A church’s shame

I have been aware of the child abuse cases involving the Catholic Church for as long as anyone. This week, however, I listened to David Sharp on BBC Radio Scotland speak about his own experience at St Ninians in Fife and demand of John Swinney that more be done to elicit testimony from victims of institutional abuse for the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry.

David Sharp’s case tells of a child, a vulnerable child who had been in care from the age of one, being blindfolded, roped by the neck and raped by a Catholic “Christian” Brother, repeatedly. Upon fur- ther investigation, the story becomes even more horrific: beaten, hands bound, taken to Ireland during the “holidays” to be raped by five men, possibly priests.

I can’t express the shame I felt on the Catholic Church’s behalf when I heard this. The utter despair I felt as the mother of a son being taken to Mass, knowing this is the legacy of many Catholic institutional organisations.

My own family shared in the brutality of Christian Brothers. My uncle suffered the physical brutality of the order in Ireland; thankfully not sexual, but it wrecked him, as all abuse does. An utter betrayal. An utter hypocrisy of the teachings of Christ.

We have also witnessed the dreadful and culpable coverup by the church and “moving on” of offending clergy.

How do I explain that to my son? A church that covers up crimes; that does very little to support and help the victims it created, and (more importantly) is not standing at the pulpit asking victims to come forward on a weekly basis.

Sermons on God’s love are surely lost if my son is hearing this testimony on his way to school and not hearing an equivalent and robust reaction from the church.

I would beg Archbishop Leo Cushley to stop cowering and be the agent of change and resolution he should be: actively engage with the inquiry, support victims openly and seek out the children the Catholic Church abandoned to lives of terrible pain and suffering.

JANE GRANT Eskbank, Midlothian.