"At the time I was talking about the sex abuse in Ireland, I thought that was what we were talking about."
No we weren't Jow - we were talking about clerican abuse that had been discovered because of revelations that had emerged in Ireland - there were never national barriers to it.
In the course of those arguments, the case of a 11 year old South American child who had been raped, made pregnant and refused a life saving abortion because of church influence.
My point has always been that it has nothing to do with religious belief ot the believers, but about the powerful position the church has over people's minds - in everyday life, in education, in health, in matters of personal relationships.... the abuse of power is the problem, not belief.
That power has never been a respecter of national barriers - it emanates from Rome and spreads throughout the whole Catholic world.
Many of may family and most of my friends are Catholics - I have no problem with any of them because of their beliefs.
As a child, I had problems with the priest who visited the house and insisted my mother gave donations to the Church funds from the pittance she had to feed us; my father worked away - thanks partly to the church; he would never have stood for such behaviour.
That is a small example of power being exercised by the powerful over a somewhat timid and defenceless woman - and it was in Liverpool - not Dublin.
The priest was actually a Scot.
What has happened in Ireland regarding the Church is not unlike what happened in Ireland i the first few decades of the 20th century
There, the Irish stood up to the Empire and eventually brought about its end
Here, the abuse that appear to be common throughout the clerical world (not just among Catholics) has been discovered, exposed and the position of the Church has been challenged.
How can it poissibly be Irish if it is happening throughout the Catholic world?
This, from the Wiki entry:
"Allegations of and convictions for sexual abuse by clergy have occurred in many countries. There are no accurate figures available on the number of sexual abuse cases in different regions. But, in 2002 The Boston Globe reported, "clearly the issue has been most prominent in the United States."[12] The US is the country with the highest number of reported Catholic sex abuse cases.[43] Plante wrote, the "crisis in the United States reached epidemic proportions within the Church, the likes of which haven't been witnessed before."[40][not in citation given]
After the United States, the country with the next highest number of reported cases is Ireland.[23] A significant number of cases have also been reported in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and countries in Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia.[44]"
Shame on you for making this yet another attack on the Irish, and shame on you for ignoring the role of the hierarchy of the church
There are people on theis forum I would have expecting this from - you were not one of those - up to now
Jim Carroll