10:09 PM PDT, May 22, 2009
The Pen and Palette is asking the question, “Who Wears the Face of God? the target seeking missile question woven throughout Kim Michele Richardson’s inforgettable memoir, The Unbreakable Child. And the release of Ireland’s commisioned report on edemic rape and abuse in Church-run schools and orphanages and last month’s release of The Unbreakable Child, bookends this tragedy on the other side of the world.
On April 16th, 2009 I did a post called, “Who Wears the Face of God?” which was a book review of Kim Michele Richardson’s book, The Unbreakable Child. I was so struck by the importance of getting Kim’s story out there (she was one of many orphans abused by nuns and priests in a Catholic orphanage in Kentucky) that on May 1st, I also posted an interview with Kim. …
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So when a friend called on Wednesday to ask if I’d seen the articles about the Irish Commission’s report after ten years of investigation into the abuse of more than 30,000 children in Irelandover a seventy-year span, I immediately looked up several sites, starting with The Guardian and then the Bloomberg Report. Finally the news made it to Memphis with a short piece in Thursday’s Commercial Appeal.
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Ritualized beatings and rapes that have been covered up by the clergy for decades. The report…”
–Susan Cushman
May 23, 2009 at 1:12 pm
Interesting and very important links, my friend — I am heartened by how more and more victims’ voices are being heard.
((((((((hugs)))))))))
May 23, 2009 at 11:23 pm
I heard about this recently and thought about you. Grrr!!! It just makes me so angry at how much teh church protected these people, these people who allegedly represented their God.
May 25, 2009 at 3:04 pm
I heard about that and thought of you too, Kimmi.
It seems that the Church failed to realize that power without accountability makes the worst in people bubble to the surface. This is true in many kinds of situations, but of course more horrific when children are involved.
My mother-in-law, who grew up in an isolated Italian village, tells how hard life was for young women. They were often beaten by drunken husbands (who were getting drunk while the women were out working in the fields), and bullied by mothers-in-law, with whom they often had to live. The only protection they had was a certain amount of social pressure that helped keep the men in line a bit. (Divorce was too scandalous to be contemplated.) Oppression wears so many faces…
I am just so impressed that you were able to separate their deeds from their profession of being God’s representatives. So many are unable to do that.