Rome Watch Summer 2004

By the age of 9, Violet Guertin had already been raped, allegedly by a nun at the Boston School for the Deaf, and was on to another form of torture where a nun would force her head underwater in a toilet bowl until she passed out.

Her brother, James Guertin, was the same age when he claims another nun made him walk through the public corridors of the school after removing his pants and underwear. It was an alternative to the unusual punishment of being placed in a cafeteria trash barrel, the Quincy man said.

Richard Novack, 9, at the Boston School for the Deafin North Randolph in this 1947 photo

James Sullivan was about I 2 when a nun “under the guise of punishment” slammed his head against a window that broke and later forced his head in and out of a toilet bowl full of his own vomit.

“I’m still not a happy person because all of that happened,” an upset Sullivan, 55, of Dorchester said with the aide of a sign-language interpreter. “I still don’t know who I am to this day!"

. The three former Boston School for the Deaf students are among nine - ages 41 to 67 - who filed a civil complaint at Suffolk Superior Court, charging 12 nuns, school counselor the Rev. Charles J. Murphy, and former Boston auxiliary Bishop Thomas V. Daily with the unthinkable. The now-defunct Randolph school, which was operated by an independent, non profit corporation, closed a decade ago.

“They were supposed to receive an education. Instead they were sexually abused, physically and mentally tormented,” said attorney Mitchell Garabedian at a press conference at the Wyndham Hotel yesterday. “Some were raped; raped in various ways.”

The dates of alleged abuse range from 1944 to 1977 when the students were between 7 and 16 years old. Murphy’s attorney said his client denies ever witnessing any sexual or physical abuse.

“He is shocked by these allegations,” said George McMahon, a Quincy attorney representing the Weymouth priest. “He absolutely denies any wrongdoing of any kind, sexual or physical abuse of any kind. As he put it, he’s putting it in the hands of God.”

Daily, who retired as Bishop of the Brooklyn archdiocese, refused comment through a spokesman, who said the Bishop had not yet received a copy of the complaint.

Many of the accused nuns, who are now between 75 and 90, are living in assisted or long-term-care housing, and were not available for comment, referring calls to their order, the Sisters of St. Joseph. Their attorney, William Shavelle, did not return a call to the Herald.

Garabedian stressed the crimes as extraordinarily horrific because the students could not speak up for themselves.

“They couldn’t communicate what happened to them to their parents,” said Garabedian, a lead attorney in the Boston archdiocese sex-abuse scandal. “They were deaf and they couldn’t speak.”

And even when the kids tried to tell their parents how bad life allegedly was at the hands of some of the nuns at school, no one listened.

“My parents said, ‘You’re all right. You’re fine,’ “ said another alleged victim, Paul Leveille, 60, of Pepperell. “They saw the nuns were nice and my parents didn’t hear me.”

The rampant sex-abuse scandal in the Boston archdiocese spurred this group of plaintiffs to organize themselves.

“I was steaming,” said Tamara Marcinuk, 55, of Fitchburg. I wanted to know, ‘Where are the nuns that abused me both sexually and physically?.’ I’ve had troubles and I’ve never had a peaceful life.”

A Co Down priest became the second catholic cleric in a week to stand down from Church duties due to allegations of child sex abuse.

Bishop of Down and Connor Patrick Walsh confirmed that Father James Donaghy, parish priest of Bangor had voluntarily stood down from his clerical duties after child sex abuse allegations were made against him. In a letter read out to Massgoers in the parishes, Bishop Walsh said: “I wish you to know that your parish priest, Fr James Donaghy has voluntarily stepped down from ministry.”

“His decision follows an allegation of child sex abuse which allegedly took place some 20 years ago and which is the subject of a police investigation.”

Parishioners were told that Fr Donaghy denied the allegations and that he and the Church authorities would cooperate with the police investigation.

“I want to inform you that our primary concern is child protection and that we are fully committed to our duty of care in this area as detailed in our diocesan child protection policy and procedures,” the letter read.

Fr Donaghy, who previously served at Whitehouse in Newtownabbey and St Teresa’s, St Michael’s and Corpus Christi, all in west Belfast, has been parish priest at St Comghall’s Church in Bangor for several years.

His decision to step down came just seven days after a Co Armagh priest announced that he was standing down after similar allegations. Parishioners at St Peter’s in Lurgan were recently told that Father Kieran McPartlan was “taking time out” of the priesthood after child sex abuse claims were made against him.

Bishop of Dromore John McAreavey said the Church had begun an investigation of the allegations when they first came to light in October. The allegations, against Fr McPartlan and Fr Donaghy are not believed to be connected.

A 61-YEAR-OLD priest has been jailed for sexually abusing 18 youngsters in Britain and Ireland.

Fr Noel Barrett, who was ordained in Cork in 1970, was jailed for 45 months after he admitted 31 charges of indecent assault on boys aged between nine and 13 at Teeeside Crown Court in Middlesbrough.

The retired priest pleaded guilty to 15 indecent assaults on two boys between April 1973 and September 1976 when he was at St Joseph’s Church in Marton Road, Middlesbrough. Eleven charges relate to a nine-year-old boy.

Barrett also asked for another 16 indecent assaults each on a different boy in Middlesbrough, Hull, Kerry, Waterford and Dublin between 1971 and 1983 to be taken into consideration.

The offences against five Irish boys took place between 1971 and 1973. He admitted his sexual abuse in August 2000 in a meeting with one victim now aged 39 at the St Mary’s Centre, Middlesbrough.

THE Boston Archdiocese, the epicentre of the US clergy sex abuse crisis that has shaken the Roman Catholic Church, released a report showing that 162 of its priests have been accused of molesting 815 minors - around seven per cent of the 2,324 ordained priests who served in the archdiocese during that time.

The statistics were compiled as part of a nationwide survey conducted by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

The national report, scheduled to be released to the public, was overseen by the National Review Board, a lay watchdog panel formed by American bishops after the abuse scandal exploded in January, 2002.

The scandal began after internal church files revealed the Rev. John Geoghan and many other priests were transferred from parish to parish rather than removed from ministry after they were accused of abusing children.

“The hall has been totally gutted. There is nothing left at all. We have lost the drums belonging to the band, the chairs, the kitchen and the pool table. All the trophies our band won through the years in competitions have been lost as well. The hall is used every week for band practice and every month for a lodge meeting. We also started Ballyrea community group in recent weeks to bring our area together and teach them different things, including computers.

“We had a concert in the hail on Saturday night to launch the new community group. This fire has been devastating for people who live here.”

Mr Lee said the community believed the fire was started by thugs who did not live in the area.

“Before this attack, we have been getting on well with our neighbours. Those who started it were not necessarily our neighbours - they could have come from Armagh. It has been a long time since we had a sectarian attack. They tried to bum the hall down eight years ago but someone noticed it in time and called the fire brigade. It was burned down in 1916 and it was rebuilt again - and it will be rebuilt again no matter how much it costs.”

“The remains will probably have to be demolished and rebuilt at a cost of £150,000-200,000.”

“It is sad that, in days like this, when we are told there is a so-called peace process, the Protestant/Unionist culture is being attacked,” he said.

“This is not the first time we have witnessed this kind of sectarian attack on Protestant culture,” he said. “There is little doubt republicans are responsible but incidents like this, while causing inconvenience to those who use the hall, will not deter them from expressing their strong Protestant beliefs which is their right in a free and democratic society where diversity and freedom of expression should be embraced.”

The rediscovery of our Catholic roots and the renewal of the Catholic Faith In the British Isles Vol. V Issue II February 2004

What then should Catholics hope for in 2004? Peace must head the list of our desires, particularly in today’s world where the dominant nation has begun to believe that war is an acceptable instrument of foreign policy. Catholic teaching on the just war highlights the simple fact that war rarely solves anything.

Self-defence may be necessary. Standing against aggressive evil may be the last and only remaining resort but otherwise war achieves nothing and usually makes things a great deal worse. Once, we only had to pray that we should not be put into a position in which we had to go to war in self defence. We envisaged that only the threat of invasion would cause us to take up arms. Now we have to pray that we shall not be scooped up in the ambitions of others and find ourselves excusing allies for whom the military option is a short cut to an end however desirable.

Peace, the alleviation of poverty, justice and environmental protection, these are the global issues that should concern us. However, even more important, is the conversion of the world. That may sound old-fashioned but it is the Gospel imperative. We are to go out into all nations baptising men in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost. This is God’s world and we are here to recall His people to that understanding. Peace, justice, and stewardship depend upon our acceptance of the Kingship of Christ and Fatherhood of God. Yet, today, we are all so transfixed by the idea that religion is merely an optional extra that we are afraid to stand up and proclaim the Faith.

In 2004 we should make it our firm intention to seek the conversion of England. We could take as our symbol of rebirth, the proposed building of a new church in Walsingham to replace the temporary building that has served us for so long. Next year we shall be raising the money to build a church worthy of the great Mother of God in England’s Nazareth. This ought to be the sign of our commitment to the return of our nation to the one true fold. Buildings are not enough. 2004 must become the year in which we Catholics rediscover our apostolate. Our first duty is to recall the lapsed to their faith.

As a convert, the saddest thing is to see Catholics who have drifted into the attitudes of nominal Anglicans. They are never seen at Mass yet they claim to be RC, and they make much of their Catholic childhood and school days. They are patronising towards the Church but they don’t really lift a finger to support her nor do they encourage others by their lives and works. In 2004, we must reclaim the lukewarm.

Then there are the Anglicans themselves, so many of whom are at the end of their tether. Faithful men and women for whom the end seems nigh. It is as if all that they have believed in and all they have stood for is collapsing around them. The Faith of the Church is denied by the bishops who were appointed to uphold it and the teachings of the Fathers ignored in the Synods that were intended to preserve it. 2004 ought to be our year of mission. It should be the year when we begin again to reclaim England (and the British Isles) for the Faith.

John Gummer is a Patron of the Continuity Movement, and President of the International Path to Rome Committee. Mark your calendars for the 5th - 7th of November, the Path to Rome conference in Phoenix, Arizona. Also, the 2nd annual Continuity National Conference will be held September 25th, at Westminster Cathedral Hall with an afternoon of prayer following. Make plans now to attend.

THE AIM REMAINS THE SAME

Rome seeks the spiritual conquest of Britain, the so called “Dowry of Mary”

Mr. Gummer is a convert from Anglicanism to Romanism

(CONTINUITY promotes a return to the Christian Faith of these lands, as established by St. Augustine of Canterbury, through inspiring testimonies of converts to the Catholic Church, and presenting the role of the Church in the development of the history and culture of England for over 1,500 years.)

A few weeks ago the Loyalist and Protestant people of Sandy Row, protested against the conduct of Republicans residing in a luxury apartment complex built facing the local Orange Hall some two years ago and nick-named by local people as “Vatican Square”. Immediately the politically correct media and politicians branded the Sandy Row residents as sectarian bigots. One M.L.A. elected with Loyalist votes even called their protests sick. Nobody attempted to ask why the Protestants of Sandy Row had protested; what fears lay behind their action?

Whilst we would condemn the intimidation and harassment of any minority, the fears of Sandy Row residents lay just a mile away, over the Boyne Bridge in what was once the mixed lower end of the Grosvenor Road. There the ethnic cleansing of Protestants is a matter of record. In 1969, there were sizable numbers of Protestants in Venice Street, Milan Street, Turin Street, Hertford Street, Malt Street, Little Grosvenor Street and Distillery Street. Even on the opposite side of the Grosvenor Road, Protestants resided in Stanley Street, Foxes Row and Purple Row at the bottom of Durham Street. Today in 2004 — not a Protestant remains. As for schools, Kelvin Secondary and Queen Victoria Primary are gone. As for Protestant churches, the following are no more:-

The same story could be repeated in other parts of Belfast. The Protestants of Sandy Row are not mindless, sick, sectarian bigots - but a people with genuine fears, who feel their community is being squieezed and can perhaps recall a slogan of the days long ago

This is one of the most isolated and vulnerable Protestant enclaves in the North of the City, lying between the Oldpark Road and the Cliftonville Road. One Protestant resident of Torrens Court had her windows smashed for the 36th time. The most recent attack in late April by a mob of 15 Roman Catholic/Nationalists/Republicans who shouted “Orange b.... s we will burn you out.”

Another Protestant resident of Torrens, a widow whose husband was murdered by the IRA says she and her children are being intimidated on a daily basis. Protestants believe that when they have all been driven out, new homes will be built in the area for the ever-expanding Roman Catholic/Republican community. Local PUP and DUP representatives describe the events in Torrens as “ethnic cleansing.”

The residents of the Protestant ‘White City’ area have been under siege since a Republican march at Easter. Protestants have been assaulted, homes attacked and a Memorial to Protestant schoolboy victim, Thomas McDonald desecrated.

THE Archdiocese of Dublin is due to pass on to gardai details of explosive claims that young women in care were victims of systematic sexual abuse by “prominent lay people”.

Church authorities have been told that men were given access to girls and young women in three Magdalen laundries and two other institutions as recently as the 1970s. It is alleged these men physically and sexually abused them, while other workers within the care system turned a blind eye.

The Child Protection Service of the Archdiocese of Dublin confirmed that it would be passing on a report based on a former resident’s allegations to the Health Board and the gardai.

A woman who has detailed the claims became the first abuse survivor to meet with the new Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin. She had gathered a file of evidence, including official reports, testimonies from former Magdalen girls and photographs.

She told of witnessing the gang rape of a 14-year-old girl in a Magdalen laundry by five men “who were not priests.”

THE Roman Catholic inheritance of The Daily Telegraph appears to be secure. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, has returned from an unusual house call.

The Cardinal stayed at the castle on the Channel Island of Brecqhou owned by his old friends the Barclay twins, Frederick and David, who are bidding to buy the Telegraph.

The Cardinal first blessed the notoriously reclusive brothers’ chapel and then said Mass for them. Charles Moore, the staunchly Catholic previous Editor of the Telegraph, and his successor, Martin Newland, would surely approve. Newland began his career on The Catholic Herald and describes himself as a practising Catholic, in the “Graham Greene mould”.

The latest joke at the Telegraph is that the Barclay brothers have God on their side in their attempts, to buy the newspaper. They may yet need him.

The Roman Catholic Church has called for the new European Constitution to recognise the role of Judaism, Islam and Christianity in shaping European culture.

In what has been widely interpreted as support for the constitution - and an indication of the way Catholics might vote in any forthcoming referendum - the Catholic bishops of England and Wales said that the enlarged community of 455 million people needed democratic and accountable institutions as well as a ‘moral vision’.

Speaking at their annual spring conference the Bishops said, ‘A constitutional treaty that helps to secure these and enjoys popular legitimacy is vital if enlargement is to be a success’.

The Bishops urged all Catholics to use their vote in the coming European and local elections and will expect them to vote ‘Yes’ in any referendum on the constitution.

Of the ten new countries recently incorporated as members of the European Community, the Catholic Church is well established in all but Cyprus and Estonia. The Bishops insist that their intervention is non-political.

POPE JOHN PAUL II RECEIVED the Charlemagne Prize for “his outstanding life’s work promoting European understanding in the service of humanity and world peace.” European Parliament’s Pat Cox, the other recipient of the prize, said the pope “has been a chief architect of this new Europe that is emerging.”

Named after Charlemagne, the eighth century leader of the Holy Roman Empire, “the prize is awarded to those fostering mutual understanding among European peoples.”

THE REIGN OF POPE JOHN PAUL II, in many ways remains vibrant. In other ways, however, the church he heads is not a church he leads. Day-to-day decisions including, close observers suspect, even decisions about major appointments involving bishops have been delegated. The Vatican’s official newspaper ... is known to have published speeches supposedly given by the pope when, in fact, he has been too ill to deliver them, and has reported meetings with him that never took place....

“Who the next Pope will be depends in large part on what the cardinals whose responsibility it will be to elect him decide are the most pressing issues facing the church.”

The Pope’s biographer says these issues are the collapse of Catholicism in Western Europe and the challenge from radical Islam.

The Vatican has declared that genetically modified foods hold the answer to world starvation and malnutrition. Archbishop Renato Martino, head of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, said that the Vatican is interested in new technologies for food development as part of a policy of sustainable agriculture. He noted that 24,000 people die every day from starvation.

THE Irish police employ just 14 Protestants in a force of around 1 2,000 officers, sources have told the News Letter.

As the 50:50 recruitment policy continues to ensure a greater representation for Roman Catholics in the PSNI, it has been claimed that only 0. 1 per cent of the Garda is Protestant.

A Garda source said: “I have it on very good authority that there are just 14 Protestants in the Irish police force. One female and 12 male officers and one male of sergeant rank.”

A spokesman for the Garda said he could not confirm or deny the claim as he believed the Irish force does not keep an official record of its religious or ethnic make-up.

But Ulster Unionist peer Lord Laird of Artigarvan said: “If the figure is in anyway correct, the religous and ethnic composition of the Garda should be an issue in the south.”

He said that, while he remains opposed to 50:50 recruitment or any similar positive discrimination or quota system anywhere, nationalists and republicans could not impose such a policy in Northern Ireland and not just ignore an under-representation of Protestants in the Republic.

He said: “If they wish to have religious discrimination for the minority in Northern Ireland in police recruitment, why not also in the South?

There are many who have made an industry out of human rights for the last 30 years and have, for the first time, gone quiet.

Many of those so-called human rights workers also desire a united Ireland and that is their opinion and they are totally entitled to it.

But, in the mother Ireland, only 0.1 per cent of the police service is Protestant. How do they plan to address that?”

Unionist politicians have, for some time, been frustrated that certain fair employment, human rights and equality standards which are written into law in Northern lrehaiid do not transfer to the Republic - even though the Irish Government has been among the sternest campaigners for such legislation in the Province.

In Ulster, the Protestant population stands at 53.1 per cent and the Roman Catholic community at 43 per cent, according to the 2001 census figures.

In comparison, the police force has been under-represented in terms of Catholic numbers. In the mid-90s, around only eight per cent of the RUC was Catholic and 92 per cent Protestant.

Since the peace process and the SDLP’s decision to sign-up to the new policing arrangements - which include 50:50 - the imbalance has been slowly corrected.

It is thought that around 13 per cent of the force is now Catholic, while a target of 30 per cent has been set.

In the Republic, the 1991 census revealed that just under five per cent of the population there were Protestant.

The results of the census taken in 2002 are expected to show a slight fall on this figure. But, while almost five per cent of the people are Protestant, only 0.I per cent of the Garda are believed to be of that religion.

It is not the aim or intention of Rome Watch to incite hatred of Roman Catholics but rather, by use of International Press reports already carried in newspapers, to show the religious and political advances of the Papacy in the light of Bible Prophecy, which foretells an end-time World Religion, Government and Economy.