Spiritans commit to redress scheme for school abuse survivors in attempt to ‘offer atonement'
Blackrock College
and other prominent schools has made a public commitment to paying redress to survivors of
abuse
in the schools.
In an open letter to survivors of abuse by members and employees of the
Spiritan
congregation, Provincial Fr Brendan Carr announced 'a restorative framework which we hope can help all to arrive at a different place in this painful and difficult journey'.
This, he said, was prepared 'with the help of Restore Together, One Voice, and other significant advocates and individuals who were abused in our schools and other contexts, who have engaged directly with us'.
It 'acknowledges the abuses, failures and omissions of the past, refocuses on the present needs of those who suffered and those carrying pain and allows all to look to and find peace and a different and better future where humanly possible'.
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The Spiritans, he said, had established a 'finance advisory team, with the expertise to lead a strategic restructuring of the Province's assets'. It would 'fast-track the development of sustainable funding streams, including immediate and medium-term provisions for redress'.
By last November, 359 survivors of abuse at Spiritan schools had come forward, including the 347 disclosed in the scoping inquiry report on abuse at private fee-paying schools published last September.
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Spiritans accused of putting own interests before those of abuse victims
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In the past when it came to redress, Fr Carr said, the congregation 'engaged through what we understood to be the standard mechanism available – legal negotiations conducted between legal representatives for the Spiritans and the persons making the legal claims'.
He acknowledged this 'was not an adequate response for those seeking safe and healing space for victims/survivors'.
'Advocates and victim-led representations have taught us that a different redress scheme was needed – one that was victim-centred, less adversarial and faster.'
He added that, notwithstanding the expected Government commission of investigation into abuse in schools and its pledge of redress for survivors, 'we Spiritans believe we have a moral and collective obligation to respond to and offer atonement' to those 'whose lives were severely impacted'.
The agreed framework contains four elements which, as well as redress, offers survivors meetings with Spiritan representatives who would acknowledge what happened and apologise, as well as therapy and counselling, and a commitment to memorialise both the suffering of survivors and atonement by Spiritans.
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Spiritans have paid €8.8m in settlements to 125 abuse survivors since 1998
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Fr Carr said the redress scheme was 'but one part of our sincere endeavour and commitment to be accountable at this time for what happened in another time'.
'Child sexual abuse is a devastating crime. It shatters the lives of victims and causes deep and lasting harm to families and friends,' he said, adding that such abuse 'also profoundly affects school communities'.
'I want to publicly acknowledge this impact and offer apology and empathy to the current principals, staff, students and parents of Spiritan schools,' he said.
'Too often, you have found yourselves having to respond to situations in which you had no involvement and over which you had no control. I, of course, extend this apology to the volunteers and employees of SET [Spiritan Education Trust], the body that runs Spiritan schools.'
It was his 'sincere hope', Fr Carr said, that by the end of the summer he could 'provide a further, more detailed update of the progress we are making in forging new paths to create a just redress scheme'.
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