Church Must Usher in Scrutiny after Glossing over Abuse

Canberra Times
September 16, 2012

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/opinion/editorial/church-must-usher-in-scrutiny-after-glossing-over-abuse-20120915-25yun.html

The sexual Abuse booklet distributed through Catholic schools by the Archdiocese of Sydney.

A man was jailed for a minimum of 33 years on Friday for the callous murder of an innocent couple in their home. He suffocated the husband and wife at the behest of the couple's adopted son for the fee of $17,000, which would enable him to buy a motorcycle.

This was evil in the extreme, beyond comprehension. But in an attempt to make at least some sense of such heinous, dispassionate taking of life, Supreme Court judge Peter Hidden revealed that the murderer, from a supportive family with an "unremarkable upbringing", had at the age of 11 been sexually attacked by a Catholic priest. It was the second time the child had been sexually abused by a person in a position of trust and his "loving, easy nature" (his mother's description) was irretrievably lost.

Nobody will know whether the killer would have become capable of such evil had he not been abused, but it's no great stretch to assume to be the victim of such horror at so early an age was hardly conducive to a balanced personality.

That wicked priest, like the Catholic Church, has a lot to answer for. The victims' lives were taken, the perpetrators' lives were ruined and families were shattered.

Most Catholic priests are fine people, highly motivated to serve their fellow human beings. But a few of their number are twisted, vicious and predatory perverts.

Time and again their brutality has had a tragically far-reaching legacy. Thirteen victims of one of these monsters, a former NSW school teacher, have died by their own hand or from substance abuse. Multiply those deaths by the heartbreak of family and friends and you can begin to realise the magnitude of the crimes.

The Sun-Herald reports today that the archdiocese of Sydney has published 100,000 copies of a booklet outlining its strategy in dealing with sexual abuse by clergy. The booklet has been sent home with primary students from the archdiocese's schools and will be distributed via other church agencies. It acknowledges "mistakes" the church has made.

That is no doubt a reference to the decades-long systemic covering up and denial of priests' crimes that was almost as evil as the deeds themselves. For many victims and their families, not just the rapists but the church that sheltered them are beyond forgiveness.

It is to be hoped the initiative is not just words but an honest tackling of the problem, beginning with a rigorous scrutiny of the character of every candidate for religious office.

It is manifestly the responsibility of the church to ensure its clerics are imbued with the principles of Jesus Christ.