BishopAccountability.org
	Widespread Sexual Abuse in Ireland By Rev. Robert M. Hoatson National Survivor Advocates Coalition May 21, 2009 http://www.nsacoalition.org/2009/05/21/press-release-hoatson-may-21-2009/ The report of sexual abuse in Catholic institutions, schools, and parishes in Ireland, released today, is both shocking and expected. I am a Catholic priest who spent nearly 25 years as an Irish Christian Brother, the same religious order that is slammed by the Irish Government Commission that investigated sexual abuse of children for nine years. I was sexually groomed and abused from the day I entered the Irish Christian Brothers at Iona College in New Rochelle, New York, and I also was a witness to the mishandling of numerous abusers in the Irish Christian Brothers. Five different Christian Brothers abused me while I was a young adult, and another Christian Brother sexually assaulted my first cousin, James Craig Hoatson, who committed suicide on October 10, 1978. The Irish Christian Brothers, also know as the ICBs, have been correctly referred to by many former students and residents of their institutions as the “International Child Beaters.” For years, every brother was given a large leather strap as an “initiation” into teaching young boys or working in orphanages. The more violent and abusive a brother was, the more he was esteemed. I presently have a lawsuit pending in State Supreme Court of New York against the Irish Christian Brothers, and I am available for interviews about my own abuse and the institutional cover-up and protection of dangerous predators by the Christian Brothers. (Fr. Hoatson was ordained a priest in 1997 after having spent nearly 25 years as a member of the Irish Christian Brothers. He has found the same level of sexual dysfunction and abuse in the priesthood, especially among bishops and high-ranking clerics). Robert Hoatson is a member of the National Survivor Advocates Coalition.
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