By RTE News - 13.02.2025 - [IRELAND - [Jesuit Abuse]
The Chief Executive of One in Four has said she has no doubt that more people will be named as perpetrators and abusers, both by religious orders and other organisations.
It comes after the Jesuit Order named a further 15 deceased Jesuits who have been the subject of child sexual abuse complaints, eight of whom were already the subject of complaint during their lifetimes.
The other seven first became the subject of complaint after their deaths.
All allegations in these cases have been reported to gardaí and statutory authorities.
Deirdre Kenny welcomed the publication of the report from the Jesuits Order yesterday, but said past experience has proven that organisations have protected themselves.
"This information, being drip fed for decades, is not particularly helpful but I've no doubt - we've known from the scoping inquiry - there are thousands of people out there," she said. Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Ms Kenny said the move is a "step in the right direction".
"Naming the 15 individuals and acknowledging past failures is certainly a step in the right direction, and it goes some way to the transparency that survivors deserve," she said. However, she added that the decades of silence to date will have compounded the harm to survivors of abuse.
"As a society, and certainly in institutions like religious institutions, we know from experience that silence compounds that feeling of responsibility and shame that these children carry into their adulthood."
She said the Jesuit Order has proven in the past to be less adversarial than many other religious congregations and that the Order is proactive in making the compensation process easier for survivors.
She added that trying to break down a case to a monetary value can be insulting to survivors.
However, she said it is helpful if people can see that there is a genuine attempt to acknowledge the harm and that they can see that a religious congregation has learned from what has happened in the past.
Yesterday, Jesuit Provincial Fr Shane Daly SJ said the order wanted to hear from any person who was harmed by any Jesuit, and urged them to contact the Jesuit Safeguarding Office to make disclosures. If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article and were abused in state run medical and health facilities, you can contact Dignity4Patients, whose helpline is open Monday to Thursday 10am to 4pm.
Dignity4Patients Commentary:- Absolutely concur with @oneinfourirish CEO that "silence compounds feelings of shame that abused children carry into their adulthood." Publishing reports provides the "transparency that survivors deserve" #DroghedaReview #MichaelShine #StopSexualAbuse