SNAP Wisconsin
September 19, 2011
http://www.snapwisconsin.com/blog/2011/09/19/priest-places-blame-for-the-sexual-abuse-crisis-on-the-mothers-of-ireland/
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When the clergy sexual abuse crisis exploded in the United States leaders of the Catholic Church explained that it was an “American problem”. They stated that America was simply devoid of any sexual morality, and as a result some in the clergy had simply succumbed to the perverted culture that they found themselves in.
The media was also to blame. Cardinal Law of Boston famously said “By all means we call down God’s power on the media, particularly the Globe”. When secret church documents revealed Joseph Ratzinger’s, now Pope Benedict XVI’s involvement in the case of notorious pedophile priest Lawrence Murphy, the Vatican again blamed the media. The official Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, said the allegations were “clearly an ignoble attempt to strike at Pope Benedict and his closest aides at any cost”. Cardinal Martins went further and said it was a “conspiracy” against the church.
This past year the church commissioned John Jay Study attempted to place blame on the sexual revolution and the decade of the 1960’s as the primary reasons why priests were sexually assaulting so many children. Again, it was the American culture that made them do it.
This past week a priest in Ireland attempted to explain who was at fault for the sexual abuse crisis that has been ravaging his country for so many years. Fr. Paddy Banville placed the blame on the mothers of Ireland. Banville stated that “…there is another category of people that will match the failure of the bishops, and probably surpass it; the wives and mothers of Ireland”.
Banville explained that the Irish bishops were simply following the example of mothers throughout Ireland. He wrote that “In time, I believe Ireland will discover that there is nothing particularly unique in the Catholic bishops bungling attempts to deal with clerical abuse…in fact I believe that covering up is a typical response to child abuse right across the board, at least until very recently”.
The covering up of clergy sexual abuse reports was not “bungling”. The recent reports that have been published in Ireland; the Ferns Report, the Murphy Report, the Ryan Report, and the Cloyne Report confirm that the bishops did not “bungle”, they made deliberate decisions to conceal the sexual abuse, protect the predator, and silence the victim.
Banville’s comments are an insult to every victim/survivor and their family. They are also deeply offensive and hurtful to every mother whose child has been sexually assaulted by a Catholic priest. How many mothers in Ireland have buried their children because they paid the ultimate price for the abuse that was inflicted upon them? How many mothers in Ireland have watched their children struggle with drug dependency, alcoholism, or depression because of the sexual assault they endured? How many mothers in Ireland were assured by their church that the parish school was a safe place for their child only to learn later that it was where their child had been raped?
Fr. Banville, ironically, made his remarks during the week in which Catholics celebrated the feast day of Our Lady of Sorrows. The feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, commemorated on September 15th, reflects on the seven sorrows that the Blessed Mother is said to have endured during her life. The sorrows of the Virgin Mary focus on the pain and suffering that her child experienced.
Perhaps Fr. Banville should reflect on the sorrows that have been experienced by every mother in Ireland whose child has been sexually abused, and then offer them all a profoundly sincere apology.
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