GUEST BLOG CALDEY ISLAND – CISTERCIAN MONKS

I was talking to fellow survivor Kevin O’Connell yesterday about Caldey Island  and abuse by the Cistercian monks which he outlines in his guest blog, SEE BELOW.

Poor and deprived Catholic children – many from the Birmingham diocese – were sent on holiday to Caldey Island where the monks were waiting for them… It’s a familiar story.

Kevin is a vigorous campaigner, with plans to go to Rome in pursuit of his cause. His story has been covered on BBC Wales https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-59479131, but needs wider coverage.

Apart from Caldey Island, Kevin has also related the Catholic trafficking of  children in Southern England.

His story is relevant to this site because, alongside the story of systemic De La Salle abuse at St Joseph’s College, Ipswich, and that of Stephen Smith  (‘The Boy in the Cellar’ book where Stephen recounts St William’s organized De La Salle abuse), it means there are now THREE proven examples of organized, systemic Catholic abuse in the UK.

Organised abuse – Catholic paedophile rings –  in the laity, the Knights of St Columba, and amongst cleric and religious orders like the De La Salles and the Cistercians – has yet to be acknowledged by the Church.

Officially it never happened and all concerned have shown no interest in following up proven cases.

So it’s fallen to survivors to present the evidence that organized abuse was endemic in Catholic society and may still be. These crimes don’t go away in one or two generations – much as they’d like us to believe it.

Three examples should be more than enough. Possibly we will have to wait until there are six or more examples before the Church will admit it contained and maybe still contains organized paedophile rings.

It may take a public enquiry, as Kevin suggests, or some other independent means to expose the truth.  Certainly it won’t come from Catholic organizations themselves.

The slowness and indifference of the De La Salles and the Knights of St Columba in dealing with these crimes is certainly noted.

They clearly don’t care if children may still be at risk.

Let’s hope the Cistercians are different.

On 21 Jun 2022, at 19:46, KEVIN O’CONNELL <kevinoconnellandco@hotmail.com> wrote:

Hi.

Thanks for your interest in our campaign Caldey Island survivors.

I suffered 50 years because of the horrible abuse from monks and priests.

I came out about it in late 2018 and since then with the help of Dinah Mulholland and others have campaigned for a public inquiry and to bring the Monks on Caldey into the UK laws and provide a independent safeguarding for children from Catholic Churches and schools still retreat on Caldey Island.

The abbot stated that they retain the right to oversee past present and future child abuse.

The whole story of Caldey and priests from Sussex/Surrey has not been told, this is why we need a public enquiry.

The police failure is unforgivable.

What I witnessed while on retreats on Caldey is industrial abuse of hundreds and possibly thousands of children, the poor, the weak and vulnerable children. Taken to the caves ,ruins, sand dunes and the monks cells in the ruins. Abusers would travel by boat daily as Caldey was well known for paedophiles

As a safe haven for them. Also the abbey hid paedophiles from the police.

But please have a look at our Facebook page Caldey  Island survivors campaign.

Web site caldeyislandsurvivors.org.

It would be lovely if you could help us .

I often ask people what do they see when they  close their eyes  at night, because what I see is the eyes of the children being dragged away to be abused.