By Tommi Nieminen
Helsingen Sanomat
May 6, 2010
http://www.hs.fi/english/article/The+sinners’+circle/1135256587080
"Another one came today, by e-mail", said Martti Esko, director of the Finnish Lutheran Church's family issues centre.
"This is also an extremely serious case of abuse."
Esko is careful about the details, but he let it be said that the matter involves a case of sexual abuse from years back. The victim, the sender of the e-mail, is now a middle-aged woman. The abuser was a church youth worker.
"Youth work is an area where [the Church] has the greatest number of these", Esko says. "The proximity to a small child or girl is what makes the temptation too great for many of them."
Now these are coming out. In just a week and a half, an investigator in the Evangelical Lutheran Church looking into the matter has learned of more than 20 new cases of sexual abuse. The cases allegedly involve clergy and Laestadian lay preachers.
"I have learned of ten cases in the past week and a half", Esko confirms.
More people are coming forward and reporting past abuse now that the matter is being discussed everywhere in the wake of the abuse scandal that has rocked the Roman Catholic Church.
Decades of silence are coming to an end in Finland as well. Abuse is much more widespread within the Evangelical Lutheran Church and some of its revivalist movements.
Between 40 and 50 abusers are known, in some cases by name, within the Lutheran Church and the revivalist sects. Cautious estimates put the number of victims at well over 100.
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| Helsinki\'s Lutheran Cathedral in the Senate Square. Photo by LASSI RINNE |
The accusations range from repeated rape to sexual harassment, such as unwelcome touching. It is not about mere verbal impropriety: the cases include plenty of serious abuse targeting children.
In the dominant church, abusers are often youth workers and the victims are minors. There are cases from recent years, and from decades back.
About a dozen new cases of sexual abuse of children have come out from within the Laestadian revival movement in recent weeks. Some of these acts are quite recent, and others go back decades.
Child protection expert and social scientist Johanna Hurtig keeps track of allegations of sexual abuse within the Conservative Laestadian movement. She says that she has managed to pinpoint 34 cases within the Laestadian movement in which the perpetrator is accused of sexual abuse of a minor. Some have been sentenced in court. The abusers have had between one and fifteen victims, suggesting that the number of victims could ultimately exceed 100.
"This is but the tip of the iceberg", Hurtig says.
The perpetrators are usually men from the victim's family, or community. Of the perpetrators that have come to Hurtig's attention, about ten have held the position of "speaker". The speakers in the Laestadian movement are lay preachers and other influential figures. The movement has a total of nearly 1,000 of them.
In some of the cases more precise details are available, such as the number of victims, and the stage of a possible criminal process, but in others there are more gaps in the information", Hurtig says.
Within the past year six Conservative Laestadians have been sentenced in court. Some of the sentences have been long prison terms of 8-12 years, which suggests that very serious sexual crimes were involved, such as the repeated rape of a minor.
"It would seem that more cases are being brought out", Hurtig says. "It has been apparent that it is easier for victims to come forward when about ten years have elapsed from the events."
When was the last time that you learned about a new case?
"Last night [the night between Wednesday and Thursday]", Hurtig says.
"It appears to be the experience of many victims that faith has been used as a tool for exercising power, silencing others, and circumventing the experiences of victims."
Just two weeks ago the Lutheran Church denied that clergy had been involved in cases of abuse. However, Helsingin Sanomat has learned that in at least three cases that have now been brought to light, a minister has been the abuser. Martti Esko confirms a couple of cases.
"It cannot be said that this matter would not apply to the clergy."
Researcher Hurtig knows about one case in the Laestadian movement involving a minister and either children or teenagers. The police are investigating the matter, but no charges have been filed.
The main rule is that if less than 20 years have elapsed from a sexual crime, or if the victim is under 28 years old when reporting the crime, charges can always be filed. The statute of limitations on sex crimes is 20 years. Some of the suspected sex crimes involving church ministers happened less than 20 years ago.
"Very few victims in new cases have filed a complaint", Esko says.
The current accusations also include covering up for a sex crime. In at least two fairly old cases of abuse, the victim claims that the bishop of the diocese in question had downplayed and covered up the abuse. In one of the cases the alleged abuser was a church youth worker, and in the other, a minister. One possible reason for the coverup could be an attempt to protect the reputation of the church.
According to information received by Helsingin Sanomat, one of the bishops who is accused of covering up an abuse case is Erik Vikström, former Bishop of Porvoo Diocese. He is now retired. The matter has come to the attention to the present Bishop of Porvoo, Vikström's nephew Björn Vikström.
"Such a claim exists", Björn Vikström confirms.
Björn Vikström admits that he received a telephone call and a letter from a man from Porvoo, who had been a victim of sexual abuse.
The victim said that he had been abused as a child by a child by an employee of the diocese - a minister, according to information received by Helsingin Sanomat.
The victim had apparently contacted the Bishop of Porvoo Diocese in the 1990s, at a time when Erik Vikström was Bishop.
Because of confidentiality, Bishop Björn Vikström does not want to disclose details about the account of the victim. He notes that it was a "punishable offence", which "should be investigated by police, if they feel that there is reason for it".
Now it would seem that the statute of limitations has run out on the case of abuse. "If the question involved a matter that is current, I would definitely have urged the victim to contact the police", Björn Vikström says.
"I do not at all recommend internal inquiries in the church. These internal inquiries aim far too often, either consciously or unconsciously, at protecting the public image of the church."
Is the abuser a minister?
"It is a person who has been in the service of the church", Björn Vikström says, appealing to official confidentiality. The information came from the victim.
Retired Bishop Erik Vikström sharply denies that he would have learned about any cases of abuse in which a minister of his diocese would have been the alleged perpetrator.
"Nobody has ever reported to me that a minister would have done anything like this", Erik Vikström says.
Some other church employee, perhaps?
"I will not answer that question", Erik Vikström says. "If a matter is very old, then a bishop or a minister will decide what the right attitude and action is to take. It falls within pastoral care."
By pastoral care, Erik Vikström means the confidentiality of clergy under which parishioners must be able to discuss matters in confidence with a minister, even crimes that they may have committed.
However, especially in cases of serious crimes, a bishop has a strong moral obligation to encourage the victim to bring the matter before the police.
The victim says that Vikström downplayed the abuse that he suffered, even though it was a serious matter of criminal law.
Have your pastoral care discussions revealed other cases of sexual abuse than ones committed by ministers?
"I will not answer that, because it is part of pastoral care", Erik Vikström says.
What is a bishop's obligation when an allegation of abuse does not apply to a member of the clergy?
"The responsibility is the same as with a minister. A pastor works in pastoral care situations, and proper behaviour is required. We must decide what to do case by case."
There have also been rumours about other cases in which bishops have not acted on suspicions of abuse. At least Martti Esko has had enough of this. "The time of turning a blind eye is over."
Much more dirty laundry needs washing than has been previously known.
A dam of sorts opened up in January when it was revealed that at least 11 children had been abused in the 1970s and 1980s.
The perpetrator was a Laestadian lay preacher of the Rauhan sana ("Word of Peace") movement, who was always absolved of his sin by his community, and then would repeat the crime.
Sexual abuse is a problem of the whole church, but it would appear that it is even more of a problem among the Conservative Laestadians - especially where children are involved.
"It is important to talk about crimes affecting children for the sake of protecting the children", says Kaisa-Elina Hotari, a researcher into child welfare at the University of Tampere.
She says that to some extent, conservative Laestadianism is a state within a state.
She says that Conservative Laestadians have a different concept of culpability under the law from that of other Finns.
Even crimes such as the sexual abuse of children have been left unreported to the officials because forgiveness and spiritual reconciliation are seen to have taken place.
"Members of the community can have a very cold attitude toward the suffering caused by the traumas faced by the victims of the violence. Suffering is defined as an unwillingness to spiritually forgive the perpetrator of the crime", Hotari points out.
The introverted character of the Laestadian community promotes silence on matters on the darker side.
On the other hand, even bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church have washed their hands of matters related to the the revivalist movement, and emphasised the independent position of Laestadianism.
Consequently, bad things have happened over the decades in the male-dominated Laestadian community, typified by repressed sexual ethics.
Pastor Johannes Alaranta of the St. Mary's Congregation in Turku is writing a doctoral thesis on the obligation of ministers not to disclose what they have heard in the context of pastoral care. He feels that confession and the doctrine of silence are key factors in explaining the dark side of Laestadianism.
"It has been suggested that Conservative Laestadian preachers would have the same kind of obligation of confidentiality as an ordained minister. This is not true. Lay people do not have anything of the sort. These kinds of things simply need to be reported."
Alaranta says that under the cover of confession [which is not a sacrament in the Lutheran Church as it is in Catholicism] the Laestadian community can manage to remain silent even about very serious crimes.
"The way that it works is that they take the seal of confession literally. When a perpetrator asks for forgiveness for an act, such as the abuse of a child, absolution is declared, after that, the matter is no longer discussed."
This is what happened in Pietarsaari, and similar cases have come to light in the Laestadian movement. "What makes it especially shocking is that faith is a very important part of the lives of people within the movement", Alaranta says. "First a person's sexual inviolability and human worth are taken away, and then, by taking advantage of confession, they take away confidence in that conviction."
How does Olavi Voittonen, the chairman of the board of SRK, the Central Committee of Conservative Laestadian Congregations, see the situation?
Reports of the number of abusers among the Laestadians are staggering, especially with respect to the "speakers".
The large number of cases comes to Voittonen as a surprise.
"Under no circumstances will we accept as a speaker anyone who has committed such an act", Voittonen says. "If something like this has come to our attention, the person will have been relieved of the duties of a speaker."
Voittonen says that he has been on the board of SRK since 1982.
During that time he says that he has run into "a few cases" in which a speaker has been caught.
"A criminal must not be protected", Voittonen says. "But we must keep in mind that I myself know of four cases in which a person has been accused and has been investigated by police without cause."
Are you afraid that more cases of abuse will come to light within the Conservative Laestadian movement?
"It is hard to make predictions", Voittonen says. "I have confronted many things in my life, so I am calmly waiting to see what comes before me."
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