Thursday, November 26, 2009
AS WE count the last few days between us and the grim-reaper budget — 14 left; as thousands of families and their homes are devastated by frightening floods; as the divide between public and private sector workers deepens, a good news story has a value well beyond the events it relates.
That is why, despite the decades of evasion, secrecy, persecution and torture, the announcement by the Christian Brothers that they are to surrender €161m in cash or property to compensate those who suffered at the hands of paedophiles and sadists in their residential institutions is welcome.
The money will be significant for the victims who are still alive but the sense that this organisation has recognised that it has a responsibility to try to, no matter how belatedly or imperfectly, to right the terrible wrongs inflicted on children by some of their predecessors will be a positive influence on this process. Without proportionate acknowledgements like this the scandal would have festered for generations.
Six months ago the Ryan report had a Richter Scale impact on this society. It detailed appalling abuses by many religious orders. The Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse devoted eight chapters to the Christian Brothers, unsurprisingly as they ran more residential homes for boys than any other order.
Consequently, the Christian Brothers faced more allegations of systematic physical, sexual and emotional abuse than all other male orders combined.
Appalling though this is we should at this point remind ourselves of the culture of omerta that everyone in society observed and thereby facilitated so much of the inhuman abuse.
We should also remember that the order made a huge contribution to educating generations of Irish men who otherwise would never have had such an opportunity. Remembering these achievements in no way diminishes the anger and shame rightly felt when the Ryan report was published.
The €161m announcement — as if money could erase the terrible memories — is all the more welcome because of the great anger provoked by an earlier and less-than-convincing apology from the Brothers. This was exacerbated by the role played by the Brothers in negotiating, along with 17 other orders, the scandalous Woods indemnity deal which was agreed without any Dáil oversight. This deal committed the religious orders to transfer €128m in property assets to the Government, a sum now seen to be totally inadequate compared to the anticipated final bill to the state of a figure north of €1.3bn.
The new promises, which the order says will take up to five years to realise, will hopefully bring some degree of happiness and conclusion to the Brothers’ victims. It cannot be expected to wipe the slate clean though as the crimes were so appalling as to be unforgettable and almost unforgivable.
Nevertheless, in these very troubling times this belated recognition is welcome and its magnitude shows its sincerity. Let us hope that, having come this far, the Christian Brothers deliver on their commitments.
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