Guantanamo? No, this is a summary of the kind of treatment that went on in the orphanage, or the industrial school just down the road or around the corner in Ireland at just about any given point in time during most of the twentieth century.
The exhaustive report into the maltreatment of orphaned or unwanted children makes for shocking reading, though given many of the revelations that have been made in recent years about the abusive behavior of some Catholic clerics, the latest litany of horrors is not a complete shock, just another nail in the coffin of the church’s reputation and standing, not just in Irish society, but around the world.
And it’s not just the church. The Irish state, its political leaders and civil service have been indicted. Church and state cooperated in the running of institutions that were little more than prison camps. They also, it seems, frequently conspired in the tolerance of the intolerable.
If the Catholic Church stands in the dock this week, so does the Irish state which has been imbued with an excess of a “’twill do” and “aren’t we grand mentality.”
Church leaders in Ireland have rightly bowed their heads in collective shame. Some have pointed out that the abuse chronicled by the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse took place in past times, thus suggesting that the present day church is somehow less culpable.
That’s not going to quite wash with most people and certainly many faithful Catholics in Ireland who will be employing a tried and tested defense, that being, putting distance between the actual tenets of their faith and the errors of those entrusted with promulgating them.
One aspect of this horrifying tale that rings loud and clear is the fact that in former years, many who entered the religious life should not have done so. We all know the way it was: large families, not enough jobs, the need for at least one son to become a priest, or a daughter a nun.
If the church in Ireland and elsewhere is to truly banish this kind of ball and chain legacy into the past, it really does have to boldly and imaginatively examine the issues surrounding vocations.
Sure, many men and women have been true to the religious life and have performed invaluable services over their lifetimes to the church and the wider community.
Sadly, however, they will be all tarred to one degree or another with the same brush. Those who are responsible for the church’s life, its past, present and, most critically, its future, have to look again at the entire structure of religious life.
Expect renewed calls for an end to celibacy for at least diocesan priests and nuns working outside closed orders.
And here’s a suggestion. The church is a top-down organization run along military/corporate lines. What about a shorter term priesthood, one in which a candidate can sign up for a specified number of years and then decide on whether to continue or opt for another career?