Madam, - The plaintive cry of Ms Mary Raftery, in her article "O Brothers, where art thou?", (July 8th) begs the answer, "O Sister, did you try the phone?". Personally, I find, although the Christian Brothers she so desperately seeks are involved in the spirituality business, they're not so hot on telepathy. My guess is no phone was involved. The Brothers have already stated that the files in Rome which were collated six weeks ago (not last year as reported by Ms Raftery) revealed 30 abuse cases. In these, contrary to previous reporting of leniency by the CB leadership where child abuse was concerned, the opposite was true. The perpetrators were punished to the full extent of the Canon Law. If the Brothers had been aware of the files before, it would have been to their advantage to disclose them.
Ms Raftery goes on to say she has for the past five years stated (and indeed she has) that "extensive internal knowledge of the criminal activities of many Christian Brothers was to be found in their central archives in Rome, buried carefully out of public reach. . .yet the Brothers (in the form of Brother David Gibson) informed the Commission on Child Abuse, under oath, that they discovered this documentation only in the last year". What is she suggesting?
Ms Raftery has certainly raised some very interesting issues; I eagerly await the response of the Christian Brothers. - Yours, etc.,
FLORENCE HORSMAN-HOGAN, Let Our Voices Emerge (LOVE), Seaview Wood, Shankill, Co Dublin.