LONDON (UNITED KINGDOM)
The Times/The Sunday Times [London, England]
February 27, 2022
Religion should carry a health warning
I applaud Matthew Syed’s piece “A million children abused by Italian priests, and it barely makes the news” (Comment, last week). In my work as a psychotherapist, I witnessed the lifelong psychological damage experienced by survivors of abuse. It leads me to wonder: should all religious belief systems carry a mental health warning?
Tony Warren, Burgess Hill, West Sussex
Priests unfairly damned
The Catholic church is an easy target in countries with a long tradition of anti-Catholic bigotry such as Britain. A comprehensive survey of sexual abuse by priests in the US by John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York found that about 4 per cent were accused (but not all found guilty). That means 96 per cent had no accusations against them. This is comparable with many other organisations and churches.
Professor John Loughlin, fellow, Blackfriars Hall, Oxford
Fallibility must be acknowledged
It is difficult to criticise someone else’s religion. However, with every successive revelation about sexual abuse perpetrated by Catholic priests, or unspeakable cruelty visited on children or unwed mothers by some nuns, one has to question the fundamental structures and values of a church that so easily provides access to the vulnerable for criminally abusive individuals to do their worst — and then is not capable of owning up to its fallibility. Syed’s piece should lead to action within the Catholic church. Sadly, this seems unlikely.
Paul Kustow, Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire
Abuse is not unique to church
Syed is right to be appalled and disgusted by the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests as well as by the hierarchy’s extensive cover-up. But he is wrong to seek an explanation only in organised religion. If that were so, how would he explain the many cases of abuse in non-religious institutions such as schools and children’s homes?
The Catholic church has much of which to be deeply ashamed but it is not unique, and it deserves better from a columnist of Syed‘s stature than to be attacked with prejudiced explanations for the abuse. Believers are not “groomed” to accept the existence of God. The church has a mission to proclaim the truth of the Word made flesh. This is nothing to be ashamed of.
Christopher Road, London W6
Police must investigate
Syed is right to warn of the inevitable consequence of vesting divine authority in holy men, particularly when it comes to clerical child sex abuse. The Catholic church — and other religious organisations — have suppressed disclosure because they have put their own reputations and finances ahead of victims.
When the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse publishes its final report this year, it must include a clear endorsement of mandatory reporting, so that clerical sex abuse is dealt with by secular authorities rather than by self-policing by churches, which have demonstrated time and again that they are wholly incapable of doing so.
Stephen Evans, National Secular Society, London WC1
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