Child Abuse and the Church

The Statesman-Journal
August 21, 2012

http://community.statesmanjournal.com/blogs/editorialblog/2012/08/21/child-abuse-and-the-church

We’ve come a long way in confronting sex abuse of children.

The Statesman Journal’s Emily Gillespie told that story in Saturday’s newspaper, recounting how a 12-year-old Salem boy followed his mother’s lessons on “what’s right, what’s wrong and to tell her if anything happened.” According to authorities, the boy ran when a Woodburn priest tried to victimize him.

The Roman Catholic priest, Angel Perez, has been charged with sex abuse, using a child in display of sexually explicit conduct, driving under the influence, furnishing alcohol to a minor, and tampering with evidence. Perez is accused of providing alcohol to the boy on several occasions, which is typical of grooming behavior designed to gain trust and access to a potential victim.

The boy, the strangers who came to his aid, his family and the authorities all acted with immediacy. That’s as it should be.

For too many generations, the Catholic Church turned a blind eye toward sexual abuse of boys and young men. But that church was not alone. Other churches, other organizations and other families found it preferable to deny the potential abuse than to confront it. Many adults are alive today who were molested or otherwise abused in their childhood and found no one to turn to.

Today, families, religious organizations and other institutions are taught to pay attention to signs or allegations of abuse — to take them seriously — instead of brushing them aside as misunderstandings or hiding them to protect someone’s reputation.

Yet churches and families find themselves in a quandary: how to encourage mentoring relationships with positive adult role models without exposing children to predators. You don’t want to create a climate in which someone can isolate and sexually abuse a child, but neither do you want to create a climate of fear.

There are several steps that churches and other organizations can take:

Have clear, specific and succinct policies on child protection. Start with two important details: 1. Never, ever hesitate to report potential child abuse. Call a child abuse hotline, the Oregon Department of Human Services or local law enforcement immediately. 2) Different situations and different settings have differing levels of risk. Understand those risks and how to lessen them.

Apply those policies equally to everyone — clergy, line staff and volunteers. No adult, whether a top leader or a junior volunteer, should ever be alone unsupervised with a child in a private setting.

That’s why offices, classrooms and other rooms need unobscured windows. Special accommodations may be needed for counseling sessions so another adult can watch unobtrusively without violating confidentiality.

Teach nursery attendants and others who work with children to recognize signs of child neglect, the most prevalent form of child abuse in the Mid-Valley.

Keep an open mind about allegations. Some are false. But let the authorities sort that out; that’s their job. Don’t stall or delay reporting.

We’ve come a long way in prosecuting child abuse. We have a longer way to go in preventing it.