Latest:

03:02 Stars play charity football match
03:02 Hunt faces Leveson Inquiry grilling
02:12 Egypt candidates woo middle ground
01:22 Clinton: End Assad 'rule of murder'
00:22 Rebel groups agree on Islamic state
00:22 Saltire Games ban 'ridiculous'
00:22 Food industry experience offered
00:22 Scott: Sci fi is getting worn out

A clerical collar shouldn’t keep these vile abusers out of prison

By Sharon Owens
Wednesday, 24 March 2010

The revelations of clerical abuse just keep on coming. And some of the stories are so harrowing and heartbreaking it's hard to contemplate how the survivors lived to tell the tale.

Many victims took their own lives. We will probably never know if any of the victims actually lost their lives during an attack.

That's a possibility few are willing to suggest, but I think we must assume that out of many, many thousands of attacks on poor and defenceless children, at least a small number of children may have died.

I'm not really interested in what the Catholic Church, or anyone in it, has to say about clerical abuse any more. If the Church was going to do anything to protect children, it would have done it by now.

Therefore, I can only assume that the hierarchy does not intend to modernise the organisation in any way.

I think we can safely assume that married men and women will never be ordained into the Church, nor will independent investigators be allowed access to Church archives.

As far as I am aware, not a single cleric worldwide has handed himself in to police and made a full confession of his crimes.

If any of the governments in any of the countries where children were abused had any courage whatsoever, all and any clerics concerned would be under arrest today.

And so would any of the clerics who deliberately concealed what was happening from the public. I include the current leader of the Church in that number.

Just because these men wear priestly outfits doesn't mean they are above the law. If that were the case, then any secular paedophile in the world could set up their own religion and go on to abuse children at will.

They could also demand weekly donations from anyone living in their catchment area and use some of that money to silence whistleblowers. This sounds like a ridiculous scenario, but that's basically what happened within the Catholic Church.

Clerical abuse has been going on for decades; perhaps for many centuries. Perhaps the entire religion was conceived as a way to wield power and control over lay people.

And in recent years they added insult to injury by collecting money every Sunday in tiny pastel envelopes.

If the Church really cared about children it would have stamped out child abuse a long, long time ago. It would have vetted everyone in the Church, ordained married men and women into its ranks, made sure young children were never left alone with clerics and handed abusers over to the police immediately.

Some commentators from within the Church are suggesting that the vow of celibacy may have contributed to the problem; and that any religion that is presided over by an all-male, celibate elite is bound to struggle to relate emotionally to its flock.

I'm sorry, but I don't accept that idea at all. Millions of women across the globe were widowed in two world wars and they didn't abuse children.

They did their best to struggle on amid their grief and loneliness. And they did it without a house, a car and a housekeeper all paid for by the Church.

Millions of people in the world today are single, divorced, bereaved, gravely ill, seriously depressed or otherwise unable to enter into a physical relationship. They don't become child abusers; again they live their lives to the best of their ability.

They have friends for emotional support. They spend their spare time doing housework, on hobbies, or pottering in the garden.They satisfy any sudden sexual urges with a little bit of thoroughly healthy self-pleasuring.

They do not resort to recreational rape and they do not threaten small children with excommunication and everlasting hellfire.

How could any child possibly have the maturity to sign an oath of secrecy?

And what does it matter if one is excommunicated for breaking the oath? Just join another religion, for heaven's sake.

One that doesn't have a hopelessly outdated stance on birth-control, divorce, remarriage, female ordination, gay rights and the concealment of crimes against humanity.

I can't be the only person who is absolutely terrified that many seriously disturbed individuals may still be at large in various religious communities throughout the world. I have no idea what causes a person to become an abuser of children, but experts tell us such people can never be fully cured. Therefore they must be locked up or otherwise prevented from abusing another child.

The very least the Vatican can do now is accept full responsibility for what happened and compensate all of the survivors without further delay.

Print
Text Size
- Normal
- Large
- Extra Large

No one is above the law of any state. All will comply with the given law until it is changed. The law of a state must be enforced on all the same no matter who the violater is.

Posted by phl | 30.03.10, 15:48 GMT

Sharon,
I presume you give more than you can afford (as per CS Lewis) to help poor children at home and abroad have shelter, education,food and good health?
If not, you too along with all the self-righteous hypocritical secularists are guilty of a serious moral crime

Posted by conor | 29.03.10, 16:31 GMT

A clerical collar should be replaced by a millstone for all 'false' priests who should be cast into the deepest ocean! They lived with the Devil and mocked the God they proclaimed to love and destroyed the faith of countless families! These cuckoos in the nest have a 'hell' of a lot to answer for!

Posted by Don King | 28.03.10, 19:46 GMT

Democrat;

"What if the core principles ARE the cause? ...is clear that there is a deep flaw in the system."

Even though i accept that there are flaws in the system (as there are flaws in humanity), the CORE PRINCIPLES are not the SYSTEM.

In fact, it can be shown historically that the system arose and developed as a political, sociological, HUMAN outworking of the core principles of a transcendent God calling us to commune together to receive His self-revelation.

That is totally unaffected by the horrendous human abuse and sin within a particular historical instance of the institution.

The Church has ALWAYS been an ideal - something to be striven towards. It has NEVER claimed to be a perfect, ready-made utopian institution where there are no sinners.

The church makes a call to its members not to sin - that is its purpose - that some, even many, Do sin doesn't negate the need for an institution calling them not to sin

Posted by john | 26.03.10, 11:24 GMT

Evil is evil - The breaking of the law is an offence and, irrespective of who commits the offence, they must be brought before the courts. The Church above all others should require that justice be done. Bland words od regret are totally unacceptable.
I wonder if St Malachy's prophesy, that there will be only one other Pope after this one, will come to pass. If the Vatican continues its self-destruct approach and cover-up to the past deeds of many of its priests, ordinary members will say enough is enough and the prophesy could happen. It is obvious that worldwide opinion is moving against the Vatican.

Posted by Tom Boal | 26.03.10, 10:34 GMT

Celebate men as alledged intermediaries with all powerful invisible people, these men making the rules, and 10 or 100 x millions going along with it. Crazy, and how could abuses NOT occur?

But back to your column Sharon Owens, very well said.

The only thing is though, here in the US I do see cultural Catholicism a necessary bullwork vs more and more popular (and destructive of secular institutions) Christian Fundamentalism.

Posted by Chris M | 25.03.10, 23:08 GMT

Pragmatist wrote:"Deal with the root cause....but leave the core principles intact."

What if the core principles ARE the cause?

There have been so many cases and they have been uncovered in so many countries, that it is clear that there is a deep flaw in the system. The system has been conducive to paedophiles, probably through a combination of the celibacy rule, access to young people through confession and power over them through absolution.

The Vatican is trying to get away with a few bishops resigning, but that is no more than a face-saving exercise. The root cause has to be addressed and that will require real change to the system, not just a few token resignations.

The whole practice of confessing one's sins (especially in the case of children) to an allegedly celibate man has been discredited by the revelations of abuse in so many countries.

Posted by Democrat | 25.03.10, 19:03 GMT

Sharon, you didn't really get my point.

I know you were referring to abuse in the church, but to suggest that it could have easily been stamped out by the institutional church, had it wanted to, is akin to suggesting that abuse in the education system could have easily been stamped out by education ministers, had they wanted to.

Of course the church bears responsibility for what happens within its institution, but you're being disingenous in suggesting that it wasn't stamped out because no one in the church cared about it.

Like I say, it's like blaming educationalists for any abuse that happens in schools.

Thanks for your reply

Posted by John | 25.03.10, 17:28 GMT

Sharon Owens has voiced what so many others would like to have expressed.

There are still many sick individuals in the Church as there are elsewhere in society but in a Church - followers of Christ - where we seek healing - we must follow the concepts of our faith not the heirarchy.

Posted by Emily Barber | 25.03.10, 15:06 GMT

Deal with the root cause, reject hypocrisy, but leave the core principles of the Catholic religion in tact. Religion does not foster abuse; men and women abuse their power-that's the issue.

The church covered up that's scandalous, so did Kincora. Should we investigate who facilitated the abuse there and the political connections. Somehow I don't think so.

Posted by Pragmatist | 25.03.10, 13:51 GMT

Posted by Pragmatist | 25.03.10, 13:50 GMT

Well said keep up the good ork

Posted by steve | 25.03.10, 13:43 GMT

Dear John,

I was referring to abuse within the church, of course.

I was not referring to abuse within other institutions, or within the home.

All and any abuse is to be condemned.

Thanks for your comments.

Posted by Sharon Owens | 25.03.10, 13:37 GMT

Very well said Sharon.Time for this church to be dismantled.

Posted by leo boyle | 25.03.10, 13:12 GMT

So, "if the church cared about children it would have stamped out abuse years ago"!

Perhaps, if parents really cared about children they would have stamped out abuse years ago.

Or if schools really cared about children they would have stamped out abuse years ago.

I don't dispute that a culture of cover up may have allowed abuse to continue, but to suggest that the church, alone in society, has the power to stamp out abuse is ridiculous.

You may as well say "if grown-ups cared about children they would have stamped out child abuse years ago" - see how silly that sounds.

I am a catholic for theological and philosophical reasons. Structures of authority will change, as they do in all spheres of life - the truth of the faith remains

Posted by John | 25.03.10, 12:50 GMT

I was in a boys home for wayward boys for 3 years in Belfast. I went there when I was 10 years old in 1960. I had continually "mitched" school and that was my punishment. But I nor any other kid who were in that school were ever beaten or sexually abused. The education I got there has carried me throughout my life and I will never forget the teachers who taught us and cared for us and took us to football matches and concerts and taught us music and art and respect for everyone, including ourselves. It absolutely discusts me that many of my Catholic friends have been so abused in their childhood by those who were trusted to take care of them. There were no Priests or Nuns in the home I was in.

Posted by jimmyulster | 25.03.10, 11:04 GMT