ST JOSEPH’S COLLEGE IPSWICH 1964 – 1968. AN OLD BOY REMEMBERS

‘Denying our collective history does not just ignore our past, it weakens our present and cauterizes our future potential’

Bettany Hughes

Dear Pat, I was a boarder at St Joseph’s College, Ipswich from 1964 to 1968. I remember those days fairly well. Some memories are pleasant, like contact and continuing friendship with a great friend from all those years ago, some are disturbing.

One thing I’m sure of, our families entrusted the De La Salle Brothers to safely and kindly look after, protect and educate their children. Some Brothers failed this duty of care.

I find it difficult to imagine other Brothers who weren’t involved in the physical and sexual abuse of the students being completely oblivious to the events that were taking place. Surely some of the lay teachers and the school nurse must also have been aware. If they did, then they as adults, are as complicit.

My story is certainly not as harrowing as your account or others on your blog, far from it, as I emerged relatively unscathed. I was never personally sexually abused. However, I write to you in case it could provide a reference point, a timeline to help you and others in any way.

As a British Army family based in Germany my Mum and Dad thought it would be best for me to go to boarding school to finish my last few years of schooling. I started mid term in 1964 dressed in a dull grey suit that completely enveloped me. I felt awkward and apprehensive.

That night in the refectory I met and dined with boys the same age. Once dinner was over we all went outside and straight away, first night, a boy had a go at me. In a moment a cheering crowd of boys encircled us. Having been in a number of Army schools I was capable of looking after myself and after a few seconds punched the other boy in the nose, we wrestled around, and it was all over and the crowd dispersed. I was never picked on again by fellow students at St Joseph’s and to be honest wasn’t aware of too much conflict between students.

However, I was desperately unhappy being parted from my family and friends at home and remember sometimes at recess and lunchtimes sitting hiding in a cubicle in the toilet block feeling so sad. It took many months to get over the separation from my family. I felt very lost and alone.

I started off sleeping in the large dormitory by the main building. After lights out I used to lay quietly alone with my thoughts and prayers for a long while. I longed to be back home.

It was during these times when I found sleep difficult that I became aware of Brother Leo wandering around the dormitory in the dark by the beds of certain boys. I was a reasonably aware teenager with my upbringing. I had a strong sense that what he was up to was wrong and vowed that if he came anywhere near me I would lash out and scream the place down.

However, it was always the much younger, quieter, vulnerable boys he targeted.

Dare I say something? Should I say something? Best keep my head down was my first instinct. Isn’t that the way perpetrators get away with these offences.

Early in my first year I remember being given six strokes of the cane. I think it was for something trivial like running up the stairs in the main building. Each cut of the cane left severe bruising and broke the skin. It was a real beating and my bottom was achingly numb and sore. For a few days there was blood on my underpants. It probably took a week before it started to heal and the discomfort eased.

I had never been hit by anyone with such force and certainly not by any of the Army teachers who had taught me at the schools on the bases. They tended to be kindly, good natured and well meaning, so this absolutely shocked me.

I remember the distorted, flushed look on the Brother Director’s face when it was finished. I felt humiliated and certainly the punishment did not fit the crime. That was the first but not the last time I was caned, being caught smoking numerous times and other misdemeanours.

When I moved into the older grades I opted for a gardening punishment, for the whole weekend if necessary.

The following year, despite being a year younger than most, I was placed over in the GoldRood dormitories which was a blessing. I enjoyed being there. In the grounds you could play ‘headers’ soccer and simple things like watching the life cycle of the frogs in the large tank half way along the path. Also there was the TV room where we all watched ‘Top of the Pops’ hosted by Jimmy Saville. How apt.

The smaller dorms at GoldRood had a quieter feel to them and as we grew older we had more latitude. It was here I made a close circle of really good mates who looked out for and helped one another.

I never told my parents about these early events and canings. I felt I was being protective of them, but in hindsight I believe I was ashamed and didn’t want to expose my Mum and Dad to the fact they had placed me in an abusive situation. They seemed so proud that their son was going to St Jo’s.

In fact I have never discussed these days with anyone apart from my wife and a counsellor whilst undergoing recent treatment for anxiety.

I wonder how many students kept quiet? Many.

How many remained stoic? Many.

How many accepted events as ‘normal’?

This is the essence of systemic abuse, secrecy.

I remember Louis M well. He was a very stocky type with a shock of dark hair and a fellow smoker. It came as no surprise that he took Brother James apart.

I believe Brother James was suffering from PTSD, perhaps from the war. Some said he had been a fighter pilot, others a POW. With his psychotic temper and uncontrolled violence he should never have been allowed near children, ever. He was sadistic and a man to keep well clear of as he was capable of flying into a rage and lashing out with a flurry of fists, sometimes at the nearest student.

I recall in our lessons at the top of each page of the exercise book we used to write ‘JMJ’ and I often wondered how writing what amounted to a small prayer for guidance reconciled with boys being educated by teachers like Brother James.

During a time with my family in Germany my parents took me on a visit to the site of Belsen Concentration Camp. My Dad had been there the day after it had been liberated in WW2 and the visit had a profound effect on me. As a reminder I sticky taped a small B&W picture of Adolf Hitler on the underside of my wooden desk lid to remind me of the horrible events surrounding the monster.

Soon after, when I was at another lesson, Brother James was alerted to the picture. Apparently he flung open the wooden desk lid with fury. The other boys present thought he was going to have a severe fit as he was literally purple in the face as he tore the picture to shreds. He had lost all control and had to be helped as he was apoplectic. Luckily, I wasn’t there as I believe I would have been beaten senseless. Most surprisingly, I never heard any more about this incident.

As I grew older I became really very good at athletics and represented the school in the AAA County Championships and inter-school competitions. I won a number of county cups and medals. I believe this athletic ability, like the students who played senior rugby, gave me a certain profile and helped protect me from some of the harm meted out to others.

This is where dates and years fail me, but one memory that has stayed with me was an incident with Father Jolly.

As teenagers most of us were in the habit of smoking. Weekends were fine as we could go into Ipswich and go to the dark of a movie or a park and smoke our heads off. Later it was the pub at the bottom of the hill where the publican turned a blind eye. During the week was a different story and we were all hanging out for Saturday.

One day a friend and myself decided to go into Father Jolly’s unit and help ourselves to some of his cigarettes.

This was wrong, and we both knew it.

He lived in a small cottage just on the edge of the school boundary. We knew he had a cigarette box as we had visited his living room during one of his ‘getting to know you, group chats’

Seeing his car was gone we crept into the lounge and just before rifling some of the cigarettes we heard the crunch of the car wheels on the gravel outside. We were trapped and so just sat there. Jolly came in and asked what we were doing and to this day I don’t know how but we said we were waiting for him as we had a matter of abuse to report. My hands were shaking but I went into detail about the history of what I had previously witnessed in the large dormitory. Jolly started writing all this down. Pretty soon after the Brother departed the school.

In my mind I can to this day feel the panic as Jolly entered the room and my face flushing as we spoke about the sexual abuse we had witnessed. Of course for many years I saw Jolly as protecting the students and getting rid of the abuser, whereas in actual fact I now know he was giving the bastard the heads up to move on before the evidence was mounted and he was charged.

Naturally I never confessed the sin of attempting to steal cigarettes to Jolly.

I have seen another boy’s statement on your web-page about reporting abuse to Jolly. The date and timing is somehow out of kilter with my memory and it cannot be the same incident.

There were good teachers at the school and two lay teachers stand out in my mind. My English Literature teacher during sixth form gave me a love of poetry which has stayed with me all my life. My Economics teacher, a family man from Doncaster, Yorkshire was easy to relate to and kindly.

I loved travelling back to Germany to see my family. It entailed travelling by train to Harwich, then ferry over to the Hook of Holland and then catching the Moscow night express to Celle in central Germany. I hated the journey back to Ipswich.

As I grew older I enjoyed the company of my friends at St Joseph’s. Close friends meant emotional security and a clubbing together.

I know when I look back at this period I found the Brothers as a group to be a vulnerable, raw, clumsy group of men, out of touch with a rapidly changing society. Not all were bad, but most could not relate. I wonder now what early experiences they themselves had been through.

Certainly the ones meting out physical punishment and abusing the younger children in their care must have had awful upbringings to carry out some of the harrowing events described in your blog.

This in no way condones their awful, terrible behavior.

All of this is nearly sixty years ago now but parts I remember as if it were yesterday. Through it all I’m reminded of Philip Larkin’s poem, ‘This Be The Verse’ which is worth reading in it’s entirety.

‘Man hands on misery to man

It deepens like a coastal shelf’

Best wishes,

Stephen Parker

DE LA SALLES – REFINEMENT

Another quote below from the official history where it’s claimed that the De La Salle brothers should ‘cultivate in themselves the quality of refinement in bearing, in language, and in manners’

That was certainly not my experience at St Joseph’s College, Ipswich, and neither is it the experience of many other Survivors. The abusers Brothers James, Solomon and Kevin come immediately to mind but there were many more.

It’s their endless self-congratulation and self-deification I find so abhorrent. There is never any acknowledgement of the numerous times the DLS fell far short of such standards

VATICAN SAFEGUARDING – FOLLOWING THE MONEY

I recently wrote about Father Small visiting the beautiful palace he and his Safeguarding staff – the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors –  are taking over – and to which Survivors of Catholic sexual abuse will also have access to in some as yet unclear way. Vatican Safeguarding, it seems, is currently going through a difficult period with the resignation of two Survivors who were on its staff and now the resignation of its leading member Hans Zollner.

Zollner’s comments at a press conference included:

“One thing is certain, several members have left the Pontifical Commission before me and there has been no shortage of criticisms recently expressed publicly by past members, some quite strong”. 

“If there is a lack of transparency, complaints and accountability, the doors are open to cover-ups”

Certainly no progress has been made on the De La Salle child sexual abuse scandal which I understood Father Small was hoping to resolve, following the example of the Comboni Brothers. He was going to write to me and I intimated that I welcomed his letter.

Perhaps he’s too busy. Because it transpires that Father Small is not only the head of the Pontifical Commission, but also the Founder and CEO of Missio Invest ‘blending faith and finance’ : an ambitious developmental aid project in the Global South. ‘In Africa alone,’ Missio says, ‘ there are over 74,000 religious sisters, 46,421 priests, and 8,779  brothers.’ This link takes you to their site https://missioinvest.org/en/about-us/#our-team-anchor and tells you about the impressive work they are doing in Africa and elsewhere. This includes  agriculture, hospitals, old people’s homes and… schools.

Hence my interest.

Because my Catholic education was conditional on my becoming a seminarian. When, aware of the terrifying sexual abuse in seminaries, I declined, I was thrown out of my school at the tender age of 15. Altogether, my brother and I had 9 years of ‘free’ expensive education at St Joseph’s College, Ipswich. But, of course, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. There were other criminal strings attached, specifically being abused by the Catholic Knights of St Columba whose paedophile Knights included Canon Burrows of St Pancras Church, Ipswich.

This conditional Catholic education was commonplace in the past. Parents, like my Irish mother, even dedicated their children to the Church, with all it implied in that past era. A national journalist has expressed an interest in looking into this disturbing subject.

And there’s the example of John McDonnell MP who wrote to me:

‘I was at St Joseph’s in Ipswich from 12 to 16, funded by the church to then go on to a minor seminary to train to become a priest.’

A fairly recent article about St J’s had a spokesperson denying there was any such thing as St J’s ‘facilitating’ vocations as John described. Despite there being a De La Salle vocations teacher on the circuit of the DLS schools and despite my own clear recollections of being taught Latin one-to-one by Brother Kevin.

I would hate to think that Father Small’s educational work  in the Global South includes a similar covert, easily deniable, conditional requirement as I’ve described. So that children there are still at risk – through desperate poverty – of being pressurized into seminaries, religious orders or at the mercy of clerical abusers or Catholic laity abusers, just as I was. Given that the Church has never acknowledged and expressed regret for its past ‘strings attached’ policy, not to mention the sexual abuse that so often went with it, of course it’s still going on and, of course, children are still in danger, even though it’s now obscured with a modern PR gloss, an obfuscation that is the familiar hallmark of the Church. Plus ça change

But where does the Church’s money come from for its ‘free’ education for suitably spiritual, obedient or poor and desperate children its clerical predators can take advantage of?

In my case, was it from some investment fund the Knights ran for the Church? Or from a diocese fund?  My old school, St Joseph’s, when it began, was mysteriously funded by the Knights and its current finances are still equally mysterious so  that a lawyer and a reporter who looked into them both found the current financial set-up ‘very strange.’

John McDonnell, like myself and others, says his education was ‘funded by the Church’ – but no knows where the money comes from, who it’s funnelled through –except in my case it was the Knights – and how else it’s used.

It’s time we found out.

If  Survivors and ordinary concerned people are ever going to make sense of the the Catholic Church, its current potential for abusing and corrupting new generations of poor children in the Global South – where it’s acknowledged by the Church the safeguarding protocols are not as strong as in affluent countries – then it’s important to follow the money.

So this view, sent to me by an insider, knowledgeable in the workings of the Catholic Church, is important. I had no idea about Missio Invest before I read this.

I’ll comment further after their analysis.

I poked around a bit on the internet after reading your blog post about the palazzo – I was intrigued by Fr. Small talking about fundraising to do up the place, I thought, “Surely the Vatican funds the Commission and accepts that it has to throw resources at problems to resolve the crisis for the Church.”

Small’s background is that he’s a commercial lawyer cum entrepreneur. He’s involved in Missio Invest, a Church fund for start-ups by Church entities in the 3rd/developing worlds which got $20m from the World Bank in recent years. The idea is to put Church assets and the assets of Catholic lay organisations to work.

As you know, the De La Salles set up an investment fund in 2009. CBIS Global (Christian Brothers Investment Services) is an offshore fund that’s managed from Dublin. I don’t know how to find out for sure, but what’s the betting that CBIS and Missio Invest don’t have dealings with each other somewhere? What’s CBIS investing in if not the kind of thing that Missio Invest encourages?

Who would pay to do up a palazzo for the Vatican? Especially when that should come way behind redress for victims, an issue on which the Church clearly doesn’t impose universal rules? My mind is boggled 

It said somewhere in the articles I read that to get a loan from Missio Invest an organisation has to adhere to the guidelines for safeguarding laid down from Rome. So which comes first in Small’s world: safeguarding and justice for victims, or getting the organisations that want loans from Missio Invest to sign up to safeguarding so that he can spread money around and build his reputation as an entrepreneur?

This kind of thing may be what Zollner was hinting at when he said that concerns about financial transparency were involved in his decision to resign from the Commission.

COMMENTARY:

Investors acknowledged by Missio Invest include the Jesuits  and the Sisters of Saint Louis. But it’s quite possible the De La Salles are involved, given that ‘CBIS manages assets of $3 billion (€2 billion) in 10 funds based in the US through which “socially responsible” investments are made on behalf of more than 1,000 Catholic organisations. The Dublin-based fund will mirror the investments made by the firm in the US and will initially target Catholic organisations in Ireland, France, Italy and Spain.’

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/de-la-salle-brothers-launch-investment-fund-in-dublin-1.780525

I’ll return to the subject of the actual value of  Missio’s developmental aid another time. It’s a subject I know a fair amount about having written a two year semi-documentary series Third World War that concluded in 1990. It exposed numerous scandals in the Third World such as the Nestle Baby Food Scandal, the human cost of monoculture exports, and the IMF ferocious policies leading to suicides but also heroic resistance by indigenous people.

Today, it’s far worse. Nestle try to control water supplies and seeds are patented so farmers are at the mercy of transnationals. Given that Missio Invest is linked to the World Bank, I fail to see how it’s following a different and more noble path.  

Common criticisms of the World Bank

• Creating a climate where high levels of lending are deemed to be good.
• Advocating disability adjusted life years as a health measure.
• Disregard for the environment and indigenous populations.
• Evaluating health projects by looking at economic outcome measures.

And, if you imagine Father Small’s Church would have respect for indigenous populations today, then I need to tell you about the Jesuits who threw the Apache Indians off their sacred mountain so they could build a Vatican-controlled and financed observatory on the top. It has the most powerful telescope in the world called Lucifer (Truly!) which searches for alien life. According to Father Chris Corbally, the project’s deputy director, ‘If civilisations were to be found on other planets and if it were feasible to communicate, then we would want to send  missionaries to save them.” The Jesuits wanted to name the observatory ‘Columbus’ which the Apaches objected to for obvious reasons.

Some of the information I discovered is on these links :

http://nativeamericannetroots.net/diary/471  https://rense.com/ufo/popescope.htm (quoting the London Sunday Times)

The Apaches now need a prayer permit to ascend their sacred mountain. Their claim to it is disputed by the Jesuits because they don’t have written records.

 Father Coyne, director of the Observatory, further declared that Apache beliefs were “a kind of religiosity to which I cannot subscribe and which must be suppressed with all the force we can muster.”

Plus ça change

DE LA SALLES – THE POWERFUL CONNECTIONS

What I take away from reading the account below is how important the De La Salles were to the Establishment in the 1950s. They were so well connected back then, any child speaking out about abuse by a DLS brother would never have been believed. The order had the total backing of the Establishment.

I doubt it would get quite the same backing today, but it still remains a powerful and global entity.

It helps explain why the DLS has still not responded to the most serious charges of child sexual abuse laid against it, as well as the promised investigation and apology which is still not forthcoming.

Maybe they still use their connections to their advantage. Or they are affected by clericalism – the elitism that is still present in the Catholic Church – and have nothing but disdain for Survivors. Disdain because they either regard us as liars or think we should keep our mouths shut about the horrific crimes the Brothers committed.

With all this in mind, one observer raised a most pertinent and important question:

‘The founder of the De La Salles wasn’t just canonized, he was declared patron saint of ALL teachers. So why aren’t the De La Salles leading the way for teaching orders to make amends for abuse, instead of being grudging laggards?‘

DE LA SALLE: THE FOUNDER’S WORDS

Here’s the De La Salle founder on how De La Salle brothers should behave.

‘…Never allowing themselves to descend to anything base…This seriousness does not consist in a severe or austere aspect, in anger or in harsh words… The teachers will above all never become familiar with their pupils…’

It angers me and many other Survivors that the De La Salles endlessly present themselves and preen themselves today with self-congratulation and not a word of self-criticism, always awarding themselves ten out of ten for their holy and most excellent behaviour..

They seem so ruled by the arrogance of clericalism that it would never occur to them to say, ‘We got it so wrong in recent years. We strayed far from the path of righteousness. From the words of our holy founder. We are truly and profoundly sorry that we grievously and irrevocably harmed so many thousands of children and we hang our heads in shame and humbly ask for their forgiveness.’

Yet if they did make a genuine apology along these lines (as opposed to their curt, fake apology buried deep within their website and criticised even by the partisan Tablet) they would earn the respect and forgiveness of some survivors, at least.

So it actually makes good sense. Insurers – or whoever really runs the DLS order – please note. But perhaps you simply can’t help yourselves? Arrogance is now your way of life? And not acknowledging that your Order screwed up – big-time?

I pity you.

CATHOLIC KNIGHTS AND DIRTY MONEY

I was prompted by a recent letter from a St Joseph’s Old Boy to take another look at Catholic Knights and their Dirty Money, specifically the Ipswich province of the Knights of St Columba.

The Old Boy advised me:

I was at St Joseph’s in Ipswich from 12 to 16, funded by the church to then go on to a minor seminary to train to become a priest.

The mysterious phrase ‘The Church’ is often used to explain funding. No one seems to know how that actually works in practice and I doubt the Old Boy in question knew. When I asked my aunt, she said the same thing to me: ‘The Church paid your school fees.’ When I asked what that meant and why the Church would do that, she didn’t know and quickly changed the subject.  But I know the answer now. In Ipswich ‘the Church’ was the Knights of St Columba and they were the writers of the cheques.  This is proved by my own recollections and those of another Survivor whose testimony has been previously covered on this site.  Elsewhere, it might be the Catenians, Catholic Women’s League and so forth.

The source of the Knights’ money I would assume comes from a number of sources:  fund raising, donations by wealthy Knights, and, I would guess, a significant allocation from the diocese itself. So it can rightly be called the Church’s money.

The diocese would need considerable confidence in these Knights to leave them to manage their affairs. It’s a confidence that would be misplaced were the diocese not equally culpable for the actions I’m about to relate.

It’s what that money is spent on by the Knights that is relevant both in the past and today. And that’s what makes it dirty money.  

1)Paying  St Joseph’s school fees for children to go on to be priests as in the example above.  As I know from my own experience, it can bring strong psychological pressure on a child to fulfill the demands and agendas of adults, but I would assume that did not apply in the case above.

2) Paying St Joseph’s school fees as a reward for silence on a serious sexual assault by De La Salle Brother James Ryan.

I’ve related the details previously. That account, by another Old Boy, proves the Knights of St Columba were guilty of corruption and covering up a violent paedophile crime.

And not for the first time.

Something similar also happened to me.

3)Paying St Joseph’s school fees for my brother and I for a total of nine years.

For two of those nine years the fees were paid by the Knights to prepare me for the priesthood. They intended to send me to that same junior seminary at age 15.  It was also to silence me. Instead, I bailed.

But that still leaves seven years unaccounted for. What possible reason would the Knights pay two boys’ school fees for seven years? My explanation is below. If you, or a Knight reading this, can shed any further or alternative light, I’d love to hear from you.

But I believe there’s more than enough evidence to back my explanation.

                                                THE KNIGHTS’ MOTIVES

All organizations need to recruit for their next generation and that’s particularly true for the Knights.

My family consisted of my devout Irish Catholic widowed mother and her two sons. She had great aspirations for her sons but no financial resources, no job and serious mental health problems.  The Church was her whole life and could do no wrong.

There is no way she could afford to send her children to an expensive grammar school for seven years.

Her vulnerability made my brother and I a prime target for the Knights, under their benign guise of caring for and taking a special, charitable interest in widows and children.

We were perfect assets for the Knights.

In effect, my mother abdicated her authority and passed it over to these ‘protectors of children’.  I doubt there were other recruiting opportunities quite this good.

Also, a paternity DNA test I took recently strongly indicates that a Knight was probably my biological father, rather than my legal father. Bearing this out, the Knights also acted ‘in loco parentis’ assuming a paternal role over me which – because they were sick abusers –  I rejected.

But, even without that DNA connection, I think the Knights had enough incentive.

So what did recruiting involve?  Today we would call it grooming and the form it took varied amongst the four to seven Knights involved over my childhood. Some were pleasant, some were aggressive and one was life threatening.

So my brother was given a brand new bike by a Knight who was also a Catholic priest (Canon Burrows).  I was similarly given a brand new bike to silence me about abuse by Brother James.

I was present at several of their misogynistic ceremonies which were closer to a rugby club night or a frat initiation than Eyes Wide Shut.  They seemed designed to be rites of passage experiences, presumably conditioning me to be a future Knight. Pedophilia was an important element at these events.

I assume pedophilia was part of some twisted bonding process and also the price for admission. At the same time, they were instilling conservative Catholic values in me. It’s a contradiction in behavior that’s commonplace in the Catholic religion.

So, in summary, the Knights of St Columba  (aka ‘The Church’) used their money, power and psycho-coercion to recruit children to the priesthood, to buy the silence of victims, and to corrupt, sexually abuse and recruit future members.

                                    THE KNIGHTS TODAY

If even half of what I’m alleging is correct, these individuals and their successors should never be allowed near children.  Because the  Knights are provably transgenerational.  

Consider the following:

In 2016, in Colchester, Ronald Smith, a Knight of St Columba, was found guilty of sexual abuse crimes on eight children, some under ten years old, carried out while he was taking advantage of his position as a Knight, ‘organizing parish family events’. He was given a 19 – 25 years prison sentence: https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/14650497.churchgoer-finally-jailed-after-40-years-of-child-abuse/ That’s an incredibly long sentence, yet, astonishingly, the story never made the national press. The Knights killed it. So no one knew Smith was already a convicted sex offender in 1973. Or that there were three reports to the police about him since 1973 which were never acted upon.

I also know from an insider and from the Ronald Smith case that some Knights, at least, have not had DBS checks.  Otherwise Smith would never have been allowed near children. Yet they have sworn an oath to ‘develop young people in their journey of faith’.

Catholic Safeguarding were not interested when I brought this current danger to children to their attention numerous times.

                                    CATHOLIC SAFEGUARDING

There are two Catholic safeguarding organizations and both are relevant. The CSSA which are mainly part timers and are only interested in current cases, no more than two years old, and auditing unpaid diocesan safeguarders. They supposedly investigate but I know from personal experience they don’t. They simply dump cases on the police. The CSSA replaced COPCA

And there’s the RLSS – hired by religious orders, like the De La Salles, to protect them from Survivors. It’s meant to be a sub-division of the CSSA, but it seems  autonomous and the CSSA have never shown any interest in religious orders abuse. The RLSS has some supposed investigative powers and recently replaced the SCOE. Why the SCOE became mysteriously defunct has never been explained.  Important records from the SCOE where the DLS were concerned were never passed onto their successors the RLSS. Instead, I had to brief the RLSS. The DLS didn’t seem able to or chose not to help, even though they were central to the issues and had all the information.

Then there are the De La Salles own safeguarding officers who only speak to the press when they are cornered after many phone calls.

There is also a different Catholic Safeguarding set-up  for Scotland.

If you’re wondering about the confusing and frequently changing names, you are right to be concerned.  It’s an ingenious technique used by the Church as noted here:

 https://ello.co/countesssigridvongalen/post/p-opcvqmcco0gkp4bdhfrq… Safeguarding in the churches does not work, as all recruitments are done by & within the perpetrator networks that regroup in ever changing charities & positions of trust that they abuse to ensure supply chain & cover ups…

I suspect in a few years, as Catholic scandals grow as usual, the CSSA and RLSS will mysteriously become defunct and be replaced by ‘dynamic new organisations’ to reassure the Catholic faithful that something is being done, even though it’s not.  

So the situation is now worse than before IICSA.  

Consider the laconic response of the CEO of the CSSA to my concerns about the Knights:

I agree with you over this issue around abuse by the laity does seem to be largely ignored and certainly has given me some pause for thought. I think that in our future audit and review processes we need to give this more consideration.

He seems quite relaxed about it, doesn’t he?  He didn’t know about it before?  Until I told him? It took me about two years to confirm – with hard evidence – that the Catholic laity was involved in organized sexual abuse. Yet safeguarders have access to far more information on this subject than myself and they don’t know?! And they don’t want to consider the past to identify the pattern of a Catholic laity pedophile ring as run by the Knights?

Whatever else you may agree or disagree with my analysis, I think you’d have to recognize all this shows a shocking lack of transparency. This is classic Catholic ‘smoke and mirrors’ at its worst.

Both the heads of the CSSA and RLSS are ex-cops but I do not find that impressive or reassuring, despite their protestations that this surely proves their sincere characters and their supposed value to Survivors.  In practice, both are provably useless but some Survivors have drawn a more sinister conclusion. Namely that their policing skills are being used to effectively block the truth getting out.

Given the way the Knights have behaved (and there’s much more to relate on these gentlemen) I think anything is possible.  

But the RLSS have a responsibility to look at the connection between the abuser Knights and their paymasters the De La Salles.

As a survivor of this joint abuse by Knights and De La Salles, I have a right to know when their criminal relationship ended. If it did.

It’s there on the long list of things the RLSS have done absolutely nothing about, despite their promises to the contrary.   

An ex-FBI agent said that if you found paedophiles in an organisation and it didn’t deal with them then it was effectively a paedophile network.

The RLSS has not dealt with the issue it was supposedly set up for. The RLSS have admitted to me that their paymasters, the De La Salles, have the final say and their hands are tied and this is confirmed by the RLSS broken promises.

In my view this amounts to worse than negligence.

It’s collusion.

Fortunately, this site is read by national journalists and the leader of at least one most relevant organization.  So the head of the RLSS might want to reflect on this and how he will eventually be called upon to explain his actions.

Or his lack of action.

Hopefully before the next enquiry and before he’s had a chance to escape responsibility for his betrayal of De La Salle Survivors.

VICTIM IMPACT STATEMENT: THE DE LA SALLES

Victim Impact Statements are relatively new and have made a difference to victims of crime. I can see a way they could apply to Survivors of the De La Salles.

I must have over a hundred testimonies of terrible physical and sexual abuse against children by the De La Salles, and I’m aware of so many more from their schools and children’s homes in Ireland, Scotland and elsewhere in the UK.

Currently, the DLS have not confirmed their promised apology for the behaviour of their head Brother Laurence Hughes, now demoted because of his physical cruelty to children, as highlighted on this site. Neither have they carried out their promised enquiry into the ‘unheard of’ complaints on this site. That was over a year ago and clearly isn’t going to happen.

And the new RLSS seem like a busted flush where the DLS are concerned, they are actually worse than their predecessor the SCOE. They are tethered by their paymasters, the DLS, and are endlessly in meetings with them, promising me conclusions which are never reached.

So I want to put forward the idea that a Victim of child sex abuse or violence at the hands of the De La Salles, has the opportunity to make a Victim Impact Statement in a thirty minute Zoom call with a member of the De La Salle Order.

A brother wearing the De La Salle robes we all remember as children.

So that DLS brother listens to the harm that his order did to that person in the past.

It’s impact only. It doesn’t have to be added to a complaint file that makes it legally binding or bureaucratically impossible. That would cause endless delays.

It’s pure catharsis.

No promise to investigate – tempting as that is – because the DLS would be overwhelmed with hundreds of cases and use it as a reason to decline.

At this early stage, at least, just the impact statement, to get it off the ground. 

All it really needs is the RLSS to send the DLS a list of interested survivors and agreed times. Then the DLS or RLSS sends the survivor a Zoom link.

It could have a mediator like the RLSS if the DLS are worried. No swearing or verbal abuse would be allowed. It may or may not be recorded. Perhaps it’s optional. No NDAs that restrict Survivors because that still makes the DLS an authority figure.

And for me personally, I would insist the DLS do not conclude with ‘I will pray for you’ or similar patronising statements. Because that is giving them an authority over me that they have forfeited by their predecessors’ crimes.

They are here to listen to us.

But all the above are details that can easily be refined and agreed upon later.

Legally, it’s not impossible, even though a lawyer will try to claim it can’t happen, because lawyers don’t care about reconciliation, only making money.

But if  Truth and Reconciliation can work for countries, is it too much to suggest the same for the De Salles and the Children they have harmed?

It can be ‘without prejudice’ – without admission of guilt – and there are any number of responses the DLS can make which would not be prejudicial. Ranging from ‘I hear what you’re saying’ to ‘I’m so sorry to hear how much pain this has caused you.’ Or ‘I’m so sorry that is your recollection of your school days.’

No guilt is admitted.

Immediately, I can see the DLS, or its lawyers, or the RLS saying ‘But but but but but but but but but but, can’t, can’t can’t can’t.’  Or, even worse, ‘That’s a really great idea, Pat. We’ll talk about it and get back to you in three years time.’

The time to do it is NOW.

Keep it simple. No need to get bogged down with endless but but buts.

Test it out on a Survivor NOW. 

See if it works.  There must be some Survivor the DLS feel safe talking to. If they don’t know anyone – most unlikely – test it out on me.

At least they will have tried.

And they would be starting a GENUINE engagement with survivors, rather than the current farcical and meaningless hand-wringing the RLSS does on behalf of its paymasters, where we never get to see the men from the order who committed unspeakable crimes.

What are the benefits?

From the DLS point of view, they are considerable. Apart from being their Christian duty to deal with evil and help victims of evil, it would give them great public support.

For the first time, a Catholic religious order has the courage to face up to the crimes of past members without admitting liability and without paying out huge sums of money.

That would earn them a considerable number of brownie points with zero cost.

And I, for one, would respect their courage in finally facing Survivors.

From the Survivor’s point of view, it’s a great catharsis. I get to speak to a man wearing DLS robes who listens to what his order did to me in the past.

Even if a Survivor wins a court case against the DLS, all he is currently going to get is a payment and a curt accompanying note from the DLS’s solicitors. He’s not interacting with the cause of his complaint: a human being. 

At the moment, the RLSS – the DLS’s Safeguarder – is acting  as a punch bag for their paymasters the De La Salles.

They have to listen to all the anger and the pain of survivors and they respond well and with sympathy, but so what? It doesn’t get us anywhere – as I’ve previously described – because they are not the DLS.

Meanwhile, the DLS are not even in the boxing ring.

The perception amongst Survivors is that the RLSS are being paid to take the heat for the crimes of the De La Salles.

That is surely wrong and Survivors see this as cowardly or arrogant behaviour by the DLS.

The RLSS must know it’s wrong, but they’re in financial thrall to the DLS so they keep their mouths shut. Thus, for all their good intentions, they are perpetuating an unjust system.

And repeating a previous injustice we suffered as children where we also had to keep our mouths shut.

Personal Views

Here’s the view of two DLS survivors

*Seriously, good idea though. If ‪#delasalle‬ turn down an opportunity to deal with their past and help ALL of us put it to bed, it will forever be a stain on their reputation. They can’t see in front of their noses that survivors are trying to bring closure. Don’t they want that???

*I’m up for it, Pat, they have to listen to survivors at one point. I can’t see them doing it, though.

*When I put a complaint in about the horrifying crime’s at St GILBERT’S their reply was we were only employees and denied any allegations and it was the Home Office problem. The De La SALLE abused us not the Home Office.

To respond to this last point:

As this is about the cruel impact a man wearing the robes of a DLS brother had on a child, it doesn’t matter here whether it’s the legal responsibility of the Home Office or the DLS.

It would be ridiculous to get bogged down in such bureaucracy, which the RLSS are currently attempting.

Whatever the legal status, the Survivor still gets it off his chest and is heard.

Pros and cons

This is just a discussion document and everyone’s views are welcome. Maybe there’s something better or different. I figured 30 minutes, but up to 45 minutes might be better?

One shrewd observer commented that:

*They pay media advisors and drama coaches to train them, if they need to keep up their facade…

We need to see a genuine human being, a De La Salle brother on the screen, not a crisis actor or a professionally trained puppet. I would hope they would not be foolish enough to abuse our trust.

My feeling is that by making the DLS feel safe they may just face up to the crimes of their predecessors.

We didn’t feel safe when we were in their hands, and it’s ironic – but also empowering for us as survivors – that we have the power now.

Seeing how a DLS brother actually feels today may actually help us Survivors.

There’s an important shift of power dynamics here which will help us with the healing process.

I suspect for many survivors it will be healing just to talk to a DLS brother for 30 minutes. And bring them closure.

For others, it may open a can of worms. But the Truth must run where it will.

We can’t be afraid of the Truth.

It’s cost Survivors like myself thousands of pounds in therapy dealing with DLS crimes against me, so I really don’t want to hear them say it’s uneconomic. Or they haven’t got the time. That they have better things to do.

Make the time.

Someone has to be proactive and find a way out of the current deadlock. As no initiative has come from the DLS and their Safeguarders, it’s up to us to take the initiative.

An olive branch is being offered them: a way of getting at least some of the poison out for some Survivors, and I would recommend they take it.

If they don’t want to, IMHO it will be because they are just too afraid of what might happen, what might come out. So they will carry on as before but – with increasing media and social media pressure – sooner or later their full history will be revealed to the public.

Bear in mind  there are survivors in their 50s whose memories of abuse at De La Salle schools (I have their testimonies) are only emerging now. So this problem is not going to go away for decades to come.

I’ve sent a copy of this post to the RLSS because I do not have contact details for the DLS. Which tells us a great deal.

I’m also sending a copy of this post to a journalist who writes for the Tablet in the hope that they will see the benefits for the De La Salles and the Catholic Church, and cover it in their newspaper.

THE RLSS – AN UPDATE RE THE DE LA SALLES

Here’s an update regarding the RLSS and the De La Salles.

The RLSS invited me to a (Zoom) meeting. Here is my reply to their head of Safeguarding:

Thanks so much , Stephen.

I was impressed by the work you did on child protection re Caldey Island.

When the equivalent happens where the De La Salles are concerned I will be sure to sing your praises.

But currently my view from the outside – not being present at your meetings with the De La Salles – is that you are dealing with a very determined and cunning organisation that will not admit its crimes, even though it promised to.

And so far you are losing and the De La Salles are winning.

As you know, that’s also the view of other survivors of the De La Salles so there’s no point in having a meeting at this stage.

When you can prove you have made progress regarding  the De La Salles admitting their crimes, then I would be very happy to talk and understand your point of view.

But, currently, I see your organisation – no matter what its good intentions – as part of the problem, rather than the solution.

So I will continue to expose how RLSS Safeguarding is there to safeguard the De La Salles, not survivors of their terrible crimes.

In my view, because you are ‘tethered’ by your paymasters, you should remove the De La Salles from your list of clients because their current immoral behaviour – in line with their criminal past –  is giving your RLSS  a very bad name.

Once the De La Salles  are ’expelled’  and can no longer hide behind you, it will be easier for Survivors to deal with them. I would submit that this is the right and moral thing for you to do. Otherwise you are in collusion with them.

As always, I will feature this response on social media because I believe in full transparency and we Survivors need to protect and support each other against a formidable and uncaring enemy. Your organisation seems incapable.

Best wishes

Patrick

POLICE – OPERATION HYDRANT

The position on Police Operation Hydrant is far from clear, so I thought I would  attempt to clarify it.

I think the key to understanding it is – it’s a mess.  The police are overworked – for which I have great sympathy – and there are regional variations in their responses  and that adds to the confusion.

The Police Hydrant website does not make clear its scope and terms of reference.

I was told that Operation Hydrant dealt with past organised abuse, irrespective of whether the abuser was alive or dead. And I was told by Ipswich Police that any complaints to Hydrant had to go through an organised body.  That isn’t always the case, but that’s the road I duly took.

I went through the CSSA – Catholic Safeguarding – who actively encouraged me to do so (I have their emails confirming this) even though their terms of reference are now revealed as current cases only and they KNEW it was a waste of my time.

So the CSSA sent on my detailed allegations to Hydrant.

The SCOE (predecessor to the RLSS) Religious Life Safeguarding  also sent on my detailed allegations to Hydrant.

I believe the RLSS still talk in terms of using Hydrant today.

Although Hydrant is a national entity, it operates through local police forces. So in my case it was Ipswich.

As a precaution, I also sent my Hydrant allegations direct to Ipswich police force, because I do not trust the CSSA, the SCOE and the RLSS – all of which are so obviously designed as a shield to safeguard the Catholic Church from its crimes.

There may be some Hydrant regional variations where things are better than Ipswich. And I’ve also heard that the whole set-up is  supposedly different today. But I don’t believe it and I  have no evidence for this.

Survivors have pointed out that Savile was investigated after he was dead – but that was in response to a national outcry.

And there was also a police investigation into the Salesians in 2013, where the abusers were dead.

But in 2023 I believe the position is entirely negative.

It’s been over a year since my  allegations were passed onto Hydrant with no response.

I believe this is because the Police will only deal with abuse when the abuser is alive.

And it has to be someone who abused the complainant personally.

Then the police WILL act.

But allegations of  current abuse by organised Catholic groups (a matter of press record) have also been ignored – even though children and vulnerable people are potentially currently at risk. It  is presumably classified as ‘hearsay’ and ignored.

The CSSA  were not interested, even though it is actually current and thus within their remit.

Tracking down the few De La Salle and lay teacher abusers who may be alive is a monumental task. I’d say the teachers from my generation are now dead.

There ARE De La Salle Old Boys in their early 50s who have made allegations of sexual abuse by De La Salle brothers and lay teachers of their generation on this site. So there is a good chance those DLS brothers and teachers will still be alive.

But although they’ve written to me with their allegations or posted it on this site, that’s usually as far as a Survivor will go. He’s gotten it off his chest and is understandably reluctant to go to the police and rake it all up.

I would still strongly encourage them to do so. I personally find a search for justice an excellent catharsis, but we’re all different and I understand their reluctance.

So I don’t see a way forward for the allegations of organised De La Salle and Knights of St Columba through the conventional Operation Hydrant path.

However, I am looking at other paths.

Worse, I think the Catholic Safeguarding agencies knowingly encouraged – and still encourage – survivors to use Hydrant, although the success (or reply) rate is zero. (I asked the CSSA what the Hydrant success rate was and got no reply)

But the more we can expose the Catholic Safeguarding agencies – the CSSA and the RLSS – who are designed to obfuscate, to create smoke and mirrors to exhaust the survivor and make him or her give up – something good can come out of this.

The RLSS and the CSSA I think genuinely believe in themselves and that just makes them worse!  Their personal integrity only adds to the confidence trick being played on survivors by the Catholic Church. The CSSA and RLSS  are pawns in a cynical game knowingly being played by the Leaders of the Catholic  Church.

True integrity involves stepping back and saying ‘What are we actually doing here? What are we actually achieving where the De La Salles are concerned?’   

Here’s the thoughts of Steve Ashley CEO of the CSSA:

This of course leaves those that have been subject of abuse over two years ago have very little redress. I think you are right in saying that agencies, including the police, draw a line and say “we are not investigating anything before X date” and that is seen as the end of it which of course it isn’t for victims/survivors. I don’t know what the answer is. IICSA was obviously put in place with the intention of dealing with this but quite honestly I think they were overwhelmed and in the end they presented their final report and it is difficult to know what it all achieved.

If the CEO of Catholic Safeguarding thinks going to the police is a waste of time – and IICSA was a waste of time – who am I think differently?

Our energy as activists could so easily be exhausted by addressing official bodies and  I feel that is the calculated intent of Safeguarding.

I would hope the RLSS and CSSA will stop misleading survivors now.

Fortunately there are other routes to justice. Namely:  exposing the De La Salle and interconnected Knights Catholic child abusers, by publicly naming and shaming them, not just on this site but in the media.  

And naming and shaming the truly pathetic (see Ashley’s quote above) role of the Catholic Safeguarding agencies

If they have any true integrity, the RLSS should strike the De La Salles off their client list – unless they are happy to have a religious organisation with no moral compass on their books.

THE RLSS – THEIR TIME IS UP

As you probably know the RLSS (Religious Life Safeguarding Service) is the new ‘go to’ Safeguarding organisation for religious orders, including the De La Salles. They promised to be different – a new broom. But nothing’s changed and their time is up.

Unlike the CSSA, the RLSS does actually have investigative powers.

(So, too, do the unpaid Diocesan Safeguarding officers who I know from past experience in the Copca era were a waste of my time.  But the RLSS seem different)

The RLSS promised an outcome to De La Salle issues of ORGANISED PAEDOPHILE RINGS in their schools. That promise was well before Christmas and we’re now in Feb.

So their time is up.

I believe what is delaying them is the De La Salles trying to wriggle out of their agreed apology for Brother Laurence and their promised investigation.

All over a year old.

My guess is it’s the Catholic insurance company who are saying, ‘Don’t say anything. Don’t admit anything. Maybe Mills will get tired and go away. Survivors often do. We just have to hang on in there.’

Mills is not going away.

The RLSS does seem to have some genuine people, but that’s part of the problem. They’re tethered, as they admit themselves, their powers are limited, so they are as much of the problem as the criminal  De La Salles who are hiding behind them.

To me that’s COLLUSION.

And  just in case someone challenges me on ‘criminal’ DLS,  I’d say an organisation that allows over a hundred cases of child sex abuse by De La Salles and their lay teachers to go without investigation is a criminal organisation.

Especially when there is evidence it’s organised sexual abuse. Not odd rotten apples.

We survivors are not collateral damage, much as I think some Catholics would like us to be and just shut up and leave these “”””holy””””” men alone.

Here’s my TWEETS on the subject of the RLSS.

I’m sure I’ll be returning to this matter again soon.

I’ve felt out-manouvered by Police Hydrant and Catholic Safeguarding. Catholic Safeguarding knew I would be wasting my time by reporting historic crimes to Hydrant, but they let me go ahead. But I wanted to see what the 'new broom' RLSS Safeguarding was like. (1/4)

— Patrick Mills (@PatrickEMills) February 18, 2023

The serious issue of Brother Laurence's demotion and promised apology & promised De La Salle investigation into their child sex abuse crimes at DLS schools in Ipswich, Bournemouth,Beulah Hill etc is still on the table. I'm not letting the DLS monks get away with it. (2/4

— Patrick Mills (@PatrickEMills) February 18, 2023

The RLSS did some good work on the Caldey Island case, so I cut them some slack. But their time is now https://t.co/w02XL569a1 I am tweeting & posting that they are just as questionable as their paymasters the criminal De La Salles whom they are safeguarding, NOT survivors. (4/4

— Patrick Mills (@PatrickEMills) February 18, 2023

My twitter handle is

@PatrickEMills

So if you were able to find those tweets and retweet them, they would reach a wider audience and show the Catholic Church and its organisations for the shameful entities they really are.