In Structural and Moral Failure I first wrote about the scandal of sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic church.
Although during his recent visit to America the pope repeatedly expressed shame and remorse for the church’s role in the disgrace and met with some of its victims, the willingness of the Catholic church to deliver its known paedophiles to civil authorities for their prosecution, regardless of the damage to the church’s reputation and finances, remains ambiguous.
When the pope met the US bishops in Washington, he said that the scandal had sometimes been poorly handled and that it is their “God-given responsibility” to heal the wounds and restore shattered trust. But given the scale of the problem (over 5000 known victims since 2002) the problem cannot easily be swept under the carpet by pious words and prayer. Clear action, recompense, and structural change are needed.
In my article I argued that there were two scandals - the abuse itself, and the failure of the church to deal with it. The latter was because of it cultural history of keeping things secret, of people not being professionally accountable, of people being very naive about the psychological damage, and of a sense of the church being above the law. The problem now seems to have moved up a layer, with attention being focused on Roman Catholic bishops - the people who are meant to be dealing with the problem priests.
In an alarming, but predictable parallel, there appears to be several scandals with the bishops - the abuse itself that has been perpetuated by the bishops, the failure to deal adequately with abusive priests whom they managed, and their failure to deal adequately with the scandal amongst themselves.
At the time of writing, an organisation called Bishop Accountability has documented accusations against 20 Roman Catholic bishops in America (click HERE for details). Clearly some of these accusations may prove to be false (or at least unsubstantiated in court), but it is almost certain that sexual abuse has been carried out by some bishops.
In addition to some being abusers themselves, many bishops dealt with priest abuse by simply moving the offending priest on and by failing to warn parishoners of the risks, resulting in more abuse and damage to the victims. For example, I mentioned recently how the UK Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, while Roman Catholic Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, moved a priest who had been a paedophile since 1959 and committed over 20 known offences rather than remove his license. The priest continued to abuse boys until 1985. In Washington, Bishop Carlos Sevilla is being accused of allowing a priest to continue to work after being convicted of fondling a 14 year old girl, and of hiring someone who had a known interest in child pornography.
After the thousands of cases and all the publicity, what seems to be clear is that there is still no major shift in the church’s willingness to radically change structures and procedures that allowed the scandal to grow and be undetected for so many years. According to the Buffalo News:
Activists have launched letter-writing campaigns and petition drives to try to push the pope into taking action against bishops who they believe have moved slowly to stop predator priests.
“What is the pope going to do now? If it’s nothing, then that is a terrible thing,” said Terry McKiernan, president of BishopAccountablity.org, based in the Boston area. “There has been no public action by the Vatican since the pope’s visit.
“Action has been taken against some priests, but action hasn’t been taken against U. S. bishops,” McKiernan said.
Bishops say they cannot punish each other over the issue because that is solely the prerogative of the pope. In a 2002 “Statement of Episcopal Commitment,” the bishops promised to apply the sexual abuse rules to themselves and to offer each other “fraternal correction” — making recommendations to each other, or to the Vatican, if bishops need to step down or be removed.
Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a spokeswoman for the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, declined to say whether any bishops have been subject to fraternal correction. It is “brother to brother,” she said. “It’s not something that public announcements are made about.”
But activists say the system of informal oversight does not work. They want to see the pope force bishops into retirement, suspend them or otherwise discipline them for their actions — or inaction.
Unless there is a change in culture, with the creation of one which is more willing to accept accountability to the society and to the law, a radical change to introduce professional management practice with clear lines of accountability and clear procedures for criminality, it is difficult to see how significant and lasting change will be achieved, or greater protection given to the vulnerable.
(See also: Catholics disown Bishop …)
Whilst Roman Catholic priests/bishops are required to take a vow of celibacy then it is unlikely that sexual abuse will ever stop. But yes, it should always be dealt with as a criminal offence - for the sake of the existing victims and to prevent further abuse occurring. It astounds me that these methods of dealing with priests exist in this day and age and that the “moving on” and hiding still occurs. No-one who has perpetrated such a crime should be allowed to hide.
The psychological effects of any unwanted sexual activity stay with you forever and it is SO much harder to deal with in your own head when you know that the people who did it are still out there, living their lives as they did before and when YOU then have to carry the guilt for the fact that they may well do it again to someone else. Because these priests do not live in the real world with real people they have no idea of the devastating trail that is being left in the wake of many of these priests and bishops.
Reluctant Blogger
I agree that the psychological effects are devastating - I work with several abuse survivors. I think that sexual abuse was hidden for years and is now coming much more into public awareness. However, I still think that there is not yet enough public awareness of the lifelong psychological consequences of sexual abuse.
There is not yet enough public awareness of this dangerous sect, that has over a Billion members, and has infiltrated every community they can. This soft protective article for this dangerous cult is an insult to all Europeans, that currently are facing Roman Catholic Canon Law again in every country in Europe.
http://concordatwatch.eu/
“I work with several abuse survivors” looks to me, that I was right. I don’t know why you believe in “Holy” Inquisition, man that thinks, but to me such a thing only told me at a young age, that Roman Catholicism is a very dangerous cult. This sexual abuse is real, and further study in the matter reveals parties at the Vatican, where the clergy man are served by small children from around 10 years old for rape, if these want.
Thinking Man, I can not understand why people become clergy within the Roman Catholic Church. These Temples of Papism called Cathedrals look like Luciferian buildings to me.
I once would talk long times with a Jesuit. For 3 hours or so. In that time, he had to leave three time, for his spiritual exercises, because he understood what I said. Then when black became white again, and white became black, he would come talk to me again. I noticed that understanding the truth, gave him some kind of pain, so I presume the Jesuits have used their electronic brainwash technology on their own members. But even without that, checking and controlling each other every moment, it looks like a prison, impossible to escape from.
May the Force be with you.
[...] the pope repeatedly expressed shame and remorse for the church??s role in the disgrace and mehttp://athinkingman.wordpress.com/2008/05/12/now-the-bishops/Hunt for sex fiend Herald SunA child sex predator wanted over 800 sickening images could offend [...]