Child sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church

Child sexual abuse perpetrated by priests appears to have a long history within Christianity,http://www.suite101.com/content/roman-catholicisms-long-history-of-child-abuse-a331760 and is especially associated with the Roman Catholic Church, due to a number of high profile scandals which have come to light in recent decades.
Many of these scandals relate to molestations committed decades ago, which were hushed up by the Church at the time. This hushing up included pressurising abuse victims into silence, a practice supported by Church decrees such as the Crimen sollicitationis. Priests can also threaten victims with eternal damnation if they speak up to secular authorities. This culture of secrecy and self-preservation is one of the factors which has allowed paedophiles to remain active within the clergy, together with the tradition of clerical celibacy which may attract those who cannot satisfy their sexual proclivities openly, and priests' frequent access to children in the pastoral duties.
 
==21st century scandals==
In the early 2000s, several priest molestation scandals broke that have rippled worldwide. Many cases were not prosecutable, as the evidence uncovered was from so long ago that the Statute of Limitations had expired. As a result of some of the cases, there was a push to alter these statutes so that adults who were molested as children would have a chance to testify and seek justice years after the event. In just one Australian state, Victoria, it is estimated between 600 and 10,000 children were abused since the 1930s.Australian Roman Catholic Church admits child sex abuse In February 2017 the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse released a report revealing 7% of Australian priests between 1950 and 2009 were accused of abusing children, with 4,444 sex abuse incidents recorded, and with some Catholic orders having up to 40.4% of their priests with allegations against them. It is estimated that at least 4% of Roman Catholic priests serving in the United States during the first half of the 20th century have been accused of abusing minors.http://archives.weirdload.com/stats.html
Colm O’Gorman directs an Irish charity assisting sex abuse victims.
A 2023 report by the attorney-general of Illinois revealed the problem was previously drastically under-reported; it found that, in the state of Illinois alone, between 1950 and 2019, almost 2,000 children were molested by 451 Catholic clerics and religious brothers.Brad Edwards and Megan Hickey (May 23, 2023). "Illinois clergy sex abuse investigation uncovers hundreds more cases in Catholic church". CBS Chicago. Robert Herguth (May 23, 2023). "Catholic church in Illinois vastly underreported clergy sex abuse, Kwame Raoul finds". Chicago Sun-Times.Kathleen Foody and Michael Tarm (May 23, 2023). "Catholic clergy sexually abused Illinois kids far more often than church acknowledged, state finds". The Associated Press. This was in reaction to findings by a 2018 grand jury from Pennsylvania that found over 300 Catholic priests molested more than 1,000 children since the 1940s, which was covered up.Nikki Battiste (August 15, 2018). "Catholic Church's 'secret archives' detail playbook for concealing abuse". CBS News.Mark Scolford and Marc Levy (August 14, 2018). "Report: Pennsylvania priests molested over 1,000 children". The Associated Press. An inquiry concluded in 2021 that, in France alone, about 216,000 and perhaps as much as 330,000 children were molested by thousands of Catholic clerics since 1950. That inquiry stated that there were at least about 3,000 abusers out of some 115,000 clerics.(October 5, 2021). "French Church abuse: 216,000 children were victims of clergy - inquiry". BBC News. An official government commission in Spain estimated over 200,000 children were molested by Catholic clergy there,Kathryn Armstrong (October 27, 2023). "Spanish Church sexual abuse affected 200,000 children, commission finds". BBC News. and in Italy, a Vatican official estimated the number could be as high as 1,000,000.Tom Kington (February 15, 2022). "Italy is a Pandora's box of abuse, says Vatican official". The Times.
==Clerical celibacy==
Some maintain that enforced celibacy leads to paedophilia:
Andrew Brown maintains that celibacy encouraged men who were “confused or in denial about their own sexuality” to become priests. He claims that celibacy drives sexual energy to murky, awful forms of expression, and further argues that celibacy played a more important part in the cover-ups. Brown also believes a groupthink developed among the celibate brothers sharing the same temptations and frustrations. Friendship, affection and trust were diverted away from the enticements of non-celibate outsiders and drawn inward to the ‘safer’ celibate community. Loyalty to the brotherhood and protecting brothers became more important than protecting victims. The substitute family of fellow celibate priests became more important than the welfare of parishioners.Celibacy and child abuse
Some priests have different moral standards from society as a whole. Prof Briggs, of the University of South Australia, has 50 years experience working in the field of child abuse and child protection. She said, "There has been an acceptance [among priests] over the years that having sex with a boy is not breaking celibacy. What priests told me was that the biggest crime was to have sex with a woman."Expert: 'Priests believe child abuse forgivable'
==Clerical homosexuality==
Some Catholics, including top Church officials like Cardinals, have blamed a supposedly high number of homosexuals in the priesthood for priestly paedophillia.Sunnivie Brydum (February 20, 2013). "Papal Candidate Links Sex Abuse and Homosexuality". The Advocate.(February 22, 2013). "Gay priests to blame for church child sex abuse -Cardinal Turkson". HuffPost, via Ghana Web.(January 4, 2019). "Homosexuality at fault for sex abuse not Catholic Church, says German cardinal". The Local. However, since absolutely no scientific evidence has been presented of such a connection other than people's conjecture and opinions, rational thinkers ought to dismiss the charge as sheer bigotry against "abnormal" sexual choices. Of course, rational humans should remember that Occam's Razor applies: if the known consequences of granting human beings authority without corresponding accountability adequately explain the phenomenon, there's no reason to reach for deeper explanations. Unless, that is, you can't resist the urge to blame it on the gays.
Also, many of the reported victims of clergy sex abuse have been young girls as well,https://www.snapnetwork.org/female_victims/females_complicates_issue.htmhttps://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/145861.pdfhttps://faculty.uml.edu//sgallagher/tolbert.htm, https://www.snapnetwork.org/female_victims/females_often_overlooked.htm which helps to further dispel the conflation between homosexuality and clergy sexual abuse. If homosexuality is somehow conflated with clergy sex abuse of young boys and vice versa, then clergy sexual abuse of young girls could also be conflated with heterosexuality, but Catholics who make this argument wouldn't take that as true, and most wouldn't. Simply put, arguments conflating homosexuality with clergy sexual abuse are simply trying to distract from the real problems of the Church, and redirect the rightful anger that one feels when informed of the disgusting nature of clergy sexual abuse and at the institution that allowed such invidious crimes, onto a community with little to no relation with the actual situation at hand (even Jesuit magazine America agrees on this).https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2018/10/22/no-homosexuality-not-risk-factor-sexual-abuse-childrenhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/2002/06/29/pedophilia-and-homosexuality/b385cfb3-8b58-449d-8af9-0cfdcd278978/
==Papal hypocrisy==
There are even accusations that Pope Benedict XVI earlier in his career covered up for abusive priests in Munich and later as hypocritically named "morals enforcer" for The Vatican.http://www.medindia.net/news/US-Roman-Catholic-Church-or-Pedophile-Club-67308-1.htm Priests who had abused children were simply moved on to other parishes where, all too frequently, they re-offended. Pope Benedict XVI personally issued a document telling bishops to hush up allegations of abuse and avoid reporting abuse to the authorities. The bishops were instructed to keep this sensitive document in a safe at all times. Perpetrators and victims of abuse were sometimes pressured into silence with the threat of excommunication to keep them in line.http://www.whale.to/b/catholic_abuse.html Other victims were bribed into silence.http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23369148-pope-led-cover-up-of-child-abuse-by-priests.do
Countless abuse victims have had their childhood, or their life, effectively ruined through the psychological trauma of abuse. Some victims were even driven to commit or attempt suicide.New York Times - "Pervasive Abuse Found in Belgian Church" (2010)Howard Friedman. "Estate of Suicide Victim Sues Catholic Diocese For Negligence", Religion Clause, 2010 August 1.
==Abuse of trust==
Roman Catholics are taught from early childhood to respect priests and to believe what priests tell them about God and religion. Paedophile priests can easily abuse this position. For example, Alexander Bede Walsh was convicted of serious sex assaults against boys.http://news.sky.com/home/uk-news/article/16165122http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-16928122 One child abuse victim said Walsh gave him alcohol, telling him drinking it would get him to Heaven; another believed abuse was the hand of God touching him.Abuse priest Alexander Bede Walsh jailed for 22 years Another man, who was a teenager at the time, claims abuse by Walsh drove him to attempt suicide.http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/Priest-sex-trial-Boy-disgusted-abuse-priest/story-15041836-detail/story.html Walsh, who was convicted in 2004 over computer indecency,http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/4181867.stm was allowed to work at Roman Catholic premises within yards of a playgroup. This is far less serious than the abuse allegations above, but it happened in 2009 and 2010, despite promises from the church that they would mend their ways.http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/Priest-accused-sexually-abusing-boys-20-years/story-15020022-detail/story.htmlhttp://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2012/01/24/catholic-priest-used-status-to-abuse-boys-115875-23714634/http://www.staffordshirenewsletter.co.uk/News/Sex-charge-priest-worked-as-chef-in-Stone-home.htm Walsh has been sentenced to 22 years in prison.Abuse priest Alexander Bede Walsh jailed for 22 yearsAbuse priest Alexander Bede Walsh jailed for 22 yearsPaedophile Priest Jailed For Abuse Of Boys Walsh and others took advantage of orphans, and nuns carried out abuse as well as priests. One man wants compensation.Sex abuse victim set to sue Catholic Church after ex priest Alexander Bede Walsh is jailedSex abuse victim set to sue Catholic Church after ex priest Alexander Bede Walsh is jailed
==Concealment from police==
An Australian priest named John Denham (now defrocked) is alleged to have assaulted two boys in the late 1970s, who complained to the school principal, Father Brennan. Instead of contacting police, Brennan allegedly caned the boys to make sure they wouldn't complain again. In 2012 Brennan was charged with failing to report these serious crimes against the boys,Priest charged with hiding sex crimes but died before court proceedings could begin, having been suffering from terminal cancer.Priest Tom Brennan dies after long cancer battle before sex abuse case could be heard in court
Bishop Finn of Kansas City was convicted in 2012 of concealing child pornography from the police. The Reverend Shawn Ratigan, who worked under Finn, had indecent images on his computer. According to the prosecution, Finn knew about the offenses during 2010 to 2011, but failed to report the evidence to legal authorities.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15318725http://www.bishop-accountability.org/assign/Ratigan_Shawn_Francis.htmhttp://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/first-criminal-hearing-bishop-finn-moved-january Finn remained in office for 3 years despite this conviction and resigned belatedly in 2015.Catholic bishop of Kansas City convicted of failure to report child abuse resigns
There have been cases where other similarly accused bishops reached agreements with the local authority and avoided prosecution.http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44907461/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/
==Collusion with local government==
According to a grand jury report released on March 1, 2016, large-scale sexual abuse by Catholic priests in Blair and Cambria counties in Pennsylvania was routinely ignored and covered up by law-enforcement and government officials for decades. This was possible largely because the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown was able to control who became the mayor, the police chief, the fire chief and other positions of government authority.Innocence Abused: How A Reckless Combination Of Church And State Harmed Pennsylvania's Children by Simon Brown (May 2016) Church & State.Grand jury: Altoona diocese concealed sex abuse of hundreds of children by priests By Peter Smith Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. What was effectively an unconstitutional local elimination of the separation of church and state directly caused grievous harm to the members of the same church that ended that separation.
==Liability in UK law==
In a case relating to abuse committed by a Catholic priest (since deceased) in the 1970s, a High Court in the UK ruled in 2011 that the local diocese was "vicariously liable" for the abuse, as any other employer would be."High Court rules Catholic Church liable over priests", BBC, 8 November 2011. The Church launched an appeal against this decision, arguing that the relationship between bishop and priest is "different" from that of employer and employee. The victim claimed sex abuse and rape at a children's home during the 1970s. Her lawyer commented that "this challenge to the High Court ruling is likely to be deeply offensive to victims of clerical abuse"."Catholic Church challenges priest child rape liability ruling", BBC, 16 May 2012.
==Liability in US law==
Adults in New York must start civil action before their 23rd birthday, which traumatized victims may find hard. Other states have differing statutes of limitations, running from as little as two years, with some states in the United States having statutes of limitations as much as twenty years.http://www.ncsl.org/research/human-services/state-civil-statutes-of-limitations-in-child-sexua.aspx RET. September 13, 2018 14:41 CST The American Roman Catholic Church has lobbied vigorously and paid expensive lobbying firms large sums of money to prevent this deadline being extended.The Catholic Church in New York State Paid Lobbyists a Fortune To Quash Anti-Child-Sex Bill In Guam, which is a United States overseas territory, the statute of limitations for pedophiles is just two years. Serial child molester Rev. Louis Brouillard has escaped legal consequences for his actions through this.A Catholic Priest Who Molested 20 Boys Was Told to Say “Hail Mary” Prayers As Punishment
==Blaming the disease==
Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier of South Africa describes paedophilia as "illness, not a criminal condition" and claims abusers should be treated rather than punished. The cardinal says doctors should examine child abusers.http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-21810980 Treatment as well as punishment is common in liberal countries for illnesses that lead to crime. To give an example few countries would give an alcoholic a free pass if he kills someone in a drunk driving accident, even if one could claim his alcoholism played a role in his DUI.
B. Dorries from Chicago-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests and herself a victim of priestly abuse when she was a child told the BBC:
Napier later apologized unreservedly for his comments."South African cardinal apologizes for saying paedophilia not a crime" - News Daily
==Leaked 1997 letter==
In January 2010 an anonymous Irish bishop leaked a letter that undermined the Vatican's claim that the Irish sex abuse scandals were an issue of local mismanagement. The letter was written by the then Vatican ambassador to Ireland, Luciano Storero, and sent in response to a 1996 agreement reached by Irish bishops to introduce mandatory reporting of suspected abusers to the authorities - kind of like what one would expect in any organisation that doesn't consider itself to be above the law. Storero's letter reinforces the need to stick with canonical law, and highlighted the possible embarrassment of subsequently seeing their decisions over-ridden by the Holy See. The full text of the letter is hosted by The New York Times here. The letter is being claimed by many, including abuse victims, as being a "smoking gun" that establishes complicity in Rome.New York Times: Vatican Letter Warned Bishops on Abuse Policy
===The church responds===
The Catholic Church, given the chance to concede to reality and admit that the protection of child rapists is a serious problem, opted instead to spin. Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman, claimed that the letter had been misunderstood. He argued that the letter was not intended to instruct bishops to disregard civil reporting of suspected abusers, and that it was merely reinforcing the need to adhere to church law meticulously.The Guardian: Vatican says Irish abuse letter has been 'misunderstood' with quite justifiable scare quotes.
Lombardi's response needs to be evaluated in light of the following excerpt taken from the 1997 letter:
Even when giving the benefit of the doubt, this letter appears to have caused the Irish bishops to continue their habit of shielding suspected abusers from the civil authorities, yet if that was not the intention the Vatican was reticent in sending a corrective letter. If such a letter was sent then it's unlikely it'll be seen unless leaked. Documents originating from WikiLeaks allege that the Vatican used their statehood to hinder requests for assistance in the Murphy Commission investigation in to sex abuse in the Dublin diocese.RTE News: WikiLeaks disclosures 'serious', says Vatican
Action to defrock or remove predatory priests was typically slow while action to transfer funds and make it hard for plaintiffs to get at money when lawsuits threatened was fast.An arc of understanding
===Other Catholic responses===
The Catholic League managed to fit in a mention of the letter, but of course had many more important things to be angry about. Namely a blasphemous video at the Smithsonian and Muslims saying bad things about the Pope.Catholic League press releases for January
Donohue's response begins by referring to a Jeffrey Lena, a lawyer representing the Vatican, echoing Storero's claim that the letter did not instruct Irish bishops to disregard civil law, but instead cautioned them against doing anything that could hinder internal church disciplinary proceedings. This is rendered nonsensical when a moment is taken to wonder what would be done if any other organisation, such as a fast-food chain, decided to perform internal investigations prior to informing the authorities of allegations that their employees had been raping the children of customers?
Donohue goes on to complain that The New York Times failed to report on a rabbinical court in Brooklyn that ordered its 10,000 members not to report crimes to the police. How this is relevant to the letter is anyone's guess, but it certainly helps Donohue build on his persecution complex, and perhaps imply that those pesky Jews are at the helm of the newspaper.
The letter finishes with the complaint that liberal media and activist groups have actually fought against mandatory reporting, when in fact Catholic bishops want it. Even if true, the letter from the Vatican appears to be out of step with the wishes of these bishops. Some counseling groups have indeed campaigned against a requirement that they report rape, although their circumstances are slightly different to those of the church. These groups aren't normally in the position of having to protect their own employees from rape allegations, and even accepting their opposition, the Church has not exactly been loud in fighting for such legislation. Indeed Connecticut's bishops mounted a vigorous campaign to prevent the statue of limitations on civil abuse suits, because they quite correctly note that cases become increasingly difficult to defend against as time passes, but also because of the financial liability it could create for them.Catholic News Service: Bishops decry bill to lift statute of limitations on civil abuse suits
==Business as usual==
Despite Pope Francis' promise to eradicate the "evil of abuse" from the Catholic Church, the Church is first and foremost a theocracy — it is strictly hierarchical and cliques within the Church protect their own. Two high-profile investigations of sexual abuse were essentially scuttled, one of alleged sexual abuse of an adult woman by Cardinal Marc Ouellet of Canada, and one of the alleged long-term sexual abuse of young boys by Nobel Peace Prize winner Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo of East Timor. In the case of Ouellet, he was investigated by his crony, leading to the dismissal of the case. In the case of Belo, he was allowed to "retire" to the position of assistant parish priest in Mozambique, where he teaches children and leads youth retreats.Vatican's mishandling of high-profile abuse cases extends its foremost crisis by Chico Harlan & Amanda Coletta (October 17, 2022) The Washington Post.
==See also==
*Magdalene laundry—The Roman Catholic Church has a pattern of victimising those who are very vulnerable.
==External links==
*Sex Crimes and the Vatican, Recorded from Transmission: BBC 1
*"Child sex abuse link to celibacy": Australian newspaper article wherein it is claimed that, among other things, the church views child molestation by priests as a tolerable "imperfection" of lifelong celibacy.
==Notes==
==References==
Category:Catholicism
Category:Crimes against humanity
Category:Deceit
Category:Government coverups
Category:Paedophilia