BishopAccountability.org
	Priest Sex Abuse: Wwmd? By Karina Bland The Arizona Republic April 25, 2010 http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/arizonaliving/articles/2010/04/25/20100425bland0425.html What would Mary do? The cover story of the April 12 Newsweek magazine raises the question of what Jesus' mother, Mary- or any women, for that matter - would have done differently in handling the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests. For sure, Mary would not have screwed it up so badly. On Wednesday, Pope Benedict XVI spoke publicly for the first time about decades of clerical sexual abuse within the church. He told the crowd in St. Peter's Square in Rome that he gave "assurances of the church's action" at a recent meeting with eight men who said they were abused by priests in a church-operated orphanage on Malta. Last Sunday, the Vatican issued a statement that recounted the church's commitment to do everything possible to investigate allegations of sexual abuse, bring perpetrators to justice and implement measures to protect children. Finally, we seem to be getting somewhere. The all-male Catholic hierarchy has responded to the clerical sex-abuse crisis far too slowly. Child sexual abuse obviously is not a problem just within the Catholic Church, nor do priests abuse children at a higher rate than any other group of people. But the way the clerical cases were handled by the Catholic Church gave predatory priests continued access to children, allowing a single predator priest to rack up hundreds of victims over decades. The abuse was committed by men, covered up by men and allowed to continue by men. Would women have handled it any differently? Obviously, no one can say for sure. I would hope so. Women certainly made a difference in how the Episcopalian Church handles sexual-abuse cases, says the Rev. Ann Fontaine of the Episcopalian Diocese of Wyoming. Women, first ordained as priests in 1974, pushed hard for stricter policies for reporting abuse to secular authorities. They also insisted on mandatory prevention and awareness programs for anyone who works with children. No adult is allowed to be alone with a child. Doors are never locked. Interestingly, the Lutheran Church, which also ordains women, has similar policies about safeguarding children. Such policies restrict opportunities for potential perpetrators. "You can't stop it all, but you can really reduce the rate," Fontaine says, adding that every suspected case of abuse is reported to police or child-welfare agencies. "You don't try to deal with it yourself. You can't deal with it in-house," Fontaine says. Fontaine thinks victims - such as those who have confided in her - are more likely to come to a female priest if they were abused by a male priest. Male victims told her they could tell her things they couldn't tell anyone else. "Going to a male priest seemed pretty daunting," she says. Also, there may have been a perception that one male priest would protect another. The Rev. Licia Affer of All Saints' Episcopal Church in Phoenix is married and a mother, reflecting the diversity in the Episcopalian Church, which also includes gay clergy among its leaders. Such diversity increases the odds that those in need of confidential help will find priests to whom they can relate, Affer says. "Anyone can find somebody whose story is similar to theirs, and they can talk to them and relate to them in a different way." Stephanie Orr isn't so sure women would have responded differently. As director of the Center for Prevention of Abuse and Violence (CASA) in Phoenix, she has seen mixed reaction from women in cases of child sexual abuse. Men and women can be reluctant to get involved in other people's business, preferring to look the other way. Sometimes, they simply don't believe it. "I don't find women racing as a general group to protect children over these issues, or being willing to be what I would call a fierce advocate of coming forth and saying, 'I'm aware that something wrong is going on, and we need to do something about it,' " Orr says. But Sally Kitch, director of the Institute for Humanities Research and professor of women and gender studies at Arizona State University, says if women had been included in discussions of what to do about abusive priests, the outcome would have been different. "The more perspectives you have on decision-making, the less likely you are to go off into strange ways of interpreting things," she says. "You wouldn't have the group think that apparently was going on in the male hierarchy." Even if the Catholic Church had female priests, they may not have been heeded anyway. I would guess that there were men in the Catholic Church who spoke out but were ignored or silenced somehow. In handling future cases of sexual abuse, Catholic leadership must include clergy and lay people from the church, as well as child-abuse experts and others from outside the church. If many of these people should happen to be women, all the better. Reach Bland at 602-444-8614 or karina.bland@arizonarepublic.com
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.