Why the Church Should Thank the Media

By Michael McVeigh
Eureka Street
November 15, 2012

http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=34121


The Royal Commission into child sexual abuse can only be a good thing for the Catholic Church. It is a chance to account for the betrayal and crimes of priests and other church representatives who committed acts of abuse against the vulnerable, and for the careless, even callous way in which many church officials responded to complaints against their own. This will be a long overdue first step in moving forward.

However, while victims have been calling for a Royal Commission for a long time, and while the bishops have welcomed it, the fact that it has taken government intervention for a proper account of the crisis to take place represents in part a failure of the Church's response.

The Church's defenders point to the policies and procedures put in place to protect children, the establishment of the National Committee for Professional Standards, and the Towards Healing processes for providing compensation and support for victims unwilling to make complaints against abusers through the legal system.

Most abuse cases today are from more than 20 years ago, indicating a change in Church practice and in cultural attitudes, providing better protection for young people. The Church's current procedures are part of a laudable move towards a response centred on the needs of victims, and a greater awareness of the problem in general.

But its response has fallen short in other areas.

When Church authorities first got together to address the issue of abuse by clergy at the beginning of the 1990s, they developed a nine-point plan. One of the points was to research whether or not there were particular issues in the culture of the Church that might contribute to people abusing.

Yet more than 20 years later, we're yet to see a serious study of these issues that has grown out of the lessons learned. Nor have we been given an adequate account of the number of abuse cases the various dioceses and religious orders have dealt with through their formal processes, or the nature and distribution of the cases.

While changes have been made in the processes for selecting and forming priests and religious, and while there is a greater awareness of the nature of abuse and paedophilia, we're yet to see a serious institutional effort to explore whether the Church's approaches to sexuality, power and authority, allowed a climate of abuse to occur. Independent contributions such as that of Bishop Geoffrey Robinson have been marginalised and largely ignored.

In addition, while there have been apologies to victims — including the 2008 apology from Pope Benedict XVI at World Youth Day, and various efforts by bishops and congregational leaders — the Church is yet to find a structure where true reconciliation can take place.

The Pope's 2008 apology in many ways echoed Pope John Paul II's speech to Indigenous people in 1986. That speech proved to be the beginning of an era of reconciliation between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and the rest of the Church.

It saw the establishment of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council, the creation of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday on the liturgical calendar, and a greater awareness and acceptance of Indigenous culture and peoples in Catholic schools, parishes and other institutions.

The 2008 apology saw no such follow-up for victims of abuse. What formal recognition is made each year for the victims of abuse by clergy? Where are the Catholic bodies for these victims? Where are the priests and religious dedicated to ministering to them and advocating for them both within the Church and in broader society?

In terms of its ability to continue to minister to the Australian people with any integrity, this crisis is the biggest to face the Church. As well as providing protocols for complaints against clergy to be heard, the bishops needed to be leaders in publicly recognising the issue and providing spaces for victims to have their voices heard. The fact that we're still talking about this issue today shows that the Church has failed to do this adequately.

Cardinal George Pell argued this week that the Church has been unfairly vilified by the media. But the media has done the Church a favour in bringing this issue to light and campaigning for a more compassionate response to victims. The Church through inaction has lost its moral authority when it comes to this issue. Until it can provide a proper account of its misdeeds and point to real commitments to victims, the attacks will justifiably continue.