When Clergy Harm Children

I've had a commenter or two on this blog argue Catholic clergy cases of molesting children are false. Paraphrasing, "Too much time has passed is one theme. You can't trust children's words. It is now adults making these accusations and their motives are simply money." It is as if laws and the legal system is stacked against clergy. 

The truth is, law, the legal system and society in general are stacked against children. The system is stacked in favor of child abusers. 

I've been reading a book about children who were, strong indications point toward this, killed in church- sponsored children's care institutions. They were called "Orphan Homes" through quite often a parent was alive or a close relative was available to take care of the child. Most of these institutions were Catholic but other denominations had such facilities. Catholics had the most. They were in several countries including the U.S. Many in Ireland, England and Australia. Government hearing have been held and these institutions are mostly gone. Those who were housed in the institutions and told others, including testimony at the hearings, have died. 

There are many stories passed down, including sworn testimony, that murders of children in "orphan homes" happened. No one has ever been prosecuted nor done time for such a murder. The author spent a couple of years traveling in several countries looking for strong evidence of specific murders and specific people who committed the crimes. The system of law, societal mores and time has made it all but impossible to achieve this goal. 

The stories passed down of murders are difficult to read. A large nun wearing heavy boots kicked a little girl in the stomach so hard she bled and died. Nuns pushed little boys off of boats so they would learn how to swim. Some died. Nuns pushed misbehaving children out of windows to their deaths. Older larger children killed smaller younger ones. In addition to these deaths, there were many stories of priests in charge of the homes who sexually abused children.

Children were often given new names when they entered these orphan homes. Records of what happened to the children were not public and not available.  It is difficult to establish a child is "missing." Thus, there were children who evaporated without a trace. When children told of their physical or sexual abuse, they were not believed. When they talked later in their lives the statute of limitations ruled out use of a legal process. Sometimes there were two versions of a death and they did not match perfectly decades later. 

The requirement of a statute of limitations on sexual crimes has been lifted and this is why so many Catholic dioceses are settling for big payments. Ironically, deaths of children in Orphan Homes are still subject to the statute of limitations. Sexual crimes have a constituency demanding justice, deaths of children does not.