We have a Church that
doesn’t have a tradition of talking together about things. The key in all abuse
is to allow people to speak of it. If you can’t name it then you can’t identify
what must be healed. There’s nowhere to go unless you name it first.” – Sr. Nuala
Kenny
 |
| Your words have power use them wisely |
Not many Roman
Catholics want to return to the subject of child sexual abuse, self included. But recent exchanges with several so called ‘devout’
Roman Catholics helped change my mind.
Opinions about the clerical sexual abuse scandal within the Roman
Catholic Church are seen by some, especially its leaders, as nothing more than a
vicious attack upon the institution. Au contraire! This is a worldwide problem and not just within
religious institutions. However painful the
subject may be, it must not remain closeted in some dark and secret place if we
are to bring healing and understanding to both its victims and abusers. The
Church, which could influence a much needed healing on the subject, seems to
prefer a defensive approach by blaming the matter on the media, secularism, and
atheism etc.. Thus the church avoids looking inwardly. In doing so, it reveals a
total lack of integrity and honesty which is desperately needed to bring God’s
gift of sexuality out of the present darkness.
The Roman Catholic Church knowingly and intentionally withheld
information that could have stopped the perpetrators from abusing more
children. Experts such as Dr. Richard
Sipe and Fr. Tom Doyle clearly identified that the chief causes behind the
abuse and cover-up are due to the clerical culture that allowed this
situation to exist and continue. A
priest who did not feel free to identify himself for fear of repercussions from
his bishop wrote, “Clericalism is not simply the burden of priests who abuse children;
hierarchy betrays the whole Church by its dishonesty that they justify by a
claim to superiority.”
Geoffrey Robertson QC in
his book, ‘The Case of the Pope’ (2010),
states, “The fact is that tens of
thousands of children throughout the world have been sexually abused by priests
who have mostly been secretly dealt with by an ecclesiastical law that provides
no real punishment and gives them ample opportunity to re-offend. There is no doubt that the scale of the sex
abuse scandal came about because of directives from the Vatican – specifically
from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) – which required all
sex abuse complaints to be processed in utter secrecy and withheld from local
police and courts.” The culture of
secrecy, according to Sipe, lies with Canon law and its
instructions to the faithful - i.e., ‘Do
not give scandal —that is: do not say or do anything
that could damage the image or reputation of priests or the
church—or give the enemies of the church ammunition for attacks.’
Irish priest, Brian D’Arcy (2010) writes, “A
combination of bad theology, the dysfunctional abuse of power and a warped view
of sexuality, have contributed to the ‘systemic failure’ to protect the most
innocent and the most vulnerable children. I believe that the evil clerical
culture which pervades our institution, right up to the Vatican bureaucracy
itself, needs to be dismantled.”
Again, to quote Richard Sipe, “It is clear
that the institutional church is in a pre-adolescent stage of psychosexual
development. This is a period typically
prior to eleven years of age in which boys prefer association with their own
sex, girls are avoided and held in disdain, often as a guise for fear of women
as well as-yet-un-solidified sexuality.
Sex generally is rigidly denied externally; while secretly
explored. The rigidity extends to strict
rules of inclusion and exclusion.
Control and avoidance are of primary concern. A church stuck in the pre-adolescent stage of
development is limited in its ability to cope with sexual issues and give
sexual guidelines”.
When the Roman Catholic Church is unable to face and handle its self-inflicted
wound and refuses to apply the expert advice it has been given, it will simply
remain in denial. In this unfortunate way, they are unable to assist the rest
of the world in giving spiritual advice about sexuality for they obviously do
not possess it themselves.
The late Cardinal Carlo Martini—a voice of reason and
humility in the Church—said, “Our culture is out of date, our churches are big
and empty and the church bureaucracy rises up, our rituals and our cassocks are
pompous”. It will require a great deal of humility for the Church to finally accept
its role in this terrible scandal.
After all, who is going to continue to speak for the thousands of nameless
victims (who are never mentioned by most Pro-Life groups)? The carefully arranged public offerings of apologies
by the clergy for its victims may be a beginning but it hardly touches the
depth of compassion and understanding required to bring a total healing to this
painful episode in the lives of the victims and our church.
Finally,
we need to reflect on the following challenging and concluding remarks from the
distinguished human rights lawyer and judge Geoffrey Robertson, QC. “What will
be required of the Vatican, as a signal of a new commitment to put children first, is the complete abandonment of Benedict's claim that the Holy See has the right to
deal with suspected felons under
an obscure, inefficient and secret ecclesiastical process. But Canon Law provides a form of power, and
perhaps Benedict's fatal flaw is his attraction to
power —
to the pomp and circumstance of statehood, to
the queues of world leaders who come
to bend at his knee and kiss his fisherman's ring, and to the satisfaction of having delegates promote his
ideology with six seats at UN conference tables. Journalists often tell how
this kindly old man offers to share his food with them, but an analysis of his behaviour suggests a man in thrall to power
and unable to give any of it up —
even for the sake of innocent children. When it ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Holy See quoted the words of John Paul II, to the
effect that children 'are that precious treasure given to each
generation as a challenge to its wisdom and
humanity'. John Paul II himself, as we now know, failed that challenge
by cosseting notorious child molester and
turning a blind eye to the mounting toll of child victims. So did his closest lieutenant, Joseph Cardinal
Ratzinger. On the question of whether
Benedict XVI is capable of the wisdom and humanity to protect the children of his church, the jury is out.”
