MASSACHUSETTS
Standard-Times

January 14, 2021

By Kiernan Dunlop

https://www.southcoasttoday.com/story/news/crime/2021/01/14/attorney-garabedian-diocese-list-priests-accused-abuse-fall-river-new-bedford-taunton-victims-minors/4149456001/

The sheer number of names on the Diocese of Fall River’s list of clergy credibly or publicly accused of sexual abuse of a minor is shocking on its own, but the list provided little information about when and where the abuse occurred, how many victims there were, and who knew about it.

Additionally although the lists contain 75 names, an attorney for victims of sexual abuse believes it is incomplete.

“I think it's incumbent on the Diocese of Fall River to practice complete accountability and transparency and list church employees such as custodians, lectors, and deacons in addition to religious priests, seminarians, and diocesan priests [in its credibly accused list],” Mitchell Garabedian said.

Garabedian released his own list of credibly accused clergy in January of last year to pressure the diocese to release its list, which it had originally said would be released in spring of 2019, and the attorney’s list included a custodian.

FLORIDA
adamhorowitzlaw.com (law firm blog)

January 14, 2021

In recent years, most New York bishops have set up allegedly “independent” payout programs for victims of clergy abuse. The stated intent of the programs was to obtain “reconciliation” and “healing.” The Catholic Dioceses in New York denied accusations that their real goal was to prevent legislation reforming the statute of limitations and litigation that would reveal duplicity by the Catholic hierarchy.

From the start, we at Horowitz Law, along with many victims and advocates, were cautions if not outright skeptical. We feared that these programs had a different purpose: to stop the civil windows lawmakers were pushing that give suffering victims more chance to expose corrupt clergy in court.

“Bishops want to persuade legislators ‘back off, we’re handling this crisis ourselves’,” we said. “There’s no need for legal reforms by outsiders.”

SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests)

January 14, 2021

https://www.snapnetwork.org/leaked_transcript_plain_reconciliation_programs_aimed_protecting_catholic_church_supporting_survivors_jan21

A recently leaked transcript has added more weight to a fact long suspected to be true – that the Archdiocese of New York had every intention of preventing the passage of the Child Victim’s Act. We are saddened but not surprised by this news, especially given that Catholic officials have spent millions trying to deny victims their day in court.

We have long known that Independent Reconciliation Programs like the one launched by the Archdiocese of New York in 2016 are designed less to support victims than they are to protect the assets and reputation of the Church. There is nothing shocking to us about the comments by Kenneth Feinberg or, according to Mr. Feinberg, the thinking of Cardinal Timothy Dolan. We believe that those very thoughts and opinions have long formed the backbone of the Church’s strategy to appear to be working on behalf of victims when they are really trying to silence them and prevent stories about abuse and cover-up from reaching the public.

SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests)

January 13, 2021

A horrifying report from one of the world’s most Catholic nations is the latest in a series of government-commissioned investigations that demonstrates yet again the Church’s propensity for committing terrible abuses and then working to cover them up. We hope that this shocking report will spur other nations, including the US, into using the full powers of their government to investigate cases of wrongdoing within their own borders. We need to lay bare the truths that have long been hidden from the public.

This newly-released report demonstrates that the abuse scandal within the Catholic Church goes beyond the serial sexual abuse of children. This investigation, which studied 18 “Mother and Baby homes,” confirms that, in essence, young unwed mothers were enslaved, berated, tortured and shamed, and many of their children lost to neglect or even outright murder. These homes were managed by institutions of the Catholic Church in concert with the national government and demonstrate the depravity of officials who desire control over women and their bodies.

NEW YORK (NY)
New York Daily News

By Larry McShane

January 14, 2021

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-cva-transcript-church-fund-20210114-fiu2rek6ufc7llqmbqk4aqttky-story.html

An attorney with the Archdiocese of New York suggested the church’s program to compensate childhood sexual abuse victims was intended to blunt the passage of the state’s Child Victims Act, according to a newly revealed transcript of a 2017 call.

ABC News, after obtaining the transcript, reported the archdiocese’s Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program was launched in part to convince legislators there was no need to reopen the statute of limitations on lawsuits seeking damages for victims with decades-old claims.

“We want to be able to show Albany that people are accepting this money and signing releases,” said attorney Kenneth Feinberg in the call about the compensation fund, according to ABC News. “You don’t need to change the statute.”

UNITED KINGDOM
Metro

January 13, 2021

By Emma Kelly

Gabriel Byrne called the priest he accused of sexually abused him in the hopes of confronting him.

The actor opened up about the abuse he suffered as a young boy in the Catholic Church in 2011, alleging that a ‘kind’ priest sexually abused him after he travelled to an English seminary aged 11 to train as a priest.

In his new memoir, Walking with Ghosts, the 70-year-old said that he called the priest, but that the man claimed not to remember him.

According to Page Six, Byrne wrote: ‘I wanted in those last seconds to call him a c*** and say that even though I don’t believe in Hell, I hope he does because I want him to be terrified and burn forever.

IRELAND
Literary Hub

January 11, 2021

By Caelainn Hogan

Caelainn Hogan Traveled the Country to Speak to Survivors

At a random apartment viewing in Dublin a few years ago, the woman moving out, who happened to be born the same year as me, told me she had been adopted as a baby from an institution run by nuns, where “unmarried mothers” were sent in secret. These women were usually forced to work, had their names changed, and were separated from their children. As a millennial whose generation mostly thought these institutions were part of a distant past, she was only beginning to search for answers.

For the last few years, these strangely intimate and sudden revelations have been a part of my life, because almost everyone in Ireland has a story about how these religious-run institutions have affected someone they loved. Sitting hungover with a friend in the sun or asking someone at a shrine for directions, I would suddenly find out they or someone they knew was a survivor of these so-called homes.

The Indian Express

January 15, 2021

By Om Marathe

Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin has apologised for the country's mother and baby homes, where thousands of unmarried mothers and their children were cruelly treated from the 1920s to the 1990s. What happened at these homes?

Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin on Wednesday apologised and expressed remorse for the country’s mother and baby homes, where thousands of unmarried women and their children were cruelly treated from the 1920s to the 1990s.

The apology came after the publication of a long-awaited report into the functioning of these institutions on Tuesday, which found an “appalling level of infant mortality” at 18 such homes that were investigated. The facilities — most of them run by the Roman Catholic Church — housed women who became pregnant out of wedlock, including victims of rape and incest, and also worked as orphanages and adoption centres.

As per the report, around 15 per cent of all children who lived at the homes during the period — roughly 9,000 — died due to brutal living conditions.

IRELAND
Daily Mail

January 13, 2021

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9138905/Damning-report-finds-thousands-unmarried-Irish-mothers-babies-suffered-refuge-homes.html

- In total, 15 percent of the 57,000 children at the 18 institutions investigated by the Mother and Baby Home Commission died between 1922 and 1998

- The report published yesterday said the homes 'provided refuge' for the mothers when they had nowhere else to turn and found that blame 'rests mainly with the fathers of their children and their own immediate families'

- But the women faced appalling emotional torment at the hands of the nuns - forced to work scrubbing floors while being called 'fallen,' 'sinner', 'dirt' and 'spawn of Satan'

- Commission said high death rates among infants 'probably the most disquieting feature of these institutions'

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

January 13, 2021

By Elaine Loughlin

Local and national authorities side-stepped responsibilities and caused confusion, allowing mother and baby homes to operate as they did

The Government knew everything but did nothing.

For the first 50 years after independence, as thousands of infants were left to die in mother and baby homes, the plight of unmarried mothers and their babies was never discussed at Cabinet.

Our local and national authorities conveniently created confusion and uncoordinated governance structures which meant that everyone was responsible but the finger of blame could be pointed at no one.

"Some oversight was exercised by national and local government but there was no clear policy on oversight and no clear demarcation between the roles of national and local government," the commission found.

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

January 12, 2021

By Aoife Moore

Thousands of children died in Ireland's Mother and Baby Homes with no concern from the State or society, the Commission of Investigation has found.

Main points of the report:

- 56,000 women were incarcerated, 5,616 of them under 18. Some were as young as 12

- Approximately 9,000 of the 57,000 babies born in these homes died

- Ireland had the world's highest proportion of women sent to mother & baby homes in the 20th century

- In the 1930s and 1940s, 40% of babies in the institutions died before their first birthdays
75% of the children born in Bessborough in 1943 died in their first year. In that same year, 62% of babies born in the Bethany Home died

IRELAND
BBC News

January 15, 2021

Irish President Michael D Higgins has described what occurred in the country's mother-and-baby homes as a "violation of fundamental rights" of Irish citizens.

The institutions housed women and girls who became pregnant outside marriage in the 19th and 20th Centuries.

A report published on Tuesday found an "appalling level of infant mortality".

"State and Church bear a heavy responsibility for this," said Mr Higgins.

About 9,000 children died in the 18 institutions under investigation.

The Irish government said the report revealed the country had a "stifling, oppressive and brutally misogynistic culture".

IRELAND
The Journal

January 12, 2021

The first-hand testimony from those who were sent to mother and baby homes are included in today’s landmark report.

‘I was told by a nun: “God doesn’t want you… You’re dirt.”‘

“Her mother called her a ‘prostitute and a whore’. Three of her uncles were priests and her parents were worried about how her pregnancy would affect them.”

THE ABOVE ARE just three of the hundreds of accounts from survivors in the long-awaited final report of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation.

The key recommendations from today’s report include a State apology, redress and that access to their birth information should be given to survivors of mother and baby homes.

The commission discovered that about 9,000 children died in the 18 homes under investigation: slightly over one in every seven children who were in the institutions.

IRELAND
BBC-TV

January 12, 2021

The findings of a major investigation into how women and children were treated in Irish mother and baby homes are due to be published.

The investigation began in 2015 after claims emerged that hundreds of babies were buried in a mass, unmarked grave near a home in Tuam, County Galway.

The "Tuam babies" controversy, as it became known, sparked international shock and outrage.

It prompted the Irish government to set up a wide-ranging investigation into the operation of mother and baby homes, in a bid to shed light on the lives and deaths of thousands of former residents.

NEWFOUNDLAND (CANADA)
The Telegram via the Chronicle Herald

January 14, 2021

By Barb Sweet

https://www.thechronicleherald.ca/news/canada/supreme-court-of-canada-decision-in-favour-of-mount-cashel-victims-will-have-sweeping-implications-lawyers-541161/

Even if the monumental decision had gone the other way Thursday for the now elderly victims of sexual assault at the former Mount Cashel orphanage, one John Doe said he would have felt they gave it their best shot.

But instead there was lightness for him that the fight was finally done, and victory was theirs at last.

When the Supreme Court of Canada on Thursday refused to grant the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corp. of St. John’s leave to appeal a civil decision that held it responsible for sexual abuse suffered by boys at the infamous Christian-Brothers-run orphanage during the 1950s and early ‘60s, the retired educator was elated and grateful to the lawyer who had fought for the victims for more than 20 years.

“They were terrific, absolutely terrific. He is absolutely magnificent. (The firm was) always on a mission and they treated us with so much understanding and humanity,” the man said of St. John’s lawyer Geoff Budden. “I am happy for all the boys, the victims.”

The man was one of four John Doe plaintiffs in the case, which represented about 60 clients in total. One of the man’s four brothers who were also victims of abuse died before the decision came out, as did one of the four John Does.

“I am sad for those who have passed away or are no longer with us,” said the retired educator. “(But) it’s a great day for everybody all around, except for the church. They are facing up to their demons."

The retired educator said the Christian Brothers who abused the boys likely saw them as non-entities.

"And maybe we ourselves began to feel that way," he said of the repercussions.

The leave to appeal was dismissed with costs by the Supreme Court of Canada.

“We won,” Budden said moments after hearing of the decision late Thursday morning.

“I feel it’s a tough day for the archdiocese. I feel joy for the clients. I feel relief that we delivered the results for our clients. … And I feel sad for those who didn’t live to see this day."

Budden reflected on the long road that he began in 1998 but was resolute the day would finally come. There are no more legal challenges for the church to fight against the victims.

“Isn’t that nice. It took a long enough time, eh,” said another of the John Does, who is retired from the military.

“I was determined to myself I would be damned if I would die before a decision would be made. It’s a big relief. It’s over now."

The man said religion was drilled into them every day and they couldn't understand how to even begin to deal with the sexual abuse when it happened, since they saw the Christian Brothers as father figures.

"It’s only recently, actually, that I was thinking about how screwed up things got, because life was life. That was my life. I didn’t know,” he said.

He said he tried to make the best out of his situation once he left the orphanage.

“I consider myself pretty lucky, actually — if I hadn’t joined the army…,” the man said.

ST. JOHN'S, NEWFOUNDLAND (CANADA)
The Canadian Press via Kamloops This Week

January 14, 2021

The Supreme Court of Canada has refused a bid by the Roman Catholic archdiocese in St. John's to appeal a ruling that found it liable for sexual abuse at the former Mount Cashel orphanage.

Thursday's court decision ends a legal battle that first shook Newfoundland and Labrador decades ago. It also determines once and for all that the church has a responsibility to the victims of the abuse that took place at the notorious former orphanage, at the hands of the Christian Brothers in the 1950s.

CANADA
Catholic News Agency

January 15, 2021

Canada’s highest court has ruled that the Archdiocese of St. John’s in Newfoundland and Labrador will be responsible for Mount Cashel Orphanage child abuse lawsuits against the Congregation of Christian Brothers.

On Thursday, Canada’s Supreme Court announced that it rejected a final appeal of the archdiocese, which had argued that it should not be held responsible for abuse by the congregation (also known as the Christian Brothers of Ireland), because it was the lay group of brothers and not diocesan priests in charge of the orphanage.

CANADA
Toronto Star

January 14, 2021

By Steve McKinley

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2021/01/14/the-legal-battle-over-newfoundlands-infamous-mount-cashel-sexual-abuse-is-finally-over-but-one-of-the-four-plaintiffs-didnt-live-to-see-it.html

The final chapter in the wrenching story of sexual abuse at Newfoundland’s infamous Mount Cashel orphanage was finally written Thursday, bringing an end to a decades-long saga that haunted a region, turned many away from the Roman Catholic Church — and helped prompt a closer look at the issue of abuse within it.

The Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear an appeal from the Archdiocese of St. John’s that was seeking to overturn a lower court ruling that the church can be held responsible for the sexual abuse suffered by boys there in the 1950s.

That decision brings to an end a 21-year legal battle that began in 1999, as four men deemed “John Does” as plaintiffs for the purpose of the case sought compensation for their abuse by members of the Christian Brothers of Ireland order, which ran the orphanage.

NEWFOUNDLAND (CANADA)
CBC News

January 14, 2021

Archdiocese of St. John's declines comment following decision

The Archdiocese of St. John's is liable for the abuse at Mount Cashel Orphanage in the 1950s, after Canada's highest court declined to hear one last appeal from the Catholic Church.

The Supreme Court of Canada released its decision Thursday, simply saying it rejected the application from the Archdiocese of St. John's.

The decision brings to an end a painstaking process for victims who were abused at the orphanage when they were children. The case has been snaking its way through the courts for 21 years.

NEWFOUNDLAND (CANADA)
VOCM

January 14, 2021

The Supreme Court of Canada has denied an attempt by the Roman Catholic Church in St. John’s to appeal a ruling that found the church responsible for abuse at Mount Cashel Orphanage.

That means the Church must pay damages to dozens of victims of abuse dating back to the 1950s.

Geoff Budden, the victims’ lawyer, says it brings to an end a decades-long legal battle over sex abuse at the orphanage.

In a statement, the Archdiocese of St. John’s said its lawyers must review and analyze the ruling before making public comment.

NEWFOUNDLAND (CANADA)
Catholic Register

January 14, 2021

The Archdiocese of St. John’s is responsible for paying victims of child abuse at the Newfoundland’s infamous Mount Cashel Orphanage.

In a decision announced Jan. 14, the Supreme Court of Canada has declined to hear one last appeal from the archdiocese, which has always denied it was responsible for the abuse that occurred at Mount Cashel dating back to the 1950s. The orphanage was run by the Christian Brothers of Ireland, which declared bankruptcy in 2012 while settling abuse lawsuits. The orphanage itself was demolished in 1992.

The archdiocese has argued before the court that it was not involved in the orphanage’s day-to-day operations and that the Christian Brothers was a lay organization whose members were not ordained priests of the archdiocese.

NEWFOUNDLAND (CANADA)
The Telegram

January 15, 2021

The Supreme Court of Canada has refused to grant the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corp of St. John’s leave to appeal a landmark civil decision that held it responsible for sexual abuse suffered by boys at the infamous Christian-Brothers run orphanage during the 1950s and early ‘60s.

The leave to appeal was dismissed with costs Thursday.

It ends a legal battle the now elderly former residents fought for more than 20 years, led by St. John’s lawyer Geoff Budden.

“We won,” said Budden moments after hearing of the decision.

“I feel it’s a tough day for the archdiocese. I feel joy for the clients. I feel relief that we delivered the results for our clients... And I feel sad for those who didn’t live to see this day.”

NEWFOUNDLAND (CANADA)
NTV.ca

January 14, 2021

By Bart Fraize

[VIDEO]

The Supreme Court of Canada has dismissed an appeal by the Catholic church for abuse at the former Mount Cashel orphanage.

In July, the Newfoundland and Labrador Court of Appeal found the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of St. John’s has a responsibility to victims of abuse at the orphanage. The archdiocese appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada. On Thursday, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal with costs.

The case involves four survivors who had first launched their claim for damages in 1999.

NEW YORK
ABC News

January 14, 2021

By Pete Madden

In a 2017 meeting, church leaders discussed the politics of reconciliation.

When Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the longtime leader of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, introduced the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program to the public in Oct. 2016, he expressed his hope that offering financial settlements to the victims of sexual abuse by clergy would both “promote healing” and “bring closure” after more than a decade of constant scandal.

“It is only appropriate that we take this opportunity to follow Pope Francis and once again ask forgiveness for whatever mistakes may have been made in the past by those representing the Church, even by us bishops,” Dolan said, “and continue to seek reconciliation with those who have been harmed and feel alienated from the Church.”

When Kenneth Feinberg, the lawyer Dolan appointed to administer the program in New York City and Long Island privately pitched it more than a year later to the representatives of three Upstate New York dioceses, however, he suggested that Dolan was motivated in part by something else: politics.

“I think the Cardinal feels that it is providing his lawyers in Albany with additional persuasive powers not to reopen the statute,” Feinberg said of the program. “We are already doing this, why bother? Don’t reopen the statute. We are taking care of our own problem. I think that is guiding Cardinal Dolan as well.”

ABC News has obtained the transcript of a confidential Dec. 2017 teleconference in which Feinberg, a prominent mediation expert, alongside his colleague Camille Biros, heralded the benefits of the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program Dolan established to leaders and lawyers from the Dioceses of Syracuse, Buffalo and Rochester.

Dolan himself is not listed among its participants and does not appear to have been on the call, but Feinberg repeatedly claimed to be familiar with Dolan’s thinking.

HARRISBURG (PA)
Fox 43 TV

January 13, 2021

By Jamie Bittner

The amendment would allow alleged victims of child sex abuse more time to file lawsuits. However, critics say it could take away rights of the accused.

https://www.fox43.com/article/news/should-alleged-victims-of-child-sex-abuse-have-more-time-to-sue-soon-voters-may-decide/521-0ed88dfe-1e3c-4164-ab06-1f911aee6757

Voters may soon decide if alleged victims of child sexual abuse will have more time to file civil lawsuits against the people or organizations they are accusing. However, critics voiced concern the proposal could tip the scales of justice towards the accuser while taking away rights of the accused.

House Bill 14 is a joint resolution proposing an amendment to the state constitution that would establish a 2-year-long window in which civil claims arising from child sexual abuse could then be asserted even if they had previously been barred by a statute of limitations.

The House Judiciary Committee moved the legislation to the full House on a vote of 24-1. The proposal by Republican Rep. Jim Gregory of Blair County has received bipartisan support with cosponsor Democrat Rep. Mark Rozzi of Berks County. In an interview with FOX43 both lawmakers noted that the proposal is something victims have been fighting for over 20 years.

PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

January 13, 2021

By John Finnerty

A House panel on Wednesday moved two proposals that would ask voters to amend the state Constitution – one to allow adult survivors of child sex abuse to sue even if their statute of limitations has expired and a second to have appeals court judges elected by region instead of statewide.

Both measures passed both chambers of the General Assembly in the last legislative session, so if they pass unchanged in the weeks ahead, voters could see them on the ballot in May.

The proposal to allow adult survivors of child sex abuse to sue their abusers and organizations like the Catholic Church, which covered up for child predator priests, was approved by the House judiciary committee by a vote of 24-1.

Catholic News Agency

January 13, 2021

By Mary Farrow

Three North Dakota state legislators introduced a bill this week that would oblige Catholic priests to violate the seal of confession in cases of confirmed or suspected child abuse, on penalty of imprisonment or heavy fines.

The bill was introduced Jan. 12 by state senators Judy Lee (R), Kathy Hogan (D), and Curt Kreun (R), and state representatives Mike Brandenburg (R) and Mary Schneider (D).

The current mandatory reporting law in North Dakota states that clergy are considered mandatory reporters of known or suspected child abuse, except in cases when “the knowledge or suspicion is derived from information received in the capacity of spiritual adviser”, such as in the confessional.

NORTH DAKOTA
KX-TV

January 13, 2021

[VIDEO]

In our Jan. 13 KX Conversation, North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem joined us to discuss the recent investigation of child sexual abuse by members of the North Dakota Catholic Dioceses.

This was a months-long criminal investigation, and Stenehjem discussed the outcome and the level of difficulty a case like this may be for BCI agents.

53 individuals were accused and all but two of the clergy were deceased. No one faces charges from this investigation.

HARRISBURG (PA)
CBS-TV 21 News

January 13, 2021

This afternoon, lawmakers at the State Capitol in Harrisburg passed several constitutional amendments that you could eventually vote on.

Three bills that we've been following have passed in committee this morning.

They include a measure that would open up a two-year window of justice for victims of child sex abuse at the hands of Catholic priests.

ST. JOHN'S, NEWFOUNDLAND (CANADA)
Globe and Mail

January 13, 2021

By Greg Mercer

For most people, it’s just another shopping plaza. They come and go from the liquor outlet, hair salon, medical centre and grocery store, loading their purchases into cars in a parking lot that fronts a busy street.

But John Doe No. 26 will never forget what used to be here.

The 80-year-old grandfather can still vividly see the notorious Mount Cashel orphanage that stood at this St. John’s site until it was demolished in 1992. He was a resident there for seven years, until he was 15 years old, and suffered unspeakable violence and abuse at the hands of men who were supposed to care for him.

IRELAND
Irish Times

January 12, 2021

Responsibility for harsh treatment lies with fathers and families backed by State and churches

The Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes published its long-anticipated report on Tuesday. It investigated decades of harm caused to tens of thousands women and children at 14 mother and baby homes and four county homes across Ireland between 1922 and 1998.

Findings

*Fathers and families Responsibility for the harsh treatment of unmarried mothers in Ireland lies mainly with the fathers of the children and “their own immediate families” but supported by and condoned by the State and the churches. It says many of the homes provided a refuge, even if harsh, while the families provided no refuge at all.

*No alternative The report finds no evidence that women were forced to enter the homes by the church or State It says most women had no alternative. Many women contacted State or church agencies seeking assistance as they had nowhere to go and no money. Women were also brought to homes by family without being consulted.

*Infant mortality Some 9,000 children died in mother and baby homes, around 15 per cent of all those who entered the institutions, the report found. In the years 1945-46, the death rate among infants in mother and baby homes was almost twice that of the national average for “illegitimate” children. The commission said the high rate of infant mortality was a “disquieting” feature.

*Little public concern The report found little evidence that politicians or the public were concerned about children in the homes, despite the “appalling level of infant mortality”.

*Unmarried mothers There were about 56,000 unmarried mothers and about 57,000 children in the homes investigated by the commission. While such institutions were found in other countries the proportion of unmarried mothers sent to homes in Ireland was probably the highest in the world.

*Abuse of women The report finds while “there is no doubt that women in mother and baby homes were subjected to emotional abuse but there is very little evidence of physical abuse and no evidence of sexual abuse”.

*Abuse of children - It said there was some evidence of physical abuse of children “which, while unacceptable, was minor in comparison to the evidence of physical abuse documented in the Ryan report.” The report found no evidence of any sexual abuse of children.

*Pregnancies - Some pregnancies were the result of rape; some women had mental health problems, some had an intellectual disability and the only difference with other women not in homes was that they were unmarried. It said their lives were “blighted” by pregnancy outside marriage.

*Local health authorities - Some institutions with the worst conditions were owned by the local health authorities. “County homes, Kilrush and Tuam had appalling physical conditions.”

Recommendations

*Records - Adopted people should have a right to their birth certificates and birth information. A mechanism could be put in place to allow a birth mother to argue for her privacy rights.

There should be a central repository of the records of institution so information can be obtained from one place.

There are no records of burials of children who died in many cases, it finds.

*Redress - Any decision on financial redress is a matter for Government, the commission said.

– But as some groups in similar situations have received financial redress the State should not discriminate, it said.

– Women who worked outside the institutions without pay, women in the Tuam home in Co Galway who had to care for other mothers’ children and those who looked after other residents in county homes should be compensated.

– Women who spent lengthy periods in homes should also be considered for redress.

*Fund - The Government could consider earmarking a specific fund for current disadvantaged children.

*Tusla - The commission defended the Child and Family Agency (Tusla) and its approach to providing information to adopted people. It said the problem was not with Tusla but with the law.

IRELAND
Irish Post

January 13, 2021

By Rachael O'Connor

IRELAND'S ARCHBISHOP has apologised "unreservedly" for the Church's role in the Mother and Baby Homes scandal.

Archbishop Eamon Martin, the leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland, issued a statement apologising yesterday following the release of the Mother and Baby Homes report which was six years in the making.

Among other things, the report found that, in the homes investigated by the Commission, 15% of all children born in the institutions died-- approximately 9,000 out of 57,000.

Women and children recalled instances of physical and emotional abuse while being detained, and mothers felt forced to give their children up for adoption.

NORTHERN IRELAND
The Irish News

January 13, 2021

By Suzanne McGonagle

https://www.irishnews.com/news/northernirelandnews/2021/01/13/news/call-for-full-scale-northern-inquiry-following-republic-s-mother-and-baby-homes-report-2185700/

AMNESTY International last night called for a “fullscale inquiry into the appalling tragic scandal of mother and baby homes” in Northern Ireland.

Women forced to give birth in the homes and the children born in the institutions have joined with the charity in calling for a public inquiry into abuses they say they suffered.

Amnesty said there were more than a dozen mother and baby home-type institutions in the north, with the last one closing its doors as recently as the 1990s.

Some 7,500 women and girls gave birth in the homes, which were operated by both Catholic and Protestant churches and religious organisations.

IRELAND
Independent

January 13, 2021

By Hugh O'Connell

A right for adopted people to access their birth information – including their birth cert and other records - among recommendations of the Commission

https://www.independent.ie/news/higher-infant-mortality-rate-appalling-conditions-and-emotional-abuse-the-mother-and-baby-homes-report-at-a-glance-39960509.html

The 2,865-page report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes has been published, covering the period from 1922 to 1998 – a span of 76 years.

Ireland was “especially cold and harsh for women” during the earlier half of the period under the commission’s remit and that all women “suffered serious discrimination”, the Commission says.

Women who gave birth outside of marriage were subject to “particularly harsh treatment”.

Responsibility for this, the report states, rests mainly with fathers of their children and their own immediate families. It adds: “It was supported by, contributed to, and condoned by, the institutions of the State and the Churches."

Here are some of its key details and findings.

IRELAND
Independent

January 13, 2021

By Gabija Gataveckaite and Philip Ryan

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/church-urged-by-taoiseach-to-help-compensate-for-mother-and-baby-homes-survivors-trauma-39963088.html

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has called on the religious orders associated with mother and baby homes to make a “financial contribution” to a redress scheme for survivors.

It comes as it emerged the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes report has been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions for review.

Speaking at the launch of the report, the Taoiseach said the gardaí can “obviously” pursue some of the issues outlined in the commission’s investigation even though a significant length of time has elapsed.

He specifically highlighted that many of the women in the homes were under the age of consent when they became pregnant.

IRELAND
Independent

January 13, 2021

By Cormac McQuinn and Sarah MacDonald

Sisters of Bons Secours will participate in State's planned redress scheme

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/we-did-not-live-up-to-our-christianity-order-of-nuns-who-ran-infamous-tuam-home-apologises-39964026.html

THE order of nuns that ran the infamous Mother and Baby Home at Tuam have apologised for the treatment of women and children at the institution and the "disrespectful and unacceptable" way infants who died were buried.

The Sisters of Bon Secours also confirmed to Independent.ie that they will participate in the Government's planned redress scheme for survivors.

The scandal of what happened in the various Mother and Baby homes around the country was revealed due to the work of historian Catherine Corless.

IRELAND
Independent

January 13, 2021

By Eoghan Moloney and Senan Molony

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/the-shame-was-not-theirs-it-was-ours-taoiseach-issues-state-apology-to-victims-of-mother-and-baby-homes-39964713.html

Survivors of mother and baby and county homes are blameless and did nothing wrong, the Taoiseach has told the Dáil in a formal State apology.

Mothers “did nothing wrong and have nothing to be ashamed of,” Mr Martin told TDs in the National Convention Centre.

The treatment of women and children is something which was the direct result of how the State, “and we as a society acted,” he said.

“The report presents us with profound questions. We embraced a perverse religious morality and control, judgmentalism and moral certainty, but shunned our daughters.

IRELAND
Independent

January 13, 2021

By Senan Molony

Seizure of Catholic Church assets by the State is being mooted in the Dáil as a possible resort if its bodies will not pay compensation to the survivors of Mother and Baby Homes.

The religious orders of the Catholic Church must make appropriate contribution to the victims in atonement this time around, the Dáil was told by various TDs.

Former FF Minister Michael Woods agreed a €120m gesture from the Church nearly 20 years ago after earlier reports of institutional abuse — but most of the commitment was reneged upon.

“We need to ensure this time round, that those religious institutions make their contribution,” said Labour Party leader Alan Kelly.

“If they don’t make their contribution, we will pass legislation — I will draft it myself — to ensure that we can take their assets to ensure that they make that contribution.

IRELAND
Independent

January 13, 2021

By Nicola Anderson

Punishment fell on women while men got on with the rest of their lives, writes Nicola Anderson

In the harrowing personal stories of how desperate Irish women were forced to enter through the unwelcoming doors of mother and baby homes, their partners in pregnancy are cast as mere bit players.

The men at the heart of this wide-ranging tragedy that spanned decades feature merely as the shadowy instigators of misfortune, before being allowed to disappear into the backdrop, unseen and largely untraceable.

In a deeply conservative Ireland that pre-dated contraception and where parish priests sometimes turned up at dance halls to ensure couples were not dancing too closely, punishment fell on the woman for falling pregnant and for falling to safeguard her chastity.

IRELAND
Associated Press

January 12, 2021

By Jill Lawless

Ireland’s prime minister said Tuesday that the country must “face up to the full truth of our past,” as a long-awaited report recounted decades of harm done by church-run homes for unmarried women and their babies, where thousands of infants died.

Prime Minister Micheal Martin said young women and their children had paid a heavy price for Ireland’s “perverse religious morality” in past decades.

“We had a completely warped attitude to sexuality and intimacy. Young mothers and their sons and daughters paid a terrible price for that dysfunction,” he said.

Martin said he would make a formal apology on behalf of the state in Ireland’s parliament on Wednesday.

DUBLIN (IRELAND)
Politico Europe

January 12, 2021

Report found that approximately 9,000 newborns, infants and young children died at facilities across the country.

By Shawn Pogatchnik

Unmarried mothers and their infant children suffered cruel and often lethal neglect in Ireland’s so-called mother and baby homes, a five-year state investigation has concluded.

Prime Minister Micheál Martin said he would issue an official apology to the survivors of the institutions following Tuesday’s publication of the final report from the Commission of Investigation Into Mother and Baby Homes. It examined conditions and policies at 18 such homes where Ireland sent 56,000 women with out-of-wedlock pregnancies from the 1920s to the 1990s.

Martin said the 3,000-page report details “a deeply misogynistic culture” that doomed thousands to speedy deaths or lifetimes of regret.

“We did this to ourselves,” he said. “We had a completely warped attitude to sexuality and intimacy, and young mothers and their sons and daughters were forced to pay a terrible price for that dysfunction. We embraced a perverse religious morality and control which was so damaging … All of society was complicit in it.”

IRELAND
Sky News TV

January 13, 2021

By Stephen Murphy

[Play Video - Irish PM's apology to mothers and babies]

The Irish prime minister has issued an apology following a report into the deaths of 9,000 children in institutions for unmarried mothers and their babies.

A five-year investigation by a judicial commission of investigation detailed how the children died at 18 institutions between 1922 and 1998.

Speaking today in the Dail, the lower house of the Irish parliament, Taoiseach Micheal Martin said that as a society "we embraced a perverse religious morality and control, judgementalism and moral certainty, but shunned our daughters."

IRELAND
Washington Post

January 13, 2021

By William Booth and Karla Adam

In a signal moment, to mark Ireland's "dark, difficult and shameful" treatment of unmarried women and their babies over the 20th century, the republic's prime minister, Micheál Martin, rose in the Parliament in Dublin on Wednesday and formally apologized for the state's complicity in "a profound failure of empathy, understanding and basic humanity."

Martin spoke after the long-awaited release of a 3,000-page report from the Commission on Mother and Baby Homes, which investigated conditions for the 56,000 unmarried mothers and 57,000 children who passed through the system — at 18 homes run by the state and by Catholic charities — from 1920 until 1998, when the last facility was shuttered.

The unmarried mothers, often destitute, desperate and young, with nowhere else to turn, sought last-ditch refuge in the homes or were shoved into them, having been cast out by their families.

Infant mortality at the institutions was in many years double the national average. Some 9,000 infants died — 15 percent of all those who were born in the system — a statistic the investigators call “appalling.”

Most of the babies who survived were offered up for adoption, often without full consent by the mothers.

Martin said: “We treated women exceptionally badly. We treated children exceptionally badly.”

The Irish leader said his society had suffered from a “warped attitude to sexuality and intimacy,” with a “very striking absence of kindness.”

“We honored piety but failed to show even basic kindness to those who needed it most,” he said.

New details of what happened to the women and their babies still have the ability to shock — though testimonies, novels, films and news reports have told of the homes for years.

The release of the report has dominated the conversation in Ireland, even as the country faces the world’s highest rate of coronavirus infections.

The Irish Times called the findings a condemnation of Irish society in past days, “its rigid rules and conventions about sexual matters, its savage intolerance, its harsh judgmentalism, its un-Christian cruelty.”

IRELAND
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

January 12, 2021

[VIDEO]

A disturbing report into Ireland’s mother and baby homes, where unwed mothers were sent to give birth and forced to give their babies up for adoption, says along with other indignities, 9,000 babies died in the care of the 18 homes. The Irish Catholic Church, which ran the homes, has apologized and the prime minister is also expected to apologize this week.

IRELAND
Al Jazeera

January 13, 2021

A ‘profound generational wrong’ was visited upon those who wound up in Ireland’s network of Catholic Church-run homes for unwed mothers and their children, Irish PM says.

Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin has offered a formal apology in the country’s parliament for the treatment of unmarried mothers and their babies in a network of church-run institutions from the 1920s to the 1990s.

A government-commissioned report published on Tuesday found an “appalling” mortality rate of around 15 percent among children born at mother and baby homes, reflecting brutal living conditions at the sites and laying bare one of the Catholic Church’s darkest chapters.

Some 9,000 children died at the 18 homes – the last of which closed in 1998 – covered in the report.

IRELAND
BBC News

January 13, 2021

The scandal became an international news story when "significant human remains" were found on the grounds of a former home in County Galway

The Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) has apologised after an investigation into the country's mother and baby homes.

The report found an "appalling level of infant mortality".

Established in the 19th and 20th Centuries, the institutions housed women and girls who became pregnant outside marriage.

Micheál Martin apologised for the "profound and generational wrong" to survivors of mother-and-baby homes.

About 9,000 children died in the 18 institutions under investigation.

The Irish government said the report revealed the country had a "stifling, oppressive and brutally misogynistic culture".

IRELAND
The Guardian

January 13, 2021

By Rory Carroll

Taoiseach accepts state responsibility for historic cruelty as Catholic primate acknowledges ‘painful truths’

The Irish state and Ireland’s Catholic church have made landmark apologies for running and enabling a network of religious institutions that abused and shamed unmarried mothers and their children for much of the 20th century.

The taoiseach, Micheál Martin, led government figures on Wednesday in accepting responsibility and expressing remorse for mother-and-baby homes that turned generations of vulnerable women and infants into outcasts.

Eamon Martin, the Catholic primate of all Ireland, led statements from bishops and nuns that apologised for the central role of the church in a dark chapter of Irish history.

IRELAND
CNN

January 13, 2021

By Kara Fox

Thousands of babies and children died in 18 of Ireland's mother and baby homes -- church-run institutions where unmarried women were sent to deliver their babies in secret, often against their will -- over eight decades, according to a landmark report.

On Tuesday, the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes and Certain Related Matters -- which was set up to investigate what happened in 14 mother and baby homes and four county homes from 1922 to 1998 -- announced the 9,000 deaths as part of the final findings of its near six-year inquiry.

Around 56,000 people -- from girls as young as 12, to women in their 40s -- were sent to the 18 institutions investigated, where some 57,000 children were born, according to the report.

IRELAND
Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth

January 12, 2021

[Note from BishopAccountability.org: To see the 2,865-page report in its entirety, click here. To see the section entitled Archives of the Final Report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes, click here.]

The Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes and certain related matters was established by the Irish Government in February 2015 to provide a full account of what happened to vulnerable women and children in Mother and Baby Homes during the period 1922 to 1998. It submitted its final report to the Minister on 30 October 2020.

Each element of the Report can be accessed through the links below.

The Report deals with issues which many may find distressing. If you are affected by the issues raised in the Report, contact details for support are available under ‘Counselling supports'.

DUBLIN (IRELAND)
Irish Times

January 12, 2021

By Pat Leahy and Patsy McGarry

Investigation tells of cruelty, emotional abuse and soaring infant death rates

[VIDEO]

Ireland has again been brought face-to-face with its cold and callous past with the report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes revealing stories of cruelty, emotional abuse and soaring infant death rates in a series of State- and religious-run institutions.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the report outlined a “dark, difficult and shameful chapter of recent Irish history” in which an “extraordinarily oppressive culture” had “treated women exceptionally badly”.

The State, churches and – most of all – the families of pregnant women and the fathers of their children were responsible for the ill-treatment of women, according to the report which took more than five years to research and compile.

IRELAND
The New York Times

January 12, 2021

A government commission found high death rates, unethical vaccine trials and traumatic living conditions at 18 homes that housed unwed mothers up until the 1990s.

By Megan Specia

A government-commissioned report released on Tuesday found a shocking number of deaths and widespread abuses at religious institutions in Ireland for unwed mothers and their children. Survivors say the document is a small step toward accountability after decades of horrors.

The report, the culmination of a six-year investigation, detailed some 9,000 deaths of children at 14 of the country’s so-called mother and baby homes and four county homes over several decades, a mortality rate far higher than the rest of the population. The institutions, where unmarried women and girls were sent to give birth in secrecy and were pressured to give their children up for adoption, were also responsible for unethical vaccine trials and traumatic emotional abuse, the report found.

IRELAND
National Catholic Reporter

January 12, 2021

By Joe Little

An Irish government investigation has found that death rates among "illegitimate" infants in southern Ireland's religious-run mother and baby homes during parts of the 1930s and 1940s were twice that of the national average.

The report, released Jan. 12, says the frequently Catholic-run homes "did not save the lives of 'illegitimate' children; in fact, they appear to have significantly reduced their prospects of survival."

The quasi-judicial probe also found that the proportion of unmarried mothers admitted to the homes during the last century was probably the highest in the world.

IRELAND
The Irish Catholic

January 12, 2021

By Michael Kelly

A five-year investigation into the treatment of unmarried mothers in State-funded Church-run homes has said that the blame for their “harsh treatment” rests primarily with their families but that both the Church and State condoned this.

The report of the ‘Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes and certain related matters’ was published this afternoon (Tuesday) and reviewed 18 institutions from the period 1922-1998. It found that “Ireland was a cold harsh environment for many, probably the majority, of its residents during the earlier half of the period under remit”. The report said that Ireland was “especially cold and harsh for women”.

The responsibility for the “harsh treatment” of unmarried mothers “rests mainly with the fathers of their children and their own immediate families”, the report said.

IRELAND
Reuters

January 12, 2021

By Ben Dangerfield

Haunted by ghostly visions of the brothers she never knew, Anna Corrigan had a bad night ahead of the publication on Tuesday of a 3,000-page report into the horrors that unfolded at Ireland's Church-run Mother and Baby Homes.

Her older brothers, John and William Dolan, were born at one of the homes for unmarried mothers and their infants, in the provincial town of Tuam in western Ireland. They are thought to be among 802 babies and children who died at the home and were unceremoniously dumped in a mass grave by the Catholic nuns who ran it.

"I had a very bad night's sleep last night," Corrigan told Reuters in a Zoom interview from her home in Dublin, describing unsettling dreams about her fam

YOUNGSTOWN (OH)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

January 12, 2021

By Peter Smith

Longtime Pittsburgh priest David Bonnar became the Roman Catholic bishop of Youngstown on Tuesday afternoon before a pandemic-limited congregation in a solemn ceremony in which family and Pittsburgh-area friends took prominent roles.

Bishop Bonnar was consecrated at the Cathedral of St. Columba, which echoed with choral anthems and brass fanfares. Attendance was limited due to the pandemic, and masked worshippers were seated at socially distanced spots in the pews.

Bishop Bonnar, 58, was a pastor and administrator in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, most recently serving as pastor of St. Aidan Parish in the North Hills, and he was a former Pittsburgh Steelers chaplain.

VATICAN CITY
Religion News Service

January 12, 2021

By Claire Giangravé

The mother of an alleged abuse victim claims the priest broke the confidence of the confessional to warn church officials of a coming investigation.

On a scorching day in August 2015, the mother of a teenage girl walked into the confessional of a small church near the Sicilian city of Catania, in southern Italy. She believed that the leader of her lay Catholic group, a man known as the Archangel, had repeatedly raped her underage daughter and possibly others.

She trusted the priest, the Rev. Orazio Caputo, who had worked closely with the Archangel’s Catholic Culture and Environment Association or ACCA, to listen to her fears. In the highly devout context of Sicily’s Catholic culture, the mother believed she could speak freely to her usual confessor about her growing suspicions and mounting guilt.

Two years later, the Archangel, Piero Alfio Capuana, 76, was taken into custody after a police investigation found what authorities say is credible evidence that he had sexually abused at least six underage girls.

UNITED STATES
National Catholic Register

January 12, 2021

The abuse victims, who make up a committee of unsecured creditors in the ongoing Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization for the diocese, have also agreed to keep the contents of the records confidential.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Diocese of Buffalo released thousands of clergy abuse documents and related records to abuse victims and their lawyers this week as part of an agreement in ongoing clergy abuse negotiations during its bankruptcy.

According to The Buffalo News, these records were given to victims in exchange for an agreement that pending lawsuits against individual Catholic entities such as parishes or schools are stopped from proceeding.

These abuse victims, who make up a committee of unsecured creditors in the ongoing Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization for the diocese, have also agreed to keep the contents of the records confidential.