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Knox Grammar and St Stanislaus (2)


Friday, 17 April, 2009 11:45 AM
From: "Rory Connor"
To: offtherecord@crikey.com.au

Crikey

There have been three previous sets of child abuse panics which tend to be based in different areas at different times and I think that Australia is now set to launch a fourth one;

Statanic Ritual Abuse was launched in the USA in the 1980s and was largely brought to an end by an FBI Report on the phenomenon in 1992 (not surprisingly FBI Special Agent Lanning described it at groundless). In the meantime it had spread to several other countries including the UK.

Recovered Memory got going - again in the USA in the early 1990s, again spread widely but is now largely discredited. In the USA the Supreme Court in Massacheutetts will shortly hear the appeal of (Father) Paul Shanley against his conviction on RM evidence. This could deal a deathblow to this kind of hysteria.

"Murder of The Undead" (allegations of child killing by the Christian Brothers at times when no child died of any cause) was born in my country Ireland about 1999, flourished for about 5 years and is now dead as a doornail. In February 2008 a police detective born in Northern Ireland, launched a similar crazed witch-hunt - against lay child care workers- on the island of Jersey (UK) which collapsed at the end of the year. (However  hysteria is stirring in Canada where Church residential schools are alleged to have been responsible for the "genocide" of Indian children.)

The above witch-hunts - including the developing one in Canada - involved allegations by formerly delinquent or poor children against clergy or lay teachers. They were fuelled by "Compensation" claims but the main impetus was probably Hatred of Authority and Hatred of the Church. It was a kind of class warfare. All of these witch-hunts are now in pretty poor shape so the stage is set for the emergence of something new.

St Stanislaus and Knox Grammar may represent the beginning of a new witch-hunt. These are upper-class schools so what they may represent is a ruling class devouring itself. At the same time there are elements of the previous crazes. For example in St Stanislaus, chanting priests are alleged to have led hypnotised boys in prayer sessions and then abused them. This sounds a bit like Satanic abuse. Again Fr Greg Cooney head of the Vincentians in Australia was accused of child abuse at a time when he was oversees. There are numerous precedents in Ireland - including one where a Christian Brother was accused of abuse at a date when he was actually two years old!

Best wishes

Rory Connor