More priestly child abusers

Two more stories this morning about child abuse in the Catholic church remind us, first, that the church successfully hid this scandal for decades and ruined many lives in the process; and second, that it's still going on.

How did the Church cover it up? And how did it cover the enduring scandal of Catholic schools of the middle to late twentieth century, where even when children were not being sexually abused by their teachers, they were being beaten to a pulp by the Christian Brothers, or more formally whacked by the Jesuits and the Marists? And they were not being cared for. I saw childhoods stolen at my Jesuit boarding school at the start of the sixties, just as effectively as if the children had been abused, simply for lack of what today would be called a duty of care.

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And if Roberth, who posted a comment after my last post on Catholic schools, would get in touch again (email me at francis@francisbeckett.co.uk), I'd be pleased to hear from him - he hasn't made his profile available. His Father Bamber and mine aren't the same man - mine was a Jesuit - but I'd love to know more about the Salesians at Battersea.

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Thanks to a conversation with the splendid blogger Iain Dale, I now know the secret of successful blogging - and from today I'll be posting a blog every day.