Tuam Babies and Associated Press Apology to Bon Secours Sisters

 

[1] America Magazine and Associated Press (AP) Apologies

I previously wrote about the apology made by the Associated Press (AP) for the world-wide publication in June 2014 of a story that the Church had refused to baptise the children of unmarried mothers at the Tuam Home (see Part [3] ) It was the Jesuit  America Magazine that had successfully pressed AP to make their original apology on 20 June 2014 and I see that AP followed up on 23 June with a more detailed statement. AP Expands on Corrections of 'Tuam Babies' Story is an article by Kevin Clarke in "America" on 24 June 2014.

In a report released June 23, the Associated Press expanded on the corrections it issued on June 20 after America asked an AP media representative to respond to apparent inaccuracies in its reporting on the scandal swirling around the disposition of deceased residents of a mothers and babies home in Tuam, County Galway, Ireland between 1925 and 1962.

According to the AP:

Revelations this month that nuns had buried nearly 800 infants and young children in unmarked graves at an Irish orphanage during the last century caused stark headlines and stirred strong emotions and calls for investigation. Since then, however, a more sober picture has emerged that exposes how many of those headlines were wrong.

The case of the Tuam "mother and baby home" offers a study in how exaggeration can multiply in the news media, embellishing occurrences that should have been gripping enough on their own....The reports of unmarked graves shouldn't have come as a surprise to the Irish public, who for decades have known that some of the 10 defunct "mother and baby homes," which chiefly housed the children of unwed mothers, held grave sites filled with forgotten dead.

The religious orders' use of unmarked graves reflected the crippling poverty of the time, the infancy of most of the victims, and the lack of plots in cemeteries corresponding to the children's fractured families.

It added:

When Corless published her findings on a Facebook campaign page, and Irish media noticed, she speculated to reporters that the resting place of most, if not all, could be inside a disused septic tank on the site. By the time Irish and British tabloids went to print in early June, that speculation had become a certainty, the word "disused" had disappeared, and U.S. newspapers picked up the report, inserting more errors, including one that claimed the researcher had found all 796 remains in a septic tank.

The Associated Press was among the media organizations that covered Corless and her findings, repeating incorrect Irish news reports that suggested the babies who died had never been baptized and that Catholic Church teaching guided priests not to baptize the babies of unwed mothers or give to them Christian burials. [my emphasis]

The reports of denial of baptism later were contradicted by the Tuam Archdiocese, which found a registry showing that the home had baptized more than 2,000 babies. The AP issued a corrective story on Friday after discovering its errors.

There was a brief discussion following the America article to which I contributed THIS comment:

Rory Connor 6 years 2 months ago
The following extract from an article in the Sunday Independent by Dr Maurice Gueret, editor of the "Irish Medical Directory" should finally dispose of the "babies bodies in a septic tank" obscenity:
"We Need Less Outrage and More Home Truths about Tuam" 
http://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/we-need-less-outrage-and-more-home-truths-about-tuam-30380889.html [link no longer works]

The sight of politicians calling for declaration of crime scenes and a newspaper arranging radar examination of a graveyard does little to bring clarity to a complicated story. It was no secret that many children died young, especially in the 1920s and 1930s. They were dying all over Ireland from infectious diseases. Principal causes were TB, dysentery, diphtheria, meningitis, bacterial pneumonia, and complications of measles and polio. This was the pre-antibiotic era. You were considered lucky if all your children lived to adulthood. Every year, the Galway Health Board would advertise a public contract in local newspapers for a supply of coffins to its Tuam children's home. They were to be made of white deal, one-inch thick, and supplied in three different sizes. Specifications included electro-brassed grips, breastplate and crucifixes. It was no state secret that orphanages that looked after large numbers of vulnerable children, most under the age of five, had higher death rates than the community at large. [My Emphasis]

When the official tribunal produces its Report in a year or so, I predict that it will ignore the false atrocity stories in favour of a swinging denunciation of our grandparents "repressive" attitudes to unmarried mothers. Thus the journalists responsible for the current libel will feel virtuous and vindicated!

[2] Text of Advertisement for Coffins

Here is what an advertisement in the Tuam Herald said in 1939:

"Tender for coffins for Children's Home, plain and mounted, in three sizes, must be 1" thick, made of seasoned white deal, clean and free from knots and slits, pitched and strained in large, medium, small sizes. Mounting must be similar make, but mounted with Electro Brassed Grips, Breast and Crucifix."

quoted by Bill Donohue , President of The Catholic League in "Ireland's Mass Grave Hysteria" 

[3] Original AP Apology dated 20 June 2014

Ireland-Children’s Mass Graves story DUBLIN (AP) — In stories published June 3 and June 8 about young children buried in unmarked graves after dying at a former Irish orphanage for the children of unwed mothers, The Associated Press incorrectly reported that the children had not received Roman Catholic baptisms; documents show that many children at the orphanage were baptized. The AP also incorrectly reported that Catholic teaching at the time was to deny baptism and Christian burial to the children of unwed mothers; although that may have occurred in practice at times it was not church teaching. In addition, in the June 3 story, the AP quoted a researcher who said she believed that most of the remains of children who died there were interred in a disused septic tank; the researcher has since clarified that without excavation and forensic analysis it is impossible to know how many sets of remains the tank contains, if any. The June 3 story also contained an incorrect reference to the year that the orphanage opened; it was 1925, not 1926.

I quoted the above in Part [2] of my 3-Part series "The Tuam Babies and the Bon Secours Nuns" and also in the final part of "Eight Falsely Accused Bishops (and Archbishops) in Ireland" . The people who invented that libel were aiming at the nuns but it would be a Bishop - in this case Archbishop of Tuam - who would make the exceptionally rare decision of this type.(It might conceivably happen, if parents made it clear that they had no intention of bringing up the child as a Catholic). 

In their expanded apology on 23 June 2014, AP state that they had repeated "incorrect Irish news reports that suggested the babies who died had never been baptized and that Catholic Church teaching guided priests not to baptize the babies of unwed mothers or give to them Christian burials". I find it difficult to imagine that ANY Irish journalist seriously believed that the Catholic Church refused to baptise the babies of unmarried mothers or denied them Christian burials. Will Judge Yvonne Murphy track down the source of these libels? Did the journalist(s) responsible publish/broadcast any other stories - of a type whose credibility cannot be established 60 years after the closure of the Tuam home - but at least the public should be made aware that the source is unreliable?

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and I

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick

Background

According to the Wikipedia article on the former Cardinal Archbishop of Washington Theodore McCarrick was ordained in 1958, he became an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of New York in 1977, then became bishop of the Diocese of Metuchen, New Jersey in 1981. From 1986 to 2000, he was Archbishop of Newark. He became a cardinal in February 2001 and served as Archbishop of Washington, D.C. from 2001 to 2006........... McCarrick has been accused of engaging in sexual conduct with adult male seminarians over the course of decades. This sexual conduct was alleged to be an open secret in some ecclesial circles.Though multiple reports about McCarrick's alleged conduct with adult seminarians  were made to American bishops and the Vatican between 1993 and 2016, allegations of sexual abuse against male minors were not publicly known until 2018. [My emphasis] In June 2018, the Vatican removed McCarrick from public ministry because of credible sexual abuse allegations. In July 2018, the New York Times published a story detailing a pattern of sexual abuse of male seminarians and minors. The emergence of these reports and the lack of action from the church hierarchy infuriated Catholics and sparked demands for action against church leaders believed to be responsible.

McCarrick submitted his resignation from the College of Cardinals in July 2018, and his resignation was accepted by Pope Francis. After a church investigation and trial, he was found guilty of sexual crimes against adults and minors and abuse of power. McCarrick was dismissed from the clergy in February 2019.  He is the most senior church official in modern times to be defrocked and is believed to be the first cardinal ever defrocked for sexual abuse. [End of Wikipedia quote]

One result of the atmosphere of hysteria surrounding allegations of child abuse, is that it makes it difficult to evaluate genuine complaints. Also in the United States, ages of consent to sexual activity have always made at the State level. Since 2018 the legal age of consent varies between 16 and 18 depending on the jurisdiction but has been much lower (I think it was 13 in the State of Texas as recently as the early 2000s). My reading of the McCarrick case is that he sexually harassed male seminarians - who would have been adults or very close - and that the "minor" claims were made as a result of the explosion of media publicity in 2018. According to Catholic League President Bill Donohue  "In the case of Cardinal McCarrick, the alleged abuse took place a half century ago (in the 1970s), and the alleged victim was a teenager, thus ruling out pedophilia."

 I originally suspected that the entire scandal might be a fake - similar to the false allegations against all four Irish Archbishops or the lunatic "Operation Midland" in the UK that targeted top Tory leaders.

Article in America Magazine - and Discussion 

Part of the publicity was an article in America Magazine on 25 July 2018 by Michael J O'Loughlin  Albany priest describes culture of harassment under McCarrick that described the experiences of Desmond Rossi when he was a seminarian in Newark in 1986.  Apparently McCarrick, then newly appointed Archbishop of Newark routinely invited a number of seminarians to a house on the shore with limited sleeping accommodations, resulting in one of them sharing a bed with the bishop. According to Fr. Rossi, he and a friend later realized that the archbishop would cancel weekend gatherings "if there were not enough men going that they would exceed the number of available beds, thus necessitating one guest to share a bed with the archbishop". Apart from harassment by the Archbishop      Fr Rossi narrated an episode where following a night of drinking, he and two other student priests returned to the rectory. There, he said, one of the men threw him onto the bed and began kissing him while the other tried performing oral sex on him. He said he did not report the assault out of a “strange sense of loyalty,” fearful that it would derail his friends’ careers. "Part of the problem was, I think, [Archbishop McCarrick] kind of gave license to others by his own behavior,” Father Rossi said. “When you have that kind of corrupted morality at the top, it gives permission to others."

Desmond Rossi was aged about 25 at that time and subsequently transferred before ordination from the Archdiocese of Newark to the diocese of Albany in New York State where is is currently a  priest in active ministry. According to the America article, Father Rossi returned to active priestly ministry in the Diocese of Albany in 2017 following a roughly 15-year leave, which he said was due to developing “major depression and P.T.S.D. related to the abuse I experienced in Newark.” He said the sexual abuse crisis in the church, which was coming to light in 2002, triggered his depression. 

Father Rossi says he wants a “total inquiry” to discover “who knew what” about Archbishop McCarrick and to discover why steps were not taken to protect seminarians from harassment. “I hope that this gets cleaned up,” Father Rossi said. “I hope we’re starting now to be honest.” Given the current atmosphere of hysteria, this scenario resembles a Jew who has a (possibly justified) grievance against the Chief Rabbi but chooses to voice it during an anti-Semitic pogrom!

Extract from (52) Comments on Article

arthur mccaffrey
my advice to Mr Rossi is to sue for as much $$ as he can get from RCC for PTSD, then leave the priesthood and find another vocation of service to his fellow man that does not involve being part of a criminal organization.

Seems like Rossi is very confused and conflicted and I hope he finds a good therapist to guide him. Rossi is absolutely correct that McCarrick was GROOMING him for further sexual exploitation--this is a classic behavior pattern among all pedophiles, and McCarrick was a pro-----the same charm that he used to bed his victims is the same charm he used to rise thru the RCC hierarchy. McCarrick should be in jail and on the Sexual Offender list just like all the other guys who are predators.

Fred Keyes
As wicked and deserving of severe punishment as the Cardinal's behavior and those of others like him was, it's still exceptional. The Church will survive it.

Suing it seems to me is OK to cover costs as Fr. Rossi did, but I can't see suing for money that comes ultimately from good people's pockets.

Joan McKniff
Over a period of decades this behavior was not reported by a priest who said Mass, heard Confessions of Sins by lay people, who went to confession and received Communion, who pledged his life to service to God and others, put or let others be put at risk for abuse. That delay needs more of an explanation than he felt a sense of loyalty and the Bishop was charming! Come on!

J Jones
Joan ---- Your response has a name: "blaming the victim".

Fr Rossi explains the delay. 1) The power dynamics in the Church. 2) mental illness which resulted from the abuse irself AND the trap created by the power dynamics and abuses in the church; 3) 15 years NOT in ministry

Rory Connor
"Blaming the victim" does not explain why people doubt certain allegations of sex abuse directed against Catholic bishops. I have a separate comment regarding the situation in Ireland where (among other things) four Archbishops were subjected to false accusations. There are only four Archdioceses in Ireland and after the THIRD was accused, I used to joke that the Archbishop of Tuam was obviously next on our anti-clerics hit list! OBVIOUSLY I was correct!

Rory Connor
I have a blog essay entitled "Eight Falsely Accused Bishops (and Archbishops) in Ireland". All four of our Archbishops were the subject of false abuse-related claims and the other four "ordinary" bishops were VERY prominent. No obscure Irish bishops were accused! Is this American case for real?
http://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2018/07/seven-falsely-accused-bishops-and.html


Of the eight prelates accused, most were conservative but I would classify two as "liberal". However none of the false allegations came from Irish conservatives. The first one in 1994 involved The Guardian newspaper in the UK claiming that an unnamed Irish bishop was a member of a paedophile ring. They thought they could avoid a libel suit by not naming him but they gave enough details to expose themselves to a class libel suit from the Conference of Bishops and had to apologise.

J Jones
Rory, I did not read Joan's response as an indicator that she doubts this priest's allegations of sexual harassment and abuse. I think she is criticizing this victim for not having responded to the abuse the way she thinks (and understandably wishes) he had responded.

She seems to misunderstand both the context and meaning of the priest's observation that McCarrick was charming. He was describing McCarrick's personal characteristics which increased the success of his grooming and sexual hassassment of seminarians and young priest's.

She overlooked the power dynamics McCarrick exploited and many of which the priest identifies in this article. The combined force of McCarrick's charming social skills AND his power AND his cagey manipulations would give any thinking person pause as to whether anyone would choose to listen to an underling's profoundly serious allegations about that charming, powerful leader.

Criticizing a victim for not meeting others' expectations about how a victim should behave is, indeed, the very essence of blaming the victim.

Rory Connor
OK. We begin with different attitudes and experiences. I have some experience of these kind of allegations in Ireland and UK and have got very cynical. In the UK, CLASS hatred is a bigger issue than (our Irish) anti-Clericalism. See Wikipedia article on "Operation Midland" where victims of lunatic claims included - and I quote - "the former home secretary Leon Brittan, the former prime minister Edward Heath, the former chief of defence staff Lord Bramall, the former director of the Secret Intelligence Service Maurice Oldfield, and Michael Hanley, the former Director-General of MI5".

The only victim who never achieved Ministerial rank (or similar) was a Tory MP who had to resign 20 years before as result of a GENUINE sex scandal; thus he was a "celebrity" of sorts and became a target! ALL targets of "Operation Midland" in the UK were well-known conservative members of the Establishment. There are too many parallels with Ireland and the USA I believe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Midland

J Jones
Rory, of course there will be false allegations and lives are damaged by them.

That is why credible investigations are essential before everybody and dogs named Joe start attacking. McCarrick has victims who have already been paid off by the RCC. This priest's allegations are factually similar. This priest went public from the altar, risking losing everything.

There is no acceptable or credible justification for attacking this priest, for blaming him for McCarrick's abuse of others (as joan did) or for blaming or maligning him or attacking his masculinity or his courage (as the male commenter below did) or for having been impacted negatively by McCarrick's harassment.

That is all classic victim-blaming and it is well understood as part of the pressure that silences existing and future victims of this and other perpetrators. And perpetrators KNOW this and they COUNT on this


Victoria Bako
God bless you, Fr. Rossi. I know this isn't easy for you, but I hope more will come out and talk about their abuse so this madness comes to an end and justice is done. These abusers are very, very charming. Never underestimate the charm of a predator. They have to win you over to get close enough to hurt you.

Frank Gibbons
48 seminarians from Tegucigalpa’s major seminary have written a letter protesting the large scale existence of homosexual behavior within the seminary. The letter is unsigned because of fear of reprisals. Many are considering leaving the seminary. True to form, Cardinal Maradiaga accused these young men of being "gossipers".

The news of the seminarians’ protest came after months of allegations involving homosexual abuse and financial misconduct by Bishop Pineda.

Since last December, Cardinal Maradiaga has been accused of allowing Bishop Pineda to continue to serve in his post, and even placing him in charge of the archdiocese during the cardinal’s absence to receive medical treatments for prostate cancer in Houston, despite a body of allegations against Bishop Pineda of homosexual relationships — including with seminarians." National Catholic Register 7/25/18.

Cardinal Maradiagra is one of Pope Francis' closest advisors.

The corruption is ubiquitous. But the hedge is down. I have never criticized Pope Francis but he needs to enter a period deep reflection and reconsider some of the appointments he's made and the advisors whom he surrounds himself with.


justinreany@gmail.com
I have asked repeatedly: Where is the courage of young men today?!?! The moment that this homosexual pervert touched any of these young men, he should have had a broken jaw! That's how you deal with these pervs in the clergy! Beat the living sense out them and expose it. I can tell you if any cleric did this to me when I qas in discernment or my sons he would have to flee in hiding because of what I would do to him. Two things have perpetuated this crisis: (1) evil men covering for each other in the hierarchy; (2) lack of testicular fortitude amongst men. Period.

J Jones
Justin --- your response has a name: "blaming the victim" . It is one of the reasons victims remain silent. If they disclose their abuse, someone (you and Joan, above, in this case) will be dissatisfied with some aspect of the disclosure and will attack them for THAT.

You and Joan just contributed to another victim's decision to remain silent.

Florence Sundberg
July 27th: Sorry but this Priest seems like an immature adolescent. He says others threw him down and molested him... I have brothers and male cousins and friends - none of them would ever have allowed another male to seduce them or engage in any kind of sexual behavior with them. This Priest did not report those who allegedly molested him because he did not want to harm their 'careers' - what hogwash!!! He needs to man up and admit that he is part of the problem. How did McCarrick get adult males to allow him to engage in sexual activity with them? I don't care how much power or influence McCarrick had ... again, no male in my family or among my friends and colleagues would have permitted this for any reason...

J Jones
Florence -- Perpetrators like Cardinal McCarrick are 100% aware that people (even women!) will attack, malign, humiliate, verbally abuse, shun, reject and otherwise participate in destroying the lives of victims (especially men!) if they dare to tell anyone.

Perpetrators COUNT on people like you behaving exactly as you have here.

You just made YOURSELF part of McCarrick's harassment of innocent men who just wanted to serve God and YOU.

And I would put money on it that you just silenced another victim, either one harassed and abused in the past or someone just being victimized as I write.

THIS IS HOW ABUSE OF POWER WORKS. Other people volunteer, as you have here, to ensure the silence of victims by publicly attacking and humiliating any victim who comes forward.

People who speak as you have here today are part of the problem. The priest is a victim of McCarrick and, now you, Florence

And I would money on it that this innocent, dedicated priest will forgive you. Cardinal McCarrick created the opportunity for you to behave in such an ugly way.

And, no, I do not know this priest. The depth of his faith, the sincerity of his vocation, the test of his strength and courage as a man and the depth of his love of the people of God (even those who would act in the ugly way you have here) --- his love of God and his determination to respond to God's call that he serve God and all God's creation --- all of that is made manifest in his return to seminary, his return to the priesthood, his return to ministry.

Next time I am on the east coast, I will seek out this priest and the opportunity to participate in Eucharist with him. THIS priest, this brave man, has been tested and he survived, faith intact. God bless him.

Dolores Pap8 
You are so right! My friend's brother was molested by the local parish priest in a neighboring town- he was too was scared to tell his parents because he felt that nobody would believe him..That priest was finally sued by 21(!!) of his other victims, but sadly, one of the men was so emotionally damaged that he killed himself.

Thank you for speaking out for these innocent victims..


Rory Connor
Reply to Florence Sundberg. Florence: That is the first thing that occurred to me when I read the article [Immaturity] but the point is so unfashionable nowadays that I kind of forgot about it and concentrated on a different - although not unrelated - issue. I also find the following comment surprising:
“I hope that this gets cleaned up,” Father Rossi said. “I hope we’re starting now to be honest.”

What does he expect except a CONTINUATION of an unrelenting media assault on the Catholic Church, that has been underway for the best part of two decades now? Nothing is "starting"!!

J Jones
Rory, I am not aware of any context in which it is unfashionable to refer to immaturity as immaturity.

Rory, please help me understand you.

Are you saying that this priest is responsible for public awareness of former Cardinal McCarrick's abusive and harassing behavior? Are you further suggesting that that makes this priest culpable for the negative press about former Cardinal McCarrick's abusive and haraassing behavior? Are you further blaming this priest for the harm to the RCC caused by the former Cardinal's abusive and harassing behavior?

Rory Connor
You are not aware of any context in which it is unfashionable to refer to immaturity as immaturity? What about when someone suggests that an (alleged) victim of sexual assault should not have drunk herself into a stupor in the company of a man she barely knew - or alternatively that she should not have agreed to go home with a man she first met in a night-club a couple of hours before? A well known Irish radio broadcaster very nearly lost his job for saying something like that. One feminist critic informed him that "Victim-blaming is all too familiar to women in Ireland. George is giving the message that men can do what they want and it is the drunken woman who is to blame. Women have the right to be drunk. They have the right to say no. They have the right to walk down the street naked if they wish..." This lady was advocating behaviour that is both criminal and stupid. A woman who walks down the street drunk and naked would be lucky to be arrested before she is assaulted! However I may have been the only one to say that - certainly no-one in the mainstream media did so. It is becoming dangerous for men to give pragmatic advise to women that they should avoid dangerous situations because the man can be accused of "victim-blaming" and may even be fired!
http://irishsalem.blogspot.com/2017/09/fiona-doyle-and-george-hook.html

As to your related question - the then 25 year old priest should have behaved like an adult at the time. Since he did not, he should not now be making his allegations in the middle of a hysterical media attack on the Catholic Church. A Jew may have a valid complaint about his Rabbi but he should not air it in the middle of an anti-Semitic pogrom because what then occurs will NOT be "healing"!

Fr. Des Rossi
Rory, this is Fr Des Rossi. There are many feelings and many concerns out there in response to the behavior of Archbishop McCarrick. I was a 25 year old kid when this all happened to me. I have come forward as part of the healing process, to assist our Church going forward to learn the lessons here and "right the ship." I want to remind others that I spoke with the journalist who published the article for a few hours, so it's important to remember that not everything I said was included in the article. I want to Thank Michael O'Loughlin for a job well done. Peace!

Rory Connor
Father Rossi. Sorry for delay in replying. I was a 16 year adolescent - and immature for my age - when I had my first summer job and my first time away from home. I was working in a hotel and actually didn't make a great success of it. However when a drunken hotel guest made a sexual suggestion when I had brought him and his luggage to a room, I handled it quite well. I was extremely startled but recognised I was in no danger and politely said no. I informed my immediate boss because I thought I should, but he just raised his eyes to the skies and did nothing as far as I know. I didn't expect anything different as the most junior member of staff had less status than a paying guest. I have never blamed it or ANY other single episode for damaging me. I did make a couple of serious mistakes in my life which cannot now be repaired (I am 68) but I don't agonise over them and especially I don't blame others - even though these errors were not entirely my own doing. (Also other people suffered because of what I did!).

There is no "healing process" going on in the Catholic Church at the moment certainly not in Ireland and not in America either I'm sure. Nothing is "starting" either - just relentless thuggish abuse from journalists whose anti-clerical hatred is the "liberal" equivalent of the anti-Semitic variety. (In Ireland this LITERALLY includes Blood Libels that are directed against Catholics instead of Jews - one of them coming from a politician who later became Minister for Justice! ). Your narrative just feeds into this and I cannot understand how it is supposed to "right the ship".
Eight Falsely Accused Bishops (and Archbishops) in Ireland

Carlos Orozco
Gay culture in the Seminaries. Not a new phenomenon. I remember a papal commission during the pontificate of Benedict XVI reporting of such an infestation. What steps have been taken to erradicate it? One Marcial Maciel is one too many.

J Jones
Carlis, your use of the word "infestation" to describe the presence of human beings in an institution is both repugnant and it reveals your bigotry.

Carlos Orozco
J, Please don't try to bend my comment: human beings are not an infestation. I stand by the term to designate the presence of a destructive CULTURE that directly contradicts 2,000 years of Church teachings. I am not willing to close my eyes and ears to the consequences of relativizing the toxic effects of such culture.

J Jones
Thanks for the clarification. I still would encourage you not to use the word in this context.

Fr. Des Rossi
First of all, I want to thank the hundreds of people who have reached out to me on email, phone, cards, letters and on the street. Your support not only strengthens me but it also strengthens us all. Please be charitable with one another. Listen to one another. Try to heal one another. Don't let the the divisive spirit of the evil one win. Christ calls us to bear up with one another. As for ones who are angry, I am angry also. As for the ones who weep, I have wept, too. As for the ones who feel ashamed, believe me, I have been there. I was in exile in the wilderness for many years wondering where my God was and felt abandoned. But today, I realize he was strengthening me for the future that would unfold. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. Bless us and your Church. Assist us in doing good and avoiding evil, so that your kingdom may be made manifest among us all. Love & Peace, Fr. Des Rossi

J Jones
Fr Des Rossi, you are indeed a minister to and for the people of God. I am profoundly grateful for your courage and willingness to be healed and to heal. I will take your message to prayer and be mindful of your example. I wish iived in Albany so I could be part of your parish and participate in the mystery of the Christian experience with you and grow in my own journey. You are the real deal. Welcome home, brother Des Rossi. You are needed.

Jean Davis
Father Rossi you are so admirable and I am praying for you.

Jean Davis
Father Rossi’s narrative is deeply disturbing and tragic. How brave he is! This evil in the church must end.

J Jones
Many want to deny that abuse of power is the fundamental dynamic here.

I do not think power makes otherwise healthy people sexually attack other people.

Power does, however, provide the opportunity for sexual predators to groom, abuse, harass and then threaten their victims with harm should they disclose all of the above; power then provides the sexual predator with the protection of others who are invested in the predator's retention of that power and who will deny that it is possible the abuse could have happened and/or join the predator in destroying the victim's credibility, courage and, if necessary, the victim's entire life. The "power" of power is so real and, yes, POWERFUL that perpetrators need not even overtly threaten many victims because "the power of the powerful" to control the narrative and the outcomes is so obvious that victims understand the threat without having to hear the words. ........

For instance, sexual abuse is "about sex" only some of the time. Sexual abuse and harassment is often about violence (with sexual assault often being an incredibly violent act), domination, the perpetrator's pathological pride that he/she has that power, humiliation, retaliation, control, punishment, retribution, manipulation, a threat to achieve another end, psychological torture, or to relieve pathological stress/anxiety/etc. within a predator who is psychologically damaged and had no other coping tools, etc.

Those motives are NOT "about sex".

Abuse of power is not a hypothesis. It is well known dynamic in just about every sphere of human endeavor and in just about every field of scholarship. It is addressed in law and policy at every level of government all over the world.

The Reason Why - The Catholic Church and I (and Fr Paul Shanley)

Father Paul Shanley as a young priest, c 1970

Paul Shanley, released from prison July 2017

This is a discussion I had with Tim Cavanaugh of the online American libertarian magazine  Reason.com  ("Hit and Run" blog) in 2005. Mr Cavanaugh (presumably of Irish extraction?) was defending a liberal - or renegade - Catholic priest Father Paul Shanley who was initially adored by secular anti-clerics for flouting traditionalist Catholic values - until it suited them to use his anything-goes sexual antics to demonise the Church. The article entitled False Witness is dated 23 February 2005; I wrote to Tim Cavanaugh and an interesting discussion followed that drew in other readers including Jon Ihle.

In February 2005 Paul Shanley was convicted of the 1980 rape of a male minor, a conviction based entirely on "Recovered Memory" evidence. One blogger wrote that the opinion on the Catholic blogosphere appears to be that Shanley is a scumbag who was convicted on the only occasion on which he was innocent. That was certainly my view at the time. However others - like Catholic League president Bill Donohue - believed Shanley to be guilty although it appears that Donohue now accepts he was in fact innocent of that particular charge. [1]

The following extract from the  Wikipedia article on Paul Shanley helps to explain why "liberals" (both Catholic and secular) admired the man and traditionalists loathed him.

Shanley first gained notoriety during the 1970s as a "street priest", ministering to drug addicts and runaways who struggled with their sexuality. His writings included Changing Norms of Sexuality.During the 1980s, Shanley served as pastor of St. Jean the Evangelist Parish in Newton. In 1990, he was transferred to St. Anne's in San Bernardino, California. While there he and another priest, John J. White, co-owned "a bed-and-breakfast for gay customers 50 miles away in Palm Springs".

Shanley had earned "the nickname the hippie priest for his long hair and outspoken views, including his public rejection of the church's condemnation of homosexuality." He attended a conference on sexuality where the founders of NAMBLA, the North American Man Boy Love Association, conceived the idea of such an organization. However, Shanley was not a part of the 32 individuals at the meeting who caucused to form the group, according to a Catholic priest and Protestant minister who were.

The article False Witness and associated comments from the "Hit and Run" blog follow.

Rory Connor

16 April 2019

http://reason.com/blog/2005/02/23/false-witness

Hit and Run Blog

False Witness 

Tim Cavanaugh 

Feb. 23, 2005 3:53 pm

Dear Mr. Cavanaugh,

The attached is from the "Gay" magazine The Guide. Its not that it is the best account of your country's Salem Witch-Hunt (I will send you details of better ones). Its just that they cannot possibly be accused of making excuses for the Catholic Church. (I see they also have an article this month).

Will you defend this lunacy or (more likely) will you ignore it and the questions is raises about anti-clerical "liberals"?

Regards

Rory Connor

[above link is to a May 2005 article from The Guide by Jim D'Entremont as earlier one not available. There is a further article by D'Entremont dated March 2008 here ]

Dear Mr. Cavanaugh,
Summary follows. Plenty of material for an article on the effects of anti-clericalism. It's not so much that I expect journalists like yourself to disagree. What I expect is that you will remain silent and let the Witch-Hunters run riot. You don't actually believe what they are saying but they are attacking your enemies and that's all that counts.

Is that correct?

Rory Connor

[Reply from Tim Cavanaugh]

I never turn down a challenge, Rory! The articles you refer to can be be found  here, and though they're a bit out of date, Slate's Dahlia Lithwick (whose article on this topic I came across just before I got your email yesterday—divine intervention?) covered some of the same ground in covering the actual case against Paul Shanley.

So, in case anybody out there doesn't know, Shanley,  recently sentenced to 12-to-15 years in prison for child rape, was convicted solely on the basis of  recovered-memory testimony; three of his four accusers were dropped as unreliable, and the one remaining accuser had ample opportunity to coordinate his tale with the stories of at least two of the others (boyhood friends of his); no witnesses were able to corroborate any of the accusations, in whole or in part, and to the degree that there was forensic evidence, it would seem to clear Shanley (for reasons too complicated to go into here, and which did not involve Shanley at all, one of the boys actually had his cloacal region examined by a doctor at the time of the alleged crimes, and no evidence of abuse was found); Shanley appears to have had an active and varied sex life, which was widely distorted and misreported in press accounts; he was not actually a member of NAMBLA; nothing in Shanley's 1,600-page personnel file from the Boston Archdiocese supports any of the claims made about him prior to and during his trial... For more information, read JoAnn Wypijewski's  coverage of the case, [2] and since on the internet a thousand-word screed is worth a million pictures, don't miss Alexander Cockburn's post-sentencing hit.

For what it's worth, I have consistently believed, and written, that the real scandal here has been about management; what made the RCC sex-abuse story of 2002 take off wasn't the behavior of accused priests but the loony personnel decisions high-ranking church officials seemed to be making. That applies here as well: If they didn't think Shanley was guilty they should have defended him instead of shuffling him around and then throwing him to the wolves when he got too hot. However, I didn't pay any attention to the details of the Shanley case beyond noting that he had "multiple accusers" and a "30-year history" of allegations, both of which turn out to be largely chimerical.

But hey, way back in 2002 I was warning about the possibility of a witch hunt: When a priest in Baltimore was shot by a guy who claims the priest had molested him, a New York Times reporter astoundingly referred to the shooter as the "victim," and I called bullshit on that. And as it turns out, that Times reporter's name was...Jayson Blair?

And now you know...the rrrrest of the story!

TIM CAVANAUGH

MY NOTES:
[1] This is Bill Donohue's reaction to Paul Shanley's release from prison in July 2017 -"Catholic Left Goes Mute on Paul Shanley"

[2] For a Catholic traditionalist view on Jo Ann Wypijewski, a left wing journalist who defended Paul Shanley when most of her colleagues abandoned him to the Witch-hunters, see article by Phil Lawler "Strange Ally: a left-wing journalists unconvincing critique of Spotlight"

VIEW COMMENTS (33) 33 Responses to “False Witness”

SR 
 23 May 2005 @ 5:02PM
 [anti-Catholic evangelical] Obviously the Black Internationale has gotten to you, Tim. [/anti-Catholic evangelical]


mojoe 
23 May 2005 @ 5:21PM
 Tim,
 I live in the Boston area, and know 2 guys that absolutely, positively swear that this guy molested them also. They aren't interested in testifying because of the embarrassment involved. They've put it behind them (not a pun). And have seen what it's like to testify in these proceedings.

 Also, the media hereabouts reported that the other 3 accusers decided not to testify for the same reason, not that they had been disqualified as unreliable.

 There was another case locally where recovered-memory testimony was used to put away the owners and workers of the Fells Acres Daycare, only to have most of those convictions overturned some time later.

WSDave 
23 May 2005 @ 5:30PM|
I thought all that recovered memory, sex abuse, "satan ate my baby" stuff went out in the 80's. Is everything old really new again?

gaius marius
 23 May 2005 @ 5:40PM
 "I live in the Boston area, and know 2 guys that absolutely, positively swear that this guy molested them also."
 which is fine, mr mojoe. but that doesn't mean the trial of shanley as it happened was not a horrible miscarriage of justice.

Tim Cavanaugh 
23 May 2005 @ 5:42PM
 WSDave, that's why I figured there must really be something to the charges against Shanley. You know: There's no way they'd convict a guy on the basis of voodoo brain science just for the sake of the children! That would be unreasonable!

 What was I thinking?

Rory Connor 
23 May 2005 @ 6:25PM
 Dear SR
 You are absolutely right: The Black Internationale has got Tim! I was a De La Salle Brother from 1966 to 69 and it was the formative experience of my life. My novice master Brother Maurice Kirk was as important as my parents if not more so. (He became head of the De La Salle Order in Ireland and was killed in a car crash on 10 April 1974.)

 In September 1967 at the end of our training a Jesuit priest Father Michael Sweetman gave us a 9 day Retreat (spiritual conference for you pagans). It's true what the Jesuits say: when they control a child's education they have him for life!
 Rory

Jeff
 23 May 2005 @ 6:30PM
The Catholic church scapegoating somebody for the sake of convinience? Unheard of!

Gary Gunnels 
23 May 2005 @ 6:37PM
 Rory Connor,
 I am a heathen thank you very much.

crimethink
23 May 2005 @ 7:00PM
 Gary Gunnels,
 Was he talking to you?

 Or do you have a new housemate? ;-)

SR 
23 May 2005 @ 8:14PM
I'm very gratified that someone recognized the "Black Internationale" reference.


Gary Gunnels
23 May 2005 @ 8:43PM
 crimethink,
 If you read his comments you'll see he was referring to anyone reading his comments who happened to be rational enough not believe in Christianity.


James Kabala 
23 May 2005 @ 9:06PM
A number of people in the Catholic blogosphere take the same position as mojoe: This was a scumbag who got caught by a rare case in which he was innocent. I don't know enough details to say whether that's true or not.

 As for the Jayson Blair anecdote, all I can say is, "Wow."


Gary Gunnels 
23 May 2005 @ 9:18PM
 Sometimes it is very difficult to keep the outside world from invading the jury room. Does anyone know if the NAMBLA claim arose at trial? I doubt the prosecution would raise it (its not in their interest to dispel this rumor), and if the defense didn't, then that claim could have tainted the entire jury pool. Even voir dire might not have rid the jury of this notion if the prosecution or defense avoided or didn't think of it.

The Wine Commonsewer 
23 May 2005 @ 10:09PM
 I'm also too lazy (busy) to go looking but to my recollection the denial of the NAMBLA connection turns on a technicality. He was involved but it wasn't NAMBLA yet because the organization was just getting off the ground. It ultimately evolved into NAMBLA. A nice bunch of folks I'm sure.

 I don't doubt that Shanley is guilty. I also think the evidence was thin. Too thin for a conviction if it was anything else but a sexual assault case.

The Wine Commonsewer 
23 May 2005 @ 10:11PM
 Meant to also say that (from memory) the Archdiocese of Boston has written records connecting Shanley with NAMBLA around 1979 or 1980 so, no, it didn't arise at trial for the first time.


Tim Cavanaugh
 23 May 2005 @ 11:08PM
Gary and TWC: This claim was not in evidence at the trial, but according to the Wypijewski story, the jury pool showed close to 100-percent awareness of Shanley and the media reporting on the case, so it's a good bet at least a few of the jurors knew about the claim. I'd say his non-membership was more than just a technicality, though he wasn't pure as the unsunned snow either. From the story:

 "By 1977 anyone wanting to report molestation could call an anonymous tip into a hotline instituted by the Boston D.A. Innuendo poured in about hundreds of gay men. It was a year of panic that set the stage for Shanley to articulate his most "deviant belief." In nearby Revere, a police dragnet implicated 25 men and 64 youths in an alleged sex ring. Police detained the young people, or enlisted psychiatrists and priests, to coerce them into cooperating. A group called the Boston/Boise Committee was formed to defend civil liberties. Ultimately none of the men did time, and the district attorney responsible for the scandal was swept from office. Afterward, the committee held a conference to discuss sex between men and teenage boys. Shanley was among the clerics, ethicists, lawyers, activists, and psychologists invited to speak. He told the story of a gay teenager, rejected by his family, who took up with an older man. When the boy's parents found out, they called the police and the man was imprisoned. "He had loved that man," Shanley said of the boy. "And when he realized that the indiscretion in the eyes of society and the law had cost this man perhaps 20 years . . . the boy began to fall apart. We have our convictions upside down . . . the 'cure' does far more damage."

 "At his 2002 PowerPoint show, MacLeish projected a sentence from a 1979 account from Gaysweek that read, "At the end of the conference, 32 men and two teenagers caucused and formed the Man Boy Lovers of North America." The suggestion or assertion that Shanley was among the 32 has been repeated in the press many times since. But Shanley wasn't part of that group, say a Catholic priest and Protestant minister who were."


martin
 23 May 2005 @ 11:10PM
 Repressed memory syndrome or RCC discussion aside, my feeling is, what convicted the guy was the sole witness sobbing and breaking down on the stand. After decades of indoctrination, no juror wants to feel that the obviously terribly affected victim did not get justice and a potential molester might be allowed to roam freely.

 The child sex abuse hysteria should serve as a textbook case of subverting important foundations of justice, such as assumption of innocence, retroactive legislation, due process rights and more. All to the great enhancement of power of prosecutors, social service groups, NGOs and ably pushed along by an often gullible and uninformed media. Sex sells.

 Ending the WOD will be magnitudes easier than halting the sex abuse hysteria train.


martin
23 May 2005 @ 11:23PM
 PS:  Even if Mr. Shanley ever was a member of NAMBLA, that is not what he was at trial for. To all advocating it should make a difference to a jury, you need to seriously check the consequences if such thinking takes hold in practice. Undeniably, especially in molestation cases, it already has.

 Just because a guy was a sympathiser or even a member of the KKK, doesn't mean he is criminally liable for the atrocities committed in their name.

 Looks like Government mind control to me.



TWC
 24 May 2005 @ 12:16AM
 Thanks Tim....
 Certainly this stuff is troubling. But the entire legal system is insane, and when it comes to sex crimes, it's a crap shoot.


Gary Gunnels 
24 May 2005 @ 12:19AM
 martin,
 Having now had some experience with trial work I can tell you that I have a very jaded attitude toward juries. A talented trial attorney can manipulate the fuck out of them.


Rory Connor 
24 May 2005 @ 4:17AM
From my reading of the case Paul Shanley may well have been guilty of sex with underage but ADOLESCENT boys. Consensual sex with a 16 year old youth is a crime, but very different from raping a 6 year old. So why wasn't he charged with his (possible) real crimes?

 In the 1970s Paul Shanley was a Gay and Liberal icon. He was part of the Church's outreach to the Gay community and reached out so far that he swallowed their agenda hook, line and sinker. When he was removed from that ministry about 1980, Cardinal Madeiros (?) was denounced as reactionary.

 Part of the Gay agenda was (and is?) to reduce the age of consent. If Shanley was prosecuted for consensual sex with teenage youths, the trial might have focused on the issue of homosexual priests. Instead the prosecution brought vile and fantastic charges in order to demonise Shanley and the Catholic Church.

 Just a suggestion!

 Rory


Douglas Fletcher 
24 May 2005 @ 4:39AM
What the hell is in the water up there, anyway?


Jon Ihle 
24 May 2005 @ 6:49AM
Everyone here - especially Tim - should know that Rory Connor's aim here is to exonerate the Catholic Church's complicity in widespread sexual abuse by drawing attention to exceptional miscarriages of justice. He's been bombarding my blog and email for over a year now trying to get me to write about this stuff, too. He contacted me because I'm a Jew who occasionally writes about anti-Semitism and he sees the sex abuse allegations, trials, etc. as an anti-Catholic campaign. As you can see from his last comment, his paranoid exculpatory fantasy involves a conspiracy theory about an organised attack by homosexuals on the Church. From what I can tell, his group, Voices Emerge, is struggling with the complete loss of Catholic authority in Ireland, where not only has clerical sex abuse been revealed, but also a widespread longstanding system of virtual slavery for orphans, unwed moothers and other moral undesirables. This is an institutional problem with the Church, but Connor wants you to pay attention to an individual case so that you forget that.


Rory Connor 
24 May 2005 @ 10:25AM
 Jon Ihle is right. I have been bombarding journalists trying to get them to write about a gross miscarriage of justice that bears comparison to the (Jewish) Dreyfus case in France over a century ago. The evidence against Dreyfus was forged but it was not ludicrous. The accusers of Dreyfus had more respect for the intelligence of their audience than the advocates of Recovered Memory which is more like voodoo brain science.

 I know a lot more about the witch-hunt in Ireland than in the USA. However I do know that Shanley was one of the chief whipping boys of the anti-clerical child abuse lobby. Since Shanley is innocent of the charges against him (as even Jon Ihle seems to accept), it is a reasonable conclusion that the entire scandal in the USA is fake.

 I know for certain that our Irish scandal is a fake and a witch-hunt. I have been in contact with a number of the chief accusers and leaders of "victims" groups. One of them told me on the steps of the Catholic Cathedral in Dublin, that there are mass grave in Artane and other institutions run by the Christian Brothers. (This encounter took place in front of journalists and TV crews and was - briefly- reported in the media. His group was picketing the Cathedral after Mass).

 Another gentleman told the Irish Times that he attended the funerals of boys who died after being punched in the stomach by the Christian Brothers. No boy died of any cause while this gentleman was in Artane. I had a sharp E-Mail exchange with him in which I invited him to name the dead boys. Of course he produced no names. I know of several other accusations of this type. I call them "Murder of the Undead" allegations and they seem to be the Irish equivalent of Recovered Memory Syndrome.

 I am not talking about isolated individuals who jump on the bandwagon of a genuine scandal. These allegations come from the leaders and spokes-persons for "victims" groups in my country.

 The Irish Minister for Justice and the Gardai (police) have confirmed that they are unaware of a single murder.

 It is impossible to disprove allegations of child abuse, decades after the alleged events. You cannot prove a negative. However when the people who allege systematic child abuse are also making "Murder of the Undead" type claims, then you know that we are dealing with a new Salem.

 Rory


Gary Gunnels
24 May 2005 @ 11:32AM
Rory Connor,
 I've known many, many gay people in my life; I don't ever recall any of them having a burning desire to lower the age of consent laws.

 Even if Shanley is innocent, that hardly undermines the numerous other cases of sexual abuse of children (and nuns for that matter) by RCC priests. Of course, its not like the RCC doesn't have a long and inglorious history of persecuting or victimizing people; thus, the latest revelations are just par for the course.

 Jon Ihle,
 Thanks for the heads up.


dhex 
24 May 2005 @ 12:19PM
 i have to say i was heartened at recent protests at Catholic school closings by parents in carroll gardens and other parts of brooklyn. the direct connection between hush money payouts and budget woes was being addressed directly. (not that there's much of a solution there, unless these parents could somehow double their tuition fees, which is, ahem, unlikely)

dhex
24 May 2005 @ 12:24PM
"it is a reasonable conclusion that the entire scandal in the USA is fake."

 yes, well...we all have to hold onto something.


Altar Boy 
24 May 2005 @ 1:02PM
I went to catholic school for 12 years and had a lot to do with priests, nuns, and brothers. I'm from a very Irish part of town and know hundreds of others who had similar upbringings.

 In all that time and all those people I've heard of 1 case where something sexual might have happened.

 Sure, they were willing to hit you for punishment, but at the time (1960s to 1980s) this was not considered abuse. A lot of them were assholes, and had some other issues, but that doesn't mean they were abusers.

 I understand people who are not Catholics and who only hear the horror stories of catholic school (which I too was all too happy to share with friends at the state college I went to) don't understand the culture and assume all members have the same failings when there are well publicized allegations. The same can be said for any fringe group, such as the Jews or Mormons.

 I would think of all the blogs out there, folks on this one would understand how the actions of a wacky few can unfairly tarnish the reputation of the moderate majority. (e.g. Badnarik)


James Kabala 
24 May 2005 @ 3:12PM
Rory:
 Most of the sexual abuse claims in the U.S. have not been based on recovered-memory syndrome. On the contrary, in most of these cases diocesan archives show that the bishops were notified of the abuse at the time and chose to hush it up.

 The stories you report from Ireland do sound outlandish and Maria Monkish. (For starters, why would dead children be buried in a mass grave instead of returned to their parents? Was this Artane school you mention for orphans?) However, we are talking about two different countries and two different scandals.


The Wine Commonsewer 
24 May 2005 @ 3:13PM
Altar, we do understand that this is a few bad apples in a whole bag full. With the knowledge of the good apples, the gorcery store left the bad apples on the shelf. They even disguised them by putting them in brown shopping bags filled with good apples. They then sent them home to unsuspecting shoppers, some of whom ended up with a rotting bite of the apple containing a worm.

 And that is why everyone here and the rest of America is so outraged.

 Hand me my shootin' iron regards,

 TWC


Jon Ihle
 24 May 2005 @ 4:33PM
Yes, Rory, I do accept that, at the very least, there has been a miscarriage of law in the Shanley case (I'm not in a position know whether it was just, in the cosmic sense). I also accept that cases based on recovered memory are crap. The notion that people forget trauma is fanciful and probably agenda-driven. Further, the instances you describe re: Artane sound nuts and produced by hysteria. But what you can't deny is what the Church has documented itself - and I'm not just talking about sexual abuse, here. I'm talking about the Magdelen laundries and the whole infrastructure of incarceration built around unwed mothers, orphans and juvenile delinquents, wherein these people were mercilessly brutalised. And, of course, I'm talking about clergy who have admitted what they've done and about the Church which has admitted its role in covering for them. It's important to distinguish fact from fiction and to consider these cases individually, but you want to generalise too much from a handful of particulars. What should be important to you is the truth, not just the reputation of the Church.


Rory Connor 
24 May 2005 @ 4:37PM
James
 I agree I have limited knowledge of the scandal in the USA. However the following is a quotation from an article by Daniel Lyons, "Sex, God and Greed", Forbes magazine, June 2003.

 "The False Memory Syndrome Foundation, a Philadelphia debunking group, says at least 100 clergy cases involve people who claim they were molested or raped, blocked it out for decades and now suddenly remember."

 Another quote about the lawyer who represents the four "victims" of Paul Shanley. "For Roderick (Eric) MacLeish, sex litigation is a big business. MacLeish says he represents 240 people bringing abuse claims against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston." The Shanley case is described as his "most celebrated current case."

 Daniel Lyons is no Catholic Church acolyte nor is Forbes Magazine. The article is largely concerned with the effects of the scandal on the American insurance industry!

 There are just too many dubious cases. Have they all jumped on the bandwagon of a genuine scandal or is there something rotten about the entire child abuse issue?

 The story is much the same in Ireland. Artane was an industrial school mainly for teenage boys I think. Some would have committed offenses, some were orphans and others were neglected by their parents. The allegation about mass graves is an accusation of mass murder against the Christian Brothers!

 There was an article in the Sunday Independent (on 22 December 2002 I think) which claimed that there had been a "Holocaust" at another school in Letterfrack with bodies buried all over the place. The man who made the claim had been at Letterfrack about 20 years after the last boy died there!

 As I said, "Murder of the Undead" allegations are the Irish answer to Recovered Memory Syndrome.

 Rory


Rory Connor
27 May 2005 @ 8:06PM
Is this discussion closed? I am going to attempt a final comment anyway. John Ihle and myself differ on most things but we both agree that Recovered Memory is crap. Since he is Jewish and I am Catholic this agreement is not ideological but genetic (i.e. we are both Irish).

 Recovered Memory Syndrome is a Freudian fable and only occurs in societies where Freudianism has made deep inroads into the culture. This did not happen in Ireland. The Catholic Church was strongly opposed to Freud's ideas because they represented a threat to Catholic doctrines regarding sin, free will and personal responsibility. (Even atheists should be concerned about the latter two). That is why we have lunatic lies like "Murder of the Undead" but not Recovered Memory.

 Both societies are sick but I prefer the Irish disease. A liar inhabits the same moral universe as the person who is telling the truth; he just has a different attitude to truth. The Recovered Memory brigade are from a different planet altogether. It is possible to repent of telling lies but how do you repent of Recovered Memory?

Afterword re "Recovered Memory"

On 31 March 2020 I wrote the following in a thread on the politics.ie website "Alex Salmond Accused of Sexual Harassment"

I wrote a Blog article recently that accidentally illustrated the problem of "historic" memory. I wanted to reproduce an online discussion I had taken part in - more than a decade before - about the conviction of Fr Paul Shanley but I had difficulty locating it. I was pretty sure I recalled a comment by a blogger that "the opinion on the Catholic blogosphere appears to be that Shanley is a scumbag who was convicted on the only occasion on which he was innocent." When I eventually located the discussion I found that what I was probably remembering was a comment that

" A number of people in the Catholic blogosphere take the same position as mojoe: This was a scumbag who got caught by a rare case in which he was innocent"

My memory failure makes little difference here, but suppose I was a witness in court testifying to something that was supposed to have happened in 2005. It could make a BIG difference if I said that an event had only happened ONCE when in fact it was was a RARE event (i.e. it happened a few times).

Shortly after I started to compose this Blog article on Fr Shanley, I recognised my mistake. However I thought the way I remembered the statement is an improvement on the original so I decided to let it stand. And of course, that's the problem with "Recovered Memory". It's not a mental photo of what happened in the past but a Reconstruction!

[ Also the author of the original quote was NOT a "Blogger". I upgraded him. Another aspect of "Recovered Memory" is to make past events more important than they really were! ]

Rory Connor

10 August 2020