A Betrayal of Trust, Robyn Sykes, Yass Tribune, May 26, 2010

A Betrayal of Trust

By Robyn Sykes
Yass Tribune
May 26, 2010

http://www.yasstribune.com.au/news/local/news/opinion/a-betrayal-of-trust/1839647.aspx

[Bishop Coleridge's letter]

Your editor Robyn Sykes.

Archbishop Mark Coleridge wrote a letter to all Catholics in the Canberra Goulburn Archdiocese last weekend, concerning sexual abuse and the churches response to it. It was written from a very personal point of view, and details his growing understanding of the nature, extent and effects of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy.

The letter contains many pertinent points for us here in the Yass Valley, and not just for the Catholics amongst us. Sexual abuse by clergy is not confined to the Catholic Church, and clergy are not the only ones who betray the trust of the community.

In a community the size of ours, it is highly likely we have paedophiles in our midst. How many we can’t be sure, but they’ll be there, ingratiating themselves into unsuspecting families, making themselves indispensable and trusted friends and leaders.

Archbishop Coleridge was talking about Catholic priests when he wrote “paedophile clergy were extraordinarily adept at concealing their abuse of the young”, but the modus operandi would be similar for paedophiles throughout the community.

“At first I thought that most incidents of sexual abuse were one-off incidents, and that can be true at times. But I now know that most paedophile abuse is serial,” says Archbishop Coleridge.

“I was aghast to read transcripts of the trials of paedophile clergy; it seemed that their lives revolved around the grooming and abuse of children. It was apparent that this kind of abuse was something other than a moral lapse, a fall into sin, which could be made good by appropriate repentance, penance and a fresh start.”

This brings to mind the question about what to do with known paedophiles who have served their time in jail, and then return to society. How do we balance the rights of the offender to say they’ve done their time and paid their debt, with the rights of the victims to get on with their lives, and the rights of parents to protect potential victims from further harm?

This is a really tricky question, thrown into sharp relief when serial sex offender Dennis Ferguson was released from jail last year, free to live outside, but not free, because no one wanted him to live nearby.

In Dennis Ferguson’s case, people knew what he looked like because of his reputation. Other cases are not so high profile. Sometimes communities don’t get any warning, because the identity of the offender is not disclosed in order to protect the victim. If identifying the offender could lead to anyone being able to identify a victim of child abuse, the right of the community to know is over-ridden by the right of the victim to privacy. That is how it should be: children who are abused have enough trouble dealing with the abuse without having everyone else know what has happened. They have the right to heal in private.

But adults who know the identity of an offender have the responsibility to protect others from suffering the same fate.

Forgiveness is a subject that comes to mind often when dealing with sex-abuse, particularly when clergy are involved. Christian churches tend to view things in terms of sin and forgiveness rather than crime and punishment.

“The Church has struggled to find the point of convergence between sin and forgiveness on the one hand and crime and punishment on the other. True, sin must be forgiven, but so too must crime be punished. Both mercy and justice must run their course, and do so in a way that converges,” Archbishop Coleridge says.

And always, always, always, protect our children.