You know, the Church is full of sinners and sins to which we will gladly stipulate without people just
making stuff up out of whole cloth. You may or may not recall The Magdalene Sisters, an anti-Catholic movie that sank like a stone. It was based on a best-selling (in Britain) tell-all book, Don't Ever Tell In Britain, which purported to be the story of how the nuns and priests raped and tortured a young orphan girl. It was really shocking and completely false; the author was never there. This is kind of funny:
"Misery literature is huge, especially in Ireland," agrees Kelly. "The public loves this description of a cold, miserable Ireland, where it always rains and priests are always around, abusing someone."
But this is not:
what makes the O'Beirne saga so troubling, Kelly believes, is that it fuels Ireland's obsession with clerical sex abuse, and the abuse-claim industry. O'Beirne herself accused Fr Fergal O'Connor, founder of the homeless hostel Sherrard House, of raping her in the 1970s. The investigation took a year, during which the 77-year-old University College Dublin professor was prevented from visiting his own workplace. Yet Fr O'Connor was virtually crippled by arthritis when the alleged crimes took place, unable even to shake hands because of the pain, according to a friend. The priest was exonerated two days before his death.
That's something, but his name will forever be associated with that hateful crime --and most people who've heard his name at all will always believe the accusation. Abuse is an awful crime, but false accusation no less so, yet it doesn't seem to me it outrages many people. Curtsy:
Hermeneutic of Continuity
