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1 Sep - Statement on Punishment Beatings

PUNISHMENT BEATINGS
STATEMENT BY CARDINAL SEÁN BRADY
1 SEPTEMBER, 1999

Everyone should be presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of justice where the evidence has been heard. Where this does not happen there is a serious risk of mistaken identity and of a miscarriage of justice. There is also the danger of the punishment being totally out of all proportion to the alleged crime. Those who received death-threats, punishment beatings or have been ordered to leave the country are victims. They are victims of a system that is totally unacceptable. Like all victims they deserve sympathy and support.

Those who have suffered the effects of criminal activity are also victims. They too deserve help and understanding. They should be helped to seek redress in the proper quarters. Those who have the power and the responsibility to do so, should deliver that redress swiftly and effectively. In this way people will see the folly of turning to private individuals and inviting them to take the law into their own hands, setting themselves up as guardians and administrators of law and order. The solution lies rather in the promotion of the efficient administration of a few and an acceptable system of justice for all.
 


Welcome to the website of the Archdiocese of Armagh.

Our diocese of sixty-one parishes, from four counties, North and South of the Border, is knitted together closely to form the historic local Church of Armagh. As a diocese we seek not only to be faithful to the message of Jesus Christ himself, but also to embrace the challenges of the present and to look forward with confidence to the opportunities of the future. We strive to do this primarily by reflecting the healing love of Christ and the Truth of his Gospel through the ministry of his Church in the various parishes and pastoral agencies you will find outlined in this website.

I pray that visitors to this site may find the information it contains, the aspirations and resources it promotes, useful in helping to understand the mission of the Archdiocese of Armagh in building up the Kingdom of God in the twenty-first century.

We place it under the protection of Mary, Mother of the Church, who advised us to do whatever her son, Jesus, tells us. We invoke the help of the Patron Saints of the diocese, Patrick  and  Brigid, Malachy and Moninne  and the martyrs, Oliver Plunkett and Patrick O'Loughran,  that this website may prove to be of great help to all who strive to follow Christ faithfully.
 
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