Related child abuse in other cults and religions

Endemic' rape and abuse of Irish children in Catholic care, inquiry finds

Beatings and humiliation by nuns and priests were common at institutions that held up to 30,000 children, Ryan report states Rape and sexual molestation were "endemic" in Irish Catholic church-run industrial schools and orphanages, a report revealed today. The nine-year investigation found that Catholic priests and nuns for decades terrorised thousands of boys and girls in the Irish Republic, while government inspectors failed to stop the chronic beatings, rape and humiliation.

The high court judge Sean Ryan today unveiled the 2,600-page final report of Ireland's commission into child abuse, which drew on testimony from thousands of former inmates and officials from more than 250 church-run institutions. Police were called to the news conference amid angry scenes as victims were prevented from attending. More than 30,000 children deemed to be petty thieves, truants or from dysfunctional families – a category that often included unmarried mothers – were sent to Ireland's austere network of industrial schools, reformatories, orphanages and hostels from the 1930s until the last facilities shut in the 1990s.

The findings prompted the new Archbishop of Westminster, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols, to say that it took "courage" for those clergy involved in child sex abuse to confront their actions. In an interview to be broadcast tonight on ITV News at Ten, he said: "I think of those in religious orders and some of the clergy in Dublin who have to face these facts from their past which instinctively and quite naturally they'd rather not look at. That takes courage, and also we shouldn't forget that this account today will also overshadow all of the good that they also did."

The Irish Survivors of Child Abuse (Isoca), an organisation set up to help victims, condemned the newly appointed head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales for his remarks. "Rubbish is too kind of word for what the archbishop has said. I believe I have heard this kind of twaddle uttered by politicians in Ireland like Bertie Ahern, the former prime minister. It is the verbiage of un-reason and it leaves me cold. What the Archbishop really has to do is take a long hard look at the character and nature of the people he is talking about and ask himself if they are capable of being good," said Patrick Walsh.

The report found that molestation and rape were "endemic" in boys' facilities, chiefly run by the Christian Brothers order, and supervisors pursued policies that increased the danger. Girls supervised by orders of nuns, chiefly the Sisters of Mercy, suffered much less sexual abuse but instead endured frequent assaults and humiliation designed to make them feel worthless. "In some schools a high level of ritualised beating was routine ... Girls were struck with implements designed to maximise pain and were struck on all parts of the body," the report said. "Personal and family denigration was widespread."

The report concluded that when confronted with evidence of sex abuse, religious authorities responded by transferring offenders to another location, where in many instances they were free to abuse again. "There was evidence that such men took up teaching positions sometimes within days of receiving dispensations because of serious allegations or admissions of sexual abuse," the report said. "The safety of children in general was not a consideration." The Catholic church had been steeling itself for the report, which was repeatedly delayed by church lawsuits, missing documentation and alleged government obstruction.

The Christian Brothers delayed the investigation for more than a year with a lawsuit that successfully defended their members' right to anonymity in all references in the report, even in cases in which individual Christian Brothers had been convicted of sexual and physical attacks on children.

The church had already been under fire over the sexual misbehaviour of several priests in various Irish parishes. The commission's experts have sought to produce a comprehensive portrait of sexual, physical and emotional damage inflicted on the child victims. The thousands of survivors said they had no safe way to tell their stories until the investigation began because much of Irish Catholic society regarded them as liars. Isoca today said it was now up to the Vatican to investigate its religious orders in the republic.

John Kelly, the Isoca co-ordinator in Dublin, said: "Now that the Ryan [Laffoy] commission is finished, we call upon ... Pope Benedict XVI to convene a special consistory court to fully investigate the activities of the Catholic religious orders in Ireland. "Amongst other things, such a court could establish the whereabouts of Irish state assets that were misappropriated over many years by the religious orders and make restitution to the Irish state exchequer." During the commission's investigations, oral evidence was collected from more than 1,000 people, mainly aged from their 50s to 70s. Several hundred travelled back to Ireland from the US and Australia to describe their childhood of terror and intimidation.

One victim, John Walsh, of Isoca, called the report a hatchet job that left open wounds gaping. "The little comfort we have is The Knowledge that it vindicated the victims who were raped and sexually abused," he said. "I am very angry, very bitter, and feel cheated and deceived. I would have never opened my wounds if I'd known this was going to be the end result. It has devastated me and will devastate most victims because there is no criminal proceedings and no accountability whatsoever."

The commission's original judge, Mary Laffoy, resigned from her post in 2003 over claims that the Irish department of education – which was in charge of inspecting the orphanages and industrial schools – was refusing to hand over documents to her.

A read this topic again: Child Abuse & the BKWSU

The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of the Council of Europe says (art. 6.2): "Everyone charged with a criminal offence shall be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law".

I would like to turn that around somehow .

The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of the Council of Europe says (art. 6.2): "Everyone charged with a criminal offence shall be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law". I would like to turn that around somehow

Unfortunately, the only way is to presume some kind of omniscience beyond the facts, and that is fraught with greater dangers in the longer term. My work as a professional photographer has been affected by recent sensationalising of pedophilia cases, and even fathers photographing their own kids at the beach or at sports events get harangued by the ignorant. It is a difficult part of life and law.

There is a regular revelation happening here in Australia of crimes that have taken place in the last few decades in private schools, both Catholic and non-Catholic, as well as other institutions. But here's the important thing - the church and society is re-examining these crimes, and it is being aired publicly. Voluntarily or not, the institutions are being forced to become responsible. Can the same be said of BKSWU?

What concrete steps are in place to prevent or deal with such incidents and the people involved?

London tailor

The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of the Council of Europe says (art. 6.2): "Everyone charged with a criminal offence shall be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law". I would like to turn that around somehow

For clergymen and other people of the cloth, the evil nuns and priests, it should be: "Every nun and priest charged with a criminal offence shall be presumed Guilty until proved Innocent". I would like them hanged and raped and butchered like the animals that they are.

What an entrance! All guns blazing and damn the consequences, or "collateral damage".

I understand the emotion, but I have been at the receiving end of suspicion in my work (I occasionally photograph in child care centres). We are talking about the protection of the innocent here, and that includes adults & children alike.

Sorry mate, have to say the burden of proof is on the accuser, otherwise I could accuse you of poor dress sense and you'd have to wear it!

And I take it you are not vegetarian?

Sorry mate, have to say the burden of proof is on the accuser

You are wrong again Terry ... or at least not entirely right ... and I get tired of it as it is generally the same issues time and time over.

a) this is not always, e.g. undue influence within a religious organization the burden is on the accused.
b) Ditto where a defendant relies on some "exception, proviso, excuse or qualification" in his defence, the legal burden of proof as to that exception falls on the defendant,
c) when a prima facie case has been made (a matter appears to be self-evident from the facts), and
d) the burden is on the 'proscecutor' NOT the victim or even the accuser.

Most modern societies have public proscecutors and even investigators specifically charged and paid to carry said burden for the victims (or accusers). Society, the government whatever, having a legal responsibility to protect its citizens. You see, the truth is immediate more complex and I know very little about the law.

I am picking you up on this again because consciously or not you present an interpretation that is negative and would put people off rather than help and encourages them on.

I am not imagining for one moment that our new member is suggesting we "eat the rich" (priest or lawyers etc) but in terms of abuses or fraud carried out under the "undue influence" common in many religious, they are actually correct.

At law, because of their privileged position and mental influence, they are presumed guilty until they prove themselves innocent.

Please check your local laws and correct me where I am wrong.

Hey, points taken.

Obviously there are shades of grey and variations in different jurisdictions and different areas of law.

But would it not be more correct to say, even with the "givens" you list, position, prima facie evidence etc, they are presumed "charged" but not necessarily guilty? (I am not lawyer, but even then, I am sure the language varies). The common sense point I clumsily try to make is that someone has to be proven guilty, not just declared so and punished, without proof.

Here in NSW (this is a state law here, not federal), there was a law passed about 10 years ago making it mandatory for any suspicion of child abuse to be reported, by teachers, doctors, etc. If not reported, the said person was also liable to criminal charges. Great idea you might think, but the system became overburdened as no one wanted to be left open to possible charges, so the flimsiest suspicions were then reported. The real children at risk were lost in the flood of paperwork, and the results went backwards. This is now all being reviewed.

Spare us the lynch mob mentality. It helps no one. That's all I am saying.

Just to move on from Catholicism ... its all very valid but the world has been over it a 1,000 times ... I found this interesting story. I think it relates very well to young children being brought up in the Brahma Kumaris movement, who are then encouraged to believe that they were re-born BKs "Dadas" (a respected elder in a child's mind and body) or perhaps even re-born Brahma Kumaris of a different sex. Now tell me what a young boy growing up thinking he a reborn female adherent is going to be like!?!

Of course, in this case, it was the parents again who put the kid through this, presumably in a desperate need to have their faith sustained ... a desperate need I, personally, saw in many BK parents of my generation.

It also portrays the ridiculousness and fallibility of the allegedly enlightened adults engaged in all this. This story even involves the holiest of Holy Cows, the Dali Lama. If they are all so holy, how come they did not see what was going on.

If they were so enlightened ... how the hell was the only movie he got to watch an Eddie Murphy movie!?!?! I mean, it is off the register insane!!! No wonder he has gone off to study film. The same dynamics that the BKs use, e.g. the use of "Famous (worldly) People" such as Richard Gere to give importance to the sect, are there too.

Never mind politicians kissing babies ... these people are electing babies as their re-incarnated Gods. They are all up to the same game in which the use of individuals, even children, are merely the fuel to achieve their ambitions.

Boy chosen by Dalai Lama turns back on Buddhist order by Dale Fuchs

As a toddler, he was put on a throne and worshipped by monks who treated him like a god. But the boy chosen by the Dalai Lama as a reincarnation of a spiritual leader has caused consternation – and some embarrassment – for Tibetan Buddhists by turning his back on the order that had such high hopes for him. Instead of leading a monastic life, Osel Hita Torres now sports baggy trousers and long hair, and is more likely to quote Jimi Hendrix than Buddha.

Yesterday he bemoaned the misery of a youth deprived of television, football and girls. Movies were also forbidden – except for a sanctioned screening of The Golden Child starring Eddie Murphy, about a kidnapped child lama with magical powers. He is now studying film in Madrid and has denounced the Buddhist order that elevated him to guru status. "They took me away from my family and stuck me in a medieval situation in which I suffered a great deal," said Torres, 24, describing how he was whisked from obscurity in Granada to a monastery in southern India. "It was like living a lie," he told the Spanish newspaper El Mundo.

Despite his rebelliousness, he is still known as Lama Tenzin Osel Rinpoche and revered by the Buddhist community. A prayer for his "long life" still adorns the website of the Foundation to Preserve the Mahayana Tradition, which has 130 centres around the world. The website features a biography of the renegade guru that gushes about his peaceful, meditative countenance as a baby. In Tibetan Buddhism, a lama is one of a lineage of reincarnated spiritual leaders, the most famous of which is the Dalai Lama.

According to the foundation biography, another leader suspected Torres was the reincarnation of the recently deceased Lama Yeshe when he was only five months old. In 1986, at 14 months, his parents took him to see the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India. The toddler was chosen out of nine other candidates and eventually "enthroned". At six, he was allowed to socialise only with other reincarnated souls – though for a time he said he lived next to the actor Richard Gere's cabin.

By 18, he had never seen couples kiss. His first disco experience was a shock. "I was amazed to watch everyone dance. What were all those people doing, bouncing, stuck to one another, enclosed in a box full of smoke?"

Yes ... just like it felt walking back into the real world after coming out of the BKWSU too.

to move on from Catholicism ... it's all very valid but the world has been over it a thousand times ...

However, this might have some relevance. There is another report out in Ireland about abuse by the Catholic Church in Ireland. The Irish government will not give a date for publication, they said it is too soon!! They are in trouble with the electorate over corruption etc. This report is called the Dunne report I think.

While the recently published Ryan Report dealt with the abuse in institutions, the Dunne report is addressing the church's hierarchy failure to address, and the cover up of, the issue of clerical abuses in the diocese. (In hospitals, churches etc. They have at last released the thousands of documents to the enquiry. The new archbishop was crying and said he could not continue reading, threw the documents to the floor. They are reporting that it is more shocking than anything we have heard so far.

Re: the Ryan report.

The religious orders went in to overdrive to put their assets into trusts so that their monies could not be used for compensation for the victims.

The cardinal and bishops went to Rome to show El Papa the Ryan report. He was "very upset". He sent them back with the same message that was given some years ago. Find out the truth. As a representative of abuse victims pointed out, "the facts have been already been established". They want prosecutions.

An Augustinian priest has publicly denounced the church, saying it has lost its soul. He commented that when an institution, any institution, loses sight of its original aim and that the institution, and protecting the institution, becomes more important than the original aim, or mission as he put it, then that institution will die. He made it clear that he was not just talking about the church as a whole, but these orders that are only seventy or eighty years established, and in that time have completely lost touch with their founders original aims.

Another speaker pointed out that indeed the Catholic Church appears to be dying in Ireland. The average age of their (vastly diminished) priesthood is late sixties

God, I am so sick of religions ... full stop. Is there something in them that demands of one to put aside one's humanity and express psychopathic tendencies? 10 of millions of people (perhaps as many as 50 million), 605 years of murder, torture, genocide and terrorism of men, women and children in a systematic and structured movement called 'The Holy Inquisition' of the Church of Rome.

75 out of 80 Popes directly sanctified such atrocities, not one disapproved of the Inquisition, each added their own tortures to it. But, that is was not new ... it was carried out in an unstructured manner right back to the beginning of the church. It seems that in the US at least, Protestants are still 'protesting' against The Church of Rome, and emphasizing that it is not true Christianity. I am not buying into Protestantism, but the historical record stands unquestionably and one would need to have an overview of it to understand the faith and its endemic abuse.

It strikes me that having terrorized the populations of the world into submission, and surely malforming the human psyche in the process, each successive religion has come along to set up a business on the foundations previously set by such people. I wonder if the fear, panic and (ultimately) aggression religious adherents express when their beliefs are challenged comes from genetic fear installed by such widescale human persecution, or if we have some other form of collective memory? A loose theory requiring a lot more thought ...

I am also thinking of senior Brahma Kumari adherent Neville Hodgkinson, at a BKWSU service event, going onto a stage recently lauding the "festiveness" of Catholicism, and condemning the work ethic of Protestants. I am sure being put on "The Judas Chair" (see below) for believing in the Bible and not the Church of Rome, was "highly festive". On the other hand, the burnings at the stake most certainly were sold as celebrations, perhaps that is what he meant!?!

The sizable pay offs from Hitler and Mussolini and, especially, the direct involvement not WITH but AS Croatian fascists and the Inqisition going into the 20 th Century were news for me. The "spiritual fornication" with military and political leaders of the world are something the Brahma Kumaris appear quite comfortable with too, file under "business as usual".

There is another quote about how the Pope divided the world between Spain and Portugal ... on the basis that they subjugate the natives and convert them to Catholicism so that they might pay tax to "The Vicar of Christ". What difference is all that to Dadi Janki "cutting a cake of Africa" with some rich Sindi businessman follower and their "tax collection" from Brahma Kumari followers?

Sure, the BK are not into genocide and gross abuse is minimal ... but, to me, rather than liberating simple people they seem to me to be carrion, eating off the weak or dying, subtly following after the examples of the great 'soul killers' and 'soul captors', merely practising a more subtle form of the same business. Too strong an opinion?

The Netherlands - 19 June 2009 - Hundreds of complaints abuse in churches

Churches in the Netherlands in recent years, over 400 reports made by victims of sexual abuse. According to the TV program Zembla coming Sunday. Many reports did not lead to a complaint. The victims include people who help a pastor or priest for help. But the cases may also go on pastoral staff or church council members.

The Roman Catholic Church Zembla reported that since 1995 276 reports received. The Inter-religious grouping Sexual Abuse in Pastoral Relationships (SMPR) containing, inter alia, the Protestant Church in the Netherlands received since mid-nineties average twenty cases per year. One point three Reformed churches had from 2005 to display 29 messages.

Average is about more than forty cases per year. Of all the 417 reports in 200 cases came to a complaint, of which 95 were well founded. The Catholic Church can not tell how many priests have had to leave the office. The Protestant Church in the Netherlands and the reformed reported that ten cleric from office are put.

Peter Nissen, professor of cultural history of Christianity at the University of Tilburg, says examples of priests to which have been suspended after a while again church and pastoral work can do.

The full committee that the complaints of Catholic victims treated in 2008 appears to have been moved away following a procedure change. Ex-chairman Yvo of Zembla Kuijck states that the committee got the impression that the church was more important to protect against liability and the victim was no longer central. A spokesman of the Roman Catholic Church called it a response to an impression of Van Kuijck.

The spokesman said that reports do not always lead to complaints because some people find it sufficient if the church know. Moreover, there is in the early years many 'old' complaints about all deceased priests, the case was declared inadmissible. The new procedure accepts that type of complaints are.

Pope 'led cover-up of child abuse by priests'

The Pope played a leading role in a systematic cover-up of child sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests, according to a shocking documentary to be screened by the BBC tonight.

In 2001, while he was a cardinal, he issued a secret Vatican edict to Catholic bishops all over the world, instructing them to put the Church's interests ahead of child safety.

The document recommended that rather than reporting sexual abuse to the relevant legal authorities, bishops should encourage the victim, witnesses and perpetrator not to talk about it. And, to keep victims quiet, it threatened that if they repeat the allegations they would be excommunicated.

The Panorama special, Sex Crimes And The Vatican, investigates the details of this little-known document for the first time. The programme also accuses the Catholic Church of knowingly harbouring paedophile clergymen. It reveals that priests accused of child abuse are generally not struck off or arrested but simply moved to another parish, often to reoffend. It gives examples of hush funds being used to silence the victims.

Before being elected as Pope Benedict XVI in April last year, the pontiff was Cardinal Thomas Ratzinger who had, for 24 years, been the head of the powerful Congregation of the Doctrine of The Faith, the department of the Roman Catholic Church charged with promoting Catholic teachings on morals and matters of faith. An arch-Conservative, he was regarded as the 'enforcer' of Pope John Paul II in cracking down on liberal challenges to traditional Catholic teachings.

Five years ago he sent out an updated version of the notorious 1962 Vatican document Crimen Sollicitationis - Latin for The Crime of Solicitation - which laid down the Vatican's strict instructions on covering up sexual scandal. It was regarded as so secret that it came with instructions that bishops had to keep it locked in a safe at all times.

Cardinal Ratzinger reinforced the strict cover-up policy by introducing a new principle: that the Vatican must have what it calls Exclusive Competence. In other words, he commanded that all child abuse allegations should be dealt with direct by Rome.

Patrick Wall, a former Vatican-approved enforcer of the Crimen Sollicitationis in America, tells the programme: "I found out I wasn't working for a holy institution, but an institution that was wholly concentrated on protecting itself." And Father Tom Doyle, a Vatican lawyer until he was sacked for criticising the church's handling of child abuse claims, says: "What you have here is an explicit written policy to cover up cases of child sexual abuse by the clergy and to punish those who would call attention to these crimes by the churchmen.

"When abusive priests are discovered, the response has been not to investigate and prosecute but to move them from one place to another. So there's total disregard for the victims and for the fact that you are going to have a whole new crop of victims in the next place. This is happening all over the world."

The investigation could not come at a worse time for Pope Benedict, who is desperately trying to mend the Church's relations with the Muslim world after a speech in which he quoted a 14th Century Byzantine emperor who said that Islam was spread by holy war and had brought only evil to the world.

The Panorama programme is presented by Colm O'Gorman, who was raped by a priest when he was 14. He said: "What gets me is that it's the same story every time and every place. Bishops appoint priests who they know have abused children in the past to new parishes and new communities and more abuse happens."

Last night Eileen Shearer, director of the Catholic Office for the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults said: "The Catholic Church in England and Wales (has) established a single set of national policies and procedures for child protection work. We are making excellent progress in protecting children and preventing abuse."

When is BK taking the stand?