The Roman Catholic Church

[Orfuln]

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.

This is an exact mirror of Ireland.

Thanks. Yes it's such BS they all blame the nuns who took them in yet their parents dropped them off half the time and many still rejected them afterwards. Then they speak out looking for compensation from the state but say they forgive their parents FFS. The parents would be ostracised, refused mass or trade in the shop but instead of sucking it up and getting a bus to the next town they sacrificed their daughter. I'd love to hear a parent come out and publicly apologise for their role in it. And where are all the men? Why do we only hear women's versions.

And Scotland. There are babies' bodies hidden in Catholic land in Scotland too.

I went to an inner city school in a poor area and the nuns were strict but caring and we got a good education. Of my class of 48 kids 23 of us went to grammar school. I grew up with a lovely parish priest but the one who took over when he died was a bit fire and brimstone.

One of my friends came from a poor family who were very uncaring and I remember the nuns making a big effort to kit her out for First Holy Communion and Confirmation so she didn't stand out as different from the rest of us.

There are problems in all religions, I watched a documentary recently about abuse with Jehovah's Witnesses and I lived close to a Salvation Army mother and baby home where the girls had a tough time, I'd see them crying at the local phone box begging to go home.

As for the Nazi supporters maybe look at Maximillian Kolbe or Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty. There were many other heroic priests and nuns and lay Catholics.

I'm in a raising kids without religion FB group, and it seems way more difficult than it should be to 'opt out'. As is your right. But it seems very dependent on the 'benevolence' of staff in the particular school. It's a sticking plaster.

Yes parents have a lot to answer for. Same with the Salvation Army home I lived near. You'd see parents drive up and a schoolgirl of about 14 or 15 would get out and the parents would drive off. Heartbreaking.

And this is why religion shouldn't be in school! Or at least your only school option anyway.

I was brought up Catholic & my grandparents were particularly devout- they were extremely loving & kind people focused on family ties & love

Some of the problems mentioned here are not limited to church only. Private, one gender schools don’t quite sound like safe and nurturing places to me ! Never would I sent my child to one and we live 5 minutes away from Gordonstoun. I choose to sent my child to small, open plan Catholic School to be surrounded by people of the same moral compass from various cultures and backgrounds all united in their beliefs.

When you make a confession you ask for absolution and the priest will give it but it is dependant on your sincere intention to not sin again, the priest won't know if you are sincere but God will. Now we are human so we don't always succeed but it has to be your intention, you make a resolution to try not to sin again. You can go into confession, confess your sins with no intention to try to not sin again, we'd say you have no contrition, you can fool the priest, you can fool the congregation but you can't fool God.

So if you abused a child on Friday and you go to confession on Saturday fully intending to abuse a child again when they are back at school on Monday you do not get absolution. So going to confession does not make it all OK.

Oh and you must do the penance the priest gives you.

Following

This isn't about where anyone chooses to send their child to school. The point is you have a choice! Lots of people don't. That's the issue. It's probably different in Britain, it's an issue in Ireland where there very little/no choice.. also Gordonstoun, wasn't that where King Charles went? Fancy!

So where were your grandparents when their daughter was in a home and their grandchild adopted and their son beaten?

My father has had multiple affairs, but all was okay because he confessed his sins...even my mother forgave him...

Well your mother is entitled to forgive him if that is what she wants to do. Confession does not mean it is OK to have affairs.

As for the Nazi supporters maybe look at Maximillian Kolbe or Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty. There were many other heroic priests and nuns and lay Catholics.

Again, individuals. The Catholic Church as an institution was complicit in Hitlers treatment of Jews and other groups

Thank you for the explanation
So if you genuinely believe you won’t abuse a child again then you get absolution?
Great comfort for the children that have already been abused

With all due respect, that is the f*cking point! The society was so dysfunctional because of the church that people thought it was the right thing to do to institutionalise children. The whole set up was wrong and was hugely detrimental to children, all the while telling parents 'this is what you have to do if you want your kids to have a chance in life'. It was crazy. It's easy to say that bow obviously, but that was the narrative. I hope in 20 or 30 years time, our history books will delve into thia and there will be some learning from it.

I also hope i will delve into spellcheck. God willing 🤣

@loverrr Yes of course they were, most Catholics aren't bad people they are just people like anyone else. Some of the kindest people I know are deeply religious Catholics. Some people here are just revelling in their chance to smear Catholics and revel in their bigotry.

That's not how it worked tbf. Women were stuck, men rode around. It was a deeply misogynistic society. Women put up and shit up. And they had no choice. This isn't news.

@ananabread No one is revelling in the smear of catholics.
We are discussing the horrific atrocities and the fact they were ignored and denied.
The fact people still choose to be part of a religion were it's okay to abuse women and children but not to be married and have legitimate sexual relationships as an adult male.

The point is, you can be catholic, you can be great. But you need to do that without imposing your values on me. Nobody has tried to impose halal on me. So you do you and i'll do me. And we can all play nicely together (as we tell the kids!). Tolerance and rubbing along together is key. Hands off womens rights and other peoples religions and we'll all be grand. And that goes for everyone, if i want a religious state i'll move to Iran or somewhere.

A lot of comments on this thread relate to Ireland and there is no denial to some of the events of the past.

It is a huge issue in German, there are court cases running now and a lot of pressure for the Catholic Church to pony up the promised and legally mandated compensation. Their victims, meanwhile are falling into debt, dying and have never received so much as a personal apology, just general hand waving.

So yes. i will complain long and hard about the Catholic Church on this thread, which is about their abusive practices. I know individual catholics who are perfectly lovely, most of them are aghast at the extent of the abuse, the lies and the cover ups. Some have the cognitive dissonance of a captured audience.

A friend was SA’d by a Catholic priest, her mum refused to believe her