Catholic clergy sex abuse is a CRIME not a scandal!

Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley vowed Thursday to make sure clergy sexual abuse victims have a voice on a Vatican panel addressing the crisis that rocked the Catholic Church, and he expressed frustration with resistance to change in some corners of the church.

His promise came a day after the lone clergy sexual abuse survivor serving on that papal commission resigned in frustration with what she described as “shameful” Vatican foot-dragging.

“The voice of survivors is very important I think, and we have to consider what is the best way to ensure that” they’re included, said O’Malley, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Boston.

O’Malley said he shared some of the concerns about Vatican stonewalling expressed by Marie Collins, a clergy abuse survivor from Ireland who on Ash Wednesday resigned in frustration from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, drawing world attention. O’Malley is chairman of the commission.  The departure of Collins has been viewed as devastating for the church by many around the world – me included.

She has remained a respected voice in the survivor community and the lay community in general for years. After resigning, she agreed to continue helping the commission educate bishops and priest about safeguarding children, BUT will that and do they listen?

I believe the cardinals on the commission would like to appoint a few more survivors of clergy abuse to the commission and they think that will satisfy the public.  I do not think it will satisfy those that want the issue FIXED.  The problems Marie Collins brought up over the years MUST be addressed and no longer swept under the rug.

A second survivor on the commission, Peter Saunders, was ordered to take a leave of absence last year after he clashed with other members. Prelates on the commission said he was revealing too much, too soon too the public. 

The main objection the commission had to Marie Collins was she wanted a tribunal setup that would hold BISHOPS responsible for protecting children from child abuse. Why shouldn’t BISHOPS be held accountable for what their employees do on the job?

The issue is crucial for the church: Bishops’ shielding of abusive priests led to the world clergy abuse crisis, and yet, more than 15 years after the crisis emerged, the Vatican has yet to show the world that it has a strong system for holding bishops accountable.

After the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith complained at setting up the tribunal, Pope Francis dropped the idea and instead issued a letter explaining how existing church laws (that have not worked in the past) should be applied to hold bishops accountable for failing to protect children.

Pope Francis is making changes, and a time of change is always difficult. There are people that are resisting those changes in the Vatican and some BISHOPS around the world who would like to keep the authority they have always enjoyed.  No one easily gives up power.

Pope Francis says a lot about the sexual abuse scandal, but then Francis recently reduced punishments for a handful of priests found guilty of abusing children, he sentencing them to a lifetime of prayer and penance instead of defrocking them.  These men need to be defrocked and THROWN out of the church!  There is a disconnect between Pope Francis words and his actions.

Francis’s decision is said to reflect a debate within the Vatican whether it is preferable to expel abusive priests entirely “and then there is no possibility of monitoring his activity or having any kind of control over his behavior,” or keeping them within the fold, and under the watchful eyes of the church, but permanently bar them from ministry.  The church has not done a satisfactory job of monitoring them in the past or watching them.  Most of the abuse takes place on church property.  The church should let the civil authorities take care of them and the police and public monitor them in the neighborhoods they choose to live in as other sex abuse CRIMINALS are.  Why do these criminals deserve special treatment?

The Catholic hierarchy still doesn’t get child abuse.  They continue to describe the cover-up as a scandal. This use of language means that they see sexual abuse as a moral issue and not a crime.  In the same manner Obama refuse to say EXTREME ISLAMIC MUSLIM TERRORIST.  You cannot address a problem until you correctly name it.  Sexual assaults on children are criminal acts and need to be addressed as CRIMES.  Some priest abused children because they could not because they could not control themselves. 

The hierarchy does not understand the effect of sexual abuse on children.  They believe children are young and will get over it.  THAT IS NOT TRUE!  For God sake what part of RAPE do they not understand?  I was appalled after one investigation in 1975 when cardinal Brady said he thought the boys enjoyed what happen to them.  I was likewise appalled when the hierarchy made the victims swear to secrecy if they wanted the church to settle with them monetarily.  They did nothing but help the CRIMINALS.

There are laws in some places (like England and Ireland) that go back as far as 1861 that protect children from child abuse and the church chose to ignore those laws.  The Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1935 also covered sexual abuse. “Any person who unlawfully and carnally knows any girl/boy under the age of 15 shall be guilty of a felony and shall be liable on conviction thereof to penal servitude for life.”  These Acts were updated and strengthened by the Criminal Law (Rape) Amendment Act 1990. The new Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill provided greater protection for children when it was finally enacted.  It is obvious England and Ireland take child abuse more seriously than the United States.

It is time to debunk some of the myths surrounding sexual abuse in the church and the world and view it as a heinous crime, not a behavioral problem that needs treatment.  Sexual abuse is still happening and children need the law on their side.

The Catholic Church in Ireland has been “almost fatally destroyed” by the clerical child sexual abuse scandal, according to a former Provincial of the Jesuit Order in Ireland.  WHAT ABOUT THE VICTIMS?

SIDE NOTE THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN DISHONEST HIERARCHY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH VIOLATES THE LAW TO PROTECT CRIMINAL PRIEST.   A Minnesota diocese filed for bankruptcy protection on Friday, the 14th nationwide and third in the state to do so in the face of mounting claims of sexual abuse by clergy.