[quote]
[B]Brookfield, Connecticut (CNN)[/B] -- Ireland, one of the world's most Catholic countries, has been reeling from the revelation that Catholic leaders there covered up child abuse, including sexual abuse, by priests for decades.
But not all of the victims were Irish.
The Emerald Isle exported many priests over the years. And that's how one of Ireland's most prolific, known child abusers ended up in Rhode Island in the late 1960s.
Helen McGonigle was 6 when, she says, the Rev. Brendan Smyth fondled, raped and sodomized her.
She says she remembers him, dressed in white priest's robes, at the back sliding glass door of her bedroom.
"All I wanted to do was to escape, to fly away. There were little cubbies in my room -- a twin bed with a headboard that had little cubbies," she remembers. "I just wanted to be tiny enough to hide in those little cubbies so he couldn't see me."
McGonigle, now a 48-year-old lawyer in Connecticut, says Smyth abused her, her sister and even her mother over a period of two years.
She believes the abuse drove her mother mad and drove her sister to suicide.
"My mom's breakdown was caused by this. There's no question," she said.
Her mother was found hysterical, half-naked, on her front lawn, screaming, "The pope owes me," McGonigle remembered.
She was acting "like she was a rape trauma victim," the lawyer said.
"I believe Smyth attacked her. I believe that's what caused her breakdown," she said.
"You have to understand my mom was also a devout Catholic. Her brother was a seminarian. So for the same person to be on the front lawn saying, 'The pope owes me,' she was really mad," McGonigle said.
Brendan Smyth was ultimately convicted of dozens of counts of child abusein the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland. He died in prison in 1997.
But his victims on two continents, like Helen McGonigle, are living reminders of the crimes of this pedophile priest at the center of a sex scandal in the Irish Catholic church.
By the time he reached Helen McGonigle and her family, this Irish priest had already abused dozens.
Records dating back to the 1950s show Smyth was moved from parish to parish: Ireland to Scotland to Wales to Northern Ireland to Rhode Island, back to Ireland, then to East Greenwich, Rhode Island, and Langdon, North Dakota -- each time under a cloud of suspicion, or worse, after a family came forward to report the priest was an abuser.
Helen McGonigle says Smyth tended to abuse children in the same family.
"That seems to be a common pattern," she said.
But McGonigle was never able to get her sister to tell her about abuse by Smyth.
"She couldn't handle it. ... I think she was asked by my mother not to say anything," she said. "I mean, this is something that she probably swore to my mom that she would never bring up."
Helen's sister, Kathleen, took her own life in 2005.
McGonigle is now suing the Catholic Diocese of Providence, Rhode Island. The church is already paying for her therapy.
She says six others from her parish have come forward to say they, too, were abused by Smyth, including one of her childhood friends, a neighbor.
What she wants most of all from the church, she says, is an apology for destroying her family -- and an acknowledgment that the church knowingly placed a pedophile into her parish. So far, she says, she has received neither.
The Diocese of Providence has refused to comment, citing two pending lawsuits involving abuse allegations against Smyth.
Smyth's superior in Ireland admitted that the diocese where the priest was sent in the United States was not told of his history of abuse.
Smyth was finally arrested in 1994. He was sent to an Irish prison, where he died of a heart attack.[/quote][URL="http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/03/17/ireland.abuse.abroad/index.html?hpt=T2"]Source (with video)[/URL]
This doesnt really surprise me that it could tear apart a family, and that [sp]some[/sp]priests do this kind of thing.
[QUOTE=Sparkwire;20813108]Smyth was finally arrested in 1994. He was sent to an Irish prison, where [B]he died of a heart attack.[/B][/QUOTE]
A better death than a scum bag like him deserved,
[quote]Her mother was found hysterical, half-naked, on her front lawn, screaming, "The pope owes me," McGonigle remembered[/quote]
The pope also owes me.... A candy bar
It's kinda ironic how so much priests are pedophiles.
I don't get it, why DO priests molest little kids?
are there bible verses saying you should?
I think it's something to do with the fact that priests can't have real sex, but I'm not sure.
Because if you're a priest, it's easy to seduce kids who live in religious families.
[QUOTE=johanz;20813388]Because if you're a priest, it's easy to seduce kids who live in religious families.[/QUOTE]
the kid wasnt seduced, she was chased then raped.
[QUOTE=Sparkwire;20813413]the kid wasnt seduced, she was chased then raped.[/QUOTE]
It's easy to rape kids when you're a priest and can threaten them with eternal damnation if they tell.
[QUOTE=Omali;20813447]It's easy to rape kids when you're a priest and can threaten them with eternal damnation if they tell.[/QUOTE]
i can imagine that
[b]"PUT THIS IN YOUR FUCKING MOUTH OR YOU'LL BURN IN ETERNAL DAMNATION WHERE SATAN WILL GIVE IT TO YOU MILLION TIMES WORSE IN A PLACE WHERE YOU'LL SUFFER IN INEXTINGUISHABLE HELLFIRE"[/B]
:Dawkins102:
Religion strikes again.
[QUOTE=lolwutdude;20813364]I don't get it, why DO priests molest little kids?[/QUOTE]
Because Roman Catholic priests who do this have had widespread protection from the law and the media by the church for decades. One reason for why these people and their crimes are only coming to light today is that when they should have been convicted and had their names in the papers, the church influenced Ireland's courts and police to keep things quiet, to avoid embarrassment. Quite a few people didn't believe priests were capable of it either.
It was easy to get away with it back in the 70s but now the victims are old enough to speak out and the way society has changed gives them a platform to do this without being stamped out by the church.
Once again, the world would be a better place without religion.
[QUOTE=StormHammer;20813272]A better death than a scum bag like him deserved,[/QUOTE]
Yeah priests that molest children(or anyone for that matter) deserve to die being raped in the ass hole in the prison shower.
fuck the church :downs:
This is not news. Priests do this all the time.
Christians are the elite in hypocrisy, they pledge a life of celibacy and yet for implements of torture (middle ages) they would do only sexual forms of torture. Not to mention often raped those being judged. Then they go and do shit like this, which is in my opinion one of the worst things you can do, and that's taking advantage of a child for your own sick pleasure/gain.
[QUOTE=the_shape;20813566]:Dawkins102:[/QUOTE]
Pastafarian priest won't ever do this shit.
[QUOTE=lolwutdude;20813364]I don't get it, why DO priests molest little kids?
are there bible verses saying you should?[/QUOTE]
Loopholes
[editline]11:01PM[/editline]
And bumholes
Solution:
Let priests have sex.
[QUOTE=madmanmad;20813928]Once again, the world would be a better place without religion.[/QUOTE]
It doesn't pertain to religion for the most part. It pertains to the sexuality and desires of these old men.
Yes because a small group of sick disgusting creatures that could do such a thing warrant complete total anger for all of religion and hate against Christians.
[QUOTE=Mr.Dounut;20823068]Yes because a small group of sick disgusting creatures that could do such a thing warrant complete total anger for all of religion and hate against Christians.[/QUOTE]
Yes
[QUOTE=StormHammer;20813272]A better death than a scum bag like him deserved,[/QUOTE]
if he didnt confess then hes gone to hell
This makes me sick, I hate people who think they have a right to someones body with out permission.
I know someone who was touched by a preist too and ever since then they've disliked religion.
[QUOTE=keatinator;20823967]This makes me sick, I hate people who think they have a right to someones body with out permission.
I know someone who was touched by a preist too and ever since then they've disliked religion.[/QUOTE]
Priests touch humans quite often, that's part of their job.
[QUOTE=johanz;20824056]Priests touch humans quite often, that's part of their job.[/QUOTE]
Smart arse, I meant touched in a sexual way not touch in a spiritual kind of way.
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