Dealing with Abusive Priests

Guardian Media
February 9, 2012

http://www.guardian.co.tt/editorial/2012-02-09/dealing-abusive-priests?qt-realestate_classfieds=0

A call has come from within the Catholic Church for trained secular authorities to be the ones to make a determination on whether or not allegations of sexual abuse against priests are sufficiently founded in reality to warrant investigation and possible prosecution. Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, a psychologist who ran a centre for ten years in the United States attempting to cure priests of their abusive patterns of sexual behaviour, told a conference on the subject in the Vatican Tuesday that priests, like alcoholics, lie, con, manipulate when confronted with allegations of sexual abuse.

“There are false allegations to be sure and it is critical to restore a priest’s good name when he has been cleared, but decades of experience tell us that the vast majority of allegations—over 95 per cent—are founded,” Monsignor Rossetti told reporters at a news conference in Rome. To better ensure that the allegations against the priests are exposed to people who are not disposed to protecting the church and fellow priests, Monsignor Rossetti says trained civil authorities, not bishops, should make decisions having heard the allegations. The Vatican is decidedly against going civil, preferring to leave it to the discernment of bishops to decide on whether or not to go forward with the allegations. Surely, while the Vatican has responsibility over the priests within the church, sexual abuse of young boys by men (whatever their vocation) falls squarely with civil authorities. Therefore, the monsignor, based on his understanding of abusive priests and his knowledge of psychology, prefers professionals to make the determination.

The recent history of such abuse within the Catholic Church with the covering up of allegations and the shifting of priests from parish to parish give credence to the view that the bishops are likely to dismiss claims simply to avoid the church sliding into further ridicule. It is often difficult to resist the weight of evidence coming from history about the possibility of current behaviours following the past. Monsignor Rossetti had powerful support for his condemnation of abusive priests from another monsignor, Charles Scicluna, at the same conference, the latter blasting bishops for “their deadly culture of silence” relating to sexual abuse in the church.

And he warned bishops that they can be removed from the priesthood if they fail to report such abuse. It is a crime in canon law to show malicious or fraudulent negligence in the exercise of one’s duty, Monsignor Scicluna told his brothers in the faith. However, the conference took the decision to allow bishops’ conferences around the world to come up with abuse policies by May of this year. It is a decision which seems to rule out the push for civil authorities to make decisions on whether or not allegations can be taken further. What could occur as a result of a refusal to open up that part of the process to law enforcement, at least initially, is that parents can begin to bypass the bishops with complaints received from their children.

On the secular front, Monsignor Rossetti gives good advice to parents, teachers and other adults in authority over children when he says they should chose to believe young children when they make such allegations. Too often there are instances in which parents and guardians disbelieve children when they complain about sexual abuse, especially when the adults are loved and trusted ones.?Believing, inquiring further and taking matters to the civil authorities are not findings of guilt, but rather seeking to discern truth. As it is well known, such violations of children’s human rights often scar them for the rest of their lives.