A bit more on this programme

So what was the BBC up to last night in its programme on clerical child abuse? This was another of those programmes that dealt with clergy child abuse, it spoke about a conspiracy of silence and the widespread practice, in the past, of moving priest abusers on from parish to parish, it present several cases from Ireland, from the US and from Brazil. It blamed a secret document, Crimen Sollicitationis issued in 1962, for this conspiracy. It tried to implicate the Pope on rather flimsy grounds.

I find the whole issue of clerical abuse of children, deeply disturbing, not just because it damages children, we should never underestimate, the extra-ordinary damage it does to the child, the pain reverberates down the decades. It is also a sacrilege under so many headings, first of all against the innocence and trust of the child, against the priesthood, against the sacraments, especially of the Eucharist and presumably Penance too, and against the message of Christ.

When I was a seminarian in the 70s and early 80s the assumption was that this never happened in the Catholic Church, if it did it was incredibly rare. It wasn’t until the mid 80s that the Church was rocked by the organised abuse that was revealed in Catholic children's homes in St John’s, Newfoundland, then bit by bit over the next decade more and more stories broke, the most horrific in Ireland and the United States, as well as this country. I am told that the first serious academic study of abuse of children wasn’t made until the late 70s.

The assumption of the programme was that there was deliberate cover-up, I am sure there was, and I am sure too that a document issued in 1962, which I have never seen, would reflect and reinforce the culture of the time. I am sure that it sought to minimise the scandal and limit damage as much as possible. We should compare attitudes to abuse and attitudes to rape at this period, sexual crime was taboo. The prevailing thought was that somehow not only the perpetrator but the victim too was somehow to blame, in the case of rape the victim so often craved secrecy, so it is not difficult to see parents willing colluding with the Church in cover-up and simply wanting the abuser moved on, with no thought ever of punishment, let alone the publicity that would come with criminal trial.

The attitudes in the Church at the time reflected society but were further compounded by the unique relationship of priest and bishop, which was expressed not in terms of manager and managed, but in the biblical terms of father and son, and if the son were prodigal, so much more was a good father called to be merciful, and even try to excuse his crime. Here I make no excuse for bishops, some of whom acted criminally to protect their clergy, but it is important to understand the motivation. I think a Bishop, now, would place the victim first in his heart.

The accusation against the Pope though, I think is unfair, and no evidence was presented for it. The programme accused him of re-issuing Crimen Sollicitationis, in 2002 and amending it to say that all cases of clerical child abuse had to be referred to Rome. This was in fact another document, that meant all such cases had to be reported to Rome, The reason was that so many diocese and religious orders handled such cases badly, and may have been part of the problem, it certainly did not remove the case of from civil authorities but meant that the Church, in it its own courts also tried the perpetrator.

The reason why the document instructs bishops to keep such cases secret is that the Church unlike the BBC believes that guilt has actually to be investigated and proved, rather than merely assumed, even here "secrecy" seems to be more about being discreet, whilst an investigation is in place.

The Pope marked the beginning of his pontificate by banishing the 90 year old founder of the powerful Legionaries of Christ from any public act, because of the charges which had been brought against him. From what I understand the number of depositions from the clerical state (de-frockings) has risen greatly in Benedict’s pontificate.

This was just bad journalism, the BBC at its journalistic worst.