ABUSE TRACKER

IRELAND
Irish Times

MARIE O’HALLORAN and MICHAEL O’REGAN

A former Fianna Fail minister has apologised for not investigating the Magdalene laundries when the party was in government.

Party leader Micheál Martin, who chaired the committee dealing with industrial school abuse, told the Dáil he was “sorry we didn’t deal with the Magdalene laundries at the time”.

Mr Martin said the committee led to a State apology to survivors of industrial schools. He told Taoiseach Enda Kenny that the 1,400 page report published yesterday on the Magdalene laundries “doesn’t take any stigma away. The report doesn’t take any stigma away. The only effective way for the stigma to be removed by the State is to apologise,” the Fianna Fail leader said, with “no ifs and no buts”.

The Fianna Fáil leader was speaking during leaders questions when the Taoiseach was repeatedly pressed to give a full and proper apology to the women in the laundries. Mr Martin said that the “most fundamental need articulated to me above and beyond redress” was for somebody to say that what was done was wrong.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
KABC

[with video]

Amy Powell

LOS ANGELES (KABC) — With last week’s release of thousands of church documents on clergy abuse, the LAPD is stepping in. Investigators say new legal charges are possible.

Detectives are focusing on the cases of about a dozen previously investigated priests and are auditing those past cases to see if anything was missed. They are also going over files of all the 122 priests made public last week by a court order.

“Most of these files have already had investigations done, and we weren’t able to get a prosecution or we couldn’t get to anything in terms of statue, so we’re going to go back, kind of re-audit everything that we’ve done before,” said LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith.

Authorities want to know if any crimes, such as failure to report child abuse, occurred.

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CALIFORNIA
The Monterey County Herald

Posted: 02/05/2013

The horror, the sordidness of the awful abuse of children by figures of spiritual authority is not much assuaged by current Archbishop Jose Gomez relieving Cardinal Mahony of “all public duties” after mounting evidence showed he shielded pedophile priests from law enforcement.

So Mahony won’t be overseeing the Sacrament of Confirmation at Our Lady of the Angels any time soon. But he is not only still a priest who can perform Mass— he is still one of the 120 cardinals who form the leadership of a church with more than 1.1 billion adherents worldwide.

Given what we now know about Mahony’s active efforts to protect known and suspected sexual abusers in clerical collars, this removal of him from public life is not only not enough — it’s no punishment at all.

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AUSTRALIA
Courier Mail

OPPOSITION Leader Tony Abbott vouched in court for the good character of a Catholic priest later struck off the clergy list by the Vatican following a child abuse case.

Fr John Gerard Nestor, who attended Sydney’s St Patrick’s Seminary with Mr Abbott in the 1980s, was a priest in the Wollongong diocese in NSW when he was charged with the indecent assault of a 15-year-old altar boy in 1991.

Fr Nestor, then aged 44, was convicted in Wollongong Local Court on February 18, 1997, and sentenced to 16 months in jail, with the magistrate describing the case as a ”gross breach of trust”.

In court, the priest admitted he had – while dressed in boxer shorts and a singlet – slept on mattresses on a floor in the presbytery with the boy and his younger brother some time between June and September 1991.

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NEW JERSEY
The Georgia Bulletin

WASHINGTON (CNS) — The assignment of a priest who at one time admitted inappropriately touching a teenage boy to a new administrative post in the Archdiocese of Newark, N.J., will not lead to unsupervised contact with children, an archdiocesan spokesman said. Father Michael Fugee was named as co-director of the Office of Continuing Education and Ongoing Formation of Priests in October by Newark Archbishop John J. Myers. Jim Goodness, archdiocesan spokesman, said that in the position Father Fugee primarily seeks out and forwards information on seminars, courses and books that night help clergy in their ministerial work. The information mostly is shared via email, Goodness said. “It’s important to note we’re not looking at a high, prestigious position,” Goodness told Catholic News Service Feb. 5.

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NEW JERSEY
NorthJersey.com

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Herald News

IN THE wake of widespread sexual scandals involving its clergy, U.S. Catholic bishops established a series of procedures at a 2002 bishops’ conference in Dallas: The Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. Newark Archbishop John J. Myers should reread it.

As reported this week, the Rev. Michael Fugee, a former Wyckoff assistant pastor who admitted fondling a 13-year-old boy in 2001, is still serving as a cleric.

Fugee has been the director of the archdiocese’s Office of the Propagation of the Faith, which raises funds for missionary work. In October, Fugee was also named the co-director of the Office of Continuing Education and Ongoing Formation of Priests, an office providing educational material to clerics.

Fugee was convicted by a Bergen County jury on a count of sexual contact for groping the boy. But the verdict was overturned by an appellate panel because it found Fugee’s statement to police questioning his sexual orientation should not have been admitted as evidence. Fugee said at trial that he playfully wrestled with the boy, but had given a statement to police earlier in which he admitted grabbing the boy’s crotch to satisfy an urge.

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IRELAND
Deutsche Welle

The Vatican used to be able to count on Irish clergy to follow the rules. But now a group of Irish priests are openly questioning the Vatican’s conservative approach to Catholicism, despite the threat of excommunication.

On Sunday, January 20, during a news conference in Dublin, Father Tony Flannery became the unlikely face of the modern Irish Catholic. Unlikely, because Flannery supports allowing women and married men to become priests. He embraces the role of lesbians and gays in the Catholic Church. Flannery also questions the legitimacy of the Vatican’s hierarchy, and he warns that unless power is decentralized and free thought is encouraged, church attendance in Ireland will continue to stagnate.

These views would seem to be counter to the regular average Irish churchgoer, who, according to numerous polls and surveys, is older and slightly more conservative than the general population.

But Flannery has been embraced. The well-known 66-year-old Irish priest has been inundated with e-mails, texts and handwritten letters from supporters all over the country.

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IRLAND
ORF

Irlands Ministerpräsident Enda Kenny hat sich gestern für die Ausbeutung junger Frauen in katholischen Arbeitshäusern in Irland entschuldigt. In den Jahren 1922 bis 1996 wurden nach einem Bericht einer Regierungskommission bis zu zehntausend Frauen in den Arbeitshäusern entrechtet und ausgebeutet.

Zeuginnen berichteten, ihnen seien von den dort tätigen Nonnen neue Namen gegeben worden und sie hätten von früh bis spät unentgeltlich arbeiten müssen. Kindern wurde jede Bildung vorenthalten. Nutznießer der Arbeitshäuser, die „Wäschereien“ genannt wurden, waren unter anderem die Regierung, die Armee und Privatunternehmen, die Verträge mit ihnen unterhielten.

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IRLAND
20 Minuten

Irlands Ministerpräsident Enda Kenny hat sich am Dienstag für die Ausbeutung junger Frauen in katholischen Arbeitshäusern in Irland entschuldigt. In den Jahren 1922 bis 1996 wurden laut einem Regierungsbericht bis zu zehntausend Frauen in den Institutionen entrechtet und ausgebeutet.

Zeuginnen berichteten, ihnen seien von den dort tätigen Nonnen neue Namen gegeben worden und sie hätten von früh bis spät unentgeltlich arbeiten müssen. Kindern wurde jede Bildung vorenthalten. Nutzniesser der Arbeitshäuser, die «Wäschereien» genannt wurden, waren unter anderem die Regierung, die Armee und Privatunternehmen.

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IRLAND
Nachrichten Heute

Irische Regierung akzeptiert staatliche Mitschuld bei der Versklavung und Zwangsarbeit von rund 30.000 irischen Frauen in den Jahren 1922 – 1996

Dr. Alexander von Paleske — 5.2. 2013 —
Wir haben bereits mehrfach über die Versklavung, Zwangsarbeit, Medikamentenversuche und sexuellen Missbrauch in den vergangenen 100 Jahren in der sogenannten „zivilisierten Welt“ berichtet:

– Über die Zwangsemigration von englischen Heimkindern nach Australien und dortigen sexuellen Missbrauch und Zwangsarbeit

– über die Zwangsarbeit der Verdingkinder in der Schweiz

– über die Medikamentenversuche an Heimkindern in Österreich

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IRLAND
Neue Zurcher Zeitug

Martin Alioth, Dublin

Der erste Bericht über das Schicksal von rund 10 000 irischen Frauen in Wäschereien katholischer Frauenorden im Zeitraum zwischen 1922 und 1996 ist am Dienstag in Dublin vorgestellt worden. Frühere, aufsehenerregende Berichte über systematischen Missbrauch in kirchlichen Anstalten hatten die sogenannten Magdalenerinnen ausgespart, denn der Staat vertrat bisher die Auffassung, es habe sich bei diesen Wäschereien um private Organisationen gehandelt, in denen diese Frauen freiwillig arbeiteten.

Staatliches Umdenken

Der Bericht bestätigt indessen, was aus den Erinnerungen von Überlebenden schon längst festgestanden war. Angehörige der irischen Polizei brachten geflüchtete Frauen routinemässig zurück in die Wäschereien, die ihrerseits dem staatlichen Fabrikinspektorat unterstanden. Ministerien und die Armee benutzten die Wäschereien auf einer kommerziellen Basis. Der Staat selbst wies ein Viertel der Frauen ein. Doch der irische Premierminister, Enda Kenny, verweigerte am Dienstag im Parlament eine offizielle Entschuldigung im Namen des Staates. Er bedauerte bloss, dass es so lange gedauert habe, bis das Stigma von den Frauen entfernt worden sei, und dass sie unter diesen Bedingungen hätten leben müssen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
MissBiT

Trier: Bistum hat bislang 56 Opfer entschädigt

Im Bistum Trier wurden inzwischen 56 Opfer sexueller Übergriffe in katholischen Einrichtungen entschädigt. Nach Angaben von Bistumssprecher Uzulis wurden alle Anträge bewilligt.

Die Opferinitiative MissBit spricht von zwei weiteren Fällen. Dabei gehe es um sexuelle Übergriffe durch einen Priester in Saarlouis. Das Bistum hat inzwischen weitere Fälle bestätigt.

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OSTERREICH
der Standard

Katharina Mittelstaedt, 5. Februar 2013

Seit drei Jahren wird rund um die Missbrauchsfälle im Stift Kremsmünster ermittelt. Nun wird eine kleine Gruppe von Opfern aktiv. Denn noch diese Woche entscheidet sich, ob der “Haupttäter” vor Gericht kommt

Linz – Der ehemalige Klosterschüler ist inzwischen ein erwachsener Mann, und dennoch – jeden Sonntag aufs Neue holt ihn seine Vergangenheit ein, bis heute. Er bekomme dann zittrige Hände, Schweißausbrüche, werde nervös und sei angespannt. Doch zumindest, so erzählt das Missbrauchsopfer, das nicht namentlich genannt werden möchte, die Albträume von Pater A. habe er inzwischen im Griff.

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VATIKAN
20 Minuten

In letzter Zeit werden immer mehr Missbrauchsfälle in der katholischen Kirche aufgedeckt. Wie der Chefermittler für Missbrauchsfälle des Vatikans nun meldet, werden ihm jährlich etwa 600 neue Fälle zugetragen. Viele davon würden aus den 60er, 70er und 80er Jahren stammen.

Der bisherige Höhepunkt sei im Jahr 2004 mit 800 neuen Vorwürfen erreicht worden, sagte der US-Geistliche Robert Oliver am Dienstag weiter. Er werde nach dem Vorbild von Papst Benedikt XVI. eine Null-Toleranz-Politik gegenüber Kinderschändern verfolgen, kündigte Oliver an.

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IRLAND
kathweb

Mehr als 10.000 Frauen zwischen 1922 und 1996 ohne Bezahlung zu harter körperlicher Arbeit gezwungen

06.02.2013
Dublin, 06.02.2013 (KAP) Die Opfer systematischer Zwangsarbeit in den irischen “Magdalenenheimen” haben die Entschuldigung von Premierminister Enda Kenny abgelehnt. Die Opfergruppe “Justice for Magdalenes” (JFM) bewertete sie laut einem Bericht der Tageszeitung “Irish Independent” (Mittwoch) als unzureichend. Der rechtspolitische Sprecher der größten Oppositionspartei Fianna Fail, Niall Collins, kritisierte, dass sich Kenny nicht ausdrücklich für eine Entschädigung der Opfer ausgesprochen habe.

In den sogenannten Magdalene Laundries (Heime für “gefallene Mädchen” wurden zwischen 1922 und 1996 mehr als 10.000 Frauen ohne Bezahlung zu harter körperlicher Arbeit gezwungen. Eine Untersuchungskommission war zu dem Schluss gekommen, dass der irische Staat die von katholischen Frauenorden betriebenen Heime “direkt und grundsätzlich” unterstützt habe.

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VATIKAN
Radio Vatikan

Beim Vorgehen gegen sexuellen Missbrauch durch Kleriker will der Vatikan seine „Null-Toleranz-Politik“ fortführen; die Sorge um die Opfer soll dabei weiter im Zentrum stehen. Das hat der neue vatikanische Missbrauchsbeauftragte Robert Oliver am Dienstagabend bei einer Konferenz in der päpstlichen Universität Gregoriana in Rom unterstrichen. Der US-Amerikaner war vom Papst am 20. Dezember als Nachfolger von Charles Scicluna, dem „Anwalt der Gerechtigkeit“ in der römischen Glaubenskongregation, eingesetzt worden. Auf der Konferenz wurden die Akten des großen Missbrauchssymposiums vorgestellt , auf dem sich im Februar 2012 Vertreter fast aller Bischofskonferenzen der Weltkirche über Prävention und Folgen von sexuellem Missbrauch durch Kleriker austauschten.

Der Vatikan behandle jährlich etwa 600 Missbrauchsvorwürfe, gab Oliver an. Die Tendenz sei rückläufig, die meisten Fälle bezögen sich auf den Zeitraum 60er bis 80er Jahre. Der bisherige Höhepunkt sei mit 800 neuen Vorwürfen im Jahr 2004 erreicht worden, so der Kirchenanwalt. In den vergangenen drei Jahren sei die Zahl auf 600 pro Jahr zurückgegangen. Oliver lobte die internationale Missbrauchskonferenz von 2012 als wegweisend, was die Aufklärung und die Sensibilisierung für das Thema betrifft:

„Ein großes Problem war schon immer, dass man bei Vorwürfen zuerst alles verneint und zurückdrängt. Deshalb wurde mit der Konferenz von 2012 an der Gregoriana große Arbeit geleistet, weil man das Missbrauchsproblem direkt ansprach. Denn die beste Prävention besteht darin, das Problem von vornherein zu kennen bzw. zu wissen, wie es zu Missbrauch kommen könnte. Wichtig war und ist, dass alle Kirchenmitarbeiter – egal in welcher hierarchischen Position – davon Kenntnis haben.“

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.comtwincities.com
Posted: 02/05/2013

A Franciscan brother who died by suicide in Pennsylvania after sexual-abuse allegations also molested a Minnesota boy while he served at the Church of St. Patrick in Inver Grove Heights, the victim and his St. Paul attorney said.

The Rev. Stephen P. Baker, 62, was found dead Saturday, Feb. 2, at the St. Bernadine Monastery in Hollidaysburg, Pa., of a self-inflicted knife wound to the heart, according to Blair Township police.

In 2003, Douglas Larson, 49, of St. Cloud came to a settlement with the Third Order Regular Franciscans, Province of the Immaculate Conception, a Catholic order of which Baker was a member, according to Jeff Anderson, a St. Paul attorney who represented Larson and other alleged victims of sexual abuse by clergy.

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VATIKAN
Zeit

Den Vatikan erreichen nach Angaben seines Chefermittlers für Missbrauchsfälle jährlich etwa 600 neue Missbrauchsvorwürfe gegen katholische Geistliche. Viele dieser Fälle stammten aus den sechziger, siebziger und achtziger Jahren, teilte der US-Geistliche Robert Oliver mit. Die bislang höchste Zahl wurde seinen Angaben zufolge im Jahr 2004 mit 800 neuen Vorwürfen erreicht.

Er werde nach dem Vorbild von Papst Benedikt XVI. eine Null-Toleranz-Politik gegenüber Kinderschändern verfolgen, kündigte der neue Chefermittler an. Nach seinen Angaben sind rund Dreiviertel der 112 nationalen Bischofskonferenzen einem Aufruf des Papstes von 2011 nachgekommen und haben Richtlinien im Kampf gegen pädophile Priester ausgearbeitet.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Tri-City Herald

By HARRIET RYAN, ASHLEY POWERS AND VICTORIA KIM — Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — In the midst of renewed public outrage over its handling of clergy sex abuse, the Los Angeles Archdiocese is considering a $200 million fundraising campaign that could erase debts brought on by the scandal.

The archdiocese has hired a New York company, Guidance In Giving Inc., to study the feasibility of a large-scale fundraiser that would shore up a bottom line hit hard by costly abuse litigation. It would be the archdiocese’s first capital campaign in 60 years.

The archdiocese’s $660 million settlement in 2007 with more than 500 victims was the largest in U.S. history. According to a December financial report reviewed by the Los Angeles Times, the archdiocese is still paying down loans it used to cover the settlement, and its liabilities now outstrip its assets by $80 million.

The archdiocese is contemplating the fundraiser as a way to repay settlement loans totaling $175 million, according to the report. An archdiocese spokesman confirmed that the capital campaign was being considered but in a statement did not address whether any proceeds would be used to pay down the settlement loan.

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NEW JERSEY
NBC New York

The Newark Archdiocese is under fire for continuing to allow a priest who admitted to fondling a teenage boy to wear the clerical collar. But the church is defending its decision. Brian Thompson reports.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

The Taoiseach has again declined to offer a full apology to the survivors of the Magdalene laundries. He appealed for “space” to formulate the Government’s response.

Opposition parties have rounded on Enda Kenny in the Dáil this morning after groups representing the women expressed their outrage that he had not given the apology they expected for the role played by the state in the laundry system.

This morning, the Taoiseach says the report needed to be examined, reflected on and debated in the Dáil in two weeks time.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Fionnan Sheahan

Wednesday February 06 2013

A LABOUR Party minister has broken ranks and said the Government should make a full apology to survivors of the Magdalene Laundries.

Junior Minister Kathleen Lynch said her “personal opinion” is there should be an apology.

“You have to accept that I can’t speak on behalf of the Taoiseach. You have to accept that,” she told Today FM.

“I suppose the Government will take that decision and I don’t sit around the Cabinet table as I have already said.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Maeve O’Rourke
ON Sept 4, 2009, the minister for education and science rejected Justice for Magdalenes’ proposal for an apology and distinct redress scheme for survivors of the Magdalene Laundries.

The minister said “the situation …… is quite different to persons who were resident in State-run institutions. The Magdalene Laundries were privately owned and operated establishments and did not come within the responsibility of the State. The State did not refer individuals to Magdalen Laundries, nor was it complicit in referring individuals to them.”

Yesterday, on Feb 5, Martin McAleese begged to differ. And the central finding of his report, that the State was indeed directly and fundamentally involved in the Magdalene Laundry institutions, is welcome.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Dearbhail McDonald Legal Editor

Wednesday February 06 2013

WOMEN were sent to Magdalene Laundries for petty crimes, such as failing to buy a train ticket and snatching purses. Others were detained for more serious crimes, such as prostitution, manslaughter, murder and killing babies they had recently given birth to.

One woman who was convicted of stealing a bike and attempting suicide was detained for a year, according to the report.

The vast majority of those who entered laundries through the criminal-justice system were put there on foot of minor crimes.

The most common entry method for girls admitted to laundries was on foot of probation orders requiring them to be resident for up to three years.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

They were called Fallen Women. But in reality they were Loose Ends. The 10,000 and more women and girls who passed through the gates of the Magdalene Laundries since 1922 were regarded as no more than female flotsam and jetsam which washed up on the shores of the State.

The authorities didn’t know what to do with them, nor particularly care about what befell them. They were loose ends, round pegs in the rigidly square society ordained by the conjoined twins of church and State.

They were orphans, or children of neglected or abusive homes, or rejected by foster parents. They were dirt-poor, unloved, on remand or probation for crimes ranging from non-payment of a train ticket to manslaughter, but mostly convicted of petty offences.

They were unmarried mothers, or children born out of wedlock, or females accused of being morally suspect. They were girls released from industrial schools before the age of 16 and packed off straight to the laundries to see out the rest of their childhood. Some were disabled. Few, very few, were prostitutes.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Louise Hogan and Shauna McLoughlin

Wednesday February 06 2013

SURVIVORS of the Magdalene Laundries branded the Government’s failure to apologise as “cynical” and “deeply disappointing”.

Advocacy group Justice for Magdalenes (JFM) described Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s response as a “half-hearted” acknowledgement of the pain and suffering in light of the report confirming state regulated institutions had allowed slavery within their walls.

JFM spokeswoman Claire McGettrick said the now elderly and vulnerable group of women deserved an apology and a transparent compensation scheme.

Ms McGettrick said if the government politicians were “people of honour” they would have apologised immediately. “By dragging out this process for a group of really vulnerable women who do not have any time left – it is cynical, cruel, it is prolonging the torture and it is simply not good enough.”

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Wednesday February 06 2013

The Attorney General Maire Whelan was involved in yesterday’s cabinet deliberations about the 1,000-page report by former senator Martin McAleese.

But the Government has refused to say if Mr Kenny has been advised against delivering an apology for legal reasons.

The report has thrown new light on the operation of the 10 Magdalene Laundries in the State between 1922 and 1996. It confirmed, by examining the books of the religious orders, that 10,000 women had been in the laundries over that period – significantly fewer than the previous estimate of 30,000.

It exploded the myth that most of them were prostitutes or unmarried mothers who had their babies there and said the women went into the laundries for a variety of reasons.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Dearbhail McDonald Legal Editor

Wednesday February 06 2013

THE State’s “significant” involvement in the admission of young girls and women to Magdalene Laundries contradicts previous claims by the Government that the “vast majority” entered on a voluntary basis or with parental consent.

Two years ago Sean Aylward, inset, then Secretary General of the Department of Justice, told the United Nations Committee Against Torture (UNCAT) that the vast majority of women who went to Laundries “went there voluntarily or, if they were minors, with the consent of their parents or guardians”.

But the report of the Inter-Departmental Committee (IDC) to establish the facts of State involvement with the Magdalene Laundries found that more than a quarter of referrals were made or facilitated by the State.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Paul Melia

Wednesday February 06 2013

THE authorities were warned over 70 years ago that the Magdalene Laundries were not appropriate places to rehabilitate women convicted of crimes.

A report found that the laundries, which were offered as an alternative to prison, had a “lack of any specialist training” to provide girls with a “fresh start” in life and that education was “absent”.

Written by a probation officer in 1941, the report referred to “young country girls who get into trouble in Dublin, where their inexperience is easily recognised and readily exploited by the depraved”.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Michael Brennan Deputy Political Editor

Wednesday February 06 2013

RTE’s ‘Prime Time’ is standing over its reporting of the money earned by the Magdalene Laundries in the wake of criticism in the official state report.

The Magdalene Laundry report said that the claim in a recent ‘Prime Time’ report about the profits of the Galway Magdalene Laundry in 1968 was “incorrect”.

Instead of making a €1m profit that year, the laundry actually made a loss of around €32,000.

But the Irish Independent has learned that ‘Prime Time’ is insisting that it made no such claim about the profitability of the Galway Magdalene Laundry and is fully standing over its report.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Michael Brennan Deputy Political Editor

Wednesday February 06 2013

THE survivors of the Magdalene laundries had to battle hard for the long-awaited report into the State’s role in their detention.

They were excluded when former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern made an official state apology in 1999 to the victims of abuse in state-run institutions.

And they were excluded from the €1bn compensation scheme set up as a result.

The official state position was that the Magdalene laundries were run by four religious congregations – and that the State had no involvement.

But there were several factors that led to the publication of the report which has found that the State was actually responsible for around one-quarter of the 10,000 women who ended up in the laundries.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Paul Melia

Wednesday February 06 2013

LIFE was harsh in the State’s Magdalene Laundries, with working days lasting from 7am to 6pm and little time for recreation.

The residents or penitents – that is, someone seeking forgiveness from God – normally began their day with Mass at 7am followed by breakfast. They then worked until 12.30pm when dinner was served.

Periods of prayer were observed during the day, including reciting the Rosary which the women would respond to while working and a pause for the Angelus at 12pm and 6pm, and the Sacred Heart prayer at 4pm. Silence was observed at other times. After dinner, work resumed until the evening meal at around 6pm.

Tea breaks were part of the daily routine, and there was a half-day on Thursdays. No laundry was carried out on Sundays, holy days or bank holidays.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Eilish O’Regan Health Correspondent

Wednesday February 06 2013

VULNERABLE women were betrayed by health authorities and ended up in Magdalene Laundries after being in psychiatric hospitals, acute hospitals, foster care and mother and baby homes.

The trail of tears outlined in the report revealed how, even in the 1970s, a girl as young as 11 ended up in a laundry.

“Some referrals were of very young girls and it was not always clear why,” according to the McAleese report.

The youngest referred from a hospital or by a medical professional was just 13 years old and the oldest was 71.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Paul Melia

Wednesday February 06 2013

THE religious orders which ran the Magdalene Laundries have expressed regret that some women did not find them to be places of refuge.

The Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of Refuge, which controlled two laundries in Dublin, said an important value of the report was to give a voice to the women and for their experiences, feelings and stories to be placed on record.

“Regardless of why a woman was in a refuge or how she came to be there, we endeavoured to provide care,” a statement said.

“It is with deep regret that we acknowledge that there are women who did not experience our refuge as a place of protection and care. It is with sorrow and sadness that we recognise that for many . . . their time in a refuge is associated with anxiety, distress, loneliness, isolation, pain and confusion.”

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IRELAND
BBC News

TDs will be able to discuss the report into the Magdalene Laundries in the Irish Parliament later.

On Tuesday, Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny apologised for the stigma and conditions suffered by the inmates.

Mr Kenny said the laundries had operated in a “harsh and uncompromising Ireland,” but he stopped short of a formal apology from the government.

The issue is also due to be discussed at the parliamentary party meetings of Fine Gael and Labour.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Junior Finance Minister Brian Hayes has indicated the Government may make a full apology to the survivors of the Magdalene laundries, after it reads the report released yesterday.

The report under the chairmanship of Dr Martin McAleese was published yesterday and found there was significant state involvement in the laundries.

The women who spent time in the laundries have expressed their anger at the failure of the Taoiseach Enda Kenny to issue a full apology yesterday.

The issue is expected to be raised by TDs in the Dáil this morning.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

STEPHEN COLLINS and HARRY McGEE

The Government will seek a “clear strategy and a clear plan” as to how best to deal with the findings of the report into the Magdalene laundries, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said.

The Government came under renewed criticism today following the refusal of Mr Kenny to issue a full apology to the women who spent time in the laundries, despite the fact that more than a quarter were sent there by the State.

The ‘Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee to establish the facts of State involvement with the Magdalen Laundries’ was published yesterday by an interdepartmental committee chaired by Martin McAleese found the women were from many backgrounds.

Some were referred by courts, others released on licence from industrial schools before they reached 16 years of age, while some were young women over 16 years of age who had been orphaned or were in abusive or neglectful homes.

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IRELAND
NPR

by Philip Reeves

February 06, 2013

Ireland has expressed regret that thousands of women and young girls held in workhouses run by Catholic nuns were stigmatized by the label “fallen women.” But Prime Minister Enda Kenny did not apologize for the state’s involvement in decades of harsh treatment for women held in 10 Magdalene Laundries. He was reacting to a report that concluded the government oversaw the workhouses.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Johnny Fallon: Enda Kenny must swallow his pride, gather his courage and apologise to the Magdalene survivors

By Johnny Fallon

Wednesday February 06 2013

YESTERDAY was a dark day for Enda Kenny and this government. The failure to give a full and unequivocal apology to the survivors of the Magdalene laundries will haunt them. In time that apology must surely come. Everyone in the country knows that the right time is now.

This is a matter of deep national shame. We have failed as a state and a society in our primary obligation to care for citizens. The laundries were part of an Ireland we would rather forget. An Ireland born out of repressive ideals and dangerous practices enabled by people who consistently turned a blind eye. It was convenient to become convinced of the merits of such systems and it was all too easy to dismiss and abuse those who had no voice and could be shunned.

The part the church and religious orders played in this revolting scheme went against everything Catholicism is supposed to stand for. If Christ had treated Mary Magdalene in the same fashion, scripture and history would be very different. But it is not just a problem we can lay at the door of the church.

No, it’s a problem that involves the state too and this is where Enda Kenny ran into difficulty. We all like to blame someone else; taking responsibility is not an easy thing to do. For too long throughout successive governments these women have been ignored. The state used this system; it participated and enabled it to work. Just like it did in the schools where children were abused.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee to establish the facts of State involvement with the Magdalen Laundries

Senator Martin McAleese’s report confirms what many of us knew already. Thousands of girls and women were placed in Magdalene Laundries throughout the country. Robbed of their liberty, dignity and forced to work in harsh conditions, in many ways they were denied basic human rights.

The most important fact uncovered in this report is that it finally sheds light on how the Irish State played a direct role in forcing children and women into these laundries, finding that 26.5pc of referrals were made by people acting in an official capacity.

These girls and women were sent there by the courts because of prison overcrowding. Some were sent ‘under supervision’ after spending time in industrial schools. Others were sent there by health authorities when foster care placements broke down or when children were simply homeless.

Once again the report forces us to ask questions about Irish society and the complicit role that we played. It reveals that many children were placed there by their families because of a physical or intellectual disability, while others were forced into the laundries for basic discipline or for breaking social mores.

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IRELAND
RTE news

TDs have raised the report on the Magdalene Laundries at Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil this morning.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny said that he had read much of the 1,000-page report last night and it had made harrowing reading.

Mr Kenny said it was important to reflect deeply on the findings and make the appropriate response in two weeks.

Fianna Fáil leader Michael Martin called on the Taoiseach to make an unequivocal apology on behalf of the Government and the State.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Lyndsey Telford and Fionnan Sheahan

Wednesday February 06 2013

TAOISEACH Enda Kenny came under renewed pressure this morning for a state apology to the thousands of Magdalene Laundries women as a UN envoy urged compensation for the victims.

Mr Kenny again refused today to make a full apology to the remaining survivors.

He turned on Sinn Fein in the Dail for demanding an apology, when it has failed to say sorry for IRA atrocities.

The Taoiseach said the report by former Senator Martin McAleese into the Magdalene Laundries “makes for harrowing reading in many respects”.

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By Carl Bunderson

Newark, N.J., Feb 6, 2013 / 02:02 am (CNA).- The Archdiocese of Newark affirmed its decision to allow a priest accused of abusing a minor to remain in ministry, stressing that they are complying with authorities and prohibiting any interaction alone with children.

“We have not received any complaints from the prosecutor’s office…since Father has been back in ministry,” said Jim Goodness, the archdiocesan communications director.

“We’re doing exactly what we’re supposed to be doing,” he told CNA on Feb. 5.

On Nov. 21, the Catholic Advocate – the archdiocesan newspaper – announced that Father Michael Fugee had been appointed co-director of the office of Continuing Education and Ongoing Formation of Priests. He had been, and remains, director of the Office of the Propagation of the Faith. Both are positions at the Newark chancery.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

A full apology to former inmates of the Magdalene laundries on behalf of the State would represent a positive start in dealing with a harsh and distressing chapter of Irish life spanning more than 70 years. Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s decision to delay debate on an official report for two weeks is cause for concern, however, because of blunt denials of any responsibility by previous governments. Involvement and collusion by the State has now been placed beyond doubt and an early, compassionate response is required.

An inquiry under the chairmanship of Senator Martin McAleese has confirmed extensive official State involvement with the laundries while attempting to dispel public misconceptions and place the institutions in the social context of the time. He considered a wholly inaccurate link between the laundries and “fallen women” as the reason many inmates had declined to detail their experiences. Memories of those women who did come forwards were, however, generally negative.

Allegations of sexual abuse were not made against the sisters and the ill-treatment, physical punishment and abuse prevalent in industrial schools were not repeated. There were complaints of mental, rather than physical, cruelty. Laundries were “cold, with a rigid and uncompromising regime of physically demanding work and prayer”. Former inmates spoke of being exploited; of a deep sense of hurt at being locked up; of being denied their names and refused information on when they would be allowed leave.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

MARIE O’HALLORAN

Taoiseach Enda Kenny refused to be drawn on a Sinn Féin demand that he apologise to women held in the Magdalene laundries rather than try to put a “positive blas” on what happened.

Mr Kenny told Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald about the just-published Government-commissioned report: “Far from jumping to conclusions, everybody should read this report carefully and reflect on it deeply.”

It will be debated in the Dáil in a fortnight’s time.

He praised the courage of the women who came forward to tell their story to Senator Martin McAleese and his team and said “the stigma that the branding together of all 10,000 residents in the Magdalene laundries needs to be removed and should have been removed long before this and I really am sorry that that never happened”.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

MIRIAM LORD

Dáil Sketch: The stage was set for Enda Kenny. Enda – the emotional Taoiseach, the sympathiser and the empathiser. This is his territory, and he’s good at it.

Everyone knew that a question about the Magdalene laundries would come up during Leaders’ Questions. Everyone expected Enda Kenny to deliver the reply the country wanted, for so long, to hear. Why? Because the Taoiseach’s innate decency and humanity shines through on these occasions. He doesn’t put it on for effect. His sincerity never comes across as contrived. People respect that, and appreciate it.

So there was a certain expectation when he rose to answer Mary Lou McDonald’s question in the wake of the publication of the Magdalene laundries report: “When does the Taoiseach propose to offer – on all our behalves and that of the State – a full apology to these women?”

Enda would speak for all the people who are ashamed and embarrassed and angry by what was done to vulnerable people in State and religious run institutions during harsher and less tolerant times.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

JOE HUMPHREYS

Women admitted to Magdalene laundries described to the committee the “harsh and physically demanding” conditions in which they worked, with routine punishments for slacking or breaking silence during work.

“The overwhelming majority . . . described verbal abuse and being the victim of unkind or hurtful taunting and belittling comments,” the committee found.

While a small number of women reported physical abuse, many more said they were subjected to “mental cruelty”. One of the biggest grievances was “complete lack of information about why they were there and when they would get out”.

One woman said: “In our heads, all we could think of is we are going to die here. That was an awful thing to carry.”

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IRELAND
Irish Times

COLIN GLEESON

Decisions made by the State’s health authorities to approve the transfer of a girl or woman to a Magdalene laundry hinged on the fact that such a transfer was “more cost-effective” than making direct provision for her in a State health facility, the report found.

Of the 10,012 women who spent time in a Magdalene laundry since 1922, the routes of entry are known for 8,025. Some 6.8 per cent of these were referred by the health and social services sector, which are defined as referrals by psychiatric hospitals, social workers, health authorities and county and city homes.

The committee found instances where decisions to approve the transfer of “an indigent, homeless, disabled or psychiatrically ill girl or woman to a Magdalene laundry hinged on the fact that such a transfer was more cost-effective than making direct provision for her in a facility operated by the health authorities”.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

HARRY McGEE, Political Correspondent

The Government has ruled out any consideration of a redress scheme or compensation for the survivors of Magdalene laundries until after the Dáil considers the 1,000 page report prepared by a committee chaired by Senator Martin McAleese.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny made no reference to compensation or redress in the course of several statements made to the Dáil yesterday about the report.

While Mr Kenny said he was sorry the stigma faced by laundry “penitents” had not been removed before now, his comments were lambasted by the main Opposition parties and by survivor groups who expressed disbelief that he had refused to issue a formal State apology.

When pressed on this matter later, the Taoiseach’s spokesman said: “I repeat that the Taoiseach, as Taoiseach, has said that no stigma attaches, or should have attached as long as it did. For that he is sorry.”

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IRELAND
Irish Times

JOE HUMPHREYS

A leading academic and researcher on the Magdalene laundries said it was very significant that “nowhere does the report call into question” the testimony of survivors.

James M Smith, associate professor in the English department and Irish studies programme at Boston College, said the committee did “not once call into question any testimony, recollection or memory of any of the survivors; that is an important admission”.

It was “very significant because the State had the option of calling into question” what it had previously depicted as “allegations”, but chose not to do so.

Dr Smith, who is the author of a book on the subject as well as a member of the Justice for Magdalenes advisory committee, said he was disappointed, however, with the Government’s response.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

JUDITH CROSBIE

Family members were responsible for one in 10 women being admitted to Magdalene laundries. Epileptic fits, tuberculosis and a “heart condition” are among the reasons recorded in the laundries’ registers for placement by families. One 13-year-old was put into a laundry in the 1920s by her mother “because of fits”. Her sister took her out after a few days but she was returned a year later.

The youngest girl admitted by her family was just 12, the oldest was 72.

Other non-State routes into the laundries included self-referrals (16.4 per cent), referrals by priests (8.8 per cent) and by charity groups or other organisations and individuals.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

GENEVIEVE CARBERY

Some 8.1 per cent of the women and girls who entered the Magdalene laundries were referred there from the criminal justice system, the interdepartmental committee has found.

Criminal justice referrals included women on remand or on probation, deferred sentences, early or temporary release and referrals after prison.

In his introduction to the committee’s report, Senator Martin McAleese says some women were sent “on foot of criminal convictions ranging from vagrancy and larceny to manslaughter and murder”.

While most referrals had a legislative basis, some much less common informal referrals did not, the report said. These included suspension of sentence on condition of laundry residence.

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IRELAND
BBC News

[with video]

In Ireland, thousands of women who were sent to Magdalene laundries between the 1920s and
1990s are waiting to hear the extent of the Irish government’s involvement.

Girls considered “troubled” or what were then called “fallen women” were sent to the Catholic-run workhouses by families or the courts.

Maureen Sullivan was sent to a Magdalene laundry in New Ross, County Wexford, at the age of 12. She said the women there were treated “worse than prisoners”.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

DAN GRIFFIN

Patricia Burke Brogan joined the Sisters of Mercy to help the poor, but after working briefly in Galway’s Magdalene laundry she decided to leave the order and write about what she had witnessed.

In doing so she became one of the first writers to tackle the subject, with a short story and then in the 1980s with a play. At the time most theatres rejected it as too controversial. “One theatre director wrote back and said: ‘Do you know what you’re saying?’,” she said.

She encountered the laundry on Forster Street as a 21-year-old novitiate doing substitute work. She remembers on her first day being “brought down this long, brown corridor and every time we went through doors they were locked behind”.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

PAMELA DUNCAN

The report on State involvement in the Magdalene laundries cost just over €11,000, compared with €168 million spent on four statutory inquiries preceding it.

The Ferns inquiry cost €2.3 million, the Murphy and Cloyne reports €3.6 million and €1.9 million respectively in 2011. More than €160 million has been paid in legal fees relating to the Ryan report.

The interdepartmental committee was set up in July 2011 by the Government to establish State involvement in 10 Magdalene laundries.

Chaired by Senator Martin McAleese, it looked at records from four religious orders – the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, the Religious Sisters of Charity, and the Sisters of Mercy. All records were “opened fully and without restriction” to the committee.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Sisters of Our Lady of Charity , St Mary’s Refuge, High Park, Grace Park Road, Drumcondra, Dublin.

Monastery of Our Lady of Charity, Seán MacDermott Street, (formerly Gloucester Street), Dublin.

Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy

Magdalen Asylum / Home, 47 Forster Street, Galway.

St Patrick’s Refuge, Crofton Road, Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

GENEVIEVE CARBERY

The interdepartmental committee did not have the “discretion” to extend its mandate beyond the included 10 Magdalene laundries, it said in its report yesterday.

Submissions were made to the committee arguing for the inclusion of four other institutions: St Mary’s Stanhope Street in Dublin, Summerhill in Wexford, Bethany Home in Rathgar, Dublin and Newtownforbes Industrial School in Co Longford.

‘Matter for Government’

Any extension of the committee’s mandate was a “matter for Government” and requests were passed on to the Minister for Justice for consideration, the committee said. “No additions were subsequently made by the Government,” it said.

The committee “understood the desire” of individuals and groups to draw its attention to other institutions and “heard all such submissions”. It was not able to look at other institutions based on their having attached laundry facilities, it said.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

ÁINE McMAHON

The long-awaited report into the Magdalene laundries made headlines around the world when it was published yesterday afternoon.

The Financial Times reported: “No apology for Magdalene laundry inmates.” The BBC website used the headline: “Irish PM: Magdalene laundries product of harsh Ireland.”

‘Enslavement’

A tweet from the BBC breaking news Twitter account earlier that day noted: “Irish PM apologises for conditions in #Magdalene laundries, workhouses where thousands of women were locked up from 1922 to 1996.”

The Guardian’s website covered the story under the heading: “Magdalene laundries: Ireland accepts state guilt in scandal. McAleese report finds police also bore responsibility in ‘enslavement’ of more than 30,000 women in institutions.”

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IRELAND
Irish Times

STEPHEN COLLINS and HARRY McGEE

A political row has erupted over the refusal of Taoiseach Enda Kenny to issue a full apology to the women who spent time in the Magdalene laundries, despite the fact that more than a quarter were sent there by the State.

The official report published yesterday of an interdepartmental committee chaired by Martin McAleese found the women were from many backgrounds. Some were referred by courts, others released on licence from industrial schools before they reached 16 years of age, while some were young women over 16 years of age who had been orphaned or were in abusive or neglectful homes.

The report, which investigated 10 Magdalene laundries run by four congregations found that:

* The number of women who spent time in laundries since 1922 was 10,012;

* Some 2,124 referrals were made or facilitated by the State – 26.5 per cent of the total;

* The average age at the time of entry was 23.8 years;

* The age of the youngest known entrant was nine and the oldest 89;

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
KPCC

Mike Roe | February 5th, 2013

The Los Angeles Archdiocese, amidst dealing with the latest in the ongoing fallout of how it handle priest molestation cases, is looking at a possible $200 million fundraising campaign, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The company Guidance in Giving out of New York was reportedly hired to study whether this campaign to help the $80 million in debt archdiocese was feasible, following 2007’s $600 million settlement with more than 500 alleged priest abuse victims.

The study is set to take six months and includes interviews with all of the archdiocese’s pastors, plus lay leaders, the Times reports. A church spokesman said that early feedback was “very positive,” according to the Times.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

By Philip Pullella

ROME | Tue Feb 5, 2013

(Reuters) – The Vatican’s new sexual crimes prosecutor on Tuesday acknowledged that the U.S. media “did a service” to the Catholic Church through its aggressive reporting on child abuse that helped the Church “confront the truth”.

The rare acknowledgement came from Father Robert Oliver, a canon lawyer from the U.S. diocese of Boston, speaking at his first public appearance since becoming the Vatican’s “Promoter of Justice” last week.

“I think that certainly those who continued to put before us that we need to confront this problem did a service,” he said in response to a question on whether the role of an aggressive American media was, in hindsight, a blessing for the Church.

“They (the media) helped to keep the energy, if you will, to keep the movement going so that we would, honestly and with transparency, and with our strength, confront what is true,” he told a news conference.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

In the midst of renewed public outrage over its handling of the priest molestation cases, the Los Angeles Archdiocese is considering a $200-million fund-raising campaign.

The archdiocese has hired a New York company, Guidance in Giving, to study the feasibility of a capital campaign that would shore up the church’s finances.

The archdiocese is $80 million in debt, according to a recent church financial report. In 2007, the archdiocese agreed to a record $600-million settlement with more than 500 alleged victims of priest abuse.

The consultants conducting the six-month study are interviewing every pastor in the archdiocese, as well as lay leaders.

A spokesman for the church said initial feedback has been “very positive.” The funds used would “be put into various endowments earmarked to support the pastoral priorities of the archdiocese, as well as for the general repair and upkeep of our parish churches and schools,” spokesman Tod Tamberg said in a statement.

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NEW MEXICO
ABQ Journal

By Mike Gallagher / Journal Investigative Reporteron Sun, Feb 3, 2013

A leading Zen Buddhist spiritual leader and teacher sexually abused female students in New Mexico and California for more than 50 years under the guise of Zen teachings, an independent commission of Buddhist leaders has concluded.

The allegations against 105-year-old Joshu Sasaki Roshi (“Roshi” roughly translates to “master”) range from fondling adult female students’ breasts to sexual intercourse during one-on-one study sessions over many years.

The allegations came up time and again beginning in the 1960s and critics, including former followers, say the misconduct was covered up.

Since arriving in the United States from Japan in the early 1960s, Sasaki and his followers established Zen Buddhist centers and retreat houses in Los Angeles, Mount Baldy outside Los Angeles, Albuquerque, Jemez Springs and more than 25 locations throughout the United States, Canada and Europe.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Leslie Keegan: There must be an apology to the Magdelen Laundry survivors and appropriate redress

Tuesday February 05 2013

IN June 2011 the United Nations Committee against torture in its 46th Session criticised Ireland for failing to protect girls and women who were involuntarily confined between 1922 and 1996.

It also criticised Ireland for its failure to regulate and inspect the operations of these institutions where it is alleged that physical abuse, emotional abuse and other acts of ill-treatment were committed.

It recommended that Ireland should introduce prompt, independent and thorough investigations into all complaints of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment committed in the Magdalen Laundries.

In appropriate cases it should prosecute and punish the perpetrators. It also recommended that the State should ensure that all victims obtain redress and have an enforceable right to compensation. This led to the setting up of the McAleese Inquiry which has resulted in the publication of a 1,000 page report.

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IRELAND
CBS News

[with video]

Hard labor, enforced silence, and imprisonment – that was the sentence for more than 10,000 young Irish women sent off to the church-run Magdelen Laundries between 1922 and 1996, a dark chapter in Irish history that Steve Kroft reported on for 60 Minutes in January 1999.

“The women had been virtual prisoners,” Kroft reported. “Confined behind convent walls for perceived sins of the flesh, condemned to a life of servitude.”

Today there was a significant development in the case when the Irish government issued a report acknowledging, for the first time, that the state was directly involved in the laundries, having sent as many as one quarter of the women to these institutions – most of them in their twenties, but at least one as young as age 9.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

ROME (CNS) — The Catholic Church’s efforts to prevent clerical sexual abuse and protect children around the world will be “a long-term effort,” said Father Robert W. Oliver, a Boston priest who began work Feb. 1 as the promoter of justice in the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith.

“All of us — every single person has difficulty coming to understand what this really is and how prevalent it is in our societies across the world,” said Father Oliver, whose position includes monitoring and investigating cases of priests accused of sex abuse.

When one first hears of a case of abuse, he said, “every single one of us begins with denial,” which is why the entire church, at all levels, must make a concerted effort to educate its members about the reality of abuse and the best practices for protecting children.

Speaking at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University Feb. 5, Father Oliver said the conference that the university and several Vatican offices sponsored last year for bishops and for superiors of religious orders was an important step forward, as is the pilot project for an online prevention and child protection course being run by the Gregorian-based Center for Child Protection.

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VATICAN CITY
Religion News Service

Alessandro Speciale | Feb 5, 2013

VATICAN CITY (RNS) In his first public appearance since arriving in Rome, the new Vatican prosecutor for sexual abuse cases in the Catholic Church praised the media’s role in uncovering the scandal.

American priest Robert W. Oliver was chosen in December by Pope Benedict XVI to replace the Rev. Charles J. Scicluna as “promoter of justice” at the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith after Scicluna was appointed a bishop in Malta.

At a press conference on Tuesday (Feb. 5) at the Gregorian University in Rome, Oliver — who took up his post on Feb. 1 — acknowledged the “service” of those who “continue to put before us that we need to confront this problem.”

“They helped to keep the energy … the movement going so that we would honestly and with transparency and with our strength confront what is true,” he said.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
KPCC

p.m.: Detectives will review recently released clergy abuse files from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles to see if there’s evidence of criminal activity by church authorities, including failure to report child abuse to law enforcement, Police Department officials said Tuesday.

Police will focus on the cases of about a dozen previously investigated priests and are auditing those past probes to make sure nothing was missed, said Cmdr. Andrew Smith. The department will also look at the files for all 122 priests that were made public Thursday by court order after the archdiocese fought for five years to keep them sealed, he said.

Thousands of pages of secret confidential files kept by the archdiocese on priests accused of molesting children show recently retired Cardinal Roger Mahony and other top archdiocese officials shielded priests to protect the church, thwarted police investigations and repeatedly did not report child sex abuse to the authorities.

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IRELAND
RTE News

The committee investigating State involvement with the Magdalene Laundries has found that 26.5% of known admissions of women and girls were facilitated by the State.

They were sent there by court order, gardaí, social services or under supervision after leaving industrial or reformatory schools.

An estimated 11,500 women passed through ten institutions between 1922 and 1996.

The report of the Inter-Departmental Committee to establish the facts of State involvement with the Magdalene Laundries was published today.

The committee, chaired by Dr Martin McAleese, found the environment in the laundries was harsh and involved physically demanding work, which produced a traumatic and lasting impact on the girls.

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IRELAND
The Journal

CYNICAL. BIZARRE. BAFFLING. Disappointing. Disingenuous. Horrifying. Inept. Half-hearted. Shameful.

Those are just some of the words used today to describe Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s response to the Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee to establish the facts of State involvement with the Magdalen Laundries.

Survivors and advocacy groups expressed their disappointment at his failure to offer a full and official apology in the wake of Senator Martin McAleese confirming there was direct State involvement in the system.

“That is not an apology,” was a phrase expressed multiple times at two separate press conferences, held by Magdalene Survivors Together and the Justice for Magdalenes group, in Dublin’s city centre.

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IRELAND
The Journal

THE REPORT of the inter-departmental committee into the State’s role in Magdalene Laundries includes a section devoted to the first-hand accounts of survivors who spoke to the committee about their experiences.

Among those who gave oral evidence to the committee, and whose quotes appear below, are women represented by the Irish Women’s Survivor’s Network, Magdalene Survivors Together, Justice for Magdalenes, women who live in nursing homes under the care of the orders who ran their Laundries, and women who approached the inquiry alone.

The report acknowledges that there were “many other women who have not felt able to share their experience of the Magdalene Laundries with it, or indeed with anyone” – and respected the right

The report admits that the oral accounts presented to it are biased because of the passage of time, which meant that women admitted to Laundries in earlier decades were no longer around to share their experiences.

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IRELAND
Wall Street Journal

By JEANNE WHALEN

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny apologized for the harsh conditions suffered by generations of women forced to work in so-called Magdalen Laundries, after a report found that the state helped finance the church-run workhouses and steered women into them.

Roughly 10,000 women spent time in the laundries between 1922 and the closing of the last one in 1996, working in “harsh and physically demanding” conditions for no pay, the report said. State institutions, including courts, hospitals and social services, were involved in referring about a quarter of these women to the laundries, the report found.

“To those residents who went into the Magdalen Laundries through a variety of ways—26% of them from state involvement—I am sorry for those people that they lived in that kind of environment,” Mr. Kenny told Ireland’s parliament on Tuesday. “I admire their courage for speaking out” to the committee that compiled the report, he said.

The report challenged some long-held beliefs about the laundries, which were first established in Ireland in the 18th century, largely by Catholic religious orders such as the Sisters of Mercy, though the report notes that some were Protestant.

Despite widespread beliefs that the laundries mostly housed women who bore children out of wedlock or who worked as prostitutes, young women entered the institutions by a variety of paths, the report found. Some were referred by the courts after being convicted of crimes—largely petty crimes such as vagrancy and larceny, but on occasion, manslaughter or murder. Some had been kicked out of their homes, had been orphaned or were suffering abuse at home. Others were simply poor or homeless “and either voluntarily sought shelter” at the laundries or were referred by social services, Sen. Martin McAleese, chairman of the committee that compiled the report, wrote in an introduction to the document.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture

By Dr. Jeff Mirus February 05, 2013

That I believe Catholic bishops have no justification for recycling priests guilty of sexual abuse is clear from yesterday’s essay, Cardinal Mahony’s Therapeutic Excuses. But this does not mean there is nothing to be said on the other side. Let me list some of the ancillary concerns. They are not necessarily related to each other, and I do not intend to treat them in detail.

•Priests as people: I once knew a priest who was an abuser. He felt as if he were caught in a net he could not escape. It constantly weighed him down. Bishops have (or certainly ought to have) a fatherly and/or brotherly concern for their priests. The desire to “redeem” the priest must be very strong, along with the natural hope for rehabilitation.

•First-time mistakes: Without prior experience, it may be difficult not to be swayed by expert opinion or common practice the first time a bishop must deal with the problem. In reality, the recidivism of abusers should have been well-known in many Catholic dioceses by, say, 1950 (if not earlier). But so should it have been known to the experts, except the whole problem was hushed up and glossed over everywhere, before the sexual revolution. Bishops who were badly burned for their handling of sexual abuse should have had experience and documentation to rely on from their predecessors.

•Problematic evidence: Realistically, sex abuse is difficult to substantiate, and abusers are often effective dissemblers. A certain reticence in believing unsubstantiated claims is understandable; a lack of such reticence can destroy a good priest. Handling the complaint, rumor and report pipeline is not necessarily simple.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Blaine on February 05, 2013

The LA school district needs to thoroughly and independently investigate the hiring of a pedophile priest, Jose Piña.

Piña, who was credibly accused of abusing kids in the 1970’s, and was defrocked by the church in 2006. Shortly after that, he got a job working in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Because no criminal charges were ever filed, Piña was able to avoid being forced to register as a sex offender. His story, however, was well covered in the media.

If indeed the district was told about the child sex allegations against him, someone should be fired. The investigation should also look at who saw news accounts of Piña’s suspension and didn’t follow through and kept him on the payroll.

At the same time, however, Superintendent John Deasy should be praised for agreeing to check his/her employees list against lists of proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesters in the Catholic archdiocese and Scouting. By taking this step, Deasy is making sure that a situation like the one with Piña is far less likely to occur.

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IRELAND
An Phoblacht

TAOISEACH Enda Kenny’s refusal to issue a public apology immediately on the publication of the report on Tuesday afternoon by Senator Martin McAleese into the state’s involvement in the Magdalene Laundries has disappointed campaigners.

Thousands of women were used as unpaid labour in ten laundries operated by religious orders with the knowledge, compliance and active support of the state.

Of the 10,000 who went through the laundries’ doors from 1922 to 1996 – often because of poverty or family break-up but for many reasons – one in four was referred by the state, including the courts. State agencies gave contracts to the laundries. The Garda and Government colluded with the system.

Speaking in the Dáil on the publication of the report, Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald TD (right) said she is seriously disappointed with the Taoiseach’s statement to the Dáil, which even RTÉ described as “a qualified sorry” to the survivors of the laundries, estimated to be less than a thousand.

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IRELAND
Deutsche Welle

A probe in Ireland has found that the state was complicit in the “Magdalene laundries,” where thousands of women were subjected to forced labor until 1996. Ireland’s premier has expressed sympathy to the victims.

Irish governments referred more than a quarter of the estimated 10,000 women and girls sent to Ireland’s Magdalene laundries over a period of seven decades, according to a report released on Tuesday. Previously, the state had denied involvement in what it had described as private institutions run by several Catholic orders of nuns. …

The women who had been sent to these institutions were portrayed over the years as “fallen women.” However, Tuesday’s reported sought to dispel the idea that many of the victims were prostitutes or mothers who then gave birth within the confines of the institutions, saying that “the reality was much more complex.”

Referrals fell into the two main categories, the report found. Non-state entities, including Industrial Schools, agencies and families, accounted for cases in which women were forced to live and work in a Magdalene laundry without being told why or for what duration they were to stay.

By contrast, the criminal justice system and social services stipulated both the reason and the sentencing.

“The majority … described the atmosphere in the [laundries] as cold, with a rigid and uncompromising regime of physically demanding work and prayer, with many instances of verbal censure, scoldings or even humiliating put downs,” the introduction to the report said.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Sarah Stack

Tuesday February 05 2013

MAUREEN SULLIVAN is the youngest known survivor admitted to one of the Magdalen laundries.

She was an innocent 12-year-old child when taken from her school in Co Carlow and put in the Good Shepherd Magdalen Laundry in New Ross, Co Wexford, because her father died and mother remarried.

Ms Sullivan said she was told that this place would further her education, but she never saw her schoolbooks again.

For 48 years she had been haunted by memories of a lost childhood and slave labour and is demanding a full apology from the Government and religious orders for stealing her education, name, identity and life.

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IRELAND
Washington Post

By Jamie Smyth | Financial Times

Tuesday, February 5

DUBLIN — The inscription above the door claims it was a place of refuge. But for Margaret Bullen and thousands like her, the Magdalene laundry on Sean McDermott Street in Dublin’s city center was a prison and a workhouse.

In 1967, a 16-year-old Bullen was sent to the laundry, which was run by nuns, from an industrial school for neglected children. She did not leave until it closed in 1996. She remained institutionalized until she died in 2003 and was buried in a communal grave.

“It was white slavery,” said Samantha Long, one of the twin daughters who were taken from Bullen by the nuns and put up for adoption. “Margaret never got paid and wasn’t allowed to leave. There was never enough food, just enough to keep them working.”

For more than a decade, the Irish government has denied responsibility for the 10 Magdalene laundries across the country, which were operated by religious orders from the 19th century until the mid-1990s.

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IRELAND
The National

Omar Karmi

Feb 6, 2013

LONDON //A government panel in Ireland has found “significant” state involvement with workhouses run by the Roman Catholic church that have been singled out for mistreating tens of thousands of women over a period of 70 years.

The panel’s report yesterday prompted an immediate but qualified apology from Enda Kenny, the Irish prime minister, who said he was “sorry for the conditions” in which those women had lived.

But during an initial debate in the Irish parliament, he stopped short of offering a full official apology, as had been called for by campaigners, and cautioned against “glib” comments about a report that he said should be studied and would be debated again in two weeks.

Since 2001, the Irish government has conceded that women were abused in the Magdalene laundries but held that, since they were privately run, there was no state responsibility.

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IRELAND
Gazette

Survivors of Catholic run workhouses in Ireland have rejected a government apology for the incarceration of thousands of women in the Magdalene laundries.

As an inquiry found 2,124 of those detained in the institutions were sent there by the state, campaigners accused Taoiseach Enda Kenny of a “cop out”.

Records have confirmed that 10,012 women spent time in the laundries between 1922 and 1996. Justice for Magdalenes and Magdalene Survivors Together claimed thousands of women forced into slavery and torture deserved a full state apology and compensation.

Mari Steed, whose mother Josephine Murphy was in a laundry in Sunday’s Well, Cork when she was adopted by a family in America, described the Government’s response as horrifying, saying: “What we witnessed today was absolutely shameful, I can’t recall ever been so angry.”

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NEW JERSEY
New Jersey Newsroom

BY BOB HOLT
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

A Newark priest who has been barred from having unsupervised contact with children has been named co-director of the Office of Continuing Education and Ongoing Formation of Priests.

Archbishop of Newark John Myers announced the appointment of 52-year old Rev. Michael Fugee, who was charged with criminal sexual contact and child endangerment for allegedly fondling a 13-year-old boy in 2001.

In 2002, American bishops reached an agreement called the Dallas Charter, which removes all priests credibly accused of sexually abusing children. According to NorthJersey.com, David Clohessy, executive director of the Survivor Network of Those Abused by Priests said, “I think it’s a clear violation of the Dallas Charter, not to mention simple common sense and decency.”

But he said the Catholic Church had not enforced the charter evenly.

According to patheos.com, the decision to convict Fugee was reversed on a technicality. A Bergen County jury heard Fugee describe himself as bisexual or homosexual, and the appeals court said that statement could have led to a conviction because of the “unfounded association between homosexuality and pedophilia.” Instead of being retried, Fugee was placed in a rehab program for first-time sex offenders, and barred from being alone with children for the rest of his life.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
The Legal Examiner

Nick Kahl
Attorney

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles posted files concerning child-abusing priests on its website—more than 12,000 pages of documents—after being order to do so by the Federal Court.

In a letter to the faithful, Archbishop Jose Gomez addressed the release of documents, and the failures of his predecessors to protect the children of the parish. Archbishop Gomez veered widely from the standard Church language by acknowledging “The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil. There is no excuse, no explaining away what happened to these children.”

However, the National Catholic Reporter is not satisfied with the response, taking Archbishop Gomez to task in an editorial decrying his “we didn’t know” defense. Some within the clergy are also not satisfied, and are speaking up on behalf of saddened, disillusioned parishioners.

The release of these files demonstrates that the tragedy here is manifold.

It is tragic for the victims of abuse and their families. But, it is also tragic for all the faithful that the institution of the church showed great concern for protecting the institution qua institution — and no concern for protecting the very people that the church exists to nurture, guide, and protect.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
LA Daily News

By Barbara Jones Staff Writer
dailynews.com
Posted: 02/05/2013

LAPD detectives who investigate sex-abuse cases are combing through the newly released files of scores of problem priests to determine whether any of the cases can be prosecuted, authorities said Tuesday.

The department’s Sexually Exploited Child Unit has joined with prosecutors in poring over some 12,000 pages of documents disclosed under court order by the Los Angeles Archdiocese.

“We have copies of the list and we’re going through the names, comparing them to cases we have to see if there’s anything new or different,” said Cmdr. Andrew Smith, the chief spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department.

Smith said detectives are in contact with the District Attorney’s Office, which previously said it is reviewing the files of 124 priests identified in litigation as having sexually abused children.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
The Worthy Adversary

Statement by Joelle Casteix of Newport Beach, SNAP Volunteer Western Regional Director

To put it simply: this is what victims have fought for all along.

The only way to stop the cycle of child sex abuse and cover-up is to punish child predators and anyone who covers up for them. Empty apologies by bishops and promises of prayers do nothing to keep children safe or help victims heal. Vigorous police investigations and criminal prosecutions do.

LA’s victims of child sexual abuse by clergy have fought for more than eight years to get these files publicly released. They did that for two reasons: to alert the public about past crimes and help law enforcement prosecute criminals who are within the statute of limitations. It is our hope that this investigation by the LAPD puts wrongdoers behind bars. It is also our hope that any police investigation exposes other predators still under the protection of the Archdiocese and secret files that have yet to be turned over.

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IRELAND
The Journal

THE COUNTRY’S largest trade union has called for the survivors of abuse at Magdalene Laundries to be given financial compensation in return for their forced labour.

SIPTU made the call following the publication of a report by an inter-departmental committee outlining major State involvement in the Laundries, including a direct State role in the admission of over 2,000 women.

The union’s equality and campaigns organiser Ethel Buckley said the scale of abuse that took place at the Laundries could “no longer be denied”.

“The mental anguish these women and their families endured can never be undone,” she said.

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IRELAND
The Journal

MAGDALENE LAUNDRIES BARELY broke even and were not run on a commercial or even profitable basis, the report by Senator Martin McAleese has said.

The report notes that despite a common perception that the laundries were highly profitable, this was rarely the case.

It found that laundries would have been unable to survive financially if they had not received income through donations, bequests and financial support from the State.

The figures were reached by using records from the time which were kept by the religious organisations involved in the laundries and which were given to the investigating committee behind the report.

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IRELAND
CBS News

DUBLIN Ireland has admitted some responsibility for workhouses run by Catholic nuns that once kept thousands of women and teenage girls against their will in unpaid, forced labor.

The apology comes after an expert panel found that Ireland should be legally responsible for the defunct Magdalene Laundries because authorities committed about one-quarter of the 10,012 women to the workhouses from 1922 to 1996, often in response to school truancy or homelessness.

“To those residents who went through the Magdalene Laundries in a variety of ways, 26 percent of the time from state involvement, I am sorry for those people that they lived in that kind of environment,” said Prime Minister Enda Kenny on behalf of the Irish government, according to Reuters.

Survivors said they were unsatisfied with the prime minister’s response. Steven O’Riordan, spokesperson for Magdalene Survivors Together, told Irish paper The Journal the apology was a “cop out.”

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IRELAND
Irish Times

“I was about 14 years old. You would get up very early, the van men brought it in. You’d check the customer of the dirty laundry, mark it and put it in baskets… We had to leave the room when the van men came. It was repetition all the time.”

“I thought I’d be there for life and die in there. I was frightened.”

“I was a young virgin, I don’t know why I was put there.”

“Two ladies were standing there [on admission], not nuns but dressed in navy. I was left with those two [then ordered to remove clothing and stand on a stool before being] punched by one of them, one side to another.”

“You couldn’t speak and needed permission for the toilet… The recreation time you were making beads and aran sweaters.”

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IRELAND
BBC News

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny has apologised for the stigma and conditions suffered by women who were inmates of the Magdalene laundries.

Mr Kenny said the laundries had operated in a “harsh and uncompromising Ireland,” but he stopped short of a formal apology from the government.

About 10,000 women passed through the laundries in the Irish Republic between 1922 and 1996, a report has revealed.

The laundries were Catholic-run workhouses that operated in Ireland.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Ed Carty

Tuesday February 05 2013

RELIGIOUS orders which operated the Magdalene laundries have insisted that they believe their role was to provide care and refuge.

The Sisters of Mercy, which ran institutions in Galway and Dun Laoghaire, said it accepts the “limitations of the care” it provided.

“Their institutional setting was far removed from the response considered appropriate to such needs today. We wish that we could have done more and that it could have been different,” the order said.

“It is regrettable that the Magdalene homes had to exist at all.

“Our sisters worked in the laundries with the women and, while times and conditions were harsh and difficult, some very supportive, lifelong friendships emerged and were sustained for several decades.”

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IRELAND
Corkman

Tuesday February 05 2013

Nuns who ran the Magdalene laundries were given a sympathetic hearing as the inquiry team noted their profound hurt over the years of public debate.

The investigation committee reported that the four religious orders in charge of workhouses regret any pain caused to women routinely stripped of their identities when locked up.

In their defence the report repeated claims from nuns involved that they did the best they could to care for the residents.

“Their position is that they responded in practical ways as best they could, in keeping with the charism of their congregations, to the fraught situations of the sometimes marginalised girls and women sent to them, by providing them with shelter, board and work,” the report said.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
LAist

In the wake of the recent release of a set of files held by the Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese detailing child abuse at the hands of clergy comes word the Los Angeles Police Department will be giving the material a look to see if there are any cases to be prosecuted.

Detectives are in the process of reviewing the files to ascertain what’s contained therein and if there are any possible violations of laws, and if those instances fall within the statute of limitations, according to L.A. Now.

The likelihood, however, of any cases stemming from this material is slim, because the law “only allows the prosecution of incidents since 1988,” and “many of the files appear to pre-date that year.”

The LAPD will be taking a look exclusively at priests mentioned in the files who are or were based in Los Angeles. The files detail allegations made against 122 priests, as well as the measures the Archdiocese went to in order to keep the accusations within the church and skirt prosecution.

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IRELAND
The Telegraph (United Kingdom)

Survivors of the Magdalene Laundries have rejected an apology from the Irish prime minister about the conditions in the church-run laundries where women and girls toiled.

By Rachel Cooper, and agencies
5:20PM GMT 05 Feb 2013

Enda Kenny, Ireland’s prime minister, said he was sorry thousands of women had to live in austere conditions in the convent-run institutions after a report said the state was responsible for sending many women and girls to the laundries.

“To those residents who went into the Magdalene Laundries through a variety of ways, 26pc from state intervention or state involvement, I am sorry for those people that they lived in that kind of environment,” Mr Kenny said in parliament in Dublin today.

“I want to see that those women who are still with us, anywhere between 800 and 1000 at max, that we should see that the state provides for them with the very best of facilities and supports that they need in their lives.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
National Catholic Reporter

by Tom Roberts | Feb. 5, 2013

A priest from the Milwaukee archdiocese has proposed replacing a talk from retired Cardinal Roger Mahony at a spring meeting of priests with a wide-ranging conference on the priest sex abuse crisis.

Fr. Jim Connell, an advocate for victims of clergy sex abuse, sent an open email to Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki asking for the cardinal’s spot to be given to a range of experts as well as those directly affected by the scandal. Mahony, who was recently publicly rebuked for failing to protect children, is scheduled to give a speech titled “In Christ, There Is No East or West: Embracing Our Diversity and the Social Message of Jesus” during the May 6-8 Spring Assembly of Priests.

Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez relieved Mahony, who retired two years ago as the city’s archbishop, of all of his public and administrative duties upon the Jan. 31 release of approximately 12,000 pages of documents that detail sex abuse by dozens of priests and the attempts by Mahony and others to hide the crimes and protect the priests from detection.

Gomez said he found the files “brutal and painful reading”; their contents, “terribly sad and evil.”

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
KTLA

Los Angeles Police Department detectives who specialize in child sexual abuse cases have begun examining a trove of newly disclosed priest abuse files to determine whether there are cases that can be prosecuted.

Capt. Fabian Lizarraga said detectives “are currently reviewing the [files], to see exactly what we have…. Then we’ll have to see what, if any, laws apply and if they’re within statute,” he said.

Detectives are limited by a law that only allows the prosecution of incidents since 1988. Many of the files appear to pre-date that year.

Lizarraga said the LAPD will be focusing specifically Los Angeles-based priests.

The LAPD decided to launch the review after the Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese last week posted on its website tens of thousands of pages of previously secret personnel files for 122 priests accused of molesting children.

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GERMANY
Spiegel

A German archbishop is under fire for appearing to liken recent criticism of the Catholic Church to a Nazi-era pogrom. The cleric, Gerhard Ludwig Müller, had said that “targeted discrimination campaigns” against the church sometimes reminded him of a “pogrom sentiment.”

The doctrinal watchdog of the Catholic church, German Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller, has run into criticism from politicians for saying the church was being subjected to a “pogrom sentiment” because of its position on the ordination of women, same-sex partnerships and the celibacy of priests.

In an interview with the newspaper Die Welt published on Friday, the archbishop said: “Targeted discreditation campaigns against the Catholic Church in North America and also here in Europe have led to clerics in some areas being insulted in public. An artifcially created fury is growing here which sometimes reminds one of a pogrom sentiment.”

Müller was appointed last year as head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a position Pope Benedict XVI occupied for 24 years before his election to the papacy.

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IRELAND
ITV

The majority of women forced into Magdalene laundries were there for minor offences such as theft and not paying for a train ticket.

A small number of women were there for prostitution – despite the stigma attached to those who were sent to the laundries and became known as Maggies, a slang term for prostitute.

The report also confirmed that a garda could arrest a girl or a woman without warrant if she was being recalled to the laundry or if she had run away.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Caitriona Palmer

Tuesday February 05 2013

TO account for a missing decade of her life, 79-year-old Josephine Murphy uses a comforting euphemism: she tells friends and family that between 1947 and 1957 she was simply, “with the nuns”.

A product of Ireland’s industrial school system, Josephine is a formidable character. A tiny woman with a steely interior, her back-breaking work ethic is the product of nearly three decades spent in Ireland’s gulag. This remarkable woman has suffered personal tragedies that would have left most human beings inconsolable.

As a child, Murphy – not her real name – was taken from her unmarried mother and sent to live in an industrial school in Waterford. As a naive 26-year-old, after a life spent in institutions, Josephine fell pregnant and was put in a mother-and-baby home in Bessboro, Cork city.

There she gave birth to a little girl, a baby she adored for 18 months before the child was taken from her by the nuns and sent to live with another family in America.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Amnesty International

Posted: 05 February 2013

Amnesty International has issued a call for former residents of Magdalene Laundry-type institutions in Northern Ireland to come forward to report their experiences to the Historic Institutional Abuse Inquiry.

But the human rights group warned that there was now a clear “justice gap” emerging for women who experienced abuse in such institutions in Northern Ireland.

On the day that the Irish Government published a review showing state involvement in the operation of ten Magdalene Laundries in the Republic of Ireland, Amnesty called for women who had been resident in similar institutions in Northern Ireland to consider giving evidence to the Historic Institutional Abuse Inquiry recently established by the Stormont government.

Patrick Corrigan, Northern Ireland Programme Director of Amnesty International, said:

“The truth must now also emerge about the experiences of abuse suffered by girls and women in Magdalene Laundry-type institutions in Northern Ireland, which operated until 1977. Those who suffered abuse as children are now eligible to come forward to the Inquiry, recently established by the Northern Ireland Executive, and we would encourage them to consider doing so. 165 people have now registered with the Inquiry, and 61 of them have already described their experiences to the Acknowledgement Forum.

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IRELAND
Breaking News

Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee to establish the facts of State involvement with the Magdalen Laundries

Survivors of the Magdalene Laundry have quickly rejected the Taoiseach’s apology, and demanded a fuller and more frank admission from government and the religious orders involved.

Maureen Sullivan, Magdalene Survivors Together, said: “That is not an apology.

“He is the Taoiseach of our country, he is the Taoiseach of the Irish people, and that is not a proper apology.”

Mary Smyth said she endured inhumane conditions in a laundry, which she said was worse than being in prison.

“I will go to the grave with what happened. It will never ever leave me,” said Ms Smyth, also of the group.

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