Clergy is actually over 50%.

Which leads me to the conclusion that the John Jay report should not have been paid for by the church. And also, the John Jay investigators should grow a brain, and act like they are criminal investigators, who have done research about Clergy abuse, and realize that sociopaths who protect sociopaths, are not the group that is going to give accurate information about themselves. And if someone at John Jay is actually non -biased, they can contact me for some actual facts, instead of deceitful garbage orchestrated by sociopathic rapists, and their protectors.

- Joey Piscitelli

925-262-3699

http://reform-network.net/?p=2495

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