BishopAccountability.org
	Uncovering the Secret Sins of Our 'Fathers' By Dann Okoth The Standard May 15, 2010 http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/InsidePage.php?id=2000009598&cid=4 We have always heard it from afar — sexual escapades and abuses by the men of the cloth, and today after weeks of investigation, we lay bare the secrets of the shepherds closer home who ahave turned against the flock. It comes at a time that the Catholic Church is increasingly in the thick of criticism of the global sex abuse scandal that has refused to go away. In fact, it was only last week that Pope Benedict IV admitted that the church should bear the brunt of the blame for failing to tackle paedophile priests. "Today we see in a truly terrifying way that the greatest persecution of the church doesn't come from enemies on the outside but is born from the sins within the church," the 83-year-old Pontiff told UK's The Independent newspaper. Whereas the Church in many jurisdictions abroad are confronting the monster within, our investigations showed that the Church in Kenya would rather bury its head in the sand than address growing sex scandals involving priests. Indeed, the fact that the problem is alive and kicking is underscored by the fact that only last year, a Catholic priest was arraigned in court on charges of sodomising boys at a children's home in Nairobi. Last week, a priest appeared in a Nyeri court demanding custody of a boy he said was his child. Yet the Church still remains a force of good in the society, and majority of the clergy are honest and upright men of God. So why is the Church not confronting and weeding out the rotten amongst its midst? When we sought comment from the Catholic Secretariat in Kenya, it would not comment, instead choosing to meet us with silence. Father Vincent Wambugu, the Church's spokesperson in Kenya, was not available for comment despite more than two weeks of prodding by The Standard on Sunday. Fr Wambugu's secretary, who at first was very co-operative, became difficult once she learnt the subject matter of the intended interview. "Fr Wambugu is the only one authorised to speak on any matter concerning the Church in Kenya, unfortunately he is out of the office at the moment," she kept saying. And by the time of going to press, John Cardinal Njue could also not be reached for comment. Back to the Pope, he told The Independent of the UK thus: "The church needs to profoundly relearn penitence, accept purification, learn forgiveness but also justice". The Pope suggested that problem's origins lay with abusive priests and with highly placed church officials who for decades concealed or minimised the problem, said The New York Times. The Pontiff's comments are a sharp turn-around on the ongoing sex scandals bedevilling the Roman Catholic Church, especially after the Vatican initially described the new abuse scandals as 'idle chatter'. The problem, he said, was 'the sin inside the church,' and by implication not accusations from victims or the media. While many people have been shocked to rediscover within the last few decades just how prevalent clerical misbehaviour is, the abuse however is not a new phenomenon. Popes, bishops and priests have known for centuries that sexual abuse of especially children is a problem. The Church may have legislated against it but the fact remains that the hierarchy has consistently failed to protect the youngest and most vulnerable members of its flock from predatory clergy. Sexual abuse by a Roman Catholic priest was reported as early as 1686 in the Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon, in the US when Fr Orso-Manzonetta reportedly abused boys. Pope Benedict XVI said the church had to repent for its sins and "accept purification". Purification, at least in the form of rolling heads, has already started — five bishops in Europe have resigned. One has admitted to sexual abuse, another is under investigation and three have stepped down over their handling of abuse cases. The current wave of scandals in the Church started in Ireland last year with the publication of a government commissioned report on sexual abuse by priests that led to four of Ireland's 24 bishops under investigation tendering resignations. In March, the Time Magazine reported that the rector of Canisius College in Berlin, Germany, admitted that there had been at least 50 alleged cases of sexual abuse at the elite Jesuit high school in the 1970s and 80s. The college's scandal opened the floodgates with at least 300 allegations of abuse being reported. It is now estimated that 18 out of Germany's 27 dioceses have been affected by the scandals. Even the famous choir of Regensburg, led for 30 years by the Pope's brother Georg Ratzinger, was drawn into the scandal after former choirboys said they had endured brutal beatings and sexual abuse. Recently, reports of abuse have been pouring in from across Europe — in Holland, Switzerland, Austria and Poland, the home of the Pontiff's predecessor. More damagingly to the Vatican, however, are allegations now coming out from Bavaria and Austria — the bastion of Old World Catholicism.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.