Archive for the ‘Yvonne Murphy Report into Child Abuse (Dublin Catholic Diocese)’ Category
Russian Baby kidnappers : International Actions Protesting About Ukraine’s Stolen Children – June 1 2025, International Children’s Day
June 1 is International Children’s Day. Since 2014 Russia has forcibly kidnapped nearly 20,000 Ukrainian children. Protests against this barbaric crime are occurring all over the world.
Link : International Actions June 1, Ukraine’s Children Stolen by Russian Invaders
These crimes are a reminder of a very dark period in Ireland during most of the 20th century. Child abuse, baby-snatching, illegal adoptions, criminalising of innocent women – Irish “Mother and Baby Homes” and Magdalene Laundries were dungeons of evil where children were tortured.
During that dark period we learned that speaking up and taking public action is essential when crimes like this are drawn to our attention.
Details of Protests to be held in Ireland will be announced here soon.
Supporters of this initiative in Ireland include Ivana Bacik TD, leader of the Labour Party, who has issued the following public statement :
Since 2014, it is known that Russia has abducted nearly 20,000 Ukrainian children. Protests against this barbaric war crime are occurring all over the world, and Russia’s criminal actions have been condemned in the European Parliament and across EU Member States. I commend all activists who are taking part in protests against Russia’s abduction and deportation of Ukrainan children. I have raised this issue in Dáil Éireann (the Irish parliament) and have demanded that the Irish government takes appropriate action to express the strongest possible condemnation of Russian war crimes.
Ivana Bacik TD, Labour Party Leader, Ireland
Crimes of Russia, Kidnapping of Ukrainian Children
The European Network for Solidarity With Ukraine (ENSU) invites all to this Zoom Event on May 30 :
Since 2014 Russia has forcibly transferred almost 20,000 Ukrainian children to areas under its control, assigned them Russian citizenship, forcibly adopted them into Russian families, and created obstacles for their reunification with their parents and homeland. The true scale of the crisis may be far greater.
On the eve of International Children’s Day, which is celebrated on the 1th of June we want to invite you to a meeting where whe can disscuss in more detail about the crimes of Russia towards Ukrainian children.
Our panelists will include:
– Kateryna Rashevska an international law and legal expert at the Regional Centre of Human Rights (https://krymbezpravil.org.ua/), children’s rights activist
– Mykola Komarovskyi, lawyer at NGO “Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group” (https://khpg.org/en/), author of one of the KHRPG submissions to the ICC regarding the forced deportation of Ukrainian children
Meeting in English, French and Ukrainian.
Zoom link (registration required):
https://us02web.zoom.us/…/register/QPZ2-j70RYGoF9bzvcGgMA
Awkward Child Abuse Questions for New Conservative Pope Leo XIV (Robert Prevost) Savaged by Donald Trump’s MAGA Attack Dogs
A Cardinal born in the USA city of Chicago 69 years ago – Robert Prevost – will in future be called Pope Leo XIV.
No surprise – child abuse allegations lurk – let’s see
The child abuse connection with Pope Leo XIV is probably the same as all top leaders of the Catholic Church. He wasn’t interested when the news started to break, he moved the rapists to a new parish or new job, while remaining indifferent to the victims.
Pope Francis’ small reforms like allowing communion to LGBT or divorced and remarried people seem likely to be accepted as a modernisation.
Let’s wait and see.
Here is an extract from an Irish Times report “The cardinal, who is a member of the Order of St Augustine, resembles Francis in his commitment to the poor and migrants. Often described as reserved and discreet, Prevost will depart stylistically from Francis. His supporters say he will most likely continue the consultative process started by Francis to invite laypeople to meet with bishops.
It is unclear whether he will be as open to LGBTQ+ Catholics as Francis was. Although he has not said much recently, in a 2012 address to bishops, he lamented that Western news media and popular culture fostered “sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the Gospel”. He cited the “homosexual lifestyle” and “alternative families comprised of same-sex partners and their adopted children.”
Rev Michele Falcone (46), a priest in the Order of St. Augustine previously led by Prevost, described his mentor and friend as the “dignified middle of the road” to the New York Times earlier this week.
“He does not have excesses,” Fr Falcone said of Prevost. “Blessing babies, yes. Taking them in his arms, no.”
“I know that Bob believes that everybody has a right and a duty to express themselves in the church,” said Rev Mark R Francis, a former classmate of Prevost who runs the American arm of the Clerics of St Viator, a religious order.
While praised in Peru for supporting Venezuelan immigrants and visiting far-flung communities, the cardinal has drawn criticism over his dealings with priests accused of sexual abuse.
One woman in Chiclayo, who said she and two other women were sexually abused by two priests as girls long before Prevost was bishop, accused him of mishandling an investigation and of not stopping one of the priests from celebrating Mass.
Tomás Ó Flatharta 