Showing posts with label Clerical Child Abuse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Clerical Child Abuse. Show all posts
Irish Times ✏ A new book and television documentary claims that the then cardinal Karol Wojtyła was not just aware of priests who sexually abused children – he covered up for them.

Derek Scally 

To the outsider’s eye, the Catholic Church reigns supreme in Poland. On a regular Sunday, Polish church pews are full while queues form, even during Mass, for Confession.

In 2016, the country installed Jesus Christ as King of Poland at a grand ceremony in Krakow. Last year, after three decades of lobbying, Polish bishops secured an almost total ban on abortion.

Nearly two decades after the death of the Polish pope in 2005, and nearly a decade after he was canonised, the face of St John Paul II remains omnipresent in his homeland. But the church he shaped like no other is now in meltdown since, last week, the unthinkable finally happened.

After a steady drip of clerical sexual abuse revelations in recent years, a new book and a television documentary presented claims that, in his 14 years as archbishop of Krakow, the then cardinal Karol Wojtyła was not just aware of priests who sexually abused children – he covered up for them.

Continue reading @ Irish Times.

Poland In Meltdown Over John Paul II Abuse Cover-Up Allegations

The Guardian Un-redacted report released in 2020 revealed how archbishop failed to take proper steps to act on complaints about dangerous priests.

Christopher Knaus

The royal commission found that, by 1973, George Pell was ‘conscious of child sexual abuse by clergy.’

The child sexual abuse royal commission in 2020 released a bombshell un-redacted report examining the failings of George Pell during his time as an assistant priest, bishop, auxiliary bishop and cardinal in Australia.

The report found he both knew about child abuse, particularly within the Victorian diocese of Ballarat, and failed to take proper steps to act on complaints about dangerous priests.

The findings – which Pell always disputed – were arrived at after an exhaustive, five-year royal commission.

Here’s what the commission found about Pell’s conduct.

Pell’s knowledge of child abuse by paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale

Gerald Ridsdale is one of the country’s most notorious paedophile priests.

He committed more than 130 offences against children as young as four between the 1960s and 1980s, including while working as a school chaplain at St Alipius boys’ school in Ballarat, and continues to be convicted and sentenced for his crimes, most recently in October.

Continue reading @ The Guardian.

George Pell💡What The Five-Year Royal Commission Into Child Sexual Abuse Found

Hemant Mehta In an effort to discredit PA gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro, the Catholic League revealed more about itself.


In 2018, the public finally saw a Pennsylvania grand jury’s report into the Catholic Church’s abuses in six dioceses across the state. We learned that more than 300 priests were accused of abusing more than 1,000 children. The stories were absolutely horrific.

Many of those priests were dead. Of those who were alive, some couldn’t be prosecuted due to long-expired statutes of limitations. Even when the window hadn’t closed, airtight cases could only be brought against a couple of priests, who were subsequently convicted of crimes and are currently in jail.

But that grand jury report still had important repercussions. It exposed the fact that the Catholic Church and its leaders knew about those cases and covered them up in “secret archives.” It inspired over a dozen other attorneys general to launch their own investigations into the Catholic Church.

We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Pennsylvania’s attorney general, Josh Shapiro, who pursued that case regardless of the consequences. Shapiro even said a year after the report was released that 1,862 new victims had come forward with their own allegations of sexual abuse.

Continue reading @ Only Sky.

Catholic League ✑ Relax! Priests’ Victims Are “Adolescents, Not Children”!

National Secular Society has raised concerns about clerical child abuse in Canada and Chile with the United Nations.


The NSS has submitted reports to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) as part of the committee's upcoming review of each state party's record on children's rights.

Each report focused on child abuse within institutions run by the Catholic Church, which has been the subject of sustained media attention in Canada and Chile.

The NSS has engaged with the UNCRC on clerical child abuse for the past 15 years.

Canada

The NSS said that past Canadian governments have been reluctant to adequately address child abuse within the Catholic Church.

A 2010 poll found at least two million adult Canadians personally knew someone who was sexually assaulted by a Catholic priest.

The NSS said the Church has continually attempted to evade financial responsibility for reparations to victims. It drew attention to evidence that the justice system had favoured the Catholic Church to the detriment of abuse victims.

This included a supreme court settlement which relieved the Catholic Church of financial responsibility for child abuse and decades-long delays in court actions resulting in victims dying without receiving compensation. 

Continue reading @ National Secular Society.

Canada And Chile Failing On Clerical Child Abuse

Sky News ➖ Former pope Benedict XVI failed to act on four cases of sexual abuse when he was archbishop of Munich, a report has found.


The report, compiled by a German law firm, found that the pope - then called Josef Ratzinger - could be "accused of misconduct" over his handling of the cases.

Ratzinger, 93, has lived in the Vatican since the end of his papacy in 2013, but he was archbishop of Munich and Freising between 1977 and 1982.

The report detailed four instances involving the archbishop:

• Two cases where perpetrators offended while he was in office but, while they were punished by the judicial system, they were allowed to continue pastoral work without limitations

• A case where a cleric convicted outside Germany was put into service in Munich despite Ratzinger knowing his history

• A suspected paedophile priest transferred to Munich for therapy in 1980 - a transfer approved by Ratzinger. The priest was allowed to resume pastoral work - a decision the church said was made by someone else - and was convicted of molesting a boy in 1986.

Continue reading @ Sky News.

Former Pope Benedict XVI Failed To Act On Four Cases Of Sexual Abuse, Report Finds

Anthony McIntyre ✒ looks at sexual abuse and institutional cover up within the Jewish religious world.

Sex abuse offences in ultra-Orthodox Israeli cities are reported to have 
spiked in the past decade. The men of G-d have been on the rape and child molestation trail.  Haaretz reported that 'There Isn't One Boy Who Wasn't Sexually Abused' in Jerusalem’s Extreme Haredi Neighborhoods." 

Chaim Walder is a well know public figure both within Israel and inside the Orthodox religious faith. He is a rabbi and "children's book author, newspaper columnist and rock star across all strands of Orthodoxy." 

He also stands accused of paedophilia and the sexual abuse of numerous women in a case that has rocked Israeli society, and which saw him lose his weekly column in Yated Ne'eman, "the most ideologically rigid and doctrinaire newspaper in Israel" where he was its most celebrated writer. The rabbinate decided it was time for him to walk the plank. Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, the chief rabbi of Tzfat and a member of the Chief Rabbinate council said:

We did not draw a conclusion solely on the basis of what was written in the newspaper. We received very serious testimonies from the men and women who were harmed ... we also saw court rulings that referred to Chaim Walder's very terrible involvement in families. Let's put it bluntly - some families broke up because he did forbidden things with the woman and destroyed the family. These are things that came before a court and were clarified ... Things are very clear .. It's not based on an article in the Haaretz newspaper. It's based on a lot of testimonies, documents, transcripts, court records. Pictures, recordings. Unequivocal things.

Abroad,  Eichlers Judaica, a major Haredi bookseller in Brooklyn, undertook to no longer stock or sell works by the holder of the Prime Minister's Child Protection Award, 2003. Lehmanns in Gateshead did likewise. 

Rumours about Walder's paedophiliac predilections had been rife for years. He had been reported to Israeli police a decade ago but the allegations not pursued. It took the Haaretz investigation to kickstart a serious response from significant players and institutions in Israeli society who were jolted into sitting up and listening. One woman described in considerable detail to Haaretz how Walder repeatedly raped her while she was a child. Another victim was told by him how he had “a lot of credit with God” while he abused her.

Orthodox Jewish crimes against children while shocking to some are not news. Earlier this year Haaretz also exposed a  prominent orthodox serial abuser, Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, another high profile luminary in the Jewish Orthodox world. Elsewhere he was described as "the Haredi Jeffrey Esptein." The Orthodox equivalent of Islamic religious police, the Haredi modesty patrols whose job it was "to apparently enforce a code of modesty among the Haredi public through violence and intimidation" seemed to find nothing immodest about this thug's behaviour. 

In 2011 a Haredi Rabbi in Jerusalem Elior Chen:

was convicted of abusing and ordering the abuse of eight children, which included beatings with clubs and hammers, kicks to the head, severe shaking, burning, being handcuffed and stuffed in a suitcase, food and sleep deprivation. 


In 2013 A religious counselor in New York City’s ultra-orthodox Jewish community was slapped with 103 years jail time. He had abused a child who had approached him to discuss her faith.

The difficulty for people seeking to highlight and confront the rapacious rabbis and their ilk has been underscored by Sam Kellner whose experience at the hands of the Hasidic community was meant to deter victims and their families from coming forward. "Institutions like Agudath Israel of America still require as their stated policy that a rabbi be consulted before abuse is reported to secular authorities." A number of years ago in London it was reported that the leader of Britain’s Haredi community had "been caught on video advising an alleged victim of sexual abuse not to report the claim to police.”

Abuse victims and their families have been expelled from religious schools and synagogues, shunned by fellow ultra-Orthodox Jews and targeted for harassment intended to destroy their businesses. Some victims’ families have been offered money, ostensibly to help pay for therapy for the victims, but also to stop pursuing charges, victims and victims’ advocates said.

Cover up and blame the victim. As with the Catholic men of God, the Jewish men of G-d delight in what for them are the sordid pleasures that flow from being part of a child rape cartel operating on a global basis. With the fall of Walder, the Infallible Rabbis are being hauled to account.

⏩ Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

Monstrous Men of G-d

National Secular Society ✒ Keith Porteous Wood says France's deference to the Catholic Church has obstructed justice for hundreds of thousands of abuse victims.

An inquiry commissioned by the Catholic Church into clerical abuse in France has just concluded that victims of both clerics and laity (teachers, for example) totalled around a third of a million since 1950.

In no country in the world has such a high figure been included in an official report. Nearly all victims were minors or vulnerable adults.

The commission, to its credit, held exhaustive hearings in every major town in France. But listening to so many harrowing testimonies took its toll. The president of the commission was not alone in needing psychological assistance.

At the public launch of the inquiry report, abuse survivor François Devaux told Church officials:

You are a disgrace to our humanity. In this hell there have been abominable mass crimes...betrayal of morality, [and] betrayal of children.

The report concluded: "The Catholic Church is, after the circle of family and friends, the environment that has the highest prevalence of sexual violence." Its president accused the Church of "sometimes knowingly putting children in touch with predators."

Continue reading @ National Secular Society.

Only Secular Law Can Bring Justice To Victims Of Mass Clerical Abuse In France

National Secular Society An inquiry's report has highlighted the barriers which regulators face in dealing with child abuse in religious charities. Megan Manson says this should prompt reforms – including in how charity law deals with religion.

Megan Manson

Religions have a privileged place in charity law. 'The advancement of religion' is a recognised charitable purpose under the Charities Act 2011, which means an organisation can effortlessly become a registered charity by virtue of promoting religion.

As a result, an immense number of religious organisations are registered charities. There are approximately 34,000 faith-based organisations registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales – about 20% of all charities.

These figures were included in the Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA)'s recent report on child protection in religious organisations and settings. It's not surprising that so many faith groups take advantage of their privileged status in charity law. Becoming a registered charity endows significant tax benefits, including the potential to claim Gift Aid.

Many would expect that an organisation given generous tax exemptions would be robustly regulated to ensure it adheres to the highest professional standards – including, of course, safeguarding the welfare of children.  

Continue reading @ National Secular Society.

Why Can’t Charity Regulators Tackle Child Abuse In Faith Groups?

Irish Times ✒ ‘Stuck forever in that room in Manchester with my trousers round my ankles.’

Mike Harding
It is a cool morning in spring 1955. An envelope flops though the door of our terraced house in Manchester, landing on the cold linoleum of the lobby. My mother, more anxious than me, beats me to it. The envelope has a crest on the back – it is a cardinal’s tasselled hat. When my mother opens it at the kitchen table, it is obvious that she is delighted.

I have passed my 11-Plus and been accepted as a scholarship boy by St Bede’s College, Manchester, at that time one of the best Catholic grammar schools in the North of England. My mother is both proud and glad: proud that I’ve got the place and glad that, as she sees it, I have moved one step further away from the redbrick streets and a job in the local ICI chemical factory, the CWS biscuit factory, or worse.

All the family on my mother’s side are of Irish descent, from Dublin and Tipperary, and almost all of them work in the tailoring trade in Manchester and Liverpool. 

Continue reading @ Irish Times.

School Of Savagery

National Secular SocietyThe IICSA inquiry's latest report on child abuse in religious organisations and settings provides welcome evidence of significant problems – but is still too light on much-needed solutions, says Richard Scorer

The report by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) into child protection in religious organisations and settings was published last Thursday, and gained widespread publicity.

IICSA's investigation – looking at child protection in minority religions such as Judaism, Islam and the Jehovah's Witnesses – is one of very few such investigations worldwide. 

Similar issues were examined by the Australian Royal Commission into institutional abuse, but whether due to political sensitivity or other reasons, child abuse in minority religions has tended to escape close examination. So the very fact that this investigation took place at all is important; hopefully it will be the beginning of a long overdue process of scrutiny.

What should we make of IICSA's report? I represented seven individuals and organisations in this part of the inquiry, all of them working on behalf of victims and survivors. Inevitably they have a range of views about the report, and the following is my personal view. 

Continue reading @ National Secular Society.

Fundamentalists Are Still Being Given Too Much Of A Free Pass On Child Abuse

National Secular Society ✒ There are "egregious failings" in the way various religious organisations have handled child abuse, with a variety of cultural factors contributing to the problem, an inquiry has said.


The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) published a report on child protection in religious organisations and settings today.

The report drew on evidence concerning 38 religious organisations in England and Wales, of varying size and character, including the Jehovah's Witnesses, Islam, Judaism and others.

It said the organisations in question had "significant or even dominant influence on the lives of millions of children".

The inquiry has previously published reports on the handling of abuse in the Anglican and Catholic churches.

Key findings

The report identified a range of factors that may impede the reporting and effective management of abuse allegations.

These included the fear that exposure would damage organisations' reputation or be seen as a betrayal of a community. Some organisations encouraged internal reporting, rather than disclosure to state bodies.

The report also said barriers included:

  • Cultures of victim blaming, shame and honour
  • Religious taboos around the discussion of sexuality
  • Abuse of power by religious leaders
  • Mistrust of police and child protection agencies
  • Male-dominated leadership making it less likely that women and children would report abuse.

Continue reading @ National Secular Society.

Child Abuse Inquiry Criticises Religious Groups’ “Egregious Failings”

National Secular SocietyUN special rapporteurs have criticised the Vatican over child sexual abuse in stronger terms than ever before, highlighting that there have been "tens of thousands of alleged victims" over "decades".


This week the office of the UN high commissioner for human rights has released a letter which it sent to the Holy See in April (English translation available).

It details significant abuse in eight countries and highlights concerns over the Vatican's "obstructionist practices".

The letter expressed regret that there had been no response to a separate communication which the rapporteurs sent in 2019.

The latest letter has only been made public, as they had threatened, because it had not been replied to either.

'Obstructionist practices'

The rapporteurs referred to "persistent allegations" that the Catholic Church had obstructed and failed to cooperate with domestic judicial proceedings, in order to "prevent" accountability for abusers and compensation for victims.

The rapporteurs also raised concerns over concordats and other agreements which the Holy See has negotiated with states, which limit civil authorities' ability to "interrogate" or "compel the production of documents or prosecute persons associated with the Catholic Church".

They urged the Vatican to "refrain from obstructionist practices" and to "cooperate fully" with the judicial authorities within states.

Continue reading @ National Secular Society.

UN Castigates Vatican Over Clerical Sexual Abuse Of Minors

Diane Langberg I have been concerned and grieved for years by the statement: “Our church required we sign an NDA. There would be no compensation if we ever spoke about what happened”. 


In other words humans who have been mistreated, abused or used in some fashion must keep silent or the church would, bluntly put, do harm to them and/or their reputation. It is my understanding that some churches are actually requiring signed NDAs in order to even become a member.

Non-disclosure agreement…disclose means to reveal; to allow something covered to be seen; to uncover. Non-disclosure is to cover-up, hide away. To agree with something is to consent; like-mindedness. An NDA is an agreement to hide something. In the cases I have encountered it has always been an agreement to exercise power over and hide sin. Also in my experience, such a requirement is demanded for the sake of a system – usually a ministry of some sort. 

So a Christian is asked to agree to cover-up wrongdoing for the sake of the system – or worse, for the sake of God’s reputation. It suggests that to speak truth is to hurt God and his name. How can this be?

Continue reading @ Diane Langberg.

Non Disclosure Agreements And the Body of Christ

UnHerd ✒ The responsibility for safeguarding has to be an independent matter, not left to the bishops.
 
Giles Frazer 

 Shame is the overriding emotion I feel reading that nearly 400 figures within the church establishment have been convicted of abusing children over the last 70 years. Shame, anger, but not all that much surprise.

“Many of these cases demonstrate the Church of England’s failure to take abuse seriously, creating a culture where abusers were able to hide,” the independent inquiry concludes. Too many bishops were more concerned with supporting those who had been accused of abuse than looking after the victims. Abuser priests were quietly moved on to a new parish when news of their activity reached the attention of their bishops. The language of a “fresh start” and “forgiveness” became a kind of cover for deeper concern for reputational management. Those who had been abused were treated like a problem that needed to be hushed up, made to go away quietly.

It was at St Paul’s that I first heard the weasel phrase “reputational risk”. It wasn’t used with respect to child abuse, but was a catch-all warning for anything that might potentially tarnish the good name of the church.  

Continue reading @ UnHerd. 

Can The Church Solve Its Paedophile Problem?

Eamonn McCann ✒ "The Catholic Church deserves to be burdened with most of the blame. But lay people of secure position sang dumb and averted their eyes."


Jimmy called round to our house one afternoon maybe 15 years ago. We made a cup of tea and sat talking about this and that for around an hour. I had stuff to do and remember wishing he’d head off.

Jimmy had been taken “into care” as a child in Derry and lodged with the nuns. Months later, a social worker arrived, put him in a care and drove to Kircubbin in Co. Down, about 100 miles away. He was handed over to a De La Salle brother at the gate of Rubane House for Boys. The abuse started more or less immediately.

How long after he arrived?

“He took me straight into a room, he had my trousers off in ten minutes, maybe five.”

He had been collected from a Church institution by a representative of the State and delivered into the hands of his abusers in another Church institution.

A few weeks after he’d called, someone phoned and said that Jimmy had been found hanging from a fire escape on the Northern Road.

Continue reading @ Hot Press.

"Misogyny And Child Abuse Have Always Been Cross-Border Phenomena"

Associated PressPope Francis pledged Wednesday to rid the Catholic Church of sexual abuse and offered prayers to victims of former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, a day after the Vatican released a detailed report into the decades long church cover-up of his sexual misconduct.

Nicole Winfield
11-November-2020

The Vatican report blamed a host of bishops, cardinals and popes for downplaying and dismissing mountains of evidence of McCarrick’s misconduct starting in the 1990s — but largely spared Francis. Instead, it laid the lion’s share of the blame on St. John Paul II, a former pope, for having appointed McCarrick archbishop of Washington in 2000, and making him a cardinal, despite having commissioned an inquiry that found he had slept with seminarians.

Francis concluded his weekly general audience Wednesday by recalling that the report into the “painful case” of the former high-ranking American cardinal had been released the previous day.

“I renew my closeness to victims of any abuse and commitment of the church to eradicate this evil,” Francis said. He then paused silently for nearly a minute, apparently in prayer.

Continue reading @ Associated Press.

Pope Francis Vows To End Sexual Abuse After McCarrick Report

Westminster Confidential ✒ The Independent Child Sex Abuse Inquiry’s verdict on lip service provision to tackle child sexual abuse.

 David Hencke
 
 The CSA inquiry report into the Roman Catholic Church -published this week – and its handling of years of child sexual abuse makes very grim reading . It suggests that while the Church may have put in structures to deal with the issue there was no real compassionate commitment from the top of the Church to act.

In particular the report is scathing about Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster and President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, for his lack of compassion and the extraordinary failure of the former Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Edward Joseph Adams, to proffer even a statement to the inquiry. Instead he retired without saying a word.

This would suggest that neither Pope Francis nor the Cardinal – whatever words of contrition he made – are really bothered about the serious state of child sex abuse in the church in England and Wales.

Continue reading @ Westminster Confidential.

A Damning Indictment On The Uncompassionate Roman Catholic Church

Denis Cairns
talks to Patricia Devlin about his abuse at the hands of a priest and his ongoing battle to bring his abuser to book. 

The Catholic church is under pressure to defrock an Ulster priest accused of sexually abusing a schoolboy almost 30 years ago.

The north-west-born cleric is currently at the centre of a canonical investigation over the historical allegations dating back to 1991.

He was suspended from duties by his English diocese in April last year and is now back living in the same area of Northern Ireland where the alleged abuse took place.

However, the church-run probe has stalled, causing distress to the man who came forward with the claims to both police and senior Catholic figures. Denis Cairns (42) said his distress was compounded by revelations parishioners were continuing to publicly pray and raise funds for the man he claims abused him at just 13 years old. He first reported the sex abuse claims to RUC officers in 1997 at the age of 18.

It is believed the priest denied the allegations and after investigation a decision was made not to prosecute the clergyman. In 2014, after years of mental health struggles, dad-of-two Denis contacted the Diocese of Derry and disclosed what he claims happened to him.

Inquiries made between the church safeguarding officers revealed the UK diocese probed the claims in 2002, five years after Mr Cairn’s initial report to police.

The diocese said at that time it “supervised” and “monitored” the cleric for a two-year period. After numerous meetings with senior church figures in both Ireland and England, Mr Cairns was informed last year his alleged abuser was suspended from his parish role.

However, since then the church-run probe has come to a standstill. The lapse in progress has been de- scribed as “absolutely disgraceful” by Sinn Féin MLA Martina Anderson who wrote a scathing letter to Nottingham bishop Patrick McKinney.

Urging him to arrange for canon lawyers to immediately interview the cleric, the Foyle Assembly woman wrote: 

It is scandals like these that gives people the impression that the Church has still not come to terms with its legacy of a trinity of denial, delay and death and is still preoccupied with preserving its own image. For many, that would seem to be a perversion of many Christian teachings that we all have learned about.

Speaking to the Sunday World this week, Mr Cairns said he would continue to put pressure on the church to take action against the man he said stole his childhood.

He said: 

My argument and fight for justice is now, why has it taken Nottingham diocese so long to make this decision? I believe there are delay tactics being used here. Do they want this priest to die before this canonical investigation concludes so his reputation goes with him? It’s past the stage of a police action, that should have happened in 1997. If the church takes action against him, laicizes him and defrocks him, I will be happy.

In April last year, parishioners at a number of churches within the parish where the cleric was serving were read the following statement from Bishop McKinney.

Your parish priest has been absent from the parish for a long time due to his illness and we continue to pray for his recovery.
However, he is unable at present to act as your parish priest for another reason. An allegation has been recently made against him of historic sex abuse. 
Due to the serious nature of the allegation, I have issued a decree which suspends him from all public ministry until an investigation can be done.
It may seem cruel to begin this proceeding against someone who is seriously ill, but the church must and does take allegations of this nature very seriously.

Mr Cairns has since slammed the statement’s wording, saying: “The only cruel thing that has happened is that my abuser has happened is that my abuser has never been brought to justice."

The Derryman was just 13 when he claims the priest groomed and abused him while on leave from his Nottingham parish.

“We were in a house where I had been babysitting,” he told the Sunday World in an emotional interview.

He started to talk to me about sex education, then he abused me.
The abuse lasted for between 45 minutes to an hour, but in reality it has lasted a lifetime for me because it is with me every day.
We went on to church after it and he celebrated the mass, and that’s the backflash I have; him raising the host above his head that morning after he abused me.
It took me most of my life to get back to my faith after that, because every time I went to mass that image stayed in my head.

In the days after the alleged abuse, Mr Cairns said he was asked by the priest to keep quiet. 

He said, Denis, please don’t say anything.
I did say to him I wouldn’t, who would believe me anyway? He’s a priest.
Then all ties broke as I got older. I was 18 years of age when I decided to speak out. What made me do that was, myself and my wife, who was my girlfriend at the time, were in a bar in Derry for a night out.
The priest walked in other people, but he also had a 13-year-old boy with him.
There is no proof whatsoever that this child with him was being abused or had been after that, but seeing him gave me the initiative to come forward and contact the RUC at that time. 
I was afraid he was abusing him or intended to.
That was in 1997 and I made a statement to police, but it wasn’t taken forward by the PPS. 
It was heartbreaking because the interviews had been so tough.

Mr Carins added:

In 2005 I took a severe mental health breakdown. It has just been downhill from there.
I was trying to juggle everything, my life, my job; I went heavy on the drink. I used it as a coping mechanism. In 2006 I started psychology treatment, and that lasted until 2009.
From speaking with psychologists and counsellors, I realise now I was running away from it. I was drinking every single night, trying to block it out.
I ended the psychology treatment in 2009, the hospital tried to offer me other jobs but nothing suited me. I wasn’t ready and I left.

It was around 2010 Mr Cairns decided to, for the first time, contact the Catholic church about his allegations.

One night, when I’d had a drink, I rang a church here in Derry.
A priest answered and I said, I am a victim of clergy abuse and I need help. I said I am only coming out of psychology treatment.
And I will never forget what he said to me; you are lucky you got psychology treatment.
And then he put down the phone.

Last year Bishop McKinney flew in to Northern Ireland to speak to Mr Cairns at the request of the Bishop of Derry, Donal McKeown.

Mr Cairns said:

We met in Bishop Donal’s house and, after listening to my story, he told me he would begin a canonical investigation process.
Part of that process meant the priest was not allowed to carry out duties as parish priest nor contact parishioners in that capacity, but I discovered just that parishioners had been given an update on his health and that a collection taken up in his parish [at Christmas 2019] had been passed to him.
This caused me unimaginable anguish. I was distraught beyond belief because it comes after I repeatedly asked that a weekly notice in this priest parish newsletter which asks people to pray for him is stopped, but my request has repeatedly been ignored.

In response to a letter from Foyle MLA Martina Anderson, Bishop Patrick McKinney said: “This canonical process ongoing and I am determined to see it through. “It is my hope that there can eventually be some closure as you mention in your letter.”

Mr Cairns said:

Ten years ago I was able to finally go back inside church, I’ve been building my trust up since.
What happened to me when I was 13 has had a devastating effect on my life since. If I help just one victim by going public with my story, it will have been worthwhile.

When contacted by the Sunday World over Mr Cairns’ claims, Bishop Patrick McKinney blamed the “deteriorating health” of the priest involved for the delay in the church’s probe.

The bishop confirmed that the canonical investigation was now at its “final stage”.

Bishop McKinney said:

As a result of my meeting with Mr Cairns in Derry I instigated a preliminary investigation into the allegation he made.
Following this preliminary investigation into the allegation, a formal canonical process was begun in November 2019.
This process has been delayed by the deteriorating health of the priest against whom the allegation was made. His poor health has affected his ability to defend himself.
I am not personally involved in this canonical process, but I am informed that it is now reaching its final stage. I have always taken Mr Cairns’ allegation extremely seriously, and the diocese continues to make support available to him.
⏩ This article first featured in Sunday World

Under Pressure

Earlier this week clerical abuse survivor Denis Cairns was in receipt of some good news.

Folks some good news for a change regarding fighting for justice as a Survivor of clerical abuse.

The priest who abused myself was stood down last year in April 2019. As most of you know by now I have fought almost 27-28 years for this to happen and for the church to listen to me.

The Nottingham Diocese Bishop Patrick McKinney and his side kicks have put myself and my family through total hell. As if I and my family haven't been through enough in the years gone by they persisted to make my life even worse for me and my family and continue to do so to this very minute and day. But a little progress was made this day.

Bishop Patrick McKinney and his side kick Fr Kevin from St Mary's Church Marple Bridge Nottingham England allowed for my abuser's name to be prayed for in their public newsletters every week, and also online since he was stood down. They were giving the impression to people in his parish that he is not in ministry because of his illness with cancer. Which could not be further from the truth. He, my abuser, is not in ministry because he abused myself when I was only a child.

Bishop Patrick McKinney and Fr Kevin also allowed for my abuser to be collected for at Christmas time raising lots of money for him, my abuser, sending out a message once again that he my abuser is just off sick. But as we all know he is off not for being sick with cancer. He is stood down for abusing myself.

So the good news today is that I searched St Mary's Marple Bridge Online newsletter and guess what -  my abuser's name is not in it. After one year of asking that his name should not be in it, they finally, hopefully, have got the message. But this fight for justice is not over yet for myself. I will continue to fight these monsters everyday of the week until I get the justice that I and my family deserve. No one will put me off from doing so. I have been reminded time and time again that these Canonical investigations take time. Well Nottingham and Bishop Patrick McKinney I have news for you -  I have waited 27-28 years on my deserved Justice both myself and my family ...  I think you have had all the time in the world by now. No more excuses - no more delays - no more ignoring myself - no more cover ups - I want this sorted now once and for all.

Archbishop Eamon Martin give myself a phone call on Friday past, 15th May. He spent half an hour on the phone with myself and I put my concerns and hurt and pain to himself. He listened and will see what he can do for myself and family.

May I point out that it is Bishop Patrick McKinney and co in the Diocese of Nottingham who is the problem here and not Archbishop Eamon Martin (Primate of all Ireland) although our Archbishop Eamon and also other Bishops and priests in Derry and beyond must not be allowed to become complacent in helping myself and all Victims/Survivors of these most evil of crimes.

Small victory today.  But it should have never had to be talked about in the first place by myself.
I will not become complacent fighting for the justice I and my family deserve and many other victims/survivors deserve. And i will not allow anyone - Archbishops Bishops and Priests to become complacent either. I promise you all that.

Denis Cairns is a survivor of clerical abuse.

Stood Down For Abuse

A victim of clerical abuse, Denis Cairns, voices his frustration at Catholic Church authorities balking in the face of their responsibilities. 

I have fought with this for a long time. Anyone who knows me will tell you I have defended the Catholic Church most of my life as a victim of clerical abuse.

I always said do not tar them all with the one brush ... covering up their brother priests' evil crimes ... clergy abuse … etc, etc.

But I have finally woken up. I have seen no prove whatsoever that these priests will stand by me ...  except for one … yes folks, only one. From the start until now.

The Laypersons don't want to know. Certain Catholic friends on Facebook don't want to know. I deleted nearly 80 of them so called Catholic apologists for clergy abuse/rape.  Shame on you. 
.
Archbishop Eamon Martin said to me when I met him as a Victim of Evil clergy abuse, "if your abuser - (and by the way Eamon knows him well) …  was standing in front of you I would tell him to his face you abused Denis."

What's keeping you Archbishop Eamon, Primate of all Ireland? You could ease all of my pain and suffering overnight.

But no you won't do that will you? A disgrace of a man you are. Another Bishop with no backbone  - Coward! 

And that's why I have decided that I will never ever trust no one within the Church again.
Shame on the lot of you.

Hope you are proud of yourselves. It took me nearly my life to come back to the church. I helped out. I was very humble to the Priests ... even my Parish Priest who just, let's say, did not like me one bit. But that is going come out - The Lot. 

So I have decided to refrain from Holy Communion, and not go to Mass again.

Well done guys - you have destroyed my faith.

You have ruined me mentally and spiritually - you have disowned a child of God.

And for that, I will never forgive.

⏩ Follow Denis Cairns on Twitter @liverpoolfan500

What's Keeping You Archbishop?