Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Kit Cunningham: My friend, my priest a paedophile .
Father Kit Cunningham abused schoolchildren in his care at Soni, Tanzania. Photograph: Mike Pattison
All journalists like seeing their articles discussed on television, even when they're being challenged, but the sight of John Poppleton holding a copy of an obituary I wrote earlier this year for the Guardian made me feel profoundly ashamed.
The subject was Father Kit Cunningham, the Catholic priest who had married us, baptised my son (who shares his Christian name) and was a family friend for 20 years. "A Technicolor eccentric, and widely loved as a consequence," the obituary read.
"I find this," Poppleton said, brandishing the newspaper cutting to camera as if it were contaminated, "offensive. This priest was a monster."
Poppleton had been repeatedly sexually abused as a young boy by Fr Kit, an experience that he says "broke me down and broke my spirit". The abuse took place at St Michael's, Soni, in the 1960s, in what was then Tanganyika, now Tanzania. Four of the priests who taught there, all members of the Rosminian order, and including Fr Kit, perpetrated physical and sexual abuse that made this boarding school, according to Poppleton, "a loveless, violent and sad hellhole"....read more
The subject was Father Kit Cunningham, the Catholic priest who had married us, baptised my son (who shares his Christian name) and was a family friend for 20 years. "A Technicolor eccentric, and widely loved as a consequence," the obituary read.
"I find this," Poppleton said, brandishing the newspaper cutting to camera as if it were contaminated, "offensive. This priest was a monster."
Poppleton had been repeatedly sexually abused as a young boy by Fr Kit, an experience that he says "broke me down and broke my spirit". The abuse took place at St Michael's, Soni, in the 1960s, in what was then Tanganyika, now Tanzania. Four of the priests who taught there, all members of the Rosminian order, and including Fr Kit, perpetrated physical and sexual abuse that made this boarding school, according to Poppleton, "a loveless, violent and sad hellhole"....read more
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/jun/19/kit-cunningham-child-abuse
Friday, June 10, 2011
Thursday, June 2, 2011
My 28 year battle against the paedophile priests.
John Meagher talks to the US attorney who’s bringing his campaign to Ireland
Saturday February 12 2011 Irish Independent
In 1983, Jeff Anderson was just another lawyer working in St Paul, Minnesota. Then, by chance, the 35-year-old’s career — and life — changed forever when a man walked into his office saying he had been abused by a priest.
Soon after taking on the case, Anderson realised the problem was much greater than he had first imagined. It wasn’t just a paedophile priest who was culpable, but also senior bishops who had conspired to cover up the abuse. He promptly sued the Archdiocese of Minneapolis and St Paul.
The bishops responded with $1m to settle the matter out of court, but Anderson’s client refused. And so began a landmark case which drew the attention of the US media to clerical abuse for the first time. He eventually won the case and the floodgates opened.
“Hundreds of survivors of clerical abuse who had been afraid to come forward finally spoke up,” he says, speaking to Weekend Review from his office in St Paul. “Many thought they had been the only ones who had suffered abuse at the hands of priests, and that case — and subsequent cases — showed that it was much more common than they had thought.”... read more
http://www.paddydoyle.com/my-28-year-battle-against-the-paedophile-priests/
Saturday February 12 2011 Irish Independent
In 1983, Jeff Anderson was just another lawyer working in St Paul, Minnesota. Then, by chance, the 35-year-old’s career — and life — changed forever when a man walked into his office saying he had been abused by a priest.
Soon after taking on the case, Anderson realised the problem was much greater than he had first imagined. It wasn’t just a paedophile priest who was culpable, but also senior bishops who had conspired to cover up the abuse. He promptly sued the Archdiocese of Minneapolis and St Paul.
The bishops responded with $1m to settle the matter out of court, but Anderson’s client refused. And so began a landmark case which drew the attention of the US media to clerical abuse for the first time. He eventually won the case and the floodgates opened.
“Hundreds of survivors of clerical abuse who had been afraid to come forward finally spoke up,” he says, speaking to Weekend Review from his office in St Paul. “Many thought they had been the only ones who had suffered abuse at the hands of priests, and that case — and subsequent cases — showed that it was much more common than they had thought.”... read more
http://www.paddydoyle.com/my-28-year-battle-against-the-paedophile-priests/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)