Some of the abuse was well-known at the time. The mistreatment of women and children in Church-run Irish schools and workhouses throughout the 19th and 20th centuries was increasingly well documented by the 1990s. Mass graves were discovered in the 1970s, although in the 1990s the church was still publicly denying any responsibility. Hence Ms. O'Connor's protest.

I don't know what Ms. O'Connor knew about the ongoing abuse of children by priests and the church coverup efforts. But I'm sure she wasn't surprised, as she was well-acquainted with the Church's perfidy.

[–] AttackBunny@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Iirc she was put into a catholic asylum type place when she was a teenager, and treated terribly. Presumably it’s where she saw up close and personal what the church was really doing.

It’s been a long time, but in the 80s, I recall the Catholic Church being known to be exactly what we know it’s to be now, but not in the same way. It wasn’t as widely accepted. As much as I despise this statement, it was also a VERY different time.

[–] Dad2DnA@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdalene_Laundries_in_Ireland

This

[–] TopRamenBinLaden@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Thanks for bringing perfidy to my vocabularies' attention. What a good word.

"Don't give that Loch Ness monster perfidy!"

[–] SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social 4 points 1 year ago

Honestly, I have never imagined the Loch Ness Monster as faithless or disloyal before today.

[–] SulaymanF@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It was well known in Ireland, but not in the U.S. That’s why it was such a shocking moment and National headline. It wasn’t until the early 2000s that the scandals started popping up across the US and people decades later realized she had a point.

[–] RickRussell_CA@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

So, I was in my 30s when O'Connor did her thing on SNL, and I definitely remember the context being discussed here in the US. There was a (brief) national conversation at the time about why she would do this, and a fair amount of attention on the 19th and early 20th century abuses by the church's schools and workhouses, where "women of questionable virtue" were held against their will and forced into labor. When O'Connor was interviewed about it, she talked about the abuse of women and girls.

I do agree that what the church calls "the crisis" -- the revelation that active pedophiles had been using their positions in the church to cover up their extensive crimes -- was not well known until the 2000s.