The story here is simple and straightforward: The poor, parentally abused Sinead O’Connor was castigated and her career destroyed for taking on the Catholic Church. Tonight an Irish Publication called Irish Central is reminding the world how right she was. I would normally do a narrow topic like this as a diary, but Sinead deserves the recognition, and the world owes her a great deal, imo. Sinead is currently attempting a comeback after many years of severe emotional disturbance. She had asked the clergy for help with her ragingly sick, sadistic, violent mother. She got bupkis.
Following the shocking revelations of 70 years of abuse of children by Pennsylvania priests, we owe Sinead O’Connor an apology.
Her declaration back in 1992 that the Catholic Church was rotten to its core and pedophile priests and their enablers were the real enemy was true.
It caused a massive worldwide reaction when she tore up a picture of the then Pope on Saturday Night Live in October 1992 and declared, “Fight the real enemy.”
We now know that the pedophile scandals were rampant during the era of Pope John Paul, who chose to turn a blind eye. O’Connor was calling out the right person.
And this:
Imagine if 300 imams were named as sex abusers of children. The Muslim religion would likely be banned and the imams driven out or jailed.
There is no reason to believe that Pennsylvania is an outrider and that similar scandals were not omnipresent in other dioceses.
The whole thing has me sickened and furious. I had a close friend 55 years ago, whom I used to accompany to confession, and I, as a Jew, waited in the pews for him to return. When he was a junior in college, with no obvious emotional issues that I could tell, he killed himself. I think I now know why.