This study in Australia shows how Catholic Paedophile Rings worked in Oz.
It describes 16 Catholic child sex abuse Rings.
Here is an account of a similar Catholic child sex abuse Ring in the USA.
I found this headline – in 2018 – particularly disturbing.
THE GRAND JURY REPORT ABOUT CATHOLIC PRIEST ABUSE IN PENNSYLVANIA SHOWS THE CHURCH IS A CRIMINAL SYNDICATE.
The Catholic Church Hierarchy systematically covered up the abuse of at least 1,000 kids by 300 priests over 70 years.
The article goes on to say:
Sexual abuse has been institutionalized, routinized and tolerated by the church hierarchy for decades. If you think this statement is hyperbole, consider that the grand jury report includes, but is by no means limited to, the case of a ring of pedophile priests in Pittsburgh, who raped their male victims, took pornographic pictures of them and marked them by giving them gold crosses to wear so that they could be easily recognized by other abusers.
The article is written by Anthea Butler, an Associate Professor of Religious Studies.
There’s more on this story below.
Grand jury report describes a ‘ring of predatory priests’ in Pittsburgh in the 1970s
Included among 99 abusive Pittsburgh diocese priests identified in the grand jury report was a ring of them, operating in the 1970s and 1980s, who shared intelligence about their victims and sometimes even shared the victims themselves.
That “ring of predatory priests” made their own child pornography in church rectories, the grand jury said, and used “whips, violence and sadism in raping their victims.”
They also marked their victims, the grand jury said, by giving their favorite boys gold cross necklaces to wear.
“The grand jury observed that these crosses served another purpose beyond the grooming of the victims: They were a visible designation that these children were victims of sexual abuse,” the report said “They were a signal to other predators that the children had been desensitized to sexual abuse and were optimal targets for further victimization.”
Let me repeat that last sentence.
“They were a signal to other predators that the children had been desensitized to sexual abuse and were optimal targets for further victimization.”
It shows that a Ring is much more than a number of perverts sharing notes and kids.
It involves a lot of planning, sharing intelligence and thought. That’s relevant to my own experience.
And perhaps to others.
For example, making sure the Parents are neutralised or on-side, I’d have thought was crucial to Abusers. In my case, my Mother, a widow with mental health issues, would have been an easy target for them. Over the years a number of promises were made to her. Financial and probably personal. Then, knowing it’s safe, the Abusers can turn on the kid…
The general relevance to Catholic survivors in the UK is that these reports are firm evidence of actual Clerical Paedophile Rings in Oz and the USA.
They are not the usual ‘lone wolf’/’one rotten apple’ which is how Catholic abuse is presented in the UK, unless I’ve missed some reports.
Yes, organised Catholic cover-ups in the UK are well known and reports of several abusers who just happened to be at one school at the same time are well known, but this is very different.
It’s far worse.
These articles are spelling out Catholic crimes that have NEVER been reported in the UK mainstream media to my knowledge.
That Catholic Abusers acted in unison as an organised Ring to abuse children.
As a Survivor, the Oz and USA Rings strike an unpleasant chord with me.
If it happened in Oz and the USA, then it bears out my claim that it happened in the UK, too.
Specifically, I’m a Survivor of a Catholic Paedophile Ring in the 1960s associated with the Catholic Church, notably St Marks RC Church, a school chaplain, teachers at St Joseph’s College and members of the Knights of St Columba, Ipswich.
The Ring’s prime targets, I believe, were Catholic children on Chantry Council Estate, poor kids like myself, rather than boarders at St Joseph’s. But I could well be wrong here – any vulnerable Catholic child could have been a target. I would hardly be in a position to know.
And there seems to have been ‘overlaps’ with other sexual abuse at St J’s, based on past testimonies on this site by other Survivors than myself.
Only the deaths of everyone concerned prevents the Ring being formally investigated.
But that could change if the Ring was shown to be in existence in later years and some Abusers are still alive.
The evidence is accumulating. Some I’ve already posted, which proves the Ring’s existence beyond any reasonable doubt, and there’s more to come.
The key question that is certainly on my mind is… When did this Catholic Paedophile Ring in Ipswich stop?
Or did it stop?
Perhaps it just changed its modus operandi and its personnel in recent years or even in our own times.
I’d prefer to think it stopped in the 1980s, that would be such a relief, but that could be wishful thinking on my part.
As the Oz study shows, these Rings are ALWAYS transgenerational, with younger members taking over.
It’s a primary reason why I can’t let this subject drop.
All of us, I’m sure, want to be sure that it stopped.
The silence from the relevant parties is noted.
I imagine I’m not the only one who finds their silence a matter of concern.
Pat Mills 