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Christian Brothers ‘seek forgiveness’ over abuse
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| 21 June, 2009 |
THE congregation leader of the Christian Brothers, Br Philip Pinto, has called on the Brothers to become “more human and compassionate” and to “seek forgiveness” from victims in the wake of the Ryan Commission Report into abuse in child-care institutions in Ireland.
The 2600-page report found that for decades rape was “endemic” in more than 250 Irish Catholic institutions from the 1930s to the 1990s, and that the Church protected pedophiles in its ranks from arrest.
In a letter sent to Christian Brothers throughout the world, Br Pinto said the report was “very critical” of many institutions, including those run by the Christian Brothers, and the findings “leave us all ashamed and humbled”.
“I ask our Brothers to join with me in this exercise of reaching out to former residents of our residential institutions,” he said.
“I am asking that we begin to dialogue with these hurt groups and see how we are able to use our resources to bring healing to them.
“People who are hurt want to know that their cries have been heard, that what happened was not their fault, and that we want to set things right.
“As we read the report we were all dismayed at the findings and what they revealed about the harshness we were guilty of and the depravity of some of our Brothers.
“It is all too easy to dismiss the report as exaggeration, as not telling the whole truth. To do so is to evade the awful truth presented to us. This is our sin and all of us are guilty.”
Br Pinto said now was the time of “deep soul-searching” for the Brothers. “We all need to take time to look at the report, study it and see what went wrong for us,” he said. “How could we have strayed so much from the compassionate vision of Blessed Edmund?
“For me the answer is very simple: we strayed from the gospel experience at the heart of what Blessed Edmund did, from the spiritual core of who we are. We forgot the God who gave us birth.
Br Pinto has called for a day of prayer and fasting, suggesting that June 27 be set as a traditional feast of the Congregation for this.
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