Catholic Church shamed by Irish abuse report

DUBLIN – After a nine-year investigation, a commission published a damning report Wednesday on decades of rapes, humiliation and beatings at Catholic Church-run reform schools for Ireland's castaway children.

The 2,600-page report painted the most detailed and damning portrait yet of church-administered abuse in a country grown weary of revelations about child molestation by priests.

The investigation of the tax-supported schools uncovered previously secret Vatican records that demonstrated church knowledge of pedophiles in their ranks all the way back to the 1930s.

Wednesday's five-volume report on the probe — which was resisted by Catholic religious orders — concluded that church officials shielded their orders' pedophiles from arrest amid a culture of self-serving secrecy.

"A climate of fear, created by pervasive, excessive and arbitrary punishment, permeated most of the institutions and all those run for boys. Children lived with the daily terror of not knowing where the next beating was coming from," Ireland's Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse concluded.

Victims of the abuse, who are now in their 50s to 80s, lobbied long and hard for an official investigation. They say that for all its incredible detail, the report doesn't nail down what really matters — the names of their abusers.

"I do genuinely believe that it would have been a further step towards our healing if our abusers had been named and shamed," said Christine Buckley, 62, who spent the first 18 years of her life in a Dublin orphanage where children were forced to manufacture rosaries — and were humiliated, beaten and raped whether they achieved their quota or not.

The Catholic religious orders that ran more than 50 workhouse-style reform schools from the late 19th century until the mid-1990s offered public words of apology, shame and regret Wednesday. But when questioned, their leaders indicated they would continue to protect the identities of clergy accused of abuse — men and women who were never reported to police, and were instead permitted to change jobs and keep harming children.

The Christian Brothers, which ran several boys' institutions deemed to have harbored serial child molesters and sadists on their staff, insisted it had cooperated fully with the probe. The order successfully sued the commission in 2004 to keep the identities of all of its members, dead or alive, unnamed in the report. No real names, whether of victims or perpetrators, appear in the final document.

The Christian Brothers' leader in Ireland, Brother Kevin Mullan, said the organization had been right to keep names secret because "perhaps we had doubts about some of the allegations."

"But on the other hand, I'd have to say that at this stage, we have no interest in protecting people who were perpetrators of abuse," Mullan said, vowing to "cooperate fully with any investigation or any civil authority seeking to explore those matters."

Buckley, who said she was abused at an orphanage run by the Sisters of Mercy, which ran several refuges for girls where the report documented chronic brutality, said the religious orders for years branded the victims as money-seeking liars — and were incapable of admitting their guilt today.

She criticized Mullan for suggesting that "today, having read the report, he doesn't mind if the abusers are named and shamed. Isn't that a little bit late for us?"

The report found that molestation and rape were "endemic" in boys' facilities, chiefly run by the Christian Brothers order, and supervisors pursued policies that increased the danger. Girls supervised by orders of nuns, chiefly the Sisters of Mercy, suffered much less sexual abuse but frequent assaults and humiliation designed to make them feel worthless.

"In some schools a high level of ritualized beating was routine. ... Girls were struck with implements designed to maximize pain and were struck on all parts of the body," the report said. "Personal and family denigration was widespread."

Ireland's myriad religious orders, much like their mother church, have been devastated by 15 years of scandals involving past cover-ups of abusers in their ranks.

The Christian Brothers have withdrawn from running several schools that still bear their name and the order has had few recruits in Ireland in the past two decades. Other orders are down to a handful of members, and their bases are closer to nursing homes than active missions.

"Most of these orders will literally die out in Ireland within the next generation or so," said Michael Kelly, editor of the Irish Catholic newspaper in Dublin. "Many of them are already in wind-up mode. They lack the confidence even to seek new vocations (recruits), due to the stigma associated with their members' shocking, scandalous behavior."

The Irish government, which in 1999 apologized for its role in permitting decades of abuse and established the commission to nail down the full truth of the matter, has tried to use money to bring closure to the victims.

A government-appointed panel has paid 12,000 survivors of the schools, orphanages and other church-run residences an average of $90,000 each — on condition they surrender their right to sue either the church or state. About 2,000 more claims are pending. Irish Catholic leaders cut a controversial deal with the government in 2001 that capped the church's contribution at $175 million — a fraction of the final cost.

Some victims emphasized, even as they began thumbing through the report, that nothing — not even criminal convictions of their long-ago tormentors — will ever put right their psychological wounds and make their nightmares go away.

Tom Sweeney, who spent five years in two Christian Brothers-run institutions where he was placed for truancy, says he suffered sexual abuse and beatings. He also has bitter memories about more everyday humiliations — such as being forced to wrap his urine-stained sheets around his neck and parade in front of other children when he'd wet his bed.

"It's something you'll never forget, the way you lived in these industrial schools," he said.

Sen. Reid botches 3 subjects at news conference

• It seems that everyone with access to "the media"...and today that means everyone...has opinions and suggestions for treating the malady that is the current National Republican Party.  This has also been addressed in earlier offerings in this section.  What is needed is not resignation and playing "me too".  Rather, what is needed is a clear delineation of First Principles: small government, consistent with the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution; emphasis on personal freedom and associated personal responsibility; national and personal fiscal prudence; a public and private morality consistent with Judeo-Christian ideals; embracing immigrant and alien status as the special protected category of fellow Americans on which this nation has always based its future; and an unending battle against abortion and for human rights from conception to grave.  Beyond these principles, tolerance should be key.  Thus, the fundamentalist Right and the too-accommodating "moderates" in the Party must reform their positions...not as much for the sake of the Republican Party as for the future of a two-party political system on which this country relies for safe governance. 
• "Torture".  "The Geneva Convention".  Once more, with feeling: These important principles were never relevant or applicable in dealing with Terrorism or terrorists.  Those responsible for safeguarding this country from another terrorist attack failed to make that crystal-clear, both in recent years and now.  Perhaps even President Obama is belatedly beginning to understand. 
• "Declining Immigration Shows Asian, Hispanic Growth" (by Hope Yen, AP, in The Day Thursday, May 14, 2009, pA6).  Now is the time, in a slack tide rather than in a flood tide, to make comprehensive repairs to our national sea wall of Immigration Law. 
• Once again, David Brooks encapsulates what I have also been saying about the "Go For Broke" attitude of this administration toward the nation's financial future - for decades to come.  See "Fiscal Suicide Ahead", in The Day Saturday, May 16, 2009, pA5. 
• Locally, but with national relevance, Gary Farrugia, Publisher of The Day (www.theday.com), published in the May 14 edition (pA9) a thoughtful Q and A about the state of Journalism...particularly of print media.  I agree with most of what he expressed.  However, I have a problem with two observations and one omission. One relates to his generally positive view of developments in cyberspace...a Wild West show that sorely needs a local sheriff.  The other relates to The Day's "search" for "a commentator who can argue local and state social issues from the right's perspective."  You gotta be kidding!  I am intimately familiar with at least one person who could fill that bill admirably.  With regard to the omission from his comments, what the public wants and sorely needs from its print media is fact-based investigative reporting that tests the honesty and accuracy of everything else inundating us under the rubric "information".  Only a newspaper that provides that product deserves to survive.         
• Finally, Charles Potter's column entitled "Excellence Is What NL Needs" got my attention (in The Day Saturday, May 16, 2009, pC1).  It had too much of the Economist's Prayer in it: "On the one hand; on the other hand".  But he has exactly the right prescription for a community that has for too long settled instead of chosen.  In fact, I began my public service career in New London in the 1960's with a motto on which I ran successfully twice for the Board of Education: "Excellence in Our Education Industry",  Of course, we all know what happened to that lofty idea after the national teachers' unions took over public education.  But we who appreciate excellence...or at least competence...must continue to seek that for New London, Ct., "a garden spot of the world...in constant need of weeding".
  

Upfront costs complicate Obama's health care plan

WASHINGTON – Costs are emerging as the biggest obstacle to President Barack Obama's ambitious plan to provide health insurance for everybody.

The upfront tab could reach $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion over 10 years, while expected savings from wringing waste and inefficiency from the health care system may take longer to show.

Details of the health legislation have not been written, but the broad outlines of the overhaul are known. Economists and other experts say the $634 billion that Obama's budget sets aside for health care will pay perhaps half the cost.

Obama is hoping the Senate comes up with a bipartisan compromise that would give him political cover for disagreeable decisions to raise more money, such as taxing some health insurance benefits. In the 2008 campaign, Obama went after his Republican presidential rival, Arizona Sen. John McCain, for proposing a large-scale version of that idea.

Concerns about costs could spill over in the coming week when the Senate Finance Committee holds a hearing on how to pay for coverage. Committee leaders hoping to have a bill before the full Senate this summer must first convince their own members that it won't break the bank.

"You go to a town meeting and people are talking about bailout fatigue," said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. "They like the president. They think he's a straight shooter. But they are concerned about the amount of money that is heading out the door, and the debts their kids are going to have to absorb."

Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., said cost control has to come ahead of getting more people covered. "Unless we halt skyrocketing health care costs, any attempt to expand coverage will be financially unsustainable," he said.

Obama wants to build on the current system in which employers, government and individuals share responsibility for health care. He says his plan would make health insurance more affordable, particularly for small businesses and individuals. The government would subsidize coverage for low-income people and some in the middle class.

The U.S. spends about $2.5 trillion a year on health care, more than any other advanced country. Experts estimate that at least one-third of that spending goes for services that provide little or no benefit to patients. So theoretically, there's enough money in the system to cover everybody, including an estimated 50 million uninsured.

But one person's wasteful spending is someone else's bread and butter.

The office visits, tests, procedures and medications that the experts question represent a lot of money for doctors, hospitals, drug companies and other service providers. Dialing them back won't be easy. Providers will resist. Patients might complain their care is getting rationed.

The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Max Baucus, said "it's clear that the financing of this is not going to be easy." Baucus, D-Mont., says the basic approach to health care must become more economically efficient.

Instead of paying doctors and hospitals for the number of services they provide, as happens now, Baucus wants to tie reimbursement to the quality of care. Quality would measured by standards that doctors and hospitals have a hand in shaping.

Yet those kinds of changes take time, several years or even the better part of a decade.

The money to cover the uninsured will be needed right away, about $125 billion to $150 billion a year.

That leaves hard choices for lawmakers and Obama.

Baucus favors requiring individuals to get health insurance, which will help. But he also supports subsidies for people who can't afford coverage — a cost to the government.

To help close the money gap, Baucus is open to some limits on the current tax-free treatment of employer-provided health insurance.

Health benefits are considered part of an employee's compensation, but are not taxed. If all health insurance were taxed like regular income, the government could raise an additional $250 billion a year.

In the campaign, Obama opposed tampering with tax-free employer-based health care, saying it would undermine the system that delivers coverage to most people. Other prominent Democrats agree. Asked if he would support taxing benefits, Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., the top tax-writer in the House, simply said: "No way!"

Baucus says doing away with the tax break altogether would cause harm, but some limitations might curb waste in the system. Obama's aides say he's still opposed, but willing to consider any serious proposals from Congress.

Obama's opposition to taxing employer-provided health insurance isn't the only campaign position he might have to jettison to pay for health care.

He once criticized his chief Democratic presidential rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, for proposing that everyone in the U.S. be required to have medical insurance. Yet such a mandate probably will be in what Congress puts together because requiring individuals to pay would lower federal costs.

For Obama, there are no easy ways to pay for health care. Options include raising other taxes, cutting deeply into Medicare payments to providers, or phasing in the expansion of coverage for the uninsured — beyond his four-year term.

Obama does turn as comedian in chief

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama served as comedian in chief on Saturday night, predicting that his second 100 days in office will be so successful that he will wrap them up in record time.

"I must confess I really did not want to be here tonight," Obama told guests at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner -- an annual black-tie gathering of journalists, politicians and Hollywood celebrities. "But I knew I had to come. That's one more problem that I inherited from George W. Bush."

Alluding to his reputation for staying cool and on message, Obama ticked off a series of goals he hoped to achieve.

In the next 100 days, he said, he would learn to go off the teleprompter and Vice President Joe Biden, famous for verbal gaffes, "will learn to stay on the prompter."

Obama said he also expected to house-train his new, seven-month-old Portuguese water dog, Bo.

"The last thing Tim Geithner needs is someone else treating him like a fire hydrant," he said, referring to his treasury secretary. Geithner was forced to pay $34,000 in unpaid back taxes before being confirmed to his job and he has been criticized for his handling of the financial crisis.

"Finally, I believe that my next 100 days will be so successful that I will be able to complete them in 72 days. And on the 73rd day, I will rest," he joshed.

In a dig at the press, Obama said: "We look for you for truth -- even if it's always an approximation."

Obama later endured some ribbing from stand-up comic Wanda Sykes. She shared the head table at the dinner that brought together some 2,700 people at the $200-a-plate event -- proceeds of which went to charity and to fund journalism scholarships.

Sykes, known for her blunt take on current events, mused about her pride in Obama's being the country's first black president.

"That's unless you screw up," she said, turning to him from the podium. "And then it's going to be -- what's up with the half-white guy."

Obama says financial sector to shrink