Thousands of children were physically and sexually abused by priests
and nuns in orphanages and reform schools in Ireland from 1930 to 1990, a
government commission said Wednesday in the first official accounting
of the full magnitude of a scandal that has wrenched the deeply Roman
Catholic nation.
The 2,600-page report, which capped a nine-year investigation, said rape and sexual abuse were "endemic" in boys' institutions funded by the state but run by the church. "A climate of fear, created by pervasive, excessive and arbitrary punishment, permeated most of the institutions and all those run for boys," it said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/20/AR2009052003809.html
The 2,600-page report, which capped a nine-year investigation, said rape and sexual abuse were "endemic" in boys' institutions funded by the state but run by the church. "A climate of fear, created by pervasive, excessive and arbitrary punishment, permeated most of the institutions and all those run for boys," it said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/20/AR2009052003809.html