Child Sexual Abuse and the Churches: a Story of Moral Failure?

By Patrick Parkinson
The Smith Lecture 2013
October 29, 2013

http://smithlecture.org/sites/smithlecture.org/files/downloads/lecture/smith-2013-transcript.pdf

Introduction

Some people may be puzzled, even angered, that the title to this lecture ends in a question-mark. Surely, we already know that the story of child sexual abuse in churches is a story of shocking moral failure. Story after story has appeared in the media in Australia in recent years of terrible sexual exploitation of children – and if that were not bad enough, the cover-up of those crimes by superiors in the Church who, for whatever reason, chose not to involve the police or to act protectively towards children. These are not just Australian stories. In the Catholic Church at least, these patterns have been replicated in many countries across the western world, and it is perhaps just a matter of time before stories emerge from other countries which reveal the same patterns.

In the court of public opinion, then, the judgment has already been delivered. It is only the consequences of that judgment which are still being worked out.

In this lecture, I will not for one moment deny that there have been serious moral failures, and it is likely that these are to be found in all churches over the years. I have played a small part in exposing some of those failures, in challenging wrongdoing, and seeking to promote higher standards of child protection in church communities. 1 I offer no defence for the failure of the churches, except to say that if the churches are particularly in the firing line now – and they are – it should be noted that it was so often the churches that were involved in caring for those that no-one else cared for. It was the churches that ran orphanages and children’s homes, that established boarding schools at a low cost to give educational opportunities to children from the country. It is churches which have been at the forefront of community life from one end of Australia to another, providing Sunday Schools, youth clubs and holiday camps. The moral failures of the churches ought to be assessed against the background of that enormous contribution to the care of children over the last century and more.

[full article in pdf]