Structural And Moral Failure

The stories are horrendous. Let me give you just a few.

A teenage girl groomed into unquestioning obedience and asked to ’service’ several masters, then sent abroad when she became pregnant and instructed to leave her baby so as to keep things quiet. Thousands of boys forced into giving oral sex to their masters and then repeatedly and regularly ’sodomized’. Women coaxed into giving their bodies for the ‘greater good’ so that their superiors were kept from picking up AIDS from other ‘poluted sources’. A woman anally raped when she responded to the screams of a 6 year old girl who was being raped by the same man.

And these were not happening in some far off, morally bankrupt country. Many of them were happening far closer to home. They form part of a chapter called “Beyond Belief” in David Yallop’s book, “The Power and the Glory“, in which he tries to describe and analyse the ‘dark heart of the Vatican’. In the chapter in question he catalogues many of the instances of sexual abuse by priests and the successful and attempted cover-ups that have taken place worldwide within the Roman Catholic Church in the last half century.

Several themes emerge:

• The scale is staggering. Billions of pounds have already been paid out in compensation to thousands of victims and there is more surfacing on a daily basis.
• Most of the victims do not get their case to court. Many of them are either ‘bought off’ in small out of court payments, or pressured into dropping the case (not to embarrass Mother Church), or face years and years of tactical delays by the Church so that they give up or the priest dies.
• The Roman Catholic Church seems to have a culture of denial about abuse. Doubtless there are many good priests working for change, but institutionally there has been much bad ‘group-think’. Pope John Paul II seemed to think that it was just an American problem that would fizzle out. In one official paper the church estimated the problem to affect 0.3% of priests. Others outside the church have calculated that a more realistic assessment is in excess of 5.0% of priests.
• The abuse, once reported, was invariably not stopped but encouraged to continue by the church through a systematic policy of secrecy. Invariably the abuser was just moved on, where he continued to abuse in another place. The primary motivation seems not to have been care of the victims, but protection of the church and of the priests concerned. The present Roman Catholic Bishop of Westminster, and Primate of All England, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, while Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, moved a priest who had been a paedophile since 1959 and committed over 20 known offences. His license to work as a priest was not removed, and in 1985 he was moved to Gatwick Airport, a magnet for homeless youngsters, where he continued to abuse vulnerable young boys.
• The excuse given by the church is always: “We did not know what we were doing then, but we do now.” However, there are some telling documents from church history, especially from the very early church and from the eleventh century, outlining how sexually abusive priests should be removed from post. In allowing the abuse to continue, the church has been ignoring its own historical pastoral advice.

As a practising therapist I am well aware of the horrors of sexual abuse and of the devastating effect it has on survivors. Most therapists would be able to tell stories (if permitted by their clients to break confidentiality) of victims in their fifties still suffering the pain that has followed them throughout their adult life, longing that their abusers would give just some recognition of what they had done before death takes them away.

As a practising therapist I am also aware of some of the parallels between priests and those in my own profession. We both work with people who are experiencing times of extreme vulnerability in their lives. Sexual tension can be a part of any close relationship, and talking in depth fosters psychological intimacy. Some therapists cross boundaries and sexually abuse their clients (though I am reasonably confident that the scale of the problem is smaller than in the church - though not excusable in any way). However, an awareness of those parallels led me to think about why there is less sexual abuse in my profession than in the Catholic church. There are factors in place that make it less likely to happen, that help prevent it from happening, and that stop it if it does.

First therapists operate on a psychological rather than a theological model. The church saw sexual abuse as a moral failure rather than a crime. Priests had power to offer absolution from sin, and very often the priest committing the crime would absolve the victim from sin. Therapist are only too aware of the life-long devastating effects of abuse. They know that it is not something that can easily be dealt with by a prayer and a compensation payment. It would be difficult (though sadly not impossible) for a therapist to be in denial about the reality of the horror of the crime.

Secondly, therapists are trained not to see themselves as being in a hierarchical relationship with their clients. They are people who seek to stand alongside clients in their journey to empower them and help them understand and determine action. Unlike priests, the majority do not see themselves as being invested with any special power or authority over the client.

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, therapists are very accountable. All reputable therapists have regular supervision from experienced practitioners who monitor their work. They are also bound by the ethical guidelines of their professional body. If complaints are received that boundaries have been crossed, the case is rigorously examined and appropriate action taken. Details of members who have been expelled from the organisation because of misconduct are regularly posted in professional newsletters. If something goes wrong, it is not hidden and allowed to continue. Public exposure of a problem, though embarrassing, is seen as the best way of building trust in the profession in the long-term.

Fourthly, therapists do not see sexual activity as something to be condemned or avoided, but recognise that it can be a joyful activity between two consenting adults. Because the majority of therapists will be sexually active and are part of a culture that celebrates sex, it is seen as something normal. They are occupied with it rather than preoccupied with it. Through its theologically abhorrent teaching on sex, and its culturally peculiar practice of enforced celibacy, the Roman Catholic Church has created conditions where sexual frustration is likely to be high. (If I say to you don’t think of a pink elephant, it is the first thing you think of. Priests knowing that they mustn’t think about sex are more likely to do so.) Given the power relationship between priest and parishioner, and restrictions placed on priests, that sexual frustration is likely to be expressed in a problematic way, if not a criminal way.

All sexual abuse is very wrong. What is also very wrong is that for years the Roman Catholic Church has not faced up to its own moral and structural failure.