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from Workers Solidarity No 44
paper of the Irish anarchist
Workers Solidarity Movement
Child Molesters & Churchmen
WHEN THE CASE of Father Brendan Smyth, the paedophile
priest, came out, the whole country was revolted. But
while the politicians attempted to score political
points off each other, many important questions were not
asked. Here was an unrepentant child molester, carrying
out sexual assaults on hundreds of children over a
period of forty years, with the full knowledge of the
Catholic Church. What sort of twisted religious "morals"
could justify the Church protecting such a man, for so
long? Anarchists have always opposed clerical control of
education. How can we allow the Church, which behaves
like this, to continue to be in charge of our schools?
Father Michael Carney
We do not need any more evidence of what is going on in
our schools. Father Michael Carney, from Galway, was
given a 15 month suspended sentence for sexual assault
on a student. An unnamed priest in the Creggan, in
Derry, is at the centre of a child abuse investigation.
This is only the tip of the iceberg.
Any of us who went to a Christian Brothers school will
remember the physical and sexual abuse that many of the
pupils had to suffer on a regular basis. Just before
Christmas a religious brother was sentenced to seven
years in jail for raping a 10 year old girl.
Even the most defenceless children are not safe. At
least fifteen children, in Madonna House, have been
sexually abused. The State has now started
investigations into many other Church controlled homes.
Well over 90% of primary and secondary schools are
controlled by the Catholic hierarchy. Control of the
school means the Church controls everything; the hiring
and firing of the teachers, and the entire ethos,
principals and teaching of the school. The taxpayer,
through the State, is left to pay the teachers'
salaries, and school maintenance.
Death of Sheila Hodgers
It is not only in the sector of education that the
church has control. Until recently, the Catholic
hierarchy controlled the ethics committees of most
hospitals. They decided the ethos of the hospitals, and
made life and death decisions. The death of Sheila
Hodgers, in 1983, was a direct result of Catholic
ethics.
Sheila Hodgers, who was pregnant and suffering from
cancer, was refused treatment, which could have saved
her life, on the grounds that it would damage her
foetus. Both Sheila and the baby died, soon after birth.
Treatment was refused because it is Catholic ethics to
put the potential life of a foetus before that of the
woman carrying the foetus. So it was okay to allow
Sheila Hodgers to die, if there was any chance at all of
the baby being born alive.
The Catholic hierarchy influences the State in other
ways. As well as direct representations to government,
they use lay organisations such as, Opus Dei and the
Knights of St Columbanus, to secretly infiltrate
decision making positions.
Justice Rory O'Hanlon, of the High Court, has confessed
to membership of Opus Dei. But members of Opus Dei rank
high up in the gardai, the health services and in
education.
Fianna Fail
Fianna Fail used to be known as the Bishops Party, due
to its allegiance with the Catholic Church. Many members
of Fianna Fail are in the Knights of St Columbanus. At
least one, Michael Woods, is in Opus Dei.
The Catholic hierarchy have influenced, to a greater or
lesser extent, virtually every decision that the State
has made over our lives. They have constantly opposed
measures that would make our lives better; the Mother
and Child Scheme, the Welfare State, women's right to
life, abortion, travel, information and equal job
opportunities, divorce, contraception, equal rights for
homosexuals, free speech, funding for the rape crisis
centres and for child support groups, strikes, and so
on.
Referenda victory
But every cloud has a silver lining. It appears that the
tight grasp of the Church is weakening. The three
referenda held after the 'X case', resulted in the
'Right to Information and Travel', which was a clear
victory.
The Bill which gave equal rights to homosexuals was
passed with very small protest. Even the election of
Mary Robinson, and the massive growth of the Labour
Party vote, show that people are becoming more liberal
in their attitudes.
Molesting kids
We must support the weakening of the power of the
Catholic hierarchy, who have put the dictates of the
Church and their own self preservation, ahead of any
rights of people. We have seen recently just how far
they are prepared to go.
When they find out about one of their priests molesting
a kid they cover it up. Instead of immediately sacking
the priest and handing him in to the authorities, they
move him to another parish, where he is not known and
can start molesting again. The good name of the church
has been spared at the cost of hundreds of abused
children.
Priests don't have children
Even if the church did not allow paedophilia, it is
still unacceptable for them to control our schools. At
the end of the day the people who have a say in schools
should be the people who have a direct interest in what
goes on in them.
That is, the parents and the teachers. Schools should be
run so that the parents are happy that their children
are safe and getting a good education, and that the
teachers are happy that they are being given the
resources and wages to do a good job.
The Catholic hierarchy is not in this equation. Priests
and nuns are not allowed to have sex, never mind
children. They have no direct interest in the welfare of
children, and they should have no automatic control over
our schools.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with individual
priests and nuns being hired by a school as teachers,
and having an equal participation with the other
teachers. What is wrong is having Bishops with automatic
control over the schools' welfare, with no comeback for
the parents or teachers.
Separate Church and State
Anarchists believe that no church, no religious group,
can have the right to control the ethos and principals
of a school, hospital or country. We believe that it is
worth fighting for a clear division between the Church
and the State.
As far as schools are concerned, we can only be sure of
the safety and education of our children if we have a
say in how the schools are run. A good start to this
would be replacing the existing school boards with
properly elected representatives of the parents and
teachers.
Andrew Blackmore
THE CATHOLIC Church's new-found "willingness" to deal
with child abusers in its ranks is very newly-found.
Last summer the launch edition of The Big Issues ran a
hard hitting article by Eamonn McCann about the failure
of the local priests to speak out against a paedophile
ring in Derry.
The Big Issues relies on financial support from the Bank
of Ireland. This fact that prompted a senior church
figure to contact the bank threatening to withdraw
diocesan funds amounting to many millions of pounds from
the bank. Luckily for the homeless and long-term
unemployed who rely on The Big Issues the bank refused
to be intimidated by the threat of a belt from a
crozier.