Divine hacker at work?

We hear a lot about the power of prayer. I wonder whether a Christian Brother has seen my site and been on his knees looking heavenwards to make a special request to Blessed Edmund Rice, the 19th century founder of the Congregation. Or maybe someone working for Facebook is a Vatican secret agent.

It seems to be working ok now, but a week ago a small but strange thing happened to my Facebook site. The Christian Brothers' crest pictured above which I rather cheekily chose as a site logo suddenly disappeared, and there was no way I could put it back! I tried changing the picture, even tried to replace it with one of my cats, but no. The space seemed to be well and truly hexed.

Supernatural forces at work? The incident reminded me of a horror story told to us at school by a devout Christian Brother - I can't remember his name, so I'll call him Brother O'Muffin.

It was on these lines. A blacksmith who happened to be an atheist decided to test the doctrine of transubstantiation. Presenting himself at Communion, he took the consecrated wafer on his tongue but slyly, when the priest's back was turned, removed and hid it. Then it was back to his forge where the burly blacksmith took out the holy bread and placed it on his anvil.

"Now let's see what Christ's Body is made of!" he exclaimed, bringing down his hammer with all the force he could muster. "And do you know boys," said Brother O'Muffin to his hushed and horrified little group of ten-year-olds, "the holy wafer began to bleed, just like the drops of blood from the wounds they made on dear Jesus with the crown of thorns."

The story didn't stop there. We learnt that the drops of blood turned from a trickle to a flood, and that within minutes the terrified blacksmith was standing up to his knees in a gory red rising tide which had flooded every inch of his forge.

I can't remember how it ended. In medieval times, wandering friars told stories like this to credulous congregations, but generally with a gruesome ending: the blacksmith would have drowned in the holy blood while cursing and calling on the Devil to save him. Perhaps the gentle Brother O'Muffin told us simply that the blacksmith rushed to be baptised and confessed his horrible sin in the nearest church imploring the Blessed Virgin to save him.

The simple-minded friars who took advantage of the credulity of their peasant audiences were a regular target of Protestant Reformation leaders like John Calvin. I can't help thinking that the fantastic drivel which some Christian Brothers entertained us naive pupils with was in its way a kind of child abuse, even though it was hardly on the same level as the strapping and the groping that others indulged in.

We know about papal infallibility. What about papal responsibility?

Pope Benedict: how responsible is he?

With the Catholic Church in a ferment over child abuse allegations, and new victims coming forward worldwide, media headlines continue to make the subject a hot topic and are being seized on by websites like mine. I've no intention of suing the Catholic Church for millions, and I don't want to spend too much time scouring the press for suitable stories - too many gardening jobs to get on with. But the occasional headline has caught my eye, especially like the one below, written by one of my ex-pupils, and raised a question or two.

For example, does the Vatican bear the ultimate legal responsibility for the sins of its priests and bishops? Vatican lawyers are arguing that bishops cannot be regarded as employees and that therefore there are no grounds for lawsuits against the Pope.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/7733921/Vatican-claims-bishops-arent-employees.html

Please sign the Downing Street petition!

If you feel strongly about the issue of child abuse, send a message to the UK's new Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street

Following on from my last post about the abuse case involving former Salesians' pupil Graham Wilmer http://millstonesblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/conspiracy-of-faith-graham-wilmers.html I noticed that Graham is a co-founder of something called The Lantern Project.

This is a registered charity, based in Wallasey, Merseyside. It was founded originally as Victims No Longer in October 2000. In April 2003, with the help of fellow survivor David Williams, the organisation was registered by the Charity Commission for England and Wales, and changed its name to The Lantern Project on 5 December 2003.

The Lantern Project currently has five trustees and over 800 registered members. The Project is also a member of the Survivors Trust, which lobbies government on child protection issues. For more information see http://www.lanternproject.org.uk/aboutus

The Lantern Project has launched a Downing Street petition asking the Prime Minister "to establish a commission for truth and reconciliation in the UK to enable victims of sexual abuse to disclose what happened to them and have their experiences acknowledged, and the subsequent harm they suffered recognised and resolved."

During the 2010 General Election campaign the e-petitions service was suspended, and apparently the new Liberal Democrat-Conservative administration is currently assessing how best to proceed with it.

Meanwhile it seems that the deadline to sign up to this important petition is
23 September 2010. So far there are only 25 signatures.

Many Catholics and non-Catholics still have doubts about how their Church has handled the historic problem of clerical child abuse.

They are looking for significant gestures and actions which prove that the Catholic Church is taking the issue seriously.

One action would be for Archbishop Nichols, its senior churchman in England and Wales, to ask clergy in every diocese to sign the petition.

To see the Downing Street petition, click on http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/sexabusevictims/

Conspiracy of Faith - Graham Wilmer's story

I've been looking at the website of Salesian School, in Chertsey, Surrey. The current Headteacher James Kibble describes it as "a thriving and active school with a long and well-established reputation." It is a now a Catholic co-educational comprehensive school for children of all abilities from 11-18 years.

The Salesian School's website at http://www.salesian.surrey.sch.uk/ states that the school is characterised by the philosophy of the Salesian founder, St John Bosco (1815-1888). "He stressed high educational standards and sound moral and religious education," it is claimed. "He insisted too on a friendly atmosphere in his schools where the idea of community could be fostered. We strive to ensure that every student personally experiences a happy atmosphere that will help them to leave the school with a high level of confidence in their own abilities, as well as excellent examination results. These goals are delivered through a strong pastoral system, excellent learning and teaching and an extensive range of sporting, cultural, physical and social extra-curricular activities."

I have no reason to doubt that Salesian School today is a happy place where I would be delighted to send my children. But 50 years ago I would have felt rather differently had I met former pupil Graham Wilmer.

Above: St John Bosco, founder of the Salesian Order

Salesian School's origins go back to 1921 when it was founded in 1921 as Salesian College at Highfield Road, Chertsey. Until 1971 it was a boarding school for boys, with the later Guildford Road establishment as a girls' school. In 1971 they merged to form one comprehensive school but maintained single-sex education on separate sites until 2008.

Making Graham Wilmer's acquaintance made me realise that it was not just Christian Brothers who made life hell for children at Catholic boarding schools in the UK. His book Conspiracy of Faith - Fighting for Justice after Child Abuse is an eye-opener which, depressingly for Catholics, alleges the alarming extent of corruption and deviancy at the heart of the Salesian Order, one of the Church's most respected teaching groups. For details of sexual abuse allegations against members of the Order see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_abuse_scandal_in_the_Salesian_order

Below: Graham Wilmer's book is reviewed by Francis Beckett at

http://newhumanist.org.uk/1576/secrets-and-lies

The author reveals the sexual abuse that he suffered in the 1960s from a teacher, Hugh Madley, while a pupil at the Salesian College in Chertsey. This was not just a case of abuse, but of deviousness and lying on the part of the headmaster Fr Edward Joseph O'Shea, and the Provincial Superior of the Salesian Order Fr George Williams who attempted a cover-up to protect the school's reputation and that of the Salesian Order.

The full story is told by Graham Wilmer (pictured below) in his book, and on his websites http://www.grahamwilmer.org.uk/ and http://www.manwiththelamp.org.uk/ There we learn, astonishingly, that since the publication of Conspiracy of Faith, allegations of sexual abuse emerged against Fr George Williams, spanning decades and involving pupils at Shrigley Hall, the former Salesian Missionary College in Macclesfield, Cheshire. Such was the evidence presented to the police that an investigation was launched in 2008 by Bolton Police.

The primary reason why the investigation did not result in a prosecution is that the victims who came forward, following the publication of Graham Wilmer's book Conspiracy of Faith telling how Fr Williams protected his abuser, Hugh Madley, were not willing to make a formal complaint to the police. "Such is the power of the Catholic Order on vulnerable children and vulnerable adults," concludes Graham Wilmer.

To his credit, in spite of the devious behaviour of these Catholic priests, Brothers, or whatever they want to call themselves, Graham Wilmer is, so he tells me, collaborating with Archbishop Vincent Nichols, Head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, in a constructive manner to deal with the issue of clerical child abuse. He told me on 26 April 2010 that he would be seeing Bill Kilgallon, Chair of the National Safeguarding Commission in a couple of weeks.

Above: Logo of the Commission for Truth and Reconciliation for victims of sexual abuse in the United Kingdom

This was at the Archbishop's request to look at how the Catholic Church can support the national commission idea that Graham has proposed as The Commission for Truth and Reconciliation for victims of sexual abuse in the United Kingdom http://www.ctruk.org.uk/

Graham has joined my Millstones Facebook group.

Email: graham.wilmer@btinternet.com
http://www.grahamwilmer.org.uk/