Simon Jenkins, Jimmy Saville, The BBC and The Pope

Simon Jenkins, in today's Guardian, writes an article that tries to typify the public's response, and that of some media, to the Jimmy Saville story as a 'witch-hunt' that feeds paranoia. To him there are other far more important issues that deserve the front page headlines...

"In our rush to apportion blame for the actions of an individual, we risk becoming blind to the real issues of the day" 

And he writes of how other 'issues' or stories have been sidelined due to this stories prominence...

"Is Jimmy Savile and the BBC the biggest story on Earth? Apparently so. Today the British media placed it above Romney versus Obama, above the implosion of Lebanon and above the birth of the world's largest oil company. Savile was bigger than killer drones in Lincolnshire, bigger than Cameron's prison policy, bigger than the sensational Birmingham terrorism trial."

(though the fact remains that any reader or consumer of news might read the entirety of a newspaper, watch innumerable sources of on-line video news and still see all those other stories) and then Jenkins proceeds to say that nothing good will come of this, because a) Saville is dead and damned b) everyone in Institutions will be now driven to ensure no-one is allowed near a child without a chaperone :

"Soon doctors, lawyers and priests will have to practise, like the police, in pairs. Responsibility for our behaviour apparently no longer rests on us as individuals but on anyone whom a lawyer can claim was "responsible" for our contact with others. We are no longer our own masters. This is the royal road to Orwellian hell."

 

Jenkins is using hyperbole to distract his readers from the fundamentals of what the Saville story really means.

FACT : The abuse of power is at the root of most of the really serious problems we face, be it at the personal level or beyond.....

Those who seek power - be it at the personal level, at the political level or in the office or school - are often psychologically damaged (and therefore dangerous) people - while not all will be as harmful as Tony Blair, George Bush or Jimmy Saville, the multitude of those who seek and attain some degree of power and who look the other way, who justify their silence when they have access to evidence that deserves to be revealed, who fear to speak out because they might lose a job or damage their careers are an essential component in the abuse of Power by those prepared to cause harm to others.

Sue Gerhardt's analysis of Tony Blair and George Bush in her book 'Selfish Society' r2010 e-iterates what Alice Miller's 'For Your Own Good: The roots of violence in childhood mistreatment' clearly demonstrated in 1986.

If we really want an empathic, healthily functioning Society in the long term, we, all of us, have to address the way our Society relates to children, to parenting and education, to 'care' and in particular address the fact that Power sees children/people as potential workers, economic units essential for 'growth' and that Power underplays and undermines what we all need for genuine happiness, as we race towards the illusion that wealth (consumerism) generates happiness.

Simon Jenkins unwillingness to admit or acknowledge this is typical of those who prefer to protect the status quo. The tone of his article is dismissive, angry, petulant.

"Those running big organisations, in the public and private sectors, face a lethal pincer movement. On the one side is a rising tide of risk aversion, seeping into every factory, office and profession, stifling enterprise, "reassessing" risk, clogging decision. On the other is a fear of what happens should this process fail. Just as the concept of an accident has slid from legal status, so has the "honest mistake". When Entwistle today admitted and regretted his mistake in not asking in more detail about the Savile programme, his tormenters hardly noticed. Honest mistakes do not exist, being replaced by only the most serious and probably criminal negligence, fit only for the pillory, the stocks or the gallows."

George Entwhistle's honest mistake? ignoring evidence that Jimmy Saville, far from deserving a 'celebratory special' was a nasty, nasty harmful man, and ignoring the fact that the many Survivors of his horrific abuse would be further traumatised by the transmission of that 'celebratory special', and that those who had come forward would once again suffer from being ignored, rejected, not believed.

That was not an honest mistake, that was an act of incredible irresponsibility, and act that demonstrates a profound lack of empathy for all those adversely affected by Jimmy Saville's abuse. The Survivors and their families.

Nothing he has done yet is sufficient to repair this. George Entwhistle has a choice to make. To honestly admit his error, and respond as required or do what so many people in power are prepared to do .... avoid empathy, attend to the status quo, to the agenda of Power.

Just as David Cameron's Coalition Government's actions in cutting funding to services that support vulnerable people, cuts that have caused yet more pain and suffering to thousands of disabled people all over the UK are evidence of a deep lack of empathy for the reality of the lives of other less powerful people.
(I  do not hold Cameron alone responsible - every member of the Government, and all  Parliamentarians are equally culpable unless they counter these particular cuts with all their might, as these particular cuts in funding are 100% un-neccessary.)

Just as the Pope, and many Bishops and Curates, and others around the world who ignored Survivors testimony, or hushed it up to protect their Institutions revealed a profound lack of empathy for those who suffered so much at the hands of predatory priests, at the hands of men and women willing to visit intolerable violence upon children.

(The BBC's sickeningly fawning coverage of the Pope's visit to the UK in 2010 which sidelined the world wide story of intolerable suffering inflicted upon hundreds of thousands, if not millions of children over the past centuries in favour of a celebration  of the Pope parallels the Saville story.... a pattern is repeated..)

We CAN live without Institutions which are populated and controlled by adults who refuse to tackle this behavioural dysfunction head-on. We must.

Any institution that permits this kind of dysfunction for whatever reason, or tries to 'manage a crisis' from the perspective of protecting itself, suggesting that the crisis is the revelation  of abuse, and not the abuse itself - is an inhumane, psycho-pathological entity that does far more harm than good.

If the BBC wants to regain trust, then it must be 100% honest, and man up to the realities, no matter how much it hurts or costs... no matter who amongst the powerful is exposed as an abuser, a facilitator of abuse or an apologist for abusers...

I am furious, yet not at all petulant, when I say:

"Grow up, Jenkins, grow up!"
Let me make something clear here : George Entwhistle is not responsible for Jimmy Saville's behaviour. That responsibility lies with Jimmy Saville - he made his choices. Thus, he removed choice from many young peoples lives.

Entwhistle IS responsible for the BBC, and therefore for the BBC's response to these revelations, and is equally responsible to ALL the licence payers, and to all of those who have survived Saville's abuse. He is in the hot seat, and he elected to apply for that job.

He may well be on a very fast learning curve. So be it. He will not be forgiven for failing in his duty as an adult human being. Nor should he be  given any slack. The same applies to Simon Jenkins.

Kindest regards

Corneilius

Do what you love, it's Your Gift to Universe

'Evolutionary' Origins of Religion: a trauma model

*the use of the tem 'evolutionary' is entirely satrical in the context of this essay. Religion and evolvution are two mutually exclusive dynamics..

My own view regarding Evolution and Religion (The Evolutionary Origins of Religion) emerges from my own life experience and from my readings of the work of John Bolwby, James Prescott , Alice Miller, Robert Sapolsky, Judith Herman, Allan Schore and many, many others who have explored the psychology of the biological mandate towards empathy,  (and the disruption of that biological mandate) which is based on the lived experience of self empathy from within the womb, through infancy and onwards throughout life.

 Joseph Chilton Pearce suggests in his research that self empathy, awareness of self, starts within the womb.

Self awareness and awareness of other exists in a pre-verbal reality that is experienced, in such manner that the material and social meaning of the experience is known to the experiencer: this is called direct or experiential cognition.

Others have described what is called  Liminal Consciousness a silent, non verbal full spectrum reality cognition that is shared within a group,  usually groups that are what we can call pre-conquest egalitarian cultures.

"When similar child nurture was later seen spawning similar consciousness in isolated enclaves elsewhere, it became clear that a type of mentality very different from world norms today existed widely in prehistory. Such mentality emerges from a sociosensual nurture common to such peoples but shunned in Westernized societies"

Prescott's  research has found an emergent pattern of Social Behaviour amongst Societies where the natural child-mother bonding processes are disrupted, of increased Religiosity, Hierarchy and Institutionalized Violence all of which exist in proportion to the levels of disruption to the child-mother bonding processes.

Furthermore he was able to link disruption of the adolescent exploration of sexuality to the emergence of these Societal traits.

All of these experientials are embodied lived experiences, that is to say they are experienced and known primarily through the body, the senses and are biologically mandated as vitally  important life learning processes.

This 'disruption' could be called the Trauma model of the Evolutionary Origins of Religion.

David Chamberlain has written :

"From the second month of pregnancy, experiments and observations reveal an active prenate with a rapidly developing sensory system permitting exquisite sensitivity and responsiveness. Long before the development of advanced brain structures, prenates are seen interacting with each other and learning from experience. They seem especially interested in the larger environment provided by mother and father, and react to individual voices, stories, music, and even simple interaction games with parents. The quality of the uterine environment is determined principally by parents.

The opportunities for parents to form a relationship with the baby in the womb are significant and remarkable. This contrasts sharply with the previous view that prenates did not have the capacity to interact, remember, learn, or put meaning to their experiences"

It is quite obvious that those with innate or natural self empathy intact know or can better better, at a visceral pre-verbal level, how to relate to others, to meet their own and others needs, because they sense the other in intimate ways associated with their own sense of self empathy. They are more perceptive and more responsive to information contained within the other because they can more fully sense themselves.

Conversely, those whose natural self empathy has been somehow damaged have greater difficulty in relating to others, and require a set of external guidelines to manage their relationships.

This is the thrust of the work of Heinz Kohut

The resolution of the issue of damaged self-empathy would lead towards a spiritual or personally rational 'inner' motivated outlook, rather than religious 'externally driven' or societally rationalised outlook on life. Prescott's research demonstrates that where these key experientials are not disrupted, a more egalitarian societal behaviour emerges.

In terms of evolution, and of well being, it is clear that empathy, founded on experienced self-empathy is a crucially vital socialising characteristic, because it enables a visceral understanding of the world within, and of the world in which a human being is living, an almost direct perception of the value and meaning of life, and a grasping of the value of others lives to those others, and in particular the lives of other organisms that are the food we eat. This is the basis for the oft quoted respect many Aboriginal societies afford the creatures and plants within their environments, upon which they are dependent for food, medicine and other materials.

James Prescott outlined in some detail the societal behavioural characteristics to be found within a spectrum or bandwidth of societies, ranging from empathic egalitarian through to totalitarian hierarchical societies, and traced the emergence of these characteristics to the disruption or nurturing of two crucial empathic experiential learning points in the life of a human being.

From an evolutionary viewpoint, Imposed Hierarchical Religion can be seen as an evolutionary mismatch.

That is to say that whilst spirituality of some form is probably innate, and that perhaps the natural wonder so many experience (especially small children)  when we allow ourselves to simply gaze at nature and allow nature into us, is an expression of this, and that this wonder tends towards assisting in the development of nurturing relationships.

Whereas Religiosity is learned, and tends towards exclusive yet low-urturant relationships primarily with those who share the same religious viewpoints, and at the same time, religiosity  tends towards aversion of the other and or fear of other viewpoints. The history of sectarianism within religions and ideologies is all too often bloody and brutal evidence of this.

In evolutionary terms this means the person or society who is subject to imposed religiosity, or indeed ideology, (which is almost always imposed through the agency of Institutionalised Power) will be less willing to co-operate with the 'other' or to recognise it's own interdependency with all of life, and this therefore increases the likelihood of sustained behaviours that damage the environment, which inevitably reduces it's long term survival possibilities. The evidence for this lies all around us.

I have traced a path way of disruption, based on my understanding of Trauma and PTSD, which leads to the excessive control and violence associated with Institutionalised Power Religions, with Lateral Violence, Abusive Family dynamics, and much else besides.


a basic outline : loss of  self empathy due to trauma -> loss of empathy for others -> sense of disconnection from what nurtures -> compounds fear associated with trauma -> leads to excessive desire for control of self, others, environment -> leads to violence to control self, others, environment

To survive a trauma event often requires that a person undergoing the trauma suppresses his or her feelings in order to survive. This would also apply to a community that is being traumatised. If, post trauma, that person or community is unable to resolve those suppressed feelings, the suppression remains, and children born to that person or community will grow up with that suppression as part of their psychology. Such suppression leads to a disruption of self-empathy, because it leads to shutting down certain feelings or groups of feelings.

The loss of self-empathy leads to a loss of empathy for others, which can also be described as a loss of empathy for all that nurtures one, or a sense of disconnection from all that nurtures one. This will generate fear, which compounds the fear associated with the trauma, and leads directly to a sensed need to control the people, environment or world around one in order to have certain perceived needs met.

When any autonomous organism is subjected to external control, it will resist, and this is where violence is utilised, to break that resistance. That violence can be physical or psychological. It can be immediate and final or long term and sustained.

Naturally enough, a community or family that has been traumatised, and has been unable to resolve the feelings suppressed, will pass that on to the next generation. As each successive generation 'evolves' evolves they will inject that psychology into the structures they create around their system, structures that will become core beliefs, attitudes and over time Institutionalised patterns of permitted behaviour.

If a child somehow retains some of his or her original natural autonomy, which is a core biological and evolutionary trait, then violence, both physical and psychological, will be permitted to be utilised against that child to break the child, to show the child who is master. This is the basis for what is called 'Poisonous Pedagogy' which has a long and well documented history in Europe.

Recent calls from UK Government Ministers and Teachers Unions for more Power to control children in schools reveals that this is still an active paradigm within the UK - the 21st Century is still Governed by Mediaeval and Victorian attitudes. David Cameron's call that children ought to 'stand up when an adult enters the class room' is very revealing, though he himself is totally unaware of what he is revealing.

Likewise the Catholic Pope's record on dealing with widespread child abuse within Catholicism, and the stance of so many Catholics in protecting both the Pope and the Institution of The Vatican.

Baroness Varsi, a UK 'Muslim' Peer, visited the Pope recently, and made no comment whatsoever on the issues facing the Vatican. Because those same issues are pertinent to ALL Governance as we know it today.




Evolution of life on Earth is more about interdependency, co-operation, mutualism, nurture than it is about competition, mere survival, hierarchical or linear growth. Religiosity is clearly of the latter stream, and is an evolutionary mismatch. The same can be said of ideology, nationalism, sexism, racism. That many people have been questioning these latter attitudes for so long, in a climate of almost constant oppression and denial, speaks to the innate power of our natural biological mandate towards self empathy and empathy for others.


Kindest regards

Corneilius

Do what you love, it's Your Gift to Universe

The Congregation of The Faith's 'guidelines' are a criminal failure.

This is an open letter. sent to media, politicians, activists in the UK , Ireland, Australia, USA, Canada and elsewhere.

Concerning the latest set of 'guidelines' issued by the Congregation of The Faith in Rome, to all Bishops worldwide....

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/victims-furious-over-new-vatican-abuse-guidelines-2648496.html

to the Editor...

and to all concerned citizens, irrespective of your beliefs.

When an Institution, that has been shown to have failed miserably to meet the legal and moral duties of care to those who have been, for whatever reason, placed in it's care,  which does not, above all else, place the needs of those people who as children were abused, traumatised, physically and psychologically harmed by officials of that Institution, in such manner that adversely affects the Survivors entire life times in the aftermath, and which do not and can not be deemed as adequate with regard to the prevention of further abuses, and after so many years of heart breaking requests by Survivors for honesty,  accountability,  empathy and justice, offers 'guidelines' such as the latest set issued by the Congregation of The Faith, that are not directly informed by the needs of those they have failed, then it becomes clear that the adverse nature of this Institution, as it stands, is a serious threat to the common well being of all those communities it is connected to and ministers to.

Be it State or Church, the same applies.

It is now time for the Irish State to act, as a humane and just Institution, to take the Vatican, the Irish Churches and The Pope, to the International Criminal Courts as part of it's own Institutional healing process, to face charges of Crimes Against Humanity. 

It can do this, and admit it's own past failures, as a measure of it's courage, empathy, honesty and commitment to the well being of all citizens of the Irish State.

What is also important to note is that this applies not only to Ireland, but to many States across the World, that this is a global issue.

The first step in true reconciliation is the admission of wrongs done, acknowledgement of harms caused, full transparency and a realistic commitment to end all such practices that enabled the abuse and harm to occur.

Not so much to punish, but bring about a full accounting, to bring to an end these repugnant machinations of denial, obstruction, intimidation and power play which have typified the response to Survivors from the very first days, so many years ago, that Survivors brought their testimony before the community.

That is not to say that those who have committed serious crimes should not face the legal consequences of their actions. They must. Children have to be protected. Society has to know that our children are safe.

And, importantly, it is long past time to bring about such fundamental changes within the State and the Church as Institutions, that they might become less about Power over people, than about the well being of those people who subscribe to and fund these Institutions.

In essence this is about ensuring that the full meaning and intent of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child be fully and materially implemented without reservation.

This is the call of our times. This is the message of all great sages and spiritual teachers. This is what the future of all our children requires. This and nothing less.

Yours sincerely

Corneilius Crowley

Corneilius

Do what you love, it's Your Gift to Universe

Martin: Church inquiry team to report to Pope by Easter

http://www.irishexaminer.ie/breakingnews/ireland/martin-church-inquiry-team-to-report-to-pope-by-easter-501326.html

My letter in response :

A chara,

"Diarmuid Martin said the apostolic visitation appointed to help the catholic church in the wake of the clerical sex abuse crisis, has completed its work."

Again, the focus is on helping the Church, not the Survivors.... Helping the Church to do what?

'Manage the crisis'. As any Survivor will tell anyone who cares to listen, or whose heart is strong enough to feel or sense what it is like to be a Survivor of childhood sexual abuse or brutality perpetrated by Clergy in Institutions of 'care', the focus on managment of 'the crisis' wounds, and re-wounds all Survivors, because it is fundamentally dishonest and not about the Christian values of compassion, healing and nurturance, but about the non-christian values of Power and Status.

That anyone, be they clerics or Government Officials, can stand by and not act rapidly in the best interests of the Survivors, is a profound indictment of our Society.

The sad truth is that if it were not for the voices of Survivors, this would remain a secret even still.

Where are the good people of Ireland? Where are the good Christians?

Kindest regards

Corneilius

Do what you love, it's Your Gift to Universe

URGENT ACTION ALERT! Charges Against The Pope for Crimes Against Humanity!

Two German lawyers, Christian Sailer and Gert Hetzel, have applied to the ICC prosecutor, Dr. Luis Moreno Ocampo, to begin the prosecution of the Pope as a German citizen who is complicit in crimes against humanity.

READ THE CHARGES HERE

http://www.kanzlei-sailer.de/pope-lawsuit-2011.pdf

You can have a direct and real impact on the efforts to bring the Pope, Joseph Ratzinger, to trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Here's how:

To make this happen, as many groups, individuals and survivors of church crimes as possible must IMMEDIATELY write to Dr. Ocampo and ask him to pursue charges against the Pope by supporting the Sailer-Hetzel application. The Prosecutor will decide by May 15 whether or not to pursue criminal proceedings against Ratzinger.

You can have a direct and real impact on the efforts to bring the Pope, Joseph Ratzinger, to trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Here's how:

SEND A LETTER TO :

The Prosecutor
The International Criminal Court
Dr. Luis Moreno Ocampo
Maanweg 174
NL-2516 AB Den Haag

The Hague, The Netherlands

AND copy it to :

http://www.popeaccountability.org/do-you-approve-/index.php (English)

http://www.der-fall-des-papstes.com/finden-sie-das-gut/index.php (German)

From these websites you will soon be able to go to the Spanish, Italian and French sites.

With my thanks, Do so before May 15! Have an impact!

We in The International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State (ITCCS) fully support these two German lawyers and their application at the ICC. We call upon all our affiliates and supporters in every country to contact the lawyers and the ICC Prosecutor and immediately support the application to prosecute the Pope.

www.itccs.org 

www.the-gcac.com

www.survivorsvoice-europe.org

While it may seem improbable to many people that the ICC will bring these charges forward, it is also true to say that that improbability is increased if we, the Surviviors, our families and all other empathic people who understand the issues, and genuinely care for the well being of Survivors, and of all future children do not act on this. The probability that this case will move forwards therefore depends upon a massive public pressure, based not on hatred, or alternative allegiance, but on a cool and honest appraisal of the facts of the matter.

To Christians, and others of Religious Faiths, I say this : What would Jesus do?  Would he protect the children or would he protect the Pope and The Church?

Kindest regards

Corneilius

Do what you love, it's Your Gift to Universe

Launch of Survivors Voices, Europe @ Conway Hall 26th March.

I attended the launch event for Survivors Voices Europe @ Conway Hall, London on Saturday March 26th.

http://survivorsvoice-europe.org/

“Survivors Voice Europe is the European liaison of Survivors Voice USA, the non-profit organisation founded by clergy abuse survivors Bernie McDaid & GaryBergeron. 

Survivors Voice is an international community of men and women who were abused by Catholic clergy in their childhood, and despite suffering the worst betrayal of body and trust, have found that in connecting with each other and sharing their experience, strength and hope, they can soar above their abusers and find empowerment.”

I was there, got the T-Shirt, had my photo taken by Silvia Amodio  for her “Out of the shadows” project and I met the founders, Sue Cox, Ton Leerschool, Bernie McDaid & Gary Bergeron. I also met Dr Tommaso Dell’Era from Italy, a former member of Opus Dei and a survivor..... and who is a whistle blower, who has written a book on the Opus Dei. He was travelling with Ton and Sue, and is part of Survivors Voice Europe.

Also present was the one of the organisers of the Protest The Pope Rally of last September, Marco Tranchino.

There was about 35 people in attendance, whilst hundreds of thousands were distracted by a useless protest organised by the TUC who refuse to call a general strike.

I met other Survivors, and the integrity and empathy was clear.

Those who spoke, who are Survivors, made a lot of sense to me. Their experience and commitment, courage and warmth was clear from the moment I locked eyes with each.

Sue Cox opened the event, and introduced each of the speakers. She spoke of her experience since last September’s “Protest The Pope” rally. She has been working as a counsellor for many years, and it was only last year that she came out and spoke publicly of her own abuse experience. She was surprised with the attention she has received, gladdened of the support and appalled at the BBC and UK Governments support for the Pope. Sue spoke movingly of the effects of the abuse,  that for years delivered self hatred, fear, insecurity.

Sue then introduced Ton Leerschool, who is Dutch, and who has been working with Gary and Bernie and Sue over Skype for the past two years or so. Ton is a Survivor. He is the lead European co-ordinator for Survivors Voices. Unfortunately I cannot recall of his presentation, other than to  say that I was moved by his clarity and commitment.

Sue then introduced Bernie and Gary, and presented them with some commemorative glass 'awards'. Bernie spoke, and he was clear as a bell. He described his initial experiences of coming out and how he felt betrayed by the process he went through as he took the Church to court, and especially the aftermath, as he made efforts to speak to various Church and Vatican Officials.

He even journeyed to Rome, where with Sue and others, they tried to gain an audience with Vatican Officials. For days they attempted to get an audience, and each day as they would leave the Vatican buildings, the Swiss Guards would question them to see if they had met with anyone, because 'they had a bet going on it!'.

They held vigils in Rome with Survivors who are deaf and mute, who were abused by Priests in 'special schools'. They also participated in a day of witness in which these 'voiceless' people, with out sound, told their stories. Sue had also spoken of these events, and had noted that the sign language they used was graphic and clear, and profoundly shocking, and that she was deeply moved by their bravery. Many tears were shed during those days...

Bernie said it was really clear that these people - Church Officials - did not care one whit for the Survivors, for the children and that they were, and remain utterly arrogant and committed to retaining their Power and Status. Bernie noted that he did not understand WHY so few people are capable of understanding what the systemic abuse by clergy really means, and why so few are willing to confront the Church, over the abuse and the cover-ups.

Gary followed on from Bernie, and he spoke of his own experience in telling his story, to his family and to the world. He spoke of how he had, on the face of it, the 'perfect life' - good job, plenty cash, two marriages ... and than spoke of how he took a good look one day and realised that he had lived in 23 places in 22 years, that he had in fact been running away all his life. He spoke of the struggle to bring his abusers to justice, of how after he spoke out, many more Survivors came forwards.

He also found out that his 78 year old father had also been sexually abused by a priest as a child. He spoke of his desire to see that his children are saved from a similar fate. He spoke of how it came as a shock to him, to find that the man he had seen as a rock in his life had kept that terrible secret all those years, and noted that the keeping of such secrets is very much a part of what enables the abuse culture to continue.

He spoke about his commitment to the work of confronting the Church, and all Institutions and people that sexually abuse children, not for himself, but for all the children alive today and those who are yet to come to this life.

At this point we took a break.

After the break, Tomasso spoke of his experiences at the hands of Opus Die, who recruited him at age 14. He spoke of how this had been banned by the Vatican, yet Opus Die managed to 'get around' this ban, by duplicity. Tomasso described in some detail the psychological machinations employed by Opus Dei on the young people they recruit,  the pecking order of hierarchy, the 'love bombing at the beginning, the slow and steady grooming of their recruits in ever more intense levels of abuse and control and he showed examples of the tools they use for 'mortification of the flesh'. His book is in Italian, and has yet to be translated into English and other languages. He's a brave and compassionate man, and no fool. I really took to him. We recognised in each other the 'elite' training backgrounds we shared.

Next up was Peter Thatchell, and strangely his speech was to me dry, almost perfunctory. Perhaps it was the lack of people in the room .... I know as a performer that it is sometimes the case that we become used to the energy of a crowd, so much so that when that energy is not present, we are diminished. That was not he case for any of the previous speakers. Peter Thatchell is well respected for his Human Rights work, and has been on that road for over 30 years.... His words lacked the vitality of those who speak of their own experience, and were to be disappointing. He apologised for not staying for he had to leave directly after his presentation to attend the TUC protest and speak there.... 

I almost approached him to ask that he mention this gathering at the larger, but held myself in check, as the next speaker was starting his presentation.

Keith Porteus Wood is the National Secular Society's Executive Director, and he spoke of his organisations commitment to supporting Survivors, and Survivors Voices in particular. He spoke of his own long standing actions in Europe, to request that the EU Parliament deal with the fact that the Vatican is in breach of the Convention on the Rights of The Child, on six different points, an international treaty, ratified by all member states of the United Nations General Assembly, bar USA and Somalia....

He mentioned that this is important, because these breaches are criminal offences, and for which the Pope as fiduciary head of The Vatican, The Holy See and The Catholic Church is personally liable. The same principles that applied at Nuremburg apply to the Vatican and all it’s officials with regard to Crimes against Humanity.

The last person to speak was a Solicitor who specialises in Child Abuse cases, David Greenwood. I found his presentation a little dry, and he appeared to be ill-informed about the efficacy and intent of the Redress process in Ireland, for he called for similar efforts, as part of a wider judicial effort, which elicited comments from myself and from others in attendance who had actual experience of that process, which interrupted his presentation and threw him somewhat.

We who had commented spoke to him afterwards, to help him get clear about this illusion of the ‘response; by Church and State. If he works with us, he will learn. We will see.

There was no time for any Q&A session, as the event had started late – traffic in London was dreadful that day and people were still attempting to get to the event. And as the hall had to be cleared really quickly to prepare for the next use of the hall, there was precious little time to socialise.

I spoke briefly with Sue, Gary and Bernie outside as they were loading up their car to leave, in the cold bitter wind. The connection has been made, and the work will progress. In spite of the low attendance, I am glad the seed has been planted, that I attended and that I have met these fine people.

Kindest regards

Corneilius

Do what you love, it's Your Gift to Universe

Media Miss the Point, Again...... this is infuriating!

 A head line for October 14 2010  :

Tax investigation could land Pope with €8bn bill
European Commission to investigate exemption allowing the Vatican to avoid paying £2bn a year levy on 100,000 properties
By Michael Day in Milan

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/tax-investigation-could-land-pope-with-83648bn-bill-2106113.html

"The development is the latest blow to an institution that has been rocked by an annus horribilis following the global clerical paedophilia scandal that broke earlier this year, and investigations into money laundering."

What is wrong with the media?

For 20 years or more Survivors of Church abuse have been bringing their stories as EVIDENCE not only of the abuse, but of the cover-up of the abuse and the active protection of abuser priests from public scrutiny and prosecution. For 20 years an more, Survivors have suffered delays, obstruction, mis-understanding, fear and resistance to the truth from almost every quarter.

But we HAVE NOT BEEN SILENT!

What an utter falsehood! This 'story' broke many, many years ago!

Consistently, it is NOT survivors who write these articles, it is NOT Survivors whose opinions and insights are sought after, it is not Survivors who are asked for ideas on the possible resolution, it is not Survivors who are asked for their insights into how Power Relationships operate within the Society they were, unfortunately for them, born into.

The not so silent Survivors have no real voice in the media.

Why? What possible excuse or rationalisation is there for that abscence?

It is bad enough that the EU sees fit to 'probe' into the Taxation Status of The Vatican, yet has not launched a 'probe' into the endemic problem of the mistreatment and abuse of children in the 'care' of The Church; but that no-one inthe media no-one comments sensibly on this glaring omission is frankly unforgiveable, and represents an appaling abdication of mature response ability!

It speaks of a clear and widespread lack of empathy for Survivors and a profund mis-understanding of the nature of the problem, or worse. .....

An attempt to avoid facing this problem square on, for whatever reasons, abandons Survivors, abandons current victims and indictes the media as much as the The Vatican, the protectors of the abuser priests themselves.

WAKE UP!

Let Survivors tell their stories, for they HAVE survived, and they are many, and their paths to resolution, in as much as it has been possible, within their own lives are each a unique struggle for liberation, a font of lived wisdom.

Without their wisdom, you KNOW NOTHING!

And finally, to compare the Popes current problems with those of the Queen in recent years is ludicrous; yet there is dark mirth in it all....

Anus Horribilus!

Arse!

Kindest regards 

Corneilius 

Do what you love, it's your gift to universe

The Ceremony of Expulsion and Cleansing

 This is the text of the Ceremony held outside Westminster Cathedral on 10-10-10 in London.

All actions are seeds, seeding the future, all actions have consequences that cannot be avoided, all actions are choices made. Make your choice, live with the consequences.

All is born of woman, no harm shall come to the children.

We call on and represent the spirit and energy of life, of the natural world, of which you and I am a living part, which permeates every cell of my being, of which we are all a part, and which permeates every cell of our being, which inhere’s in our very existence, which many past carriers of wisdom, including he known as Jesus Christ brought as their shared learnings, to help clarify the un-clear, to make honest the dishonest, to respond with all strength to the dysfunction of the lack of empathy that typifies your Institution and all like Institutions, to flood through,  and to wash away, so as to cleanse this place of all that dysfunction and all thoughts and deeds that mask that dysfunction, such that the Natural Principle of Nurturance may now take precedence over the false and artificial Principle of Dominance.

All is born of woman, no harm shall come to the children.
 

To The Vatican and The Pope, we say this; we are calling you to listen to these words and to see these actions as being the natural response ability of natural people, under common Law, upon which all other Laws are founded.

That Law is ‘all is born of woman, no harm shall come to the children!”

You have broken that Law, into many millions of shards of pain, each shard a human life, a sacred and precious gift of Nature, a life destroyed, and we, and all our common ancestors and relatives, are declaring this for it is true, and we have come to say ENOUGH! And to reject and repudiate any authority you claim, to expose the fallacy of your lies, to unmask the cruelty of your actions. You are now made as naked in the eyes of Nature. Your power is nothing without your violence. You are now made as naked in the eyes of the people. You are nothing – a No-thing.

All is born of woman, no harm shall come to the children.

In the void, the newly empty space once made to appear occupied by your teachings and actions, by your fine clothes, your grandiose and repugnant wealth and by fine buildings, Nature now re-seeds life.

Mother Nature now nurtures life so as to improve that habitat, the living conditions for all life. Nature will now metabolise the remains of your body, the fears and darknesses of your philosophy,  and your deeds and in so doing release those materials for natural living processes.

All is born of woman, no harm shall come to the children.

(Water is sprinkled)

From this moment onwards and for all time, in all directions from this point, all those whom you beguiled and imprisoned are set free, for you are no more. Neither fear nor shame will impinge upon their hearts.

All is born of woman, no harm shall come to the children.

Mother Nature, that which nurtures life, has been called and has responded, as she always does, to give forth new life and to express herself in the hearts, actions and in the lives of her creations, and in particular the hearts and minds of all natural people.

All is born of woman, no harm shall come to the children.

(Water is sprinkled)

In place of enforced the old coercive order, in place of this Institution and all Institutions like it, intrinsic and empathetic co-operation, the natural self organisation and wisdom inherent to natural living process now emerges, as the freedom to grow as a healthy, robust and vibrant part of the life of Earth with gratitude, respect and a joyous embrace of the sensory wonder of being alive, which all life expresses.

(Water is sprinkled)

 All is born of woman, no harm shall come to the children.

Mother Nature, and all her children, let us now bear witness to this exorcism, this repudiation of a dysfunctional system of coercion and proclaim, yea let us sing of the new life and the joyous recognition from the loving heart of life itself, within the hearts of each of her children. Together we banish the psyche of this Institution and all others like it from our midst. Begone! You are a no-thing.

 All is born of woman, no harm shall come to the children.

Mother Nature, we accept the nurturance of your wisdom. And we know now, in our hearts, in our minds and in our bodies, that we are with you, we are of you and that we will live as your expression of life, and that all illusions of division are shattered, that war between mother and child, father and mother, brother and sister is finished, over, and that the philosophies of coercion are now finally and permanently discredited.

All is born of woman, no harm shall come to the children.

 (A candle is lit, the papers are burnt)

All actions are choices. All actions have consequences. All choices must be accounted for between men, women and children. This is the light that shall never be extinguished. You will NEVER kill the will to grow free This is the light never to be extinguished. You, of this Institution and all others like it, to you collective psyche and will I say this and declare : your own hatred will eat you up and spit you out, and the lies will be no more. This is the light never to be extinguished.

All is born of woman, no harm shall come to the children.

Mother Nature calls now, to all of her children, to walk in freedom and true responsive autonomy, to live with empathy, to act with compassion, to feel the vibrant joy of being nurtured and of nurturing and to take part in the healing of wounds, the recovery of forest and plain, and to receive the gifts of life as free men and free women. As nature ever intended!

All is born of woman, no harm shall come to the children.

Mother and Father Nature, I call on you now to enter these places and to absolutely penetrate and permanently permeate these old and fallen places of what was once called worship and to breathe into them the air of your nurturance, to render these places as places of comfort, sanctuary and honest reflection, open in all directions, to all people, that the true meaning of love be the lies will be no action, content and form.

All is born of woman, no harm shall come to the children.

Mother and Father Nature!

Enter into the land and make it a common garden again, where yours and mine is abolished, and all things are held in common so that all may eat and prosper.

Mother Nature in your name and in our children’s name, and in our own names, we fully reclaim your world, we honour and align with your nurturance and we call you back to our hearts and our lands, that together we make it that all are free to eat, to thrive, to live as Nature intends.

All is born of woman, no harm shall come to the children.

Mother and Father Nature. Enter into the former places of power and dissolve the greed and violence that remains there. Dismantle the weapons of death and bring final peace and love to all nations. For what was prophesied has come to pass: they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning forks: the lion shall lie down with the lamb, and man shall not learn war anymore. For the old order has passed away forever.

All is born of woman, no harm shall come to the children.

God and Goddess of creation, Mother and Father Nature in whom we live and breathe and know our being, we bless and praise you for bringing us through the long night into the light of your eternal nurturance. Help us now and forever to live and proclaim with one heart and voice these words:

Our Mother and Father, who dwell among us, your name is sacred, your children are sacred. Thy world, which births us, which nurtures our very being, which holds us in relationships of love and honour, has come, is here, is being lived and is eternal and Thy unity which holds us has been re-established. We are the bread that will feed the world, as forgiveness with integrity shall mend all that has been torn. The darkness has gone. For your Nurturance and Intent is established amongst the people, now and evermore.

All is born of woman, no harm shall come to the children.

Go now to live and love in the light of the new creation, walk with Mother and Father Nature, within you and among you. It is accomplished.

All is born of woman, no harm shall come to the children.

All actions are seeds, seeding the future, a future that belongs to all our children, and all actions have consequences that cannot be avoided, all actions are choices made. Make your choice, live with the consequences. Do no expect your children to accept the consequences of any action taken that is dysfunctional – to do so is to abuse your own children, and all children.

         All is born of woman, no harm shall come to the children.

Kindest regards

Corneilius

Do what you love, it's your gift to universe

Our Society is either just, or it is unjust.

Our Society is either just, or it is unjust.

The idea that we are becoming ‘more’ just, incrementally, is ludicrous. It is, also, an insult to intelligence, all the more so because it is a belief often touted, if not actually held, by the majority of so-called intellectuals.

You know, those people who are supposed to be good at thinking, that is to say using the mind as a tool of observation, direct perception and insight. Scholars of thought.

Philosophers and ideologist, theologians and psychologists.

The kinds of people every system of domination sets up as a grand jury on life itself.

The kinds of people who are entrusted to ‘teach others and to pass on ‘wisdom’.

Their texts are the one’s ‘think tanks’ and Governments use to create rafts of Social Workers, Clergy, Policemen, Soldiers, workers, labourers out of ‘raw’ children.

A good friend of mine, who is a philosopher, once said ‘what we need is a ‘coup d’etate’ of philosophy, to expose the primitive mind-set that inhere’s to most intellectual discourse.

“A coup de thought!” I responded, quickly. It was the first thing that came to my mind, an instant response. Quick as a flash.

We are asked to live with the idea that an abuser incrementally becomes less abusive.

Why can’t the abuser simply stop? Is that not what the child or those being victimised would wish for? Just stop it!?

I have always held the position that to talk about abuse allows the abuse to continue, unless the abuse is first and foremost stopped.

As we see in the Case of The Pope, as out lined by Geoffery Robinsons, QC, a pre-eminenent Human Rights Lawyer and Activist.

The Vatican has been talking about the abuse of children for nearly 1800 years. And the abuse continued.

Even now, as many thousands, hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of survivors of abuse are talking, telling their story, blowing the whistle, The Vatican is talking and not acting.

Right now, just as you are reading these words there are sexually abusive, physically abusive and psychologically abusive priests, nuns and brothers going about their day to day activities, being fed, sheltered, watered, confessed and funded by The Vatican.

Right now, just as you are reading these words there are sexually abusive, physically abusive and psychologically abusive social workers, soldiers, politicians, bankers, CEOs, teachers, policemen and others going about their day to day activities, being fed, sheltered, watered, confessed and funded by The System.

The abuse has not stopped.

What has happened is that some people are more comfortable than others, there are some people who have more ‘disposable’ income than others, whilst those at the ‘bottom’ of The System are being abused.

At least we know where we are with regards to the Conservative Party in the UK, whose vitriol towards the poor is their public stance, notwithstanding their careful ‘spin’ doctoring of their constituents mutterings as regards the ‘work shy’ and ‘the authority of the teacher’ and ‘disruptive pupils’ and how they wish to ‘help’ those people in to work, to give teachers more power (over the children) for the purposes of punishment and control, to drug those children whose spirit is such that they resist the bullying, coercive psychological tactics of Compulsory State Education.

To compel is to force. Rape is compulsion. Not a compulsion, as The Vatican would hold is a legal (in Canon Law) defence for a priest who has confessed to serious and often physically violent sexual abuse of children, and for which the priest is due a full pardon, forgiveness and the blessings of Christ.

The fact that a priest can be defined as a pedophile is taken to mean that the poor man is suffering from a sickness, a compulsion that drives him to abuse, and that as such, he too is the victim.

Whilst the real victim or the survivor is enjoined to permanent silence on the matter, on pain of ex-communication, amongst a few other injunctions. Such as large payments of hush money. Or as of late, tawdry deals with Governments to admit these crimes, yet limit the liability of The Vatican, as such to provide State indemnity for The Vatican.

Just as The Vatican provides indemnity to the confessed pedophile cleric, such as being moved to a new Parish, (out of sight) or going on retreat (healing) or being required to repeat a thousand ‘Hail Mary’s’ on his or her knees in prayerful supplication – though as soon as the penance is announced, the Priest or Nun or Brother is forgiven; he or she could indeed kneel and fantasise about his or her next abusive encounter, and no-one would be the wiser – in fact, the act of confession alone (which occurs in strict secrecy) urges forgiveness in the eyes of The Vatican.

As I said, our Society is either just, or it is unjust.

The idea that we are becoming ‘more’ just, incrementally, is ludicrous. It is, also, an insult to intelligence, all the more so because it is a belief often touted, if not actually held, by the majority of so-called intellectuals.

One of whom, astounding as it may seem, is The Pope. He is an esteemed theologian according to the BBC.

A man who in adopting the role of Pope, follows a long lineage of Popes who made sordid deals with the most extreme rulers, be they Kings, Prime Ministers, Presidents or Dictators.

Ratzinger himself has interceded in the case of Auguste Pinochet. So as to help him avoid public trial.

Our Society is either just, or it is not.

And this fact cannot be swept under the carpet, by use of that old dictum : Life is not fair!

Blame the victim, blame the poor, blame the sinners (all children are of course sinners in the eyes of the Vatican, their sanctity being conditional on the child’s submission to the ideology of The Vatican.

Our Society is just as it appears.

Fundamentally abusive.

Lacking in empathy.

Replete with ‘charity’, to pour balm on the wounds of the oppressed and professing reconciliation and forgiveness for those who oppress them.

Our prisons have more victims than abusers within their cold, hard walls.

Our Society is unjust.

It is cruel.

One cannot be cruel to be kind.

Those words are mutually exclusive.

Kindest regards

Corneilius

Do what you love, it's your gift to universe