The Dublin Archdiocese
Ireland’s government released yesterday the second of a series of reports of its years-long investigation of sexual abuse of children by priests, this report focusing on the Archdiocese of Dublin.
Oh, man, it’s ugly.
The Dublin Archdiocese‟s pre-occupations in dealing with cases of child sexual abuse, at least until the mid 1990s, were the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the Church, and the preservation of its assets. All other considerations, including the welfare of children and justice for victims, were subordinated to these priorities. The Archdiocese did not implement its own canon law rules and did its best to avoid any application of the law of the State.
Priests were shifted from one parish to another as accusations mounted and, even, sent to America when their continuation in Ireland was no longer feasible.
The all-important thing to understand is that we are not talking about a few “bad eggs;” we are talking about a global criminal enterprise animated and sustained by its own teachings. The corruption manifested in Ireland, where the government was until recently scarcely more than a department of the Catholic Church, is the inescapable end result of orthodoxy.
The whole of Christian thought rests upon asceticism, upon Original Sin, upon the belief that to be human is to be foul and undeserving of life itself. But life, the animal “will to power,” will inevitably assert itself — and it must inevitably do so in unwholesome, destructive, subterranean ways when the entirety of the culture condemns it.
