Another bishop gone – a little like pulling teeth, and still no acceptance of guilt or apology, but maybe, once the scapegoats have been sacrificed……. who knows?
To me, there is something distastefully perverse in blaming the population of Ireland for the abuse, as my fellow Scouser seems to be doing, continuing Joe's line of thought (if I mistake your reasoning I apologise).
If the people of Ireland are guilty, surely that must include the victims themselves, especially those who remained faithful to the church; so the abused become the abusers – do I have that right?
If everybody is guilty, then, for all practical purposes, nobody is – you can't punish a whole nation – can you? To me, this seems like an extension of the abuse rather than an attempt to alleviate the suffering caused by it..
Rather, I believe the opposite to be the case; that the whole of Ireland was victim to the abuse by having their trust betrayed by their church.

Another moving response from a victim in this morning's Irish Times; if nothing else has been achieved by the two reports, at least the victims have been given a voice.
The writer, having asked the Irish people why they aren't on the streets demanding justice for her and her fellow abused, se ends with the following proposals:

"□ Withdrawing funding from an organization that, in Irish terms, has been responsible for an "Irish holocaust" of physical and mental abuse of hundreds of children, as children and beyond into their adult lives.

□ Outlawing (proscribing) the Catholic organisation until such time as it (like other organisations which we have banned during our history) demonstrates that it has fully reformed itself.

□ Requiring the church to publish the list of churches and timeframes where and when abuse occurred (those listed in the reports and those not listed, ie outside the sample of cases).

□ Forcing the Government truly to separate State and church through requiring Catholic clergy, and the religious, to resign from school boards/management, hospital boards/management, health services boards/management, etc. C3 Requiring any public servant who has expressed support - through inaction or through words of bureaucratic mumble-jumble - for the Catholic hierarchy, or the papal nuncio, to resign.

□   Requiring clerics in positions of governance who failed to act appropriately to resign rather than hide behind word games of "reflection", "mental reservation" and such utterances, insulting to victims such as myself.

As a child I was powerless in the face of my abuser. As an adult victim, I am now required to have strength, to stand up and be counted, to come forward (as Noel Dempsey asked), to understand the nuances of diplomatic procedure (as Brian Cowen asked).
When will it stop for me and others?
When will the people of Ireland stand up for me and others?
When will it be over for me and for others - and unfortunately for others who have yet to come? Everything tells me that nothing has changed, that it can still happen. That it is still happening."

For the life of me, I can't see anything wrong with any of her proposals.
Jim Carroll