Victims of child abuse at Catholic institutions in the Irish Republic have expressed anger that a damning report will not bring about prosecutions.

The report, nine years in the making and covering a period of six decades, found thousands of boys and girls were terrorised by priests and nuns.

The report found: The risk (to children), however, was seen by the congregations in terms of the potential scandal and bad publicity should the abuse be disclosed.

Judge Sean Ryan, who chaired the Commission, concluded that when confronted with evidence of sex abuse, religious authorities responded by transferring the sex offenders to another location, where in many instances they were free to abuse again. There was evidence that such men took up teaching positions sometimes within days of receiving dispensations because of serious allegations or admissions of sexual abuse, the report said: The safety of children in general was not a consideration.

The findings will not be used for criminal prosecutions - in part because the Christian Brothers successfully sued the commission in 2004 to keep the identities of all of its members, dead or alive, unnamed in the report. No real names, whether of victims or perpetrators, appear in the final document.

Police were called to the Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse's news conference in Dublin amid angry scenes as victims were prevented from attending.

The victims were among 35,000 children who were placed in a network of reformatories, industrial schools and workhouses until the early 1990s. More than 1,000 people had told the commission they suffered physical and sexual abuse.

The five-volume study concluded that church officials encouraged ritual beatings and consistently shielded their orders' paedophiles from arrest amid a culture of self-serving secrecy. The commission found that sexual abuse was endemic in boys' institutions, and church leaders knew what was going on. As far back as the 1940s, school inspectors reported broken bones and malnourished children but no action was taken.

The leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady, said he was profoundly sorry and deeply ashamed that children suffered in such awful ways in these institutions.

Comment: Not all sexual abuse

28th May 2009. See article from catholicleague.org, Thanks to Alan

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the report today:

Reuters is reporting that Irish Priests Beat, Raped Children, yet the report does not justify this wild and irresponsible claim. Four types of abuse are noted: physical, sexual, neglect and emotional. Physical abuse includes being kicked; neglect includes inadequate heating; and emotional abuse includes lack of attachment and affection.

Not nice, to be sure, but hardly draconian, especially given the time line: fully 82% of the incidents took place before 1970. As the New York Times noted, many of them [are] now more than 70 years old. And quite frankly, corporal punishment was not exactly unknown in many homes during these times, and this is doubly true when dealing with miscreants.

A report detailing the alleged sexual abuse of 450 children by Roman Catholic priests in the Archdiocese of Dublin has been handed to the Irish Government.

It is the second report this year to examine the extent of abuse perpetrated by members of the Catholic Church in Ireland and will undermine further its position in a country that only a few decades ago conformed rigidly to standards set by the Vatican.

The Report of the Dublin Archdiocese Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse was delivered to Dermot Ahern, the Justice Minister, who must decide if and when to make its findings public.

The commission was established in 2006 and has investigated how allegations of child sex abuse made against a representative sample of 46 priests were handled by 19 bishops in Dublin from January 1975 to April 2004.

The report is likely to produce evidence of how bishops sought to cover up the activities of paedophile priests by moving them from diocese to diocese, thereby facilitating the abuse of children over a wider area.

The commission investigated nineteen bishops, seven of whom are dead. Its report is expected to name fifteen priests, eleven of whom have been convicted.

Update: Publication Delayed

1st August 2009. See article from nytimes.com

Injustice Minister Dermot Ahern announced Friday that he wants to publish the report but not if this would allow priests responsible for 'horrific acts of depravity' to escape justice.

Attorney General Paul Gallagher has concluded that the report, if published now in full: 'might prejudice some current criminal proceedings.

The report into clerical abuse in Dublin archdiocese reveals the reprehensible behaviour of the Catholic hierarchy, government sources said.

The Government will publish the report into the handling of clerical child abuse allegations in the Dublin archdiocese after ministers were briefed on its contents at a cabinet meeting.

The report finds the Catholic hierarchy and state authorities failed to respond to allegations of clerical child abuse made against a sample of 46 priests. But sources familiar with the contents of the report say it points the finger firmly at the archdiocese -- unlike the Ryan report, which shared the blame between Church and State.

The Department of Justice will finalise the deletion of sections of the report to avoid prejudicing any forthcoming legal cases against offenders.

Work on the report was completed months ago, but publication was delayed after the High Court cleared it on October 15. The DPP and the Department of Justice then referred it back to the High Court on October 21.Criminal charges had been taken against a priest early in October who had been dealt with in the report and after the case was heard in camera three times, the report was cleared for publication by Mr Justice Paul Gilligan.

The report details horrific abuse on children and criticises the failure of the Church to report the alleged abusers to the gardai. The archdiocese has identified up to 450 suspected victims who were abused as children and 120 civil actions were taken against 35 Dublin priests, or priests who held positions in the diocese.

In the 94 cases settled by the diocese, €7.3m has been paid out in compensation and a further €3.2 in legal fees, but sources close to Archbishop Diarmuid Martin believe the final payout will be double.

The report has found that Dr Martin's predecessors -- John Charles McQuaid, Dermot Ryan, Kevin McNamara and Desmond Connell -- all knew about complaints of sexual abuse involving priests in the Dublin archdiocese but failed to report them to the gardai.

Ireland's Christian Brothers will pay 161 million euros ($242 million) in compensation to child abuse victims in the wake of a report that led to a public outcry about abuse by religious orders in church and state-run institutions.

The Christian Brothers will hand over 34 million euros and transfer 127 million euros of land to the government, it said in a statement today. The land consists of school playing fields and the payment represents about 67% of the order's total assets, it said.

The Ryan Report published in May detailed decades of beatings and rapes at orphanages, schools and hospitals and said church authorities covered up the abuse. Thousands of people marched through Dublin a month later in solidarity with victims and President Mary McAleese said that the abusers should face criminal charges.

We understand and regret that nothing we say or do can turn back the clock for those affected by abuse, the Christian Brothers statement said. Our fervent hope is that the initiatives now proposed will assist in the provision of support services to former residents of the institutions.

Political leaders including Prime Minister Brian Cowen asked the orders to contribute extra money to a fund after the report and the government set up a panel to study assets of religious orders.