BishopAccountability.org
	Vatican Guidelines a Smokescreen By Terry Sanderson National Secular Society May 20, 2011 http://www.secularism.org.uk/129109.html The Vatican clearly hoped to create a smokescreen around its supposed efforts to address the abuse of children by its priests when it issued “new” guidelines on Monday. Early reports seemed to indicate that it had succeeded in fooling the press. “Vatican ‘means business’ on rooting out clerical sexual abuse” was the headline over the Reuters story while CBS said “Vatican suggests bishops report abuse to police” But it didn’t take long for people to actually read the five pages and realise that nothing had changed at all. (Read them here – scroll down for English version) Headlines about “reporting incidents to the police” concealed that the fact that these were mere suggestions to bishops around the world, not instructions. And as we know, bishops have spent decades hiding their paedophile priests from the authorities in order to protect the ‘good name’ of the Church. As Time magazine reported: In February, a grand jury accused the archdiocese of Philadelphia of covering up decades of wrongdoing and keeping up to 37 priests who were suspected of child abuse in active ministry. The archbishop, Cardinal Justin Rigali, at first denied the accusation, but he later suspended 24 of the accused priests. “There were all the procedures in place for handling credible allegations,” says Lawler. “But it was the bishop and his subordinates who were responsible for deciding what was a credible allegation.” And while the priests who allegedly committed the abuse face punishment, the man who failed to bring them to account has yet to suffer any sanction. Indeed, a few months later, Rigali was chosen to represent the church in a celebration in the Czech Republic in June. “As long as church officials who ignore and conceal abuse are tolerated and promoted, then nothing will change,” says SNAP’s Clohessy. “There simply have to be penalties for dreadful wrongdoing.” In the Italian city of Genoa a priest has just been arrested on child drug and sex charges. Father Riccardo Seppia, 50, was held by police investigating a drugs-for-sex ring in which he was recorded telling youngsters, including altar servers: "Come on over, I've got some snow." Police believe "snow" was a codeword for cocaine. They have also pointed out how in the intercepted conversations he tells the victims: "Bring the usual gift, I'm very lonely." Church leaders immediately suspended him, but this week there were claims that officials had been warned almost 20 years ago about his behaviour. Retired father Piercarlo Casassa said: "I told the Church authorities about him in 1994 but I was ignored. People had told me he had an untoward approach with the Scouts and I told the authorities he was not the right person to have around youngsters, but no-one listened to me." Marco Lodi Rizzini, a spokesman for an Italian victims of abuse group, said: "This document by the Vatican is simply meaningless words – they have been forced to act but it is not enough. Just look at the case we have ongoing in Genoa: this priest had already aroused suspicion and he had been reported to the church authorities and they did nothing about it." Maeve Lewis, of Dublin-based charity One in Four, said: "There is nothing new in this. The idea of co-operation is welcomed, but in the developing world it is going to have little meaning and once again the responsibility is placed on a bishop to decide. How can that be? They don't have any expertise or experience in recognising child abuse and it appears to be another case of the Church dragging its heels." But why are bishops expected to deal with such matters, which are rightly the province of the police? Indeed, these crimes only come to the attention of the police authorities when victims complain directly to them. If they direct their complaints to the bishop, they will be met by a brick wall of obfuscation, guilt-inducement and sometimes even threats and menaces. More than one victim has said that they were made to feel by the church hierarchy as though they were the culprit after they complained about abuse. When cases are kept within church confines (and this is what bishops try hard to do) they are dealt with by so-called canon law. This requires that the offender be "tried" by the Church itself, in secret and often after a delay of years. The findings of this ecclesiastical court are then relayed to the Vatican, which makes the ultimate decision on the guilt or innocence of offending priests. This, too can take years. In the meantime, priests may be shifted from one parish to another, where they continue to offend among communities that have no knowledge of their history. And even where local bishops have begged the Vatican to defrock and remove from the priesthood some particularly grotesque examples, the Vatican has delayed responding (often to repeated requests), resulting in even more crimes against children. These new guidelines don't change any of that. It urges bishops to report crimes to the police, but it does not order them to. It knows full well that bishops will still try desperately to keep offenders under wraps and away from the eyes of the public. It has been a disastrous policy for the Church and one that will continue to ensure that scandals arise at regular intervals. Indeed, in the United States, eight Catholic dioceses and one Jesuit order have filed for bankruptcy protection in the face of lawsuits by victims, according to BishopAccountability, which tracks reports of abuse by priests. This tactic also buys them protection from legal action. And a series of government-backed reports in once-deeply Catholic Ireland found a pattern of abuse and systematic cover-ups by church officials stretching back to the 1930s. The Vatican admits that there is nothing new in this latest document and says that it hopes to encourage the implementation of local safeguards – such as those in England Wales (although we have serious reservations about the UK one's effectiveness), Such guidelines are being made to prevent children being abused in the first place (and generally to support them if they have been abused). All laudable, but bringing the perpetrators to justice through the secular legal system is not part of these "safeguards" and is still a matter of judgment for the local bishop (or the victim if he or she decides to go directly to the police). The cynicism of all this should be shocking, but the Vatican's skill at ruthless manipulation is such that it seems able to get away with it over and over again. The legal authorities seem incapable of intervening when bishops deliberately withhold from them information about the commission of crimes against children. The Government appears quite happy that an alternative legal system is in operation that permits very serious offenders to get away scot-free with crimes that would otherwise send them to prison for long periods. For instance, why was Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor allowed to walk away unpunished when he blatantly covered up the activities of a particularly horrendous paedophile priest?. This is the very same Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, who has, with breathtaking insensitivity, been chosen to take a leading role in the "apostolic visitation" that offers "assistance to the Bishops, clergy, religious and lay faithful as they seek to respond adequately to the situation caused by the tragic cases of abuse perpetrated by priests and religious upon minors." All efforts by victims and their supporters to bring the Vatican to account have failed. The world seems happy to award to this malign and corrupt organisation all the deference it demands. See also: New York Times editorial -Guidelines "flimsy" "seriously defective" and "disheartening" Lawyer calls Catholic report into why priests abuse children "hogwash" Terry Sanderson is President of the National Secular Society
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