FR Brian D'arcy: Un Report Sadly Misses the Point

By Brian D'Arcy
Sunday World
February 14, 2014

http://www.sundayworld.com/top-stories/columnists/fr-brian-d-arcy/fr-brian-darcy-un-report-sadly-misses-the-point

Pope Francis

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of a Child has brought Child Sexual Abuse issues to the fore in the Catholic Church once more.

From what I’ve read the United Nations watchdog for Children’s Rights produced a report which is practically a decade out of date.

For example a number of reports here in Ireland, most notably the Murphy Report, reached more radical conclusions years ago.

The Murphy Report identified the “systemic failure” within the structures of the Catholic Church as the root of much of the evil which destroyed so many children.

Murphy pointed out that until the philosophy behind the system changed other reforms will be little more than window dressing.

The United Nations Report fails to make that essential point. It highlights what most of us writing about this issue have said for over a decade, namely that defending the institutional structures of the Church became far more important than defending the innocence and rights of children for the leaders of the Catholic Church.

The Vatican’s reaction to the United Nations Report then has validity. It does seem to have been written in advance of the January 16 meeting between the UN representatives and the Vatican officials.

However there are some issues within the Report which will be helpful in rectifying the “systemic failure” within the Institutional structures of the Catholic Church – (and many other institutions, I might add, as well.)

The suspicion remains that, the “Holy See” has not acknowledged “the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken the necessary measures to address cases of child sexual abuse and to protect children, and has adopted policies and practices that have led to the continuation of the abuse with impunity by the perpetrators,” the report says.

Naturally the Vatican has denied that allegation and has pointed to the fact that Pope Francis had already set up a new commission to examine precisely those issues. It could be argued that this United Nations Report could be applied to many States throughout the world more aptly than to the Catholic Church at the present time.

However I support the United Nations Committee when it urges the Vatican to release all its files on Clerical Sexual Abuse cases and to allow public scrutiny of how cases of abuse, and alleged abuse, were investigated and how the offenders were punished.

The United Nations claims that the Holy See has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed. If such an important body as the United Nations is making that accusation than one presumes it has the evidence. It has no right to make the accusation without producing the evidence. The United Nations report fails to be specific about the evidence it has gathered. It too should reveal its findings so that we have the full picture.

Another issue brought up in the United Nations report which needs to be discussed is that the Catholic Church’s teaching on sexuality contributes, “to the social stigmatization of and violence against, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender adolescents and children raised by same sex couples.”

Former President Mary Mc Aleese has expressed, on many occasions, that the fundamentalist preaching against gay people found in all churches, including the Catholic Church, has severely damaged young people trying to live out their own sexuality. In many cases, we are told, it has led to suicides. I believe that’s a fair accusation that needs to be faced.