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Original poster

The Roman Catholic Church

389 replies

Orfuln · 27/07/2023 00:02

Following the death of Sinead O'Connor.

Obviously the acts and crimes of this church are vast and can't be contained to one place. But in honour of a great woman, if you find it in yourself, give your testimony here.

Mine : my father was institutionalised, brutalised and brainwashed in childhood by the Catholic organisation who schooled him following the death of his father. He was an unhappy and violent man who didn't understand family relationships and consequently my own childhood was blighted with violence and misery. I did however learn my catechism very well. I now absolutely reject it.

OP posts:
DisgraceToTheYChromosome · 01/08/2023 21:51

I was educated by unhappy celibates who assuaged their loneliness with alcohol, and those were the good ones. The bad ones...some decades back I vandalised a headstone.

I attended mass and took communion into my 30s, but as my repressed memories surfaced, my faith slowly faded. I don't miss it. The Church is an irrelevance, like monarchy and fake bacon.

Iwasafool · 01/08/2023 21:54

killthekoroks · 01/08/2023 09:10

Why can't it be the fault of the government who made the policy and send the children there and the churches who ran the school where so many children died and they attempted to eradicate their culture and language. Hence why the Catholic Church apologised. Eventually.

Show quote history

The United Churches of Canada, the Anglican Church and the Presbyterian Church also apologised. The Catholic church wasn't the first and it wasn't the last.

Chickenkeev · 01/08/2023 22:02

I am really stunned that anyone is defending the Catholic church here. They have been dreadful, from beginning to end. They have tried to save themselves, without a thought to the victims. They have been despicable. Having a faith is very different to being a card carrying catholic.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Philosophy & religion
Ferona · 01/08/2023 22:22

Iwasafool · 01/08/2023 21:54

The United Churches of Canada, the Anglican Church and the Presbyterian Church also apologised. The Catholic church wasn't the first and it wasn't the last.

Show quote history

Really? Which church took longer to apologise for what happened in Canada that the Catholic Church? Because an apology was only given last year, despite them operating the majority of the "schools".

In any case, "other churches did it too" is hardly an excuse.

Ferona · 01/08/2023 22:25

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Chickenkeev · 01/08/2023 22:29

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So it would seem.

fenora · 01/08/2023 22:48

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Chickenkeev · 01/08/2023 22:58

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I asked MNHQ why they deleted my post, not aggressively. No answer. I only asked so i wouldn't make the same mistake again.

fenora · 01/08/2023 23:01

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Chickenkeev · 01/08/2023 23:02

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Strange isn't it.

Tenttime · 01/08/2023 23:23

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Chickenkeev · 02/08/2023 05:22

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It's the fact that it keeps leaking out in dribs and drabs too. It's very prolonged, unneccessarily so. It must be hideous for the victims.

sashh · 02/08/2023 05:41

Iwasafool · 31/07/2023 09:59

That isn't exclusive to Christians is it. There are venomous vicious people in all religions and can you believe it even amongst people with no faith.

Hitler, Stalin, PolPot aren't exactly an advert for the kindness of atheists are they.

The common fault seems to be being human rather than any religion.

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Hitler was RC. Pol Pot was raised as a budhist.

The big difference though is that these men were evil, pure and simple, they were not following the teachings of the RC church or the the local priest.

Iwasafool · 02/08/2023 08:27

sashh · 02/08/2023 05:41

Hitler was RC. Pol Pot was raised as a budhist.

The big difference though is that these men were evil, pure and simple, they were not following the teachings of the RC church or the the local priest.

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Being raised in a religion as a child, like being baptised as a baby as Hitler probably was, does not mean you belong to that religion as an adult. Hitler was antiCatholic as were the Nazis in general. Most people I know who were raised in a religion now class themselves as agnostic or atheist.

Iwasafool · 02/08/2023 08:35

Ferona · 01/08/2023 22:22

Really? Which church took longer to apologise for what happened in Canada that the Catholic Church? Because an apology was only given last year, despite them operating the majority of the "schools".

In any case, "other churches did it too" is hardly an excuse.

Show quote history

The Pope apologised last year when he visited Canada. That wasn't the first apology from the Catholic church which was from Canadian bishops in 1991.

Where did I say it was an excuse, many churches were involved as well as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the government and there has been more than one apology.

GADDay · 02/08/2023 08:59

The Catholic Church is NOTHING but a profit centre. They will go to any lengths to shift responsibility for the institutional horrors that were committed in their hallowed halls. This is to protect their vast wealth, resources and coercive control at all levels of government. Even as recently as 2018 - see. George Pell.

I am aghast that anybody would choose to educate their child in this corrupt, cruel, misogynistic and downright awful institution. Quite disgusted at the clamouring to get into RC high schools (Australia). Faking mass attendance and generally subscribing to the act like an arse and all will be forgiven if you take one up the arse (hopefully no longer literally) bullshit dogma.

FrenchBoule · 02/08/2023 09:23

Deadringer · 01/08/2023 11:50

I absolutely do blame the church, and the wicked people they employed who abused vulnerable children, and the fact that they covered it all up, but I also blame the various governments, and the people in society who were very happy for 'fallen' women to be hidden away, and for little children to be mistreated, and not give them a second thought. Ordinary people did that, not all of them religious or even catholics, they gave up their daughters often because they couldn't stand the embarrassment. Yes the church was very powerful, but it was ordinary people who gave them that power in the first place.

This.
Brainwashing and scaremongering of the highest order. Shame so many people believe that crock of…
Hypocrites of the highest order herding their sheep to milk them,imposing the rules they don’t adhere to themselves.

Mustardseed86 · 02/08/2023 10:17

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It's a pretty good illustration of historic RCC policy on these issues. Alive and well it seems as far as this thread goes.

Cyanchicken · 02/08/2023 12:25

dewclaw · 27/07/2023 17:04

I was raised a Catholic and went to RC schools. Some of the things that happened were indeed disgusting and the church as an organisation covered this up over many years, but I know Methodists, for example who suffered similar abuse. My husband was whacked over the hand with a ruler at his non denominational state school. Christian churches as a whole were guilty of mistreatment of people during missionary escapades. The charities of that time were not always motive free either. There was virtually no safeguarding in place, and abuse in other areas was widespread in children's homes, sports teams, scouts etc in our society. Actually the nuns at my school and our parish priest, were lovely kind people who helped me a lot growing up in a very dysfunctional family. I think a lot of it reflects the poverty, discrimination ( no Irish....etc) of the time. Many of the nuns escaped an impoverished life in Southern Ireland and had no place teaching children. Unfortunately some sadistic predatory people took advantage of this situation. Catholic schools in general are now usually over subscribed for a reason.

I take all our points - but would ask that you refer to the Republic of Ireland as "Ireland" or "the Republic of Ireland" - Southern Ireland is not correct usage unless you are somehow referring to Munster.

Cyanchicken · 02/08/2023 12:46

@Monster80 - interested to know where this school was located.

Would not be typical of RC schools in the republic now. I've a daughter coming up to secondary and we have a choice of 4 local all girls catholic schools, a few education together schools and a few comprehensives.

Based on my research and open days - The catholic schools will do Christmas and Easter mass, there's a catholic ethos in that sex Ed including contraception is taught but nothing is taught about abortion, different types of sexuality etc. I do agree that a catholic ethos has no place in modern education.

Teachers are 100% laypeople, trained just like any other teachers in comprehensives etc. girls have access to most subjects (no metal work but this is due to limited demand - applied physics, applied maths etc offered). Choir and musical theatre offered and non religious.

I'm no apologist for the Catholic Church - honestly but the majority of school life is not catholic dominated. We won't be choosing those schools as there is still total focus on rote learning, lack of diversity in learning styles and 100% focus on university as a goal which can cause stress for a child and limits creative / independent thinking.

Cyanchicken · 02/08/2023 12:49

something2say · 29/07/2023 10:39

I hope it's OK to join in - the Catholic crisis affected my life.

I was abused by my mother as a child - lots of physical abuse, drowning in the bath, kicked down the stairs etc - and I left the family and went no contact and entered herald - I was about 24 when I did that.

By 30 odd, I'd bought my first flat and worked as a DV advisor - and all day long, women would tell me about abuse - people hurting them, controlling them, ruining their lives and their confidence - and we'd take the cases to court and enter the barristers - taking money for defending someone who has hurt other people and continues to hurt them, and never ever admits it. It used to piss me off so much.

So I get home from work one night, I've made my dinner and am eating it with the news on and the story about the Catholic church being accused of covering up decades of sexual abuse - they refused to cooperate with the allegations for TEN YEARS - and it was that, ten YEARS that prompted me to pick up the phone and ring the police and report the abuse I had suffered.

I was just so sick and tired of people pretending to be good when they are not good - TEN YEARS - I mean HOW do you live with that? And still think you can reflect yourself as good to the world?

This is how Sinead and the Catholic church scandal affected my life - by bringing about one of the acts that I am proudest of - I reported child abuse, I am one of the numbers, among many others, who stood the fuck up and spoke.

Well done to you - I hope somehow we can get the just result and reparations that are sue from the Catholic Church. Our politicians need to grow a spine.

LeonardCohensRaincoat · 03/08/2023 05:53

@GADDay

You are saying that children volunteered to be assaulted? Really? Disgusting comment

The Jesuits have made reparations to South America just in case your bigotry has blinded you to all the facts

LeonardCohensRaincoat · 03/08/2023 06:14

@Chickenkeev @fenora

you are literally on a thread criticising the Church and it’s historical abuse

it is still up as are the regular threads on the RCChurch - there is nothing like this on other religions -nothing comparable.

I’m not practising and feel nothing but anger about the abuse and the kind of people who knowingly covered it up ( often the professional Catholic class) but this laser like focus on the wrongs within RC as though it was solely responsible for all wrongdoings at the time when, as people have pointed out, civil society offered nothing, really disturbs me.

ChubbyMorticia · 03/08/2023 07:35

Iwasafool · 02/08/2023 08:35

The Pope apologised last year when he visited Canada. That wasn't the first apology from the Catholic church which was from Canadian bishops in 1991.

Where did I say it was an excuse, many churches were involved as well as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the government and there has been more than one apology.

Show quote history

The last school didn’t close until 1997, so that shows how sincere the apology was, imo.

Personally, I blame them all. The government, the RCMP, and all the churches involved. And the military, who experimented on children.

With thousands and thousands of children still missing, there’s more than enough blame to go around. More than enough graves to still be found. More children to be brought home.

It’s not just what happened in recent history, but the ongoing cover up. Where are the priests and nuns who abused children now? Why haven’t they been arrested? Why hasn’t the church turned them over to authorities? Why do they continue to hide murderers and child abusers?

I sincerely doubt we’ll ever get answers, or anyone will actually be held accountable.

And apologies will never be enough. They’re just words without action.

Psyclops · 03/08/2023 08:36

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