THE Catholic Church and Sex Abuse

By Bill O'Chee
Brisbane Times
March 19, 2014

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/blogs/the-hermit/the-catholic-church-and-sex-abuse-20140318-34zp7.html

There is no doubt that the Royal Commission into Sexual Abuse has done much to confront the stain of child abuse.

The most disturbing revelation has been how frequently the evil of abuse occurred inside institutions whose purpose was entirely contrary. The Salvation Army was one such institution, and the Catholic Church another.

That doesn’t make these institutions bad, but we must understand how the abuse happened.

That means we need to look not just at the plight of the victims, but also at the institutions themselves. Without this there can be no way to mend those institutions, nor to properly protect others in the future.

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Let’s take the Catholic Church as an example.

Among a celibate clergy, sexual conduct, much less sexual abuse, is a grave sin against God. Clergy who indulge in sex - consensual or otherwise - have profoundly violated their vows.

These people fall into clear categories. Depending on the circumstances, they have either become misguided, or are quite simply evil.

As someone who believes in good and evil, I am not surprised that evil would seek to hide inside an institution which exists for good. That is, after all, what evil does.

The dilemma for the Church is not the existence of evil, but its response to it. And there are factors which have not had enough consideration.

The first is that we now know a lot more about the pathology of sexual abusers.

In the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, it was generally thought that sexual offenders were people who had “made a mistake”. As recently as ten years ago, a study by the Australian Institute of Criminology argued the rate of reoffending for child molesters was as low as 2-16 per cent.

No doubt many in the Church wrongly thought of sexual abuse as isolated incidents, and the perpetrators would not reoffend. More so when the offenders were always a tiny minority of its over 11,000 priests, nuns and brothers.

We now know that they were actually serial offenders caught in the act.

But serial offenders are often not caught for a long time. A recent study of 169 offenders saw them admit to having violated a total of 1,010 children.

However, the Church’s real weakness was its greatest virtue; its message of forgiveness for sins. Even though sexual offences were terrible aberrations, Church leaders had to offer forgiveness.

Of course this was a mistake, especially when forgiveness prevailed over justice for victims. This we now know with the clarity of hindsight.

That doesn’t make the Catholic Church bad, nor are its leaders. However, good people sometimes make bad decisions.

As an institution, the Catholic Church remains fundamentally good. Its contribution to education, the alleviation of poverty, and its message of love make it as needed now as it ever has been. Its recent role at the forefront in attacking slavery shows this is so.

However, it must recognise justice is as much a virtue as forgiveness. It must also make itself a penitent at the confessional of public opinion.

We in turn must recognise the good, not just the blemish of evil.