Pope Should Come Here to Apologise Says Limerick Abuse Victim, by Anne Sheridan, Limerick Leader, March 24, 2010

Pope Should Come Here to Apologise, Says Limerick Abuse Victim

By Anne Sheridan
Limerick Leader
March 24, 2010

http://www.limerickleader.ie/news/Pope-should-come-here-to.6174655.jp

IRELAND -- A LIMERICK victim of sexual, physical and emotional abuse at the hands of the Christian Brothers wants the Pope to come to Ireland and apologise to victims in person.

Following Pope Benedict's apology to victims of abuse in Ireland, Eddie Bermingham, from Weston, believes the gesture would be more meaningful for victims here if he apologised in person.

Pope Benedict: Limerick abuse victim Eddie Bermingham says he should come to Ireland to apologise

Mr Bermingham was sent to Letterfrack Industrial School in Connemara for five years at the age of ten in 1959 for stealing cigarettes from a local shop.

When he was released from Letterfrack, he said a priest told him that he was glad he made it out of the place alive. "They put an innocent child into prison and they released an animal. I had no self worth, I was highly critical of myself, never thinking I was good enough," he said.

Now aged 61, Mr Bermingham believes his experiences at the school contributed to problems he has suffered with alcohol, depression and strained family relations.

"For that Pope to put his foot on our soil, that's what I want. I don't want a committee, representing me, to go over and kiss his ring and shake his hand.

"I want him to come now; letters won't satisfy me. Put his foot on this soil and then apologise," he told Live 95FM.

Meanwhile, local priest Fr Adrian Egan has criticised Pope Benedict's letter for not addressing the part played by the church in creating abusers through its teaching on sexuality.

"There was no recognition that the church has had a huge obsession with the sexual lives of people and no recognition of how this has contributed to the development of sexually dysfunctional people," said Fr Egan.

"A small number have been more seriously affected – and that stuff gets acted out in the most awful ways such as in the abuse of children."

The Redemptorist rector said there were some glaring omissions in the letter.

"The church is the most male dominated institution in the world and there was no reference to the role of women. "The whole issue of the governance of the church and of how people have no involvement in deciding who becomes a bishop. The issue of celibacy and of how we haven't followed through on the commitments of Vatican II."

Fr Egan also expressed concern about Pope Benedict's proposed investigation of the Irish church saying that such probes have a history of being oppressive.

"With other cases also my sense has been that they move in, almost inquisition like, and if there is any modern thinking, any challenging of church teaching going on, it seems to be quashed.