In a documentary broadcast by the state broadcaster RTÉ on Monday evening, it has now become known that the Order has paid more than five million euros in compensation claims for 18 years. Two brothers had given the station detailed accounts of the abuse they suffered at Blackrock College in the 1970s and early 1980s. The station’s research revealed that a total of 233 men had made similar allegations against 77 priests and had already received some compensation.
As early as 2002, the two brothers had filed several lawsuits against one of the alleged perpetrators. The then accused Father was 82 years old at the time, he denied all allegations. Criminal proceedings against him were dropped in 2007 and he died in 2010.
Father sentenced to probation
The sexual abuse of students of Spiritan priests in Ireland first became public in March 2009, when a priest was given a suspended sentence. Another priest who abused the men now featured in the documentary was living in Canada when he was charged. However, because there is no extradition treaty between Ireland and Canada, the case never came to fruition, although he later admitted to having abused the brothers. He died in 2011.
More than 90 per cent of schools in the Republic of Ireland are church owned, the majority under Catholic leadership (88 per cent). In the recent past, reports of mistreatment and abuse as well as forced adoptions in Catholic institutions such as mother and child homes as well as missing or incomplete sex education classes made headlines.
Source: Nachrichten
