Sir, – Diarmaid Ferriter’s Opinion piece, “Christian Brothers’ pursuit of this cynical legal strategy is abuse by other means,” August 6th, hits the nail on the head. He asks: “Why should the power to control resolution rest with the congregation?”
As a survivor whose convicted abuser was one of the 341Christian Brothers named following the recent High Court order, I know one of the defining characteristics of child sexual abuse is the abuse of power and control. Children are stripped of choice, autonomy and voice while perpetrators dictate the terms of their lives.
That is why many survivors experience the Christian Brothers’ current litigation strategy as abuse by other means. Just as perpetrators exercised power and control over survivors’ lives, the leadership of the same religious order now seeks to control the very process by which those same survivors pursue justice. The dynamic of power and control is painfully familiar. For survivors whose childhoods were defined by coercion and control, that can itself be deeply retraumatising. – Yours, etc,
DAMIAN O’FARRELL,
RM Block
Sutton,
Dublin 13.
