BishopAccountability.org
	Editorial: Punish the Culprits of "Holocaust of Abuse" Herald May 21, 2009 http://www.herald.ie/opinion/editorial-punish-the-culprits-of-holocaust-of-abuse-1746858.html If we thought we had lost the capacity to be shocked by what went on in institutions charged with looking after vulnerable children in this country, the report by the Commission of Inquiry shows us otherwise. The stark, dispassionate account of how the powerful were able to inflict a brutal regime on the most vulnerable in our society is beyond harrowing. Details of how children were tortured, robbed of their childhoods, and imprinted with physical and mental scars that would last a lifetime make for almost unbearable reading. Sexual abusers and cruel people exist in every community. But it's the protection they were given by the State and broader society that makes what one writer on these pages call "a holocaust of abuse" such a scandal. People in authority, both in the church and the State, knew exactly what was going on. There had been repeated complaints over the years. No apology, no report and no financial award could ever restore the stolen childhoods of the 35,000 people who went through these institutions. All three have now been offered although with massive reluctance and after lengthy campaigns. So what more can be done? What remains, beyond a commitment that never again can this be allowed to happen, is the punishing of the wrongdoers. That many of the perpetrators of this shameful episode in Irish history have not been brought to law is a disgrace.
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