Yet another abuse scandal involving the Catholic Church has come to light, this time uncovered by the RTÉ documentary “Blackrock Boys”, which tells of a Spiritan priest who abused his position as an ‘educator’ to prey on young children and eventually rape two brothers at Blackrock College during the 1970s.
Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. Abuses, scandals and cover-ups by the Catholic Church have been disgustingly common throughout Irish history. In Blackrock alone, there have been 57 reported cases of child abuse. Across all their schools, the Spiritans have 233 cases against them. And these are only the reported cases – of just one congregation!
But even the most accurate numbers don’t do justice to the full scope of the violence. For example, a former pupil from Rockwell college recently described how a priest used to strip him naked and “beat the hell out of him with drumsticks” before he would sexually abuse him.
Scandalously, when in 2002 the two brothers came forward with their stories, they were subjected to a 5 years long legal process which ended with the Supreme Court ruling in favour of the paedophilic priest. Apparently, he was now “too old” to be made to endure the “stress of legal proceedings”!
Putting the “stress” of the abusive priest above the lifelong trauma suffered by the two victims, this surely sounds like a sick joke. Unfortunately, such is the necessary outcome of a system designed to protect those in positions of power at the expense of the exploited majority.
In fact, despite all the scandals, 90% of schools are still under the Church’s predatory regime. For as long as this remains the case, priests will continue to use their power to abuse and even rape children – all with the tacit blessing of the Irish capitalist state. To this day, scandalous reports are constantly being brought forward by victims and survivors, and shamefully brushed aside by the state authorities.
Weak, feeble and dominated by imperialist interests, the Irish capitalist class relies on everything that is backward in society in order to divide workers and maintain its grip on power – hence, its continued connivance with the Church abuses.
The capitalists can’t be trusted with tackling the problem, it is simply not in their interests to fight against the Church. Exposing the crimes of the Church would inevitably mean exposing their own role in aiding and abetting the abuses. Only militant action by workers and young people can put an end to its scandalous abuses and its monopoly on education.
Ultimately, the Catholic Church is part and parcel with the system that exploits and oppresses workers and youth in Ireland. Ireland will never truly be free until we cast off the yoke of the Church’s rule, overthrow the capitalist system it upholds, and establish a socialist republic.
