Latest news with #FrBrendanCarr
Irish Times
17-06-2025
- Irish Times
Spiritans' promise of redress must be ‘substantiated by actions', says abuse survivors group
Redress proposals for abuse survivors by the Spiritan congregation, which runs Blackrock College and other leading schools in Ireland , 'urgently needs to be substantiated by actions', survivors' group Restore Together has said. It represents people who were sexually abused at Spiritan-run schools. Group spokesman Philip Feddis said 'urgent delivery of a victim-centred, non-adversarial redress scheme is critical'. Ongoing delays on the order's part are 'undermining the benefits of what has been delivered to date', he said. READ MORE His comments follow a public commitment by Spiritan Provincial Fr Brendan Carr to pay redress to survivors of abuse in the schools. 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. In an open letter on Monday to survivors of abuse by members and employees of the Spiritans , Fr 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'. Fr Carr said the Spiritans have 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'. He hoped that by the end of this 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'. In response, Mr Feddis said 'victims/survivors will judge the statement based on actions and how soon they receive restorative justice in its entirety'. He stated that a redress scheme is the 'most urgent and important element'. Delivery of a full restorative justice programme by the Spiritans is 'already long overdue', Mr Feddis added. The order's 'ongoing delays' undermine what has been delivered to date – an apology and therapy – and 'diminishes the potential for restorative justice to have full effect for victims/ survivors', he said. Victims and survivors must have 'active decision-making input' in determining what is best for their healing, Mr Feddis said, adding that 'justice delayed is justice denied, and that is where we are at'. He said Restore Together will work intensively with the Spiritans to address how the three inactivated elements of the programme can be 'enabled as soon as humanly possible'.
Irish Times
16-06-2025
- General
- Irish Times
Spiritans commit to redress scheme for school abuse survivors in attempt to ‘offer atonement'
The head of the religious congregation behind 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'. READ MORE 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. [ Spiritans accused of putting own interests before those of abuse victims Opens in new window ] 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. [ Spiritans have paid €8.8m in settlements to 125 abuse survivors since 1998 Opens in new window ] 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'.
