The Pope: Child Abuse is Liberals' Fault

TomTom

In 1962 The Vatican put out a Directive or whatever they call it to churches - it is online somewhere - it castigated US bishops for not screening ordinands as required and letting doubtful characters enter seminaries.

Over the following decades these individuals would show up as pederasts and child molesters and many would die with death certificates recording euphemistic causes rather than HIV-related ailments.

In this sense the Pope is quite correct in his assertion, and as a Protestant I think he has simply flagged up the mess the Anglican Church is hiding and will see explode in its face

SMPTURLISH

WHERE DOES THE BUCK STOP?

In a press release from the Holy See on March 9, 2010, "concerning cases of the sexual abuse of minors in ecclesiastical institutions," Director Fr. Federico Lombardi simply repeats some of the more clichéd responses and predictable excuses to the church's ever widening problems of sexual abuse, particularly that of minor children.

http://www.oecumene.radiovaticana.org/EN1/Articolo.asp?c=362995

The institutional Roman Catholic Church has reacted to the continuing sexual abuse debacle neither rapidly nor decisively, contrary to what Lombardi states. The Vatican has attempted to distance itself from what has happened in country after country, first categorizing it as an "American problem," then as a "homosexual problem."

What was done by church leadership in the United States, for example, it was forced to do by the pressure of public opinion after records, files and correspondence were forced into the public venue in 2002 by Judge Constance M. Sweeney, a very brave, grounded and principled Catholic woman in Boston, Massachusetts.

The church's response continues to be reactive rather than pro-active while minimizing the systemic and endemic abuse of power and authority which has enabled and exacerbated it on the one hand while covering it up whenever and wherever possible on the other.

The "wide-ranging context" is that in countries from the United States, Canada, Australia and Ireland to Austria, the Netherlands and Germany church authorities have repeatedly and consistently disregarded its own moral and Canon laws as well as the existing laws of the countries' in which these horrific crimes against humanity occurred.

The church has lost its way.

Lombardi does not mention nor does he admit to the well documented widespread cover-up of the sexual abuse of children by bishops and other church officials in many countries like the United States, that makes the church's sexual abuse problems particularly egregious. If church authorities had done the morally right thing initially, one wonders how many children would have escaped being sexually abused by a particular priest?
As Patrick Wall, a former priest himself, states:
"The Roman Catholic Church has the largest body of knowledge of non-incarcerated sexual offenders in the world."
Who, one has to ask, would have more knowledge of the internal machinations utilized to cover-up and protect sexual predators from public scrutiny than Pope Benedict in his former position as Head of the Holy Office?

When are people of good will going to say, enough!

When are state legislators going to change the laws so that justice can be pursued for the thousands upon thousands of victims of childhood sexual abuse who have been unable to access let alone obtain justice?

In most states and probably in most countries, existing criminal as well as civil laws give more protection to sexual predators and their enablers then they do to victims of childhood sexual abuse by anyone. The problems with statutes of limitation which have expired are probably much the same in Germany and other European countries as they have been is in so many jurisdictions in the United States.
This is deplorable and should not be the case.
The removal of all statutes of limitation in regard to the sexual abuse of children is the single, most effective way to hold predators and enabling institutions accountable before the law. More than that, window legislation allows a set time frame for previously time barred cases of sexual abuse, by anyone. It is possible to change the laws in order to give some semblance of justice to those ravaged at so tender an age. What is needed to effect that change is the will to hold all sexual predators of children accountable along with any enabling individuals or institutions.

The state of Delaware is one of a very few states in the United States which has removed all criminal and civil statutes of limitation in regard to the sexual abuse of children by anyone. It also legislated a two year civil window for previously time barred cases, again, by anyone. That window closed in July of 2009.

In a civil suit, unlike a criminal suit, the burden of proof that any sexual abuse took place is on the plaintiff. The burden is not on the accused individual or institution to prove innocence, at least not in the United States.

Every victim of childhood sexual abuse should have a right to the pursuit of justice at the very least!

What people seem to forget is that children’s rights are human rights, that children’s rights are civil rights and that the hierarchy, the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church, has violated those children’s rights in the most profane of ways, not only by covering up for sexual abusers, mostly priests, but also by enabling the further abuse of untold numbers of children by these particular individuals who were known to be dangerous predators.
If Delaware can do it other states and other countries should be able to do it as well, and hold sexual predators and any enabling institutions responsible, especially when those institutions choose to ignore their own internal laws.

I was privileged to testify before the Senate and House Judiciary Committees in support of the 2007 Child Victims Law in Delaware.

No rules and no laws of any religious organization or denomination should be allowed to trump the laws of a civilized society where the protection of children is concerned.

Not only should the institutional Roman Catholic Church be held to the highest standard as a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, it should be leading by example and showing what can and should be done to protect children from sexual exploitation, from what really is just another example of trafficking in individuals for purposes of sexual exploitation, nothing less.

By any objective standard the church has grossly violated the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child for decades.

Perhaps it is time to formalize those violations as the crimes against humanity they truly are?

Sister Maureen Paul Turlish
Victims' Advocate
New Castle, Delaware
maureenpaulturlish@yahoo.com

SMPTURLISH

My first thoughts on the pope's pastoral letter:

The pope does not mention "justice" along with his proposal as in "...and to propose a path of healing, renewal and reparation."

Where is justice?

The pope distances himself from the problem when he says, "the task you now face is to address the problem of abuse that has occurred within the Irish community...."

While the pope mentions "this grievous wound," and to "acknowledge before the Lord and before others the serious sins committed against defenceless children," he does not acknowledge them as the crimes against the humanity of children which they truly are.

As far as I can find, the pope only uses the word, "crime" once in his pastoral letter to description of the sexual abuse of a child.

After distancing himself by using the phrase, "your country," the pope then goes attempts to place the blame on "priests and religious," whom he accuses of adopting "ways of thinking and assessing secular realities without sufficient reference to the Gospel."

Then he appears to blame the "programme of renewal proposed by the Second Vatican Council," which, according to the pope, "was sometimes misinterpreted and indeed, in the light of the profound social changes that were taking place, it was far from easy to know how best to implement it. In particular, there was a well-intentioned but misguided tendency to avoid penal approaches to canonically irregular situations. It is in this overall context that we must try to understand the disturbing problem of child sexual abuse, which has contributed in no small measure to the weakening of faith and the loss of respect for the Church and her teachings."

Talk about disturbing!

The pope goes on to talk about "the disturbing problem of child sexual abuse, which has contributed in no small measure to the weakening of faith and the loss of respect for the Church and her teachings."

Odd, but I thought that the "weakening of faith," "loss of respect," etc., had a more direct cause and effect relationship to the terrible, self serving way the hierarchy mishandled the "problem."

I could be wrong but I don't think so.

I don't think there will be "a clear-sighted diagnosis" as long as the real causes and the hierarchy's responsibility continue to be mitigated.

The pope mentions, "existing canonical penalties."

What about the failure to apply existing criminal and civil penalties, laws, while safeguarding "the dignity of every person," as the Holy See pledged to do in signing the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child?

On page 6: But what concrete steps toward accountability have actually been taken? Of the bishops especially?

Yes, it is "hard to forgive or be reconciled with the Church," but is it not more correct to say that it is the institutional Roman Catholic Church that needs to be reconciled with the victims?

The church in the collective person of the hierarchy, needs to see reconciliation.

On page 8: The pope speaks of priests and religious who have abused children.

Why does the pope continue to address these perverted individuals as "priests" and "religious" in the present tense?

They should not be priests or religious. They should be removed from the priesthood and the religious life.

To my knowledge, not one priest or religious has been denied reception of Holy Communion much less excommunicated for such grievous violations and crimes against children to say nothing of mortal sins.

Again there is an excessive concern expressed about "damage" done to the institution and the public "perception of the priesthood and religious life."

On page 12: Attempts are made once again to mitigate the responsibility of the bishops.

"Grave errors in judgment?" No, crimes were committed by bishops.

These crimes are sometimes called a conspiracy to commit a crime, a felony, reckless endangerment, facilitating a crime, and a host of other terms in other jurisdictions.

"Cooperate?" How about the directing the bishops to obey the laws of the government regarding Childhood Sexual Abuse within the jurisdictions of their dioceses?

The faithful, of course, are enjoined once again to "play their proper part."

"The lay faithful, too, should be encouraged to play their proper part in the life of the Church. See that they are formed in such a way that they can offer an articulate and convincing account of the Gospel in the midst of modern society (cf. 1 Pet 3:15) and cooperate more fully in the Church’s life and mission. This in turn will help you once again become credible leaders and witnesses to the redeeming truth of Christ."

"Credible leaders?"

That will be a long time in coming, if ever, and that may not be such a bad idea.

Quick thoughts:

Never one in his pastoral letter, that I could find, and remember it's early in the morning, does the pope once refer to any structural problems that could have contributed to this "problem" as he calls it and certainly no mention of any systemic or endemic causes.

And so it goes.

Edmund Jerk

One one can understand his logic: it's tsecularisation of modern society and the liberal reforms of Vatican II, rather than the church's traditional omerta on child abuse that are at fault here. Damn those modernisers.

paulg

I have to agree with you sister Maureen, the pontiff is too cerebal and old to understand the damage that is being inflicted on his church.

They need some one from outside such as a south american general to sort this out.

Firstly these perverts were never priests in any meaningful sense of the word and, the church should begin their strategy from this premis.

Everyone who believed these animals is a victim and, that includes the catholic church themselves.

All the victims should be compensated without any civil action being necessary.

Finally, round the perverts up, render them to the most brutal hell hole in the catholic world and, let gods soldiers deliver justice to them.

jsutton

I think the concept of Canon law is at fault. It seems that the prelates do not observe public laws, but only their own in-group system. This system has allowed and enabled child torturers to continue their activities for perhaps centuries.

paulg

Reading your post again I have to say your right again, the bishops should be sent to the Congo as missionaries as well.

The catholic church are looking like a liability to the cause of conservatism.
Some one needs to sort out these wicked individuals lock stock and barrel.

Amos

The debate about whether pedophilia should continue to be regarded as a psychiatric disorder has recently resurfaced now that the American Psychiatric Association is examining the list of conditions it will classify as psychiatric disorders.
.
In 2003 and 2009, pedophilia was debated by the American Psychiatric Association conference. Its elimination as a disorder was strongly suggested. “Removal of pedophilia from the current classification would undercut its current status as a deeply problematic and dangerous form of sexuality and would undermine efforts to maintain its illegal status. Henceforth it would be regarded as simply an ‘ingrained behavioral preference’.”
.
In 2009, the United States Congress passed legislation signed into law by President Obama that made pedophiles a protected class. As a result, any effort, by word or action that could be construed as militating against them, singularly or as a group, can now be prosecuted as a hate crime

Beefeater

Amos:

"n 2009, the United States Congress passed legislation signed into law by President Obama that made pedophiles a protected class. As a result, any effort, by word or action that could be construed as militating against them, singularly or as a group, can now be prosecuted as a hate crime."

The liberal Zeitgeist is way ahead of the feeble Catholic institutional cover-up.

JCF

"rapid transformation and secularization of Irish society. Fast-paced social change has occurred, often adversely affecting people’s traditional adherence to Catholic teaching and values."

It was precisely because of the above, that prompted RC faithful (and not just in Ireland) to REPORT child abuse, and not just "trust the Church"!

terence patrick hewett

Most newspaper comments on this subject are uninformed and are not penned by Catholics: the arguments are at worst bigoted and crude and they attempt to equate Catholicism with corruption while negating the wholesale trashing of the morality of secular society. At best the arguments are superficial and lack historical depth.

Firstly: secular England has no reason to feel smug. The overwhelming number of instances of abuse in this country does not occur from within the Church but from within the family. Our society is now so damaged and deconstructed that assault, rape and murder by children against children is so commonplace as not to merit news on the front pages of newspapers. A cursory perusal of the book Forgotten Children by Christian Wolmar reveals that the greatest institutional abuses were in secular state run, children's homes. Forgotten Children charts the history of children’s homes, how they were neglected over the years and, with untrained and sometimes unsuitable staff and why they became preying grounds for paedophiles. Many institutions kept parents at bay, forbidding letter writing and visits. The magnitude of these scandals has never really been confronted, not by the courts, the press, nor the public. And despite all the inquiries and prosecutions that have occurred over the years, children in care homes are still at risk, and covertly the abuse still goes on, children are still disbelieved, support is still patchy and prosecutions too few and far between; paedophiles have got much, much cleverer.

Secondly: The phenomenon of clerical abuse in Ireland is not replicated to anywhere near the same extent in England. Sadly, it is a matter concerning the history of Ireland and the British administration thereof. During the 19th and 20th centuries, it is not an exaggeration to say that Ireland was run exclusively by a coalition of the Church and the British state; resulting in the corruption of the church by the possession of too much power. Extreme Irish poverty resulted in the priesthood being used as an exit from destitution, and many quite clearly should never have been ordained. During the 1960’s onwards the church and other institutions in Ireland, as was elsewhere, targeted by paedophiles because of its access to children; this spread to Australia and America; in England however the News of the World would have gone out of business without C of E vicars and Scoutmasters.

In conclusion: the Church’s enemies always use abuse as a justification for their attacks but hide the greater abuse in the secular world. Catholic priests do not come fully formed from the womb, but are drawn from society as a whole; and the more corrupt that society is the more vulnerable the church is to entryism. May I humbly suggest when you all look in the mirror in the morning; you look to the beam in your own eye before attempting to remove the mote in that of others.

Tony de New York

Dublin Archdiocese Commission of Investigation Report
http://www.dacoi.ie/

The Church’s failure to implement its own rules
1.25 The Church authorities failed to implement most of their own canon law rules on dealing with clerical child sexual abuse. This was in spite of the fact that a number of them were qualified canon and civil lawyers. As is shown in Chapter 4, canon law appears to have fallen into disuse and disrespect during the mid 20th century. In particular, there was little or no experience of operating the penal (that is, the criminal) provisions of that law. The collapse of respect for the canon law in Archdiocesan circles is covered in some detail in Chapter 4. For many years offenders were neither prosecuted nor made accountable within the Church. Archbishop McQuaid was well aware of the canon law requirements and even set the processes in motion but did not complete them. Archbishops Ryan and McNamara do not seem to have ever applied the canon law.

Robert Landbeck

The waves of accumulating scandal hitting the roman catholic church will look a mere trifle compared to the 'perfect storm' that is shortly coming. For these growing, worldwide sexual scandals and endemic institutional corruption are only setting the stage for the 'churches' worst nightmare: the questioning of it's very origins! And that has already begun on the web. Not by any atheist ravings, but with first wholly new interpretation for 2000 years of the Gospel/moral teachings of Christ. Redefining all primary elements including Faith, the Word, Law, Baptism, the Trinity and the Resurrection. This is not reformation but revolution. We may very well come to 'remember' the church as two thousands years of hubris, intellectual, theological self deception, retailing a counterfeit copy of revealed truth. http://www.energon.org.uk

John Patrick

There is a great deal of ignorance in these comments. First, the Catholic Church was NOT 'riddled' with abuse before Vatican II. We have evidence about this. In the US and in Ireland, the great bulk of allegations were made about incidents that occurred between 1960 and 1980. After that the allegations decline. Second, priestly training in seminaries and the religious orders was indeed infected by the new sexual liberalism of this period, especially with regards homosexuality. In the US, the John Jay university report commissioned by the bishops showed that 81% of allegations between 1945 and the mid-1990s were made against priests who had propositioned post-pubescent teenage boys. Another report for the US bishops said that some of these seminaries and religious orders had a 'lavender' culture, i.e. were dominated by homosexuals.

Sorry Alex the Pope is exactly on the ball with this interpretation. It is the FAILURE to live according to traditional Catholic teaching on sexual morality that is a large factor in these sad cases.

John Patrick

Sister Maureen Paul Turlish: you have adopted an extremely unbalanced position on this. A child is 100 times more likely to be abused in American public schools than in the Catholic Church. According to Charol Shakeshaft, a Hofstra University sociologist, between 6 percent and 10 percent of public school children across the country have been sexually abused or harassed by school employees and teachers.

Dr Shakeshaft said the number of abuse cases—which range from unwanted sexual comments to rape—could be much higher.

To support her contention, Shakeshaft compared the priest abuse data with data collected in a national survey for the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation in 2000. Extrapolating data from the latter, she estimated roughly 290,000 students experienced some sort of physical sexual abuse by a school employee from a single decade—1991-2000. That compares with about five decades of cases of abusive priests.

Such figures led her to contend "the physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests."

This raises the question there is such emphasis on the Catholic Church and why its own members such as Sister Maureen collude in these attacks.

Marlowe

What nonsense. As if child molesting arises from liberalism or any other secular teaching or philosophy. Why can't this man just acknowledge the fact that the church has always been like this, and that it is just since Vatican II in our time that the people have dared to speak out against these criminals?

terence patrick hewett

@ Robert Landbeck

Watch out for flying pigs!!!

N.Harding

All these excuses. The Catholic Church is to blame full stop. The first sign of guilt is to start ad hominem attacks on blameless others. Catholicism and abuse go hand in hand has history has proven time and time again. Inquisition anyone? The outdated and frankly daft idea that priests cannot marry must be a contributing factor. How can anyone pontificate on how anyone should live their lives when they know nothing about family life or indeed family values? The church should be honest about its own failings and must stop blaming others. Only then will it arrive kicking and screaming in the 21st century where the rest of us are trying to get on with each other.

Catesby

@ N Harding

The outdated and frankly daft idea that priests cannot marry must be a contributing factor.

Tommyrot. As one commenter has mentioned above, >80% of reported cases concern priests with a homosexual orientation. Allowing such people to marry women wouldn't help at all.

Also, as remarked above, the evidence is clear that school teachers, social workers running children's homes and various other secular professionals have, if anything, a HIGHER propensity to molest than Catholic priests. I'd like to see the figures for scoutmasters too.

John Thomas

Yes, as various posters have said, here, in the secular world paedophilia is well on the way to becoming legally acceptable and recognised - but of course, if the RCC does it, then there is total condemnation of them, and shock horror. The RCC and the pope is doing its best to confess sin that has taken place and introduce moves to make sure is doeasn't happen again. But does the secular world - "liberals" and their governments (as in Britain, or Obama, etc.)? - as with the official promotion of homosexuality, abortion, and other aspects of the Culture of Death? No chance! Admit fault? Wrongdoing? The secular establishment! "Liberals"? They never have yet, and surely never will ...

N.Harding

Secular world accepting child molesting? What a lot of twaddle. Where do you get this bizarre information? Yes priests being able to marry would help alleviate some of the problems and I have that from a catholic priest. Why can they not marry anyway? And homosexuality doesn't automatically mean child molesting! Another load of 'tommy rot'! As evidenced from the Church's position it seems ready to blame the 'evils' of the secular world (which are what precisely?) - more utter nonsense - than to look to its own failings. Liberals, secularists and while we're at it everyone who isn't a Catholic is to blame for this is essentially what the Church is saying. The corruption lies at the heart of the church so do not attempt to blame those who are not Catholics for all this. The overarching problem is of course that the church busily dictates to the world how we should all behave but hypocritically behaves in deeply inhumane ways. Further crimes include the covering up, bribery and denial that the abuse goes on and this from people who claim to be holier than thou. I bet there are more abusers in the Catholic church than in any other establishment on the planet.

John Patrick

N.Harding@ I bet there are more abusers in the Catholic church than in any other establishment on the planet.

You obviously haven't troubled to read my reference above to a research report in the US which showed that children in the US public school system are 100 times more likely to be abused than they are in the Catholic Church. It is important that you base your remarks about the Catholic Church on facts and not on mere prejudices and ignorance. You should also open your mind to the very serious damage that sexual liberalism has caused to Western societies since the 1960s.