In the Name of God

A study by the archdiocese of Dublin reveals that more than 100 of its priests have faced paedophile accusations since 1940. This involves more than 350 children. The archdiocese of Dublin is the leading one of four Provinces of the Catholic Church on the island. And that's just Ireland.

If you've read James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, you'll know something of the mind techniques that would have been worked on these children. The preacher teaches the young:

"He founded it upon the rock of ages, and endowed it with His grace, with sacraments and sacrifice, and promised that if men would obey the word of His church they would still enter into eternal life; but if, after all that had been done for them, they still persisted in their wickedness, there remained for them an eternity of torment: hell."

"There, by reason of the great number of the damned, the prisoners are heaped together in their awful prison, the walls of which are said to be four thousand miles thick: and the damned are so utterly bound and helpless that, as a blessed saint, saint Anselm, writes in his book on similitudes, they are not even able to remove from the eye a worm that gnaws it."

...and on like that, getting far, far worse; sixteen pages describing the hell waiting for sinners. Better do as you're told kids.

Here's some numbers -
UK Child Protection Helpline: 0808 800 5000
Canada Kids help phoneline, toll free: 1-800-668-6868

Check this site here for a list of child helplines for other countries.


Still, I guess a large number of those priests will now know:

"The horror of this strait and dark prison is increased by its awful stench. All the filth of the world, all the offal and scum of the world, we are told, shall run there as to a vast reeking sewer when the terrible conflagration of the last day has purged the world."

A whistle blows. "OK, lunch break over. Back on your heads."