Dear Robert,
I am very glad we met and I am looking forward to working with you to eradicate bullying and adult sexual abuse in the Church and priesthood.
For 30 + years I have been alone in this work and ministry. “It is not good for a man to be alone”.
But in my opinion, there is one big fly in your aiontment – the situation in Silverstream with which you are involved and the ongoing isolation and abuse of the whistleblowing monk Dom Benedict Andersen
Dom Benedict regards you as one of his co- abusers.
Benedict never accused Dom Kirby of sexually assaulting him.
But he did accuse him of inappropriate sexual grooming and harassment. He also asserts that Dom Kirby insisted on recounting to him various sexual experiences he, Dom Kirby, had.
This behaviour in a monastery and between a superior and a monk is highly irregular and is a massive breach of trust and duty of care.
It is also abuse!
To this day Benedict is excluded from his monastery, isolated, in receipt of little or no living expenses and is classed as a canonical leper.
He also lacks a letter asserting that he is a priest in good standing which prevents him having a ministery and in a position to earn a living.
Bishop Deenihan says he cannot give such a letter as Silverstream is opposing its granting.
Robert, you are very closely connected to Silverstream. In fact you were an oblate there and as such a external member of the community.
You had / have a good relationship with Dom Kirby, you admire him and indeed credit him with the healing of a family member.
Dom Benedict claims that you have publicly criticised him on social media and thereby contributed his stress and isolation.
It is very good that we are going to be working together on bullying in the Church and priesthood and the sexual abuse of adults in the Church and priesthood.
But here is Benedict who has suffered like that in a place you are / were close to.
Can I ask you to look carefully at what has happened, and what is happening, to Benedict – and address that as part of our new ministry.
You and I have stated publicly that we gave a number of significant differences.
You are biased in favour of Silverstream and Dom Kirby.
I sincerely believe, on evidence shown to me that Dom Benedict is a victim.
No one is saying Benedict is perfect.
But he is a Silverstream victim and has been further victimised by people like Abbot Brendan Coffey ex Abbot Richard Purcell and Bishop Deenihan.
Pat
THE ANNIVERSERY OF THE MURDER OF JOSEPH PIKE BY BROTHER LANE IN TRALEE 1958.
On this day an orphan boy, Joseph Pike was murdered by the Christian Brother Lane in St Joseph’s Tralee, Kerry.
He was buried in a hidden grave.
His remains were later moved to the town cemetery.
The priests refused him a funeral Mass or to bless the grave.
When I went some years ago to say Mass at the grave the clergy locked the cemetery gates and we had to get ladders to climb over the wall.
RIP Joseph Pike and all the other children murdered and tortured in Irish Concentration Camps.
Gardai to Quiz St Joseph’s Inmates
By Simon Brouder
Kerryman
September 3, 2009
http://www.kerryman.ie/news/gardai-to-quiz-st-josephs-inmates-1875669.html
A MAJOR garda investigation into the physical and sexual abuse of children at Tralee’s notorious St Joseph’s Industrial School is now underway, The Kerryman can reveal.
Senior gardai from the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, who are investigating revelations contained in the Ryan Commission Report, are due to interview a number of former inmates of St Joseph’s in the coming weeks The Ryan Commission Report detailed horrific physical and sexual abuse of boys, perpetrated by 12 Christian Brothers, in the Tralee school in the 30 years prior to its closure in 1970.
A special garda unit, set up by Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern, following publication of the report is now investigating abuse committed in Kerry. Though the 12 brothers who carried out the majority of the abuse at St Joseph’s were not named in the Ryan Commission report it’s known that all but one are still alive. They are understood to be the primary focus of the new investigation.
Several former inmates of St Joseph’s, including the longest serving inmate John Prior whose early testimony about abuse in church run schools helped expose the scandal, have been contacted by gardai and will be interviewed in the coming weeks.
The former inmates assisting the investigation are currently residing in Kerry and Cork.
A major plank of the St Joseph’s investigation is expected to be the death of 16-year-old school inmate Joseph Pike. Pike died in the mid 1960’s just a few days after allegedly being brutally beaten by a brother for eating too slowly.
The special garda unit, commanded by Assistant Commissioner Derek Byrne Ireland’s highest ranked operational commander, has been tasked with investigating claims contained in the Ryan report to assess if criminal proceedings can be brought against the perpetrators of the abuse.
BISHOP PAT BUCKLEY 