INTERNATIONAL REACTION:THERE WAS widespread international media reaction to the Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse.
In Britain, Guardiancolumnist and associate editor Madeleine Bunting said the findings of the report represented nothing less than "a crisis for Ireland".
It was also a crisis for global Catholicism, Bunting wrote. “This could not be worse. The Ryan report is the stuff of nightmares.”
Bunting revealed that the reports findings had presented her with what she described as a private dilemma about her own faith. “For years now, I’ve had an intermittent conversation with an admirable and devout relative: How long can we hang on? When do our fingernails break?”
The Guardians news coverage included a story under the headline: "Archbishop tries to defuse abuse remarks row".
Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols had previously told ITV that it took “courage” for members of the clergy to “face the facts from their past”.
In the London Times, the contents of the report were described as a "holocaust of abuse" by religion correspondent Ruth Gledhill.
“Almost beyond belief, in a month in which British MPs were named and shamed about their expenses, there will be no prosecutions of those perpetrators who are still alive, or naming of those who are dead,” she wrote.
Geldhill said the findings of the report represented a “terrible litany of shame” which would have even friends of the church asking whether it was “worth saving at all”. She added: “Torture, rape and beatings. That’s the story of Roman Catholic Ireland in the 20th century.”
Australia's the Agenewspaper noted that some survivors were now living in Australia. "Some Australians know that the 'Irish hell' is a universal hell, since orders such as the Christian Brothers and Sisters of Mercy have long been active in this country and others," the paper's editorial said.
"Thousands beaten, raped in Irish reform schools" was the Los Angeles Timesassessment. The Washington Postreported that Irish counselling services had been "swamped" by callers.
"Child-abuse activists warned Thursday that Ireland failed to learn the lessons from decades of unchecked brutality inside Catholic Church-run schools and still offers poor protection to vulnerable boys and girls," the paper reported. The Boston Globeopted for "Children were beaten and sexually abused at Catholic schools in Ireland", while the New York Timescoverage lead with: Report details abuses in Irish reformatories".
Online media also devoted considerable attention to the findings of the report, with the websites of as Die Weltin Germany, Le Mondein France, La Repubblica in Italy and China Dailyall carrying prominent stories.
Images from the launch of the report at the Conrad Hotel in Dublin were broadcast across the world, with items appearing on the BBC, CNN and Euronews.
Cameras filmed angry scenes of victims who were not permitted to attend the press conference.