Beware of Those Who Invoke Moral Superiority

Out of Ireland comes news of the final account of a nine year investigation.   The findings are sickening.  The subject is the Irish Catholic church-run schools and orphanages in the last century.   The reader will learn of abusive treatment that is incomprehensible when delivered at the hands of religious orders with pious missions.  The boys were sent into the care of the Christian Brothers order, founded in the 19th Century to provide education, opportunity and access to independence for the poorest of the poor.  The girls were taken in by the Sisters of Mercy, also founded in the 19th Century to care for the sick and the dispossessed.  The Sisters ministered to all people but provided special care for young women and girls who were vulnerable to exploitation.  What, then, were these religieux and religieuse thinking as they beat, sodomized, raped and humiliated their young charges?  What was the excuse for ritualized beatings and intimidations?  Was personal denigration part of God's plan for these children.  Sit down and read the full 2600 page report from  The Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse.  But don't believe that the inquiry underway in Ireland changed behavior in other countries.  In 2007,  at the Christian Brothers Briscoe Memorial School in Kent Washington, lawsuits were underway regarding sexual abuse and beatings.  There is also news from Ireland that 796 bodies of infants and children have been discovered in an old septic tank on the former premises of a school for orphans and children of unwed mothers.  The orphanage was run by the Bon Secours Sisters whose mission is to recognize the Christ in each person and affirm God's love for every individual. Where was that recognition when these children were segregated in public school from "normal" children?  Where was the recognition when they were denied baptism because they were born out of wedlock.  The Sisters' mission also seeks to bring hope to the dying.  What did they say to dying children who would be placed in unmarked graves, in unconsecrated ground?  The septic tank tells all.