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.

New Words About War

In the reporting about Sgt. Bergdahl's exchange for five prisoners from Guantanamo, members of our President's administration have said "... that's what you do at the end of a war... exchange prisoners".  In other interviews the same spokespeople have said that we are "winding down the war in Afghanistan".  Is a war over just because we choose to wind it down?  It used to be that you won (or lost) a war.  The side that prevailed generally required a cessation of hostilities as a condition of peace.  No such guarantee is in the making with the Taliban.  We may be winding down but they are not bound to do the same.  The war is only over in the new language of engagement: our war is over because we are going home.  I do not feel safer.

Mon Dieu!

The French interjection is appropriate to the news from the Hollande administration.  D-Day approaches and throughout the world interest in commemoration remains high.  Francois Hollande is not content to let the world's press work out a way to share the broadcast as they have with similar news events of world interest.  Instead, he is treating the ceremony as though it were a sporting event.  Two French broadcast networks have been provided exclusive rights to the international ceremony which will include participation by at least 18 heads of state.  Those networks will charge a fee to  global news providers for online streaming and live coverage of events.  Evidently M. Hollande shares a very tin ear with our own President who had access to the memorials and cemeteries at Omaha Beach blocked during the government shut down last fall.  On D-Day 156,000 Allied troops landed on the French beaches.  Their heroic conquest of the beaches and bluffs led to the liberation of France, and ultimately to victory in the war with Germany.  Over 4,000 died, the ultimate measure in service to the free world.  24 warships and 35 support craft were sunk.  And now, on the 70th anniversary of this tremendous and successful thrust toward Berlin, the French government thinks little of those in the Allied nations who rightfully want guaranteed coverage of the commemoration.  Mon Dieu, indeed.