WELLINGTON (NEW ZEALAND)
Stuff [Wellington, New Zealand]
July 29, 2024
By George Heagney
A Catholic bishop believes there has been a culture change going through the church in the wake of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care’s final report.
The Royal Commission of Inquiry report, released last week, contained details of horrific abuse at institutions across New Zealand over decades.
More than 250,000 vulnerable people were abused and neglected at places they were meant to be cared for in, including faith-based institutions, from 1950 to 2019.
The bishop of Palmerston North, John Adams, spoke to Stuff as he wanted to put a face to the church’s response.
He said the church’s culture had been changing since the early 2000s when the Boston Globe newspaper in the United States revealed widespread sexual abuse by priests.
There had been a culture where things such as abuse were not spoken about, but that was changing.
“There’s zero appetite for that culture in the church now. Culture change takes a generation.”
Adams said there had been atrocities such as the Rwandan genocide in the 1990s or the genocide in Cambodia under Pol Pot in the 1970s, but societal change had come after that. So he believed change was possible in institutions in New Zealand.
He said there wasn’t any accountability in the past and there had been a failure in leadership.
“We have to be on guard to not put everything in the past. There are vulnerabilities still.
“The whole work of safeguarding to create a culture now, if a predator were to walk in to one of our churches, they’re not going to feel comfortable.”
He was not trying to defend what happened and he said the church did not want to have that “darkness”.
He said some people in the past had been motivated to protect the church, rather than individuals and people had suffered because of it.
“Since the Boston Globe stories, the culture of the church has been painfully and slowly turning back to the dignity of each human person.”
He said every Catholic parish in New Zealand had material about safeguarding and anyone who volunteered in the church needed safeguarding training and a police check.
Anyone applying to join the seminary to become a priest had a police check and psychological testing.
Testing had been a weak point in the past, Adams said.
“The dioceses of New Zealand all have safeguarding officers. We also have a national office for professional standards set up to promote safeguarding and hear complainants. They have an independent complaint process.”
He’d asked all priests in his diocese to complete safeguarding qualifications, looking at how to make things safe for children and vulnerable adults.
“The survivors I’ve met are less interested in words, they want actions.”
If an accusation was made against a member of the church they were stood down.
Adams advised people who brought accusations to him to go to the police.
“There are priests in this country who are no longer in active ministry because they have been found guilty of profound misconduct.”
[PHOTO: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says the Government will urgently look to provide redress.
Robert Kitchin / STUFF]
Adams said the Catholic community was hurting over what had happened and it would take some time for the church to recover its standing.
The diocese in Palmerston North had presented to its congregation a letter from the New Zealand Catholic bishops and the religious congregation of New Zealand about the abuse-in-care report.
The Government would investigate how to provide redress for the survivors and this would be announced later this year.
Adams said the church would wait for the Government to announce its strategy before looking at what it could do for redress, which could include money or providing counselling.
He encouraged anyone who had been abused to go to the police, but they could also contact the national office for professional standards, his office, or survivor groups.
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