Hypocrisy...

While the linked communiqué (http://www.catholiccommunications.ie/pressrel/23-october-2007.html) was no doubt well meaning... in my mind it reeks of hypocrisy. Particularly the lines:

"Those with information have a duty before God to pass it on to the Gardaí or PSNI. The tyranny of violence and intimidation must be defeated."

What has incensed me was the news on Radio1 this evening of the horrific abuse that defenceless children were subjected to in a school run by the Brothers of Charity in Galway. This is not the first time that members of a religious order in Ireland committed such felonious acts. It has been well documented in the past how religious clergy men covered for one another by hiding members of their church in other jurisdictions only for those same men to rape and pillage again at will. Where was the "duty before God" there I wonder? The only items defeated there were the spirit and innocence of children.

I had a fantastic childhood. I was truly allowed to be a child. The wonder of this time of year and all the other fantastic sacrifices my parents made for me are too numerous to list here. Suffice to say that the thoughts that any child could be taken to a laundry room and beaten with a wooden shelf, for gratification of some sort, abhor me and make me sick to the stomach. What kind of beasts did we raise? And it begs the question, are we still raising them?