Protest at Armagh

by kevin flanagan - religiousabusetruth@gmail.com Thu Jun 17, 2010 11:47

please support this protest in armagh on sat we need people on the streets not sitting in front of your pc trying to change the world talkin shite i am a shamed to say i am of the left when we get so little support

by Sean Crudden Thu Jun 17, 2010 22:27

I am aware of a lot of effort being put in by church authorities into "child protection." And I understand there is a degree of co-operation with An Garda in a scheme to vet people who want to work with children or who come in contact with children during the course of their work where this work is going on under the auspices of the church.

Personally I am not convinced about the validity of all these schemes.

In the first place I don't think the church has any central function in the protection of children. I think parents and guardians are the people who are mainly responsible for child protection and for the welfare of children in general. I suppose An Garda sees some role for itself in crime prevention. But I see its main function as dealing with people who break the law. And not just out of revenge or retaliation against law-breakers but in a spirit of justice to preserve law and order so that chldren and adults alike can live their lives in a proper and fulfilling way. Somehow I think it is unsustainable for the church to assume responsibility in a collective way for the crimes of individual clergy. The church should, in my view, stand aside from child abusers in its ranks - and priests appear to have some unusual propensity for child abuse - in order to let the law take its course.

Vincent and Kevin please excuse me from taking part in your protest. My name is on the time-sheet to play in the intermediate scratch cup in Greenore golf club on Sunday.

by Roy Mountford - support-snead.org Fri Jun 18, 2010 09:04 roy at support-snead dot org

I have read the above comment with interest. I fear it may be misunderstood. The Curch in common with all human beings has a role in the prevention of child abuse. That evil occurs in all institutions and the Catolic church, although particularly bady affected, is no different.
No differesnt save in one respect. On discovery of the abuse of children the leadership of all decent institutions would immediately call the police, expose the abusers and sack them immediately. The Catholic Church dd the exact opposite. They devised a centrally designed cover up and imposed it from Rome ordering the instructions to be locked in church safes. They forced children, their abusers and other clergy into an oath of silence, which as far as I am aware is still effective to this day having never been removed. They protected known abusers and moved them to new positions of authority over children where they contnued their activities for years. The motivation for these acts was clearly not to aid child abuse (though that was its effect) but to protect the reputation of the Church. The cover up failed and is now public knowledge and is causing untold misery not just to victims but to many thousands of good honest Clergy whose only desire is to serve their fellow man and feel comfortable in their Church. Until those in the leadership are made accountable for their illegal and immoral actions then a renewal process cannot begin. Sean Brady accepted the instructions from Rome, failed to inform the police when abused children approached him and watched their abuser Brendan Smyth continue to abuse scores of children for a further 18 years. This man is a spiritual leader - The Primate of All Ireland - what message would it send not just to the victims, but to decent Catholics and people everywhere, if he were allowed to remain in that position unchallenged. The role of the Catholic Church in child abuse now is to expose the abusers and those who hid and protected them - from there we can move forward.

by Vincent Sun Jun 20, 2010 10:49

At 1 pm at the Cathedral of Armagh, posters that were put up at the entrance were torn down by members of the Roman Catholic Church in defence of Cardinal Brady and told to leave in 30 minutes or else. We were even told to go to the other parts of Armagh to protest, but what point is they're protesting at the Protestant Church? It is sad to see that those supporters are protecting the largest paedophile ring in the world. What was even sadder was to hear we Freestaters had no right to be up there protesting against Brady. Not that I am a Freestater, but the fact many of the children, now grown adults, would have been have been politically non active or even aware. Though the catholics in Armagh, feel aggrieved that the so called Freestate allowed them to be violently abuse by the British, has absolutely nothing to do with children. They may well feel it is our judgement for failing them in their time of need, I ask them where ‘they were’ when the IRA were being blown to bits by the Freestate army in the South? Not that I hold it against them as much as they hold it against us. Ireland is well and truly divided by historical resentment that does not seem to heal. They are protecting the very people who are agents for Britain, ironic isn’t it. Though out numbered in Armagh, we did leave, but in our own time not the time limit that they set. We stayed for a photo shoot with a photographer and BBC Northern Ireland camera crew.

Posters were torn down and strewn acrooss the road outside the cathedral.