Curse of Complacency

The Tablet
August 10, 2013

http://www.thetablet.co.uk/article/164526

Safeguarding in the Catholic Church in Scotland does not command public confidence, yet the attitude of some senior church leaders suggests defensiveness and even complacency. Bishop Joseph Devine, retired Bishop of Motherwell, is quoted in The Tablet this week as saying that an independent investigation into alleged abuse by priests – parallel, for instance, to the Nolan inquiry in England and Wales – was not necessary. The number of cases was “tiny” and most happened 20 or more years ago. “What about the number of people in other professions who have been involved in abuse?” He is entitled to make these points, but his tone does not reassure the public that the issue is being taken seriously. This is a Church, after all, that has seen its reputation all but destroyed by the sexual scandal involving Cardinal Keith O’Brien.

On top of that case comes the painful disclosures concerning abuse by priests at Fort Augustus School in the Scottish Highlands. It closed in 1993, and most allegations date from years before. Judging by the continuing mental distress suffered by some of the survivors, however, the abuse could have happened yesterday. The public, and that includes the Catholic public, will take some convincing that attitudes have now changed so much that further cases are impossible. Even the Catholic Church in England and Wales, streets ahead of Scotland in these respects, is still seeing a trickle of new cases reported to the authorities, as well as allegations of a more historical nature. And it has begun to flesh out its concerns to do right by those who were damaged by abuse, with an extensive programme being piloted in Hallam Diocese.

Child protection has to be managed independently of church administrative structures and their personnel, and has to have three guiding principles. The first is the priority of caring for survivors (the term “victim” is no longer deemed appropriate). They must say what they need – it is not for the Church to tell them – with the aid where necessary of independent professional advice. The second is to give prime responsibility to the statutory agencies, the police and local social services departments, in deciding how to respond to allegations, when to take them seriously and whether to prosecute. And the third, perhaps secondary to these but no less essential, is transparency. Subject only to the protection of survivors’ privacy and regardless of possible damage to the Church’s good name, detailed figures must be published annually by an independent authority whose work must be open to media and public scrutiny. The Catholic Church in England and Wales meets these criteria; the Scottish Church has a long way to go.

Without these three conditions in place apologies carry little weight, even when they are as full and as obviously sincere as that given by Bishop Hugh Gilbert of Aberdeen, who on Sunday called the scandal “bitter, shaming and distressing”. Cardinal O’Brien’s successor, Mgr Leo Cushley, has declined to comment on sex abuse issues until he is in possession of the facts. But it will take all the many virtues he is reputed to possess to put the Scottish Catholic Church’s house in order, so that the words of the Creed – “I believe in one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church” – can ring true there again.