Daily 49er
December 1, 2009
http://www.daily49er.com/opinion/our-view-cover-up-of-sex-abuse-aids-holy-pedophiles-1.2108566
UNITED STATES -- The Catholic Church in Ireland has come under some well-deserved fire recently for covering up widespread pedophilia. Much like similar cases across the U.S. over the past 25 years, children have been continuously exposed to the dangers of sexual abuse from those who they should be able to trust the most — priests and law enforcement.
Since the early 1990s, the Catholic Church has worked hard to avoid association with child sexual abuse. So with numerous abuse cases being brought up each year, it is no surprise that over time four archbishops — with the assistance from police and elected officials — succeeded in covering up numerous abuse cases.
In the newly released three-year Ryan Report done by the Commission of Investigation , investigators looked at a sampling of 46 priests with complaints from 320 children between 1975 and 2004. Out of the 46 only 11 were ever prosecuted; some died without ever facing accusations.
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Drawing by Robbie Eich |
The commission also received information about complaints and suspicions of child sexual abuse by 172 named priests. After examining all accusations, the commission concluded that 102 of those priests were most likely serious sexual abusers.
The study found that in most of the abuse cases, the Irish police passed authority down to the church and had it do its own internal investigations. The archbishops within those timelines, according to the report, knew about the abuses but did practically nothing about them because they wanted to protect the church's image.
The main concerns of those entrusted with protecting all children wherever the church lays roots were "the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the Church and the preservation of its assets," the report states.
According to the report, in 1987 the Archdiocese of Dublin even took out an insurance policy, anticipating the clerical sexual abuse of children would potentially become a major financial inconvenience.
The commission's findings in the 700-page report takes us back to when a similar incident was uncovered in the Los Angeles Archdiocese; when former Father Michael Stephen Baker was convicted of 29 counts of child molestation.
Baker told the court that he informed Cardinal Roger Mahony about his crimes, but was still allowed to continue his priesthood. For 14 years, the archdiocese merely transferred him in and out of churches, still allowing him close contact with his preferred prey.
The aid and concerns of victims within the church continuously get pushed behind the reputation of the church — something contradictory to the church's teachings to "be your brother's keeper." Some critics argue that because of continuous inaction and intimidation from the church, more cases have not been reported.
According to the 2004 John Jay study, about 4 percent of active priests in the United States between 1950 and 2002, had been accused of child sex abuse. The study, commissioned by the U.S. Bishops' National Review Board focused mainly on the statistics of the Catholic Church abuse crisis in the U.S.
Also in that span of 52 years, the study released that nearly 11,000 individuals have come forward with complaints about child sexual abuse. It found that within those years, nearly $700 million was spent in sex-abuse related costs and insurance companies covered about $220 million.
The current archbishop of Dublin, as well as the Irish police and public officials, sent out their deepest apologies to the public for such a heart-wrenching conspiracy that went "unnoticed" for decades. It was not "unnoticed." The molested children and their families noticed, but their grief was ignored.
These crimes are not exclusive to the Catholic Church and this is not an indictment against religion. Atrocious acts, and consequent cover-ups, stand out so significantly because of the inherent power wielded by major religious institutions over practitioners.
Religions have more than spiritual power; they also have vast political and financial sway. Because of the nature of their various powers, religious leaders have an obligation to protect the most vulnerable in our communities — defenseless children.
The Irish government plans to right wrongs by continuing to search for the accused and bring them to justice, no matter when the crime took place. There should be no statute of limitations for such egregious crimes against children. Pedophiles are never completely cured.
Every bishop, cop and politician that turns a blind eye on child sexual abuse should be held accountable for criminal and civil damages because pretending you didn't know about the crimes when you actually did makes you the child molester's accomplice.
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