Abuse survivors expected too much from Vatican summit
A Co Longford clerical abuse survivor has described the furore surrounding the Pope's two-day Vatican summit with Irish Bishops last week as "part of the course" and questioned many support groups' growing clamour for a public apology.
Jim Flood, who like hundreds of others endured decades of abuse at the hands of paedophile priests at industrial schools up and down the country, expressed his surprise at the uproar which has since been aimed at Pope Benedict XVI and senior Irish clerics upon their return home.
A former attendee of Ferryhouse Industrial School on the outskirts of Clonmel for almost five years during the late 1950s and early 1960s, Mr Flood said other abuse survivors were simply expecting too much too soon from the Pontiff and his team of advisers.
"This meeting wasn't something that was set up last week or the week before," he sighed whilst at the same time shrugging his shoulders when speaking to the Leader last week. "This was a meeting that was scheduled some months ago.
"I was in no way disappointed or surprised with the outcome, it was part of the course. Looking for an instant apology as well wasn't going to happen either. The Vatican would be aplogising as a state not just as a church."
A ponderous retort was also directed at critics and in some cases abuse survivors themselves who took issue with the fanfare that engulfed the events of last Monday and Tuesday.
"I think eventually people will get fed up," the likeable Wexford native proclaimed. "One crowd (group) is calling for v1billion and another crowd wants this and that, there is no coordinated plan. It's becoming a bit like a media circus."
His criticism of the abuse agencies didn't stop there. Asked about how he now perceived organisations like One in Four, Mr Flood was markedly dispassionate in his response.
"I've never been asked as a survivor what my opinion is. It's just a chosen few. When they went to Maynooth to meet the bishops, I was never asked for my opinion. The majority of victims or survivors are not represented by these organisations," he frowned.
And as for renewed pleas for a papal visit, Mr Flood raised serious doubts over what such a move will bring apart from dishing out yet further expense on an already overburdened Irish taxpayer.
"Keep him (Pope Benedict) as far away as possible," he swiftly responded. "Oh yeah, it will cost millions. I was reading about his visit to England, they reckon it cost v35 million to bring him. Can we afford that?"
Repeated insistence for further resignations amongst the Irish Catholic Church's hierarchy was nothing more than "window dressing" he added, before registering his support for a similar study akin to the ones in the Dublin Archdiocese to be also carried out in Ardagh and Clonmacnoise.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Weather for Longford, Ireland
Thursday 17 May 2012
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 6 C to 12 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Light showers
Temperature: 7 C to 11 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North east
