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.

The Catholic Church has not done enough to address the child abuse issue.

My church hierarchy(Catholic) still has not learned a lesson!

Irish abuse survivor Marie Collins has accused the Vatican bureaucracy of “shameful” resistance to fighting clerical sex abuse in the Catholic Church as she quit a key panel set up by Pope Francis.

In a major setback for the pope, Collins announced that she had resigned from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors established by the pontiff in 2013 to counter abuse in the church. 

She said the pope’s decision to create the commission was a “sincere move” but there had been “constant setbacks” from officials within the Vatican.

“There are people in the Vatican who do not want to change or understand the need to change,” Collins said in a telephone interview from Dublin.

“I find it shameful,” Collins said. “The work we want to do is to make children and young adults now and in the future safer in the church environment from the horror of abuse.”

Collins was raped at age 13 by a hospital chaplain in Ireland  She was the only active abuse survivor on the Vatican panel since British survivor Peter Saunders was sidelined last year for his outspoken criticism. Saunders has not resigned or been formally dismissed.

The Catholic church is still telling newly appointed bishops that it is “not necessarily” their duty to report accusations of clerical child abuse and that only victims or their families should make the decision to report abuse to police.

A document that spells out how senior clergy members ought to deal with allegations of abuse, which was recently released by the Vatican, emphasized  bishops’ must be aware of local laws, but bishops’ only duty is to address such allegations internally. 

“According to the state of civil laws of each country where reporting is obligatory, it is not necessarily the duty of the bishop to report suspects to authorities, the police or state prosecutors the moment they are made aware of crimes or sinful deeds,” the training document states.  The training document also says little about preventing the problem in the future and it also downplay the seriousness of the Catholic church’s legacy of systemic child abuse, which some victims’ right groups say continues to be a problem today.

While acknowledging that “the church has been particularly affected by sexual crimes committed against children”, the training guide emphasizes statistics that show the vast majority of sexual assaults against children are committed within the family and by friends and neighbors, not other authority figures.  Why is this fact important to this commission or Catholics.  If one child is abused by a Catholic church official that is one too many and should be taken seriously by the hierarchy of the Catholic Church.  It seems to me they are more concerned that the sins of the church went public than the damage it did to children and families.

Pope Francis has called for the church to exhibit “zero tolerance” of sexual abuse of minors or vulnerable adults by clergy and that “everything possible must be done to rid the church of the scourge of the sexual abuse”.  It seems many in the hierarchy do not feel the same as the Pope.

SNAP, a US-based advocacy group for abuse victims that has been very critical of Pope Francis on the issue said, “It’s infuriating, and dangerous, that so many believe the myth that bishops are changing how they deal with abuse and that so little attention is paid when evidence to the contrary”.

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, appointed by Pope Francis, played no role in the training program, even though it is Pope Francis Commission that is  supposed to be developing “best practices” to prevent and deal with clerical abuse.

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors (who should be the ones dealing with child abuse in the church) said their position is reporting abuse to civil authorities was a “moral obligation, whether the civil law requires it or not”. The official said the commission would be involved in future training efforts.

Keep in mind the abuse Pontifical Commission (the Popes Commission) forced one of two abuse survivors who had personally been appointed by Pope Francis to leave the committee following a vote of no confidence stating he released to much information to the public.  The other abuse victim on the commission has now resigned as of last week.

The Catholic sex abuse stories have been in the news now for 32 years.  The National Catholic Reporter, an independent Catholic publication, broke the first story 32 years ago.  It remains a story because even if the ones abused by clergy and bishops and cardinals have supportive family and friends, a financial cushion and plenty of time in therapy — all big “ifs” — they never entirely leave it behind.  They never completely heal.

It remains a story because many that have been abuse by clergy find salvation in telling their stories. This is not simply catharsis. They want to be assured that their abusers are known to the world and can never hurt another child. They want to know if their abusers had other victims. They want other victims to know that they were not alone, and that it was not their fault. They want to put their trauma to some use. Only then can they rest.  

Unfortunately many in the Catholic Church, officials and lay people, would like for them to just fade away so they can put these horrible acts (which still continue) behind them.  That is what made the problem worse in the first place lay people in the Catholic Church turned a blind eye to the problem and allowed it to go on for centuries.

The clergy abuse story remains a story because abuse victims often wait years before they are ready to speak. They are too ashamed, or confused, or afraid of not being believed. But eventually they tell someone, and once they start speaking, some cannot stop. That’s why the sexual abuse story has emerged so slowly, over years, in waves. Abuse victims are like combat veterans: The war is long over, but the coping is not. Years after the Vietnam War ended, people are still writing memoirs and making movies, still processing what happened.

Of course, child sexual abuse is an issue everywhere, not just in the Catholic Church.  It takes place in every denomination and even in independent churches.  It takes place in it in schools, scouting organizations, camps, United Nations missions and every public and private organization that involve children.  It happens so often it is hard to keep track: Protestant, Jewish, Hindu, Jehovah’s Witnesses and the most bizarre story of all — an international Christian cult called the Children of God.  But the scandal in the Catholic Church has proved far more extensive. 

You may ask why is it so extensive in the Catholic Church well one reason is the sheer number of Catholics— Catholics make up about a quarter of the American population and are the largest single religious denomination. The Catholic Church is also a hierarchical organization that keeps extensive records, so abuse usually leaves a paper trail.  Another factor, too, is the exalted position of priests, acting “in persona Christi” — in the person of Christ.  And then there is the church’s requirement of celibacy for priests. While many live by and value it, for others it has led to covert sexual relationships with adults, double lives and deep secrets.

Some also theorize that the all-male priesthood is a factor. While it’s quite possible that having women in the clergy would have instilled more accountability and sensitivity, child sexual abuse also happens in faiths with married clergy. It also happens in families.

American Bishops are not abiding by the reforms they agreed to in 2002, in response to the eruption of cases set off by the scandal in Boston. The American bishops agreed to report allegations to the authorities and to remove all credibly accused priests from ministry. They agreed to establish prevention programs in parishes and schools, teach children and adults about warning signs, and conduct background checks on employees.

As a retired priest I and many like me are stewing that colleagues who have failed to protect children make us all look bad — but then news is never about the planes that land safely.

In closing states should drop the statute of limitations for filing criminal charges in all child abuse cases, and extend the statute for filing civil cases to age 60.  Leaders of any organization that know of child abuse within their organization and do not report it immediately should be charged criminally and face a minimum of five years in prison.