It's a familiar story. What about the untouchable ones who have died and 'gotten away with it'?
Should dioceses and religious congregations open files on the dead about whom there were stories, allegations, suspicions, the ones who were 'untouchable'?
The damage they have done to generations.
Should dioceses and religious congregations open files on the dead about whom there were stories, allegations, suspicions, the ones who were 'untouchable'?
The damage they have done to generations.
It is a sad, awful story.
And this story below surrounding Cardinal McCarrick has a universal tone to it.
And this story below surrounding Cardinal McCarrick has a universal tone to it.
4 comments:
“Should dioceses and religious congregations open files on the dead about whom there were stories, allegations, suspicions, the ones who were 'untouchable'?”
Absolutely not. The dead have no rights and cannot be libelled. The reputations of good men can readily be besmirched without proof. They cannot defend themselves. Unless we can distinguish between true and false, we run a risk of major injustice.
What when there are files of the wrong they have done?
What about the influence they have had in their religious congregation/diocese, the people they have damaged?
What if they held leadership positions?
And what about the terrible injustice they have inflicted on people and institutions?
Hannah Arendt coined the phrase 'banalty of evil', having been present at the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem.
Those files are smeared with a 'banalty of evil'. I know.
In the past thirty years many things have come out. Some still must. Recently I found myself wondering about how much happened between, say, 1850 and 1960, and how many tales of corruption, cruelty, and exploitation have vanished without ever being told
The missing term in your response is "alleged". You will likely remember the Nora Wall case. Paul Carney (RIP) sentenced her to life imprisonment. The director of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre welcomed the imposition of a maximum sentence and said it would ensure that Nora Wall would be monitored for the rest of her life to prevent recurrence. In 2005 the Court of Criminal Appeal finally certified that Nora Wall had been the victim of a miscarriage of justice. As far as I am aware, the Sisters of Mercy never apologised to her. The Sunday World had stated that "...Evil nun Nora Wall, convicted for helping to rape a ten-year-old child, also secretly provided children for sick paedophile priest Father Brendan Smyth"
Therein lies the problem of your suggestion regarding files. There is a world of difference between allegation and evidence. I agree entirely that every case in which criminal behaviour should be reported to the civil authorities. The problem with the reporting about those long dead is the injustice that would be done to many. How many cases have one allegation, after the death of the accused. Who can speak up in defence them? Who can seek the truth on their behalf? What witnesses can be called? How can the dead defend themselves? They cannot, and they cannot be libelled. They have no rights. And you are willing to throw the good under the bus along with the rotten?
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