Clergy sexual abuse scandal 3 (continued)

This is a continuation of this thread which has passed the 500 mark and is getting a bit long.

That thread branched out into one or two other interesting topics. There have been suggestions that if anyone wants to continue these, they start separate threads with appropriate titles. But off course off topic comments are always welcome even on this continuation thread.

There's an interesting analysis today over at "Get Religion" about the apparent failure of German and European politicians and the press to bat an eye over the claims of pedophilia made against (and by) Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a prominent radical politician and vanguard of the 1968-generation:

Paedophilia and the Radical Left of '68

Isn't there also a move to exonerate Roman Polanski from his conviction for child rape?

The current investigation in the UK into the late Sir Jimmy Saville and other well-known show business figures such as Rolf Harris, Jim Davidson, Max Clifford and Stuart Hall, and political figures such as Sir Cyril Smith, suggests that powerful and famous figures in many parts if the establishment were somehow protected. We see it in so many institutions: Catholic and Anglican churches, the Jewish faith, Boy Scouts, US universities.

Jtf, didn't Polanski have sex with a teenage girl? That's statutory rape. So, is there some kind of spin that somehow what he did was okay? Or is his rehabilitation possible because he was really sorry? Or because he was a talented director?

Forgive my rant but it drives me nuts that there's one rule for celebrities and another for everyday people.

Okay... deep breaths ....

>4 pmackey: Yes, I can't recall all the details but Polanski was convicted of statutory rape and then fled the country. There was an attempt recently to extradite him from Switzerland (I think), but there were voices raised suggesting that what he did was OK because he was a talented director, not because he had exhibited any real remorse or been rehabilitated. At least that's how I remember it.

Another institutional case:

North Wales child abuse: more than 140 people say they were victims (Guardian)

NCR: Star witness' story in Philadelphia sex abuse trials doesn't add up
http://ncronline.org//news/accountability/philadelphia-lynn-sex-abuse-trials-sta...

Big, complicated story.

>8 cbaw1957:

Mostly right. Excommunication doesn't mean quite what some people think it means. (It's not like Amish "shunning" or whatever.) They should have been immediately restricted from exercising their ministry, followed by a canonical trial ending in being laicized.

>8 cbaw1957: Is there a screening process now?

Is there a SOP for handling these situations?

Yes, and yes, and much more. Most national bishops' conferences (ie the national Catholic Church in each country) have put in place robust protocols to reduce the opportunities for child abuse and to ensure that if it does take place it is not covered up but reported to the civil authorities and dealt with appropriatley.

Thank God because it's about time. And not just for Catholics.

>12 cbaw1957: it would appear that the "protocols" almost assume the priest is going to assult someone

Or rather, it makes it more difficult for anyone to accuse a priest of assaulting them, as it emphasises the same sorts of protection which are found in most professions where adults work with children. But it's true that many priests find that it hinders their ministry.

The Catholic Church in America hasn't been the same since Vatican II... in the types of people it attracts to the clergy.

Would you care to expand on that statement? I'm not sure what you're getting at.

Abuse scandals aren't confined to the Catholic clergy. There are cases in Evangelical churches, ones with a strong patriarchal bent, which have those in authority covering things up as best they can. For example, take a look at what's happening at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, TX and the ever expanding scandal involving Sovereign Grace Ministries, and Covenant Life Church. The cover ups center around protecting authority, and in submitting to the ministers by not reporting abuse.

>14 cbaw1957: Thanks, cbaw. I too can only speak anecdotally, based on the few hundred priests I have know and interacted with in a dozen or so countries on four continents. I don't have any statistics.

Pre-Vatican II there were certainly a lot of strong and self-confident men. I think of my own childhood Irish parish priest in London, and many of the old missionaries whom I knew in Africa. While they were "conservative" in their theology, as that was all that they knew during a period when the Church changed little in three or four centuries, they were often confident enough to be quite tolerant in their pastoral practice. Of course there were also many bitter frustrated alcoholic old bastards too.

In the aftermath of Vatican II I would argue that there was another crop of very strong men "with backbone and convictions", ready to take on the challenge of a changing Church in a fast-changing world. They faced an incredibly difficult and unsettling period of uncertainty. Sadly many of them eventually felt called away from the clerical priesthood when it seemed to them that the Church was not implementing the teaching of the Council and was trying to turn the clock back in many respects.

I hear what you say about the newer generation of "milk toast" priests. It seems to me that there are many amongst the younger priests who settle for a sort of comfortable conservatism, showing little initiative and not really thinking for themselves, not ready to face challenges.

Of course that is not true across the board. I see young missionary priests serving in some of the most difficult situations in the world, often risking their lives to do so. I also see young local priests in conflict areas such as Sudan and South Sudan who, after ordination, are catapulted into the war zone to live out their ministry with little support or guidance.

In all these eras and across all these groups I think one's spirituality is of immense importance. Many priests are burned out and operating at a fraction of their potential. They may be good at preaching, or liturgy, or even counselling, but have little or no relationship with God. Some are not even sure whether they still believe in God. All of that leads to guilt and shame, and they often won't admit it; after all, they are supposed to the be spiritual leaders. You say that they "lack proper training", and I would say that that is nowhere more true than in the spiritual life. They also lack proper support mechanisms, and for diocesan priests in particular it often seems difficult to find the community, retreats and sabbaticals which would help them. Religious congregations usually do better in this respect.

As I say, just my opinion, limited to what I see.

>17 cbaw1957: Funnily enough I was just having a similar conversation over dinner with one of the most senior priests in the national bishops' conference of the country I happen to be in this week. I'm not hooked on the actual term "comfortable conservatism", which I probably used out of convenience, and I often say that the terms "conservative" and "liberal" are not really very relevant when speaking of the Church. The "milk toast" priests tend to be cautious, comfortable with the status quo, not very proactive nor questioning, often with a quite limited vision of what the priestly and pastoral ministry is all about. In the "mission v maintenance" debate, very popular in the 1970s and referred to recently on one or two LT threads, they fall into the "maintenance" category.

Clear enough.

"I see young missionary priests serving in some of the most difficult situations in the world, often risking their lives to do so. I also see young local priests in conflict areas such as Sudan and South Sudan who, after ordination, are catapulted into the war zone to live out their ministry with little support or guidance"

I am curious, where do they come from? My guess is not the US or Europe for the most part.

>19 cbaw1957: We're getting quite a few missionaries from Latin America these days, both priests and nuns. Also a few from eastern Europe, other parts of Africa and Asia.

>21 cbaw1957: No, I really can't recall where they all come from.

It's time to face up to the problem of sexual abuse in the white community (Guardian)

> 2 "There's an interesting analysis today over at "Get Religion" about the apparent failure of German and European politicians and the press to bat an eye over the claims of pedophilia made against (and by) Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a prominent radical politician and vanguard of the 1968-generation:"

It seems I don't live on the same planet as your journalist. The scandal was (is) huge. European media had a field day. Years later, Cohn-Bendit's opponents still ask for his head, on TV and in the European Parliament. He was sidelined by his own party. He hasn't been charged with anything, but that might still happen (there are ongoing claims - but so far there is no evidence that he abused children, only that he wrote about touching them inappropriately). And Andreas Voßkuhle refused to give him his Theodor Heuss prize for democratic behaviour back in April. The English-speaking press may not have been interested, but the French and the German press definitely was.

Puerto Rican Archbishop Fights Sexual Scandal Allegations; Catholics Rally In Support
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2013/05/08/puerto-rican-archbishop-fights-...

Father Anthony Musaala, Ugandan Priest, Suspended After Decrying Sex Abuse, Celibacy In Church
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/08/father-anthony-musaala-suspended-sex-ab...

Rwanda vows to tackle school sex abuse (BBC)

43% of surveyed students across the country had been victims of abuse, including rape...

teachers were said to be among the worst offenders...

When paedophiles rule the church, the church becomes evil, your prayers becomes hopeless, and the cross becomes useless.

When Christians become the devil in disguise, the Bible becomes satanic.

When Christians torture innocents in the Name of Christ, Christianity becomes evil.

When those who wield the cross are evil, the cross becomes UNHOLY.

And when the very head of your religion tells you to commit suicide, as what happened to me, religion becomes a destructive tool of the devil.

>27 errengreywolf:, I've often said that religion has been the greatest blessing and the greatest curse on humanity. A blessing when it strives to live up to its ideal. A curse when miss-used for selfish reasons. That's where the problem starts, IMO: the corrosive effects of selfishness we harbor our hearts -- the heart of darkness. I see it all around me in society, in myself...

I thank God for grace. I thank God for people who strive for justice rather than being content in their complacency. May I, by God's grace, strive to live up to the Ideal.

The Catholic Church in America hasn't been the same since Vatican II... in the types of people it attracts to the clergy.

I don't know. Most of the abusers entered seminary before Vatican II, and, at least in Portland, one of our worst offenders did most of his abuse in the 1950s—it didn't come out until much later, of course. I suspect the primary difference is that, in the old days, this stuff didn't get out.

Everyone assumes I am a certain type of Christian, maybe fair enough given what I've posted thus far. But, I am a Cathostant (not hard to figure out). I attend both kinds of services and was at one time only Catholic.

Yeah. I assume it. While I respect whatever it is you feel yourself to be, your views so far have not been consistent with Catholic beliefs—as indeed is a position "between" Catholicism and Protestantism. Come back to our side. We have cake.

I thought it was the Episcopalians who had cake.

Come to our side (Presbyterians). We have scotch. Single Malt.

>32 Arctic-Stranger: Don't worry, so do we! I know many a non-Catholic traveller in Africa who would rather stay at a Catholic mission than a protestant one as they were sure to get a drink at the former!

At some point I would to visit you in Africa, John.

>34 Arctic-Stranger: Welcome! I usually keep a bottle or two of Islay single malt.

You might want to stock up!

Where exactly are you, when you are in Africa?

>36 Arctic-Stranger: We live in Nairobi but I spend most of my time in Juba, South Sudan. My wife is currently based in Nairobi but until recently was also in Juba. We both move around a lot (in fact I'm in Pretoria this week, and will be speaking at a conference in Cape Town next month), so anyone planning to catch up with us needs to check in advance whether we'll actually be there!

>38 cbaw1957:, Interesting. Thanks for posting.

>38 cbaw1957:

Right. But you blamed Vatican II. But Vatican II was 1962-1965--the mid-point of your time period, and implementation didn't really get going until the late 1960s. Most of these priests entered an essentially pre-Vatican II church.

And there's clearly also a time factor. Sex-abuse allegations came out around the same time, regardless of when they happened. The topic was suddenly open and people felt safety in numbers--they knew they weren't alone. People coming out as victims in early 00s knew a lot of priests ordained between 1950 and 1979 for the simple reason that the math worked out. Priests ordained in 1920 just weren't around to abuse them. Ones ordained in 1990 were ordained after they were children.

>38 cbaw1957: That's frightening.

Yeah, I just don't know. Some traditionalists like to imagine that Vatican II caused this, and that it was all the liberals. But so many of the worst cases were conservative ones—see, for example, Marcial Maciel, the founder of the Legion of Christ, the charismatic monster who abused seminarians, fathered children, abused his own children, etc. I think it's just as likely that what "caused" this is the decline in prestige. Before Vatican II, and before the overall decline in respect for authority, victims didn't speak out and the church could hush things up. And there's simply no question but that many conservative Catholics spent decades dismissing and discounting the scandal as a creation of the liberal media, hindering efforts to uncover the truth.

I certainly don't buy that Vatican II attracted the sort of men who covered up the misdeeds. If you go through some of the bigger names in the cover-up, you find bishops ordained before Vatican II or during it, meaning they entered seminary before it began—e.g., Bernadin (1952), George (1963), Mahoney (1962), Soens (1950), Bernard Law (1961). Some things are ideologically true, but the facts just don't bear them out.

One certainly couldn't cast most (all?) of the popes since Vatican II as "liberal".

How exactly is the planning, developing of arguments and casting of ideas of Vatican II related to the covering up of the sexual abuse of minors? Can you point to me where in the documents there's a shift that favors this? Wouldn't a rational, disinterested observer think that the many ways Vatican II decreased clericalism and emphasized the importance of lay people in the church tend to cut against the idea?

>27 errengreywolf:: "When paedophiles rule the church, the church becomes evil, your prayers becomes hopeless, and the cross becomes useless."

There's a term to describe this heresy: Donatism.

(Though I suppose you could be forgiven, as even some Doctors of the Church, e.g. Peter Damian, had a tendency to go in this direction -- though even Damian came back to orthodoxy in reigning in the more severe tendencies of the radical reformers, such as Cardinal Humbert of Silva Candida, in the matter of sexual sins committed by priest.)

>47 cbaw1957: Paedophiles didn't "rule" the Church. A very small percentage of priests were paedophiles and a very small percentage of bishops covered up their crimes. The Church has now put measures in place to reduce the opportunities for this to happen again.

>24 Dilara86: Green party in Germany to investigate backing for paedophiles in 80s (Guardian)

Sad, really sad.

I think that people who don't live in Alaska are generally very liberal and unable to function in the real world. Not that I am going to try to prove or even debate the point. Accept it or not.

This is how racism takes root (Guardian)

The different ways the media covered two cases of men grooming children for sex show how shockingly easy it is to demonise a whole community

See also >23 John5918: above, but this might have wider implications on how the media handles child sex abuse cases.

Annual audit shows number of abuse allegations in church dropped in 2012* (NCR)

The annual audit of diocesan compliance with the U.S. Catholic church's "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People" found a drop in the number of allegations, number of victims and number of offenders reported in 2012...

the fewest allegations and victims reported since the data collection for the annual reports began in 2004...

Most allegations reported last year were from the 1970s and 1980s with many of the alleged offenders already deceased or removed from active ministry...

Almost all dioceses were found compliant with the audit...

_________________________

* Referring to the US Catholic Church

(Anglican) Retired priest jailed over sex attacks at children's home (Guardian)

And from the BBC, two stories related to non-Church institutional abuse:

Sir Cyril Smith abuse claims investigation widens

Rolf Harris plays first live show since arrest

Church Whistle-Blowers Join Forces on Abuse (NYT)

Newark vicar general quits in wake of mismanaged abuse case (NCR)

BBC: new child sex abuse allegations emerge against staff other than Savile (Guardian)

Twenty BBC current or former employees have faced total of 36 allegations since October, FOI request reveals

International Criminal Court declines request it investigate Vatican leaders over abuse issues

Muslim religious leaders to condemn child sex grooming (BBC)

Church of England set to make child abuse apology

The Church of England is expected to make a formal apology for past child abuse by Anglican priests, and its own "serious failure" to prevent it...

Anglican Church's sexual abuse victims reject synod apology amid calls for inquiry (Guardian)

Another institutional cover up, this one by local government, not by church...

'Gutting' of Jillings child abuse report angers victims (Guardian)

Although findings have been published almost 20 years after being suppressed...

many passages in the 300-page document have been redacted, leading to suspicions that some of those involved in abuse or the flawed investigations into it are still being afforded protection they should not have...

Vatican to be pressed for confidential records on clerical child sex abuse (Guardian)

UN committee's 'list of issues' will present Pope Francis with direct challenge to disclose whether secret deals were made to preserve church's reputation

Dolan Sought to Protect Church Assets, Files Show

"Files released by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee on Monday reveal that in 2007, Cardinal Timothy F. Dolan, then the archbishop there, requested permission from the Vatican to move nearly $57 million into a cemetery trust fund to protect the assets from victims of clergy sexual abuse who were demanding compensation..."

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/02/us/dolan-sought-vatican-permission-to-shield-a...

An interesting reflection in the Grauniad on mandatory reporting of suspected child abuse:

Sex abuse in schools: the parents who want a change to the law

British Police shows like Prime Suspect with Helen Miren have highlighted that aspect of the British establishment that were considered, ironically enough, as "untouchable" and beyond prosecution.

Australia bishop: Early handling of sex abuse allegations was 'fairly bumbling'

Australia inquiry hears of 50-year cover-up

Both from NCR

Priest charged with child sex abuse (BBC)

the offences are alleged to have taken place during the 1970s and 1980s

Man held over 'large scale' sex abuse at Swaylands School (BBC)

Another case of institutional child sex abuse unrelated to churches.

The Dolan thing is interesting. Clearly the church bungled--cemeteries work best as independent entities, safe from unrelated claims and the temptation to raid their money for other purposes. At the same, it's also clear Dolan's motives were not malicious; he was acting to protect people who thought their money would go to upkeep on their graves, not be put in a general pot. Even so, the court should claw back that money. By choosing to structure things as they did, Dolan's predecessors made the money an asset, both when convenient and when inconvenient. If the graves of dead Catholics in New York heave and crack, or must prompt frantic and painful fund-raising by families, that is terrible, but it's not clear that's more terrible than denying the victims of child rape their due.

A couple more old cases from BBC:

Deacon and teacher appears on pupil sex abuse charges

Fresh claims over Catholic Church sex abuse

Abuse claims at former Catholic boarding school (BBC)

Internal church records released Tuesday (July 23, 2013) show that Chicago Jesuits consciously concealed the crimes of convicted sex offender Donald McGuire for more than 40 years as the prominent Roman Catholic priest continued to sexually abuse dozens of children around the globe.

As former spiritual director for Mother Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity, Donald McGuire offered Roman Catholic retreats around the globe.

The first allegation of sexual abuse against McGuire or any Jesuit priest in Chicago came in the form of a lawsuit filed in 2003 by a former student at Loyola Academy. The lawsuit alleged that McGuire molested and beat the student more than 100 times in 1968 and 1969. At the time it was filed, the lawsuit also named and accused the Jesuits of failing to inform law enforcement of the boy's complaints.

One letter written in 1970 by the Rev. John H. Reinke, then president of Loyola Academy in Wilmette, described McGuire's presence at the school as "positively destructive and corrosive." Yet instead of insisting that he be removed from ministry or sent to treatment, Reinke suggested a transfer to Loyola University.

'This whole situation has been so muddy and troublesome I just wanted to get it out of my mind from time to time,' wrote Reinke, who died in 2003. 'Anyway, here it is, for the files and the record. … There is little hope of affecting any change. … He cannot be corrected.'

The documents contributed to a $19.6 million settlement between the Jesuits and six men from four states announced Tuesday. With an average payout of $3 million per person, the amount per individual is the largest in the history of the U.S. Catholic sexual abuse crisis, the victims' lawyers said. The settlement and the documents add one more chapter to the still unfolding story of sexual abuse in the church."

The Chicago Tribune. July 25, 2013

Bishop to apologise for abuse at Fort Augustus School (BBC)

Archbishop of York orders review of dead clergy files in child abuse inquiry (Guardian)

NSPCC says reports of sexual abuse have soared after Jimmy Savile scandal (Guardian)

Vatican ambassador to Dominican Republic accused of paedophilia (Guardian)

Vatican recalls Dominican Republic envoy amid abuse claims (BBC)

A BBC report of a paedophile who allegedly abused up to 3,500 boys (not church-related):

Plymouth paedophile Goad 'did not act alone'

The Catholic Information Service for Africa has reported that the Pope is forming a new commission for the protection of minors. Cardinal O'Malley says:

“The commission will be able to advise the Holy Father about the protection of children and the pastoral care for victims of abuse.”

“Among the responsibilities of the commission will be to study the present programs in place for protection of children and to come up with suggestions or new initiatives on the part of the curia in collaboration with the bishops and the Episcopal Conferences.”

I received this in an e-mail update but I can't see it on their website yet; it usually takes a few days for them to update it.

UN panel confronts Vatican on child sex abuse by clergy (BBC)

Reading the Grauniad online today, on a single page I found four stories about how common sexual abuse by powerful figures and subsequent cover ups are/were in the UK (celebrities and teachers, in these cases - and none of them even mention Jimmy Saville, Rolf Harris nor clergy).

Almost 1,000 UK teachers accused of relationship with pupils in five years

Dave Lee Travis left student rigid with fear, sexual assault trial hears

'Petrified' girl feared Dave Lee Travis would rape her, court told

Bill Roache raped 15-year-old in his own home, trial hears

ARCHBISHOP TOMASI BEFORE COMMITTEE OF CHILD RIGHTS: HOLY SEE AND ITS INSTITUTIONS ARE COMMITTED TO DEFENCE OF INVIOLABLE DIGNITY OF EACH CHILD (VIS)

Pope Benedict XVI defrocked nearly 400 priests for child abuse (Guardian)

Benedict XVI defrocked nearly 400 priests over abuse (BBC)

>82 John5918: Ah, I should have known the British press couldn't go more than three days without a mention of Sir Jim!

Revealed: how Jimmy Savile abused up to 1,000 victims on BBC premises (Guardian)

Executives turned a blind eye to attacks, according to former judge's 'shocking' finding...

staff turned a blind eye to the rape and sexual assault of up to 1,000 girls and boys by Jimmy Savile in the corporation's changing rooms and studios...

his behaviour had been recognised by BBC executives who took no action...

Pope will be tough on paedophile priests, says sex abuse crisis authority (Guardian)

Monsignor Charles Scicluna says Pope Francis will not be lenient because justice matters more than protecting the church...

86, "Pope Francis will not be lenient because justice matters more than protecting the church."
The Pope is quite right; seeing as, any type of injustice is sinful in God's sight! Truth is the church and its leaders have a duty condemn sin and not to overlook it!

Chicago Catholic archdiocese releases documents detailing cover-up of abuse (Guardian)

Pope Francis vows to be very tough on pedophile priests (Catholic Online)

Here's my novel about a clergy man who got involved in a sexual abuse case. Good insights and solid message. The Red Madonna Michael Shaughnessy

Vatican 'must immediately remove' child abusers - UN (BBC)

The UN is a bit behind the times here. During the last ten years or so the Church has removed most of the known offenders, and it is now normal practice to suspend any priest who is accused.

>91 John5918:: I find it ironic that the UN's charges come under the purview of its Committee on the Rights of the Child -- yet one of the things they criticize the Vatican for is opposing abortion. Because you know, the right to be born is not a right of the child.

If such a supposedly humanitarian committee wears such blatantly secular political views on its sleeve and takes such a dim view of other human rights like those to life and religious freedom, it's hard to take its authority seriously.

The UN report is interesting reading, sometimes off-base, but maybe not necessarily unwarranted, given circumstances and that Holy See DID sign Convention on the Rights of the Child, e.g. Section 54 & 55 on abortion:

F. Disability, basic health and welfare (arts. 6, 18 (para. 3), 23, 24, 26, 27
(paras. 1-3) and 33 of the Convention)

Health

54. The Committee expresses its deepest concern that in the case of a nine-year old girl
in Brazil who underwent an emergency life-saving abortion in 2009 after having been raped
by her stepfather, an Archbishop of Pernambuco sanctioned the mother of the girl as well as
the doctor who performed the abortion, a sanction which was later approved by the head of
the Roman Catholic Church’s Congregation of Bishops.

55. The Committee urges the Holy See to review its position on abortion which
places obvious risks on the life and health of pregnant girls and to amend Canon 1398
relating to abortion with a view to identifying circumstances under which access to
abortion services can be permitted.

http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CRC/Shared%20Documents/VAT/CRC_C_VAT_CO_2_1...

Sounds like Holy See responses so far have been legalistic and not the humble stance that we have come to expect from Pope Francis. After all, the Brazilian girl was 9 year-old, rape/incest victim! Similar cases (though of adults and presumably outside purview of this committee) cost life of Indian woman in an Irish hospital and led to excommunication (and dismissal?) of US nun who permitted an emergency abortion in her hospital for a woman too ill to be moved. The Holy See certainly wouldn't be wasting its time identifying circumstances under which access to abortion services can be permitted, IMHO.

Vatican envoy rejects UN panel's critical verdict on clerical abuse scandal (Guardian)

The ever reliable John Allen (recently moved to the Boston Globe) weighs in with an excellent analysis of the UN panel's report, and the ways in which its criticism of Church policy on same-sex marriage and abortion may actually hinder the goal of improved child protection:

UN report on Vatican and sex abuse may hurt reform cause (Boston Globe)

>95 nathanielcampbell: criticism of Church policy on same-sex marriage and abortion may actually hinder the goal of improved child protection

Perhaps, if one is most concerned with preventing sexual abuse by priests (mostly, but not exclusively, of boys) but the UN Committee is looking at progress in implementing the entire Convention on the Rights of the Child and would be remiss if it didn't address other perceived shortcomings. (Maybe discussion of UN recommendations other than sex abuse should have its own thread?)

Interesting that the media is focusing on the Committee's report on the Holy See, as the committtee also reported on the reports of Congo, Yemen, Portugal, Russian Federation and Germany under the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its two Optional Protocols. In May it will consider the reports of India, Indonesia, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Saint Lucia and United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=14210&LangI...

>96 margd: Thanks, margd. You've partially answered the question in my own mind, which was what were the terms of reference of this committee's investigation.

But I also wonder what entity they were actually investigating. I would have thought that it was the Vatican State which signed the treaty, and thus the committee can only investigate what goes on within that sovereign state. Contrary to popular belief, the Vatican does not have the sort of control over the worldwide Catholic Church as a government has over affairs in its own country. One can argue for the moral responsibility, of course, as many of us within the Church have done, but I wonder how a UN convention signed by a UN member state can be applied to activities within other states where that signatory has no direct control?

>96 margd: ...how a UN convention signed by a UN member state can be applied to activities within other states where that signatory has no direct control?

If I understand correctly, the Holy See has already made that distinction though I'm not sure whether in its written or verbal reports. Regardless, I'm sure it will be repeated in its 2017 report!

I once worked for an agency created by convention between the US and Canada and we followed closely another treaty between the two countries. So far, I don't think the Vatican is being well-served by its reps in responding to this report--except perhaps by an amazingly frank priest on BBC News last night. (He stated that abusive priests are now being disciplined and referred to authorities--and to tell authorities, bishop, and Vatican if you know of case where not. He added that the Church would have been better off if 30-40 bishops had owned up to being wrong in transferring abusive priests, apologized, and resigned. He specifically lamented the bishop (in Kansas?) who stayed on after being convicted of cover-up.)

The thing is, there is always value in an outside review, no matter if some (lots?) is off-base. You accept it graciously and step out of limelight to consider, act, and reply as scheduled. The advantage to media coverage is that it might prompt a more thoughtful response (eventually). What used to bug me was agencies who, unless challenged by media, would attempt to kill an unfavorable report with legalese and bureaucracy, e.g., listing programs instead of on-the-ground-results. You don't need to cave, but you look a lot better in the public forum if you are gracious, do what you can, make a generous gesture if you can, and carefully and respectfully explain where you can't follow recommendations.

It's also a bit disingenuous of the Vatican to start playing the line that they have no control or authority over what happens in the world-wide Church, as the very history of the Vatican of the last two centuries (and more) has been a centralization of authority and decision-making to Rome.

So long as the Pope reserves the right to name all bishops everywhere, he also has to bear the responsibility for the things those bishops do.

>98 margd: Was that "frank" priest speaking as a representative of the Vatican State which signed the treaty, or of the Catholic Church, which are two separate entities?

But he's absolutely right when he says, "abusive priests are now being disciplined and referred to authorities--and to tell authorities, bishop, and Vatican if you know of case where not". This is what I have been saying on these interminable LT threads for several years now. I was surprised to see John Allen's statement (linked in >95 nathanielcampbell:) that in Italy some of this is still not being done (which also reinforces my point below that the Church is not a monolith controlled by the Great Dictator in the Vatican but that national churches have a great degree of independence), but in a number of countries where I am familiar with the Church I see new cases of abuse being handled correctly according to the new protocols.

He's also right, of course, that the institutional Church should have responded more openly and honestly to the crisis, something which we Catholics have been saying for years.

But it does seem to me that this UN committee is telling us things we already knew, and is focusing on things which happened years ago and are generally not happening now because we have already responded and put in place protocols to deal with them.

>99 nathanielcampbell: No, Nathaniel, I think you are off-base there. Of course he bears some moral responsibility, as I said in >97 John5918:, but I think a lot of non-Catholics fail to grasp how independent each diocese and each national Church is. And how a bishop behaves years after he has been ordained as bishop cannot be predicted. Oscar Romero is perhaps one of the best examples of this, in a positive way. Hindsight is a dangerous judge.

Poland's Roman Catholic Church faces first abuse lawsuit (BBC)

>100 John5918: Was that "frank" priest speaking as a representative of the Vatican State which signed the treaty, or of the Catholic Church, which are two separate entities?

I didn't catch who authorized his appearance, if he said. (Don't think so.) I THINK he prefaced his comment on bishops who should have resigned with an "In my opinion".

UN committee report on Vatican abuse a missed opportunity (NCR)

A well-argued piece which reiterates my own view that the committee is focused on the past and fails to examine the current situation.

In passing it notes that the USA has never ratified the treaty.

'Unjust' criticism won't force Vatican to drop treaty, spokesman says (NCR)

So long as the Pope reserves the right to name all bishops everywhere, he also has to bear the responsibility for the things those bishops do.

Was Christ responsible for Judas? ;)

>104 timspalding: Might also be worth noting that the pope usually chooses from a short-list of three names proposed by the national bishops' conference, usually after consultation within the diocese, and that the papal nuncio in that country will often have made his own enquiries which he can feed back to the pope.

It's clear the Pope has some moral responsibility for the men he appoints. It is also, I think, fairly clear that the Vatican is not merely a hierarchical and unmediated state bureaucracy.

That said, I think the Vatican should stop signing such treaties. The tiny Vatican city-state needs nothing of the sort, and Catholicism as a religion is of the wrong category to sign such things. And if a UN committee on children is going to take the Catholic church to task for violating a child-protection treaty because the church forbids abortion, well, all bets are off, and the Pope should resort to Vicoria Nuland's statement on the EU.

>106 timspalding: I've no objection to the Vatican as a state signing such treaties. As a sovereign state it should hold itself to the same international standards as any other state. But I entirely agree with you that "Catholicism as a religion is of the wrong category to sign such things".

>103 John5918: In passing it notes that the USA has never ratified the treaty.

I wondered about that, because some US jurisdictions have allowed anonymous, no-questions-asked surrender of babies, so as to reduce sad incidence of dumpster babies. The committee took church to task for anonymous surrender via "baby boxes", which made me wonder where and how they are used these days. In some Asian countries, anonymous surrender is rule rather than exception, to save biological mother's face, I think. (Topic for another thread, I know, as is church use of term "illegitimate children". The reproductive act may be illegitimate, but people never are.)

>108 margd: church use of term "illegitimate children"

It was common English usage for any child born outside marriage. I agree with your sentiment, of course, but it was the whole of society using that term, not just the church.

>106 timspalding: if a UN committee on children is going to take the Catholic church to task for violating a child-protection treaty because the church forbids abortion, well, all bets are off

The mother in question was 9 years old, i.e., herself a child, and so stats are the pregnancy would not go well. Could a 9-year old's pelvis even pass a baby? Is her body even big enough to contain and nourish a pregnancy? With precocious puberty more common all the time, so too must these cases of very young girls becoming pregnant as they are said to be very vulnerable to predators. I've read that the very youngest to become pregnant was 5 1/2 years old!

>109 John5918: "illegitimate children"

It wouldn't hurt for church to review these kinds of issues in its upcoming family conference if the desire is to be more inclusive. Small stuff in context of this thread, but "illegitimate children" isn't exception. In mother's day blessings or parent-and-child family values workshops, leaders frequently use terms that refer only to biological parent-and-child relationships. Yes, my adopted kids have noticed, bringing topic up on the way home. And yes, I bring to attention of leaders, trying to be as constructive and appreciative of their efforts as I can.

Has anyone got a link to the full report? I haven't found it yet.

>111 John5918: link to the full report

I think it's at http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CRC/Shared%20Documents/VAT/CRC_C_VAT_CO_2_1...

Thanks. Having read it I'm not very impressed. A few random comments:

It seems that despite their comments in para 8 they still don't seem to have made a solid distinction between Vatican State and Catholic Church, although in 66 they seem to limit it to the "State party".

28. The Committee urges the Holy See to adopt a rights-based approach

The "rights-based approach" is a model which is currently in vogue amongst many UN agencies and NGOs. It wasn't a few years ago and probably won't be in a few more years; these models come and go. It has its limitations.

30. The Committee is particularly concerned that in dealing with allegations of child sexual abuse, the Holy See has consistently placed the preservation of the reputation of the Church and the protection of the perpetrators above children’s best interests

I would say this is one example of the committee's focus on the past (when this was definitely true) rather than the present.

The same is true of most of para 43. Well-known child sexual abusers have been transferred from parish to parish or to other countries in an attempt to cover-up such crimes. We all know that used to happen, but it is not true any more.

Due to a code of silence imposed on all members of the clergy under penalty of excommunication, cases of child sexual abuse have hardly ever been reported to the law enforcement authorities in the countries where such crimes occurred. Again, the silence may once have been true (although I'm not so sure about the excommunication), but in the last few years reporting to the law enforcement authorities has become the norm.

44. Immediately remove all known and suspected child sexual abusers from assignment and refer the matter to the relevant law enforcement authorities for investigation and prosecution purposes, etc.... This is already the norm in most countries.

The Committee is deeply concerned that thousands of babies have been forcibly withdrawn from their mothers by members of Catholic congregations in a number of countries and subsequently placed in orphanages or given to adoptive parents abroad

Again, past history. This was done by governments as well (Australia being a prominent example). It was wrong, whoever did it. But it's not being done now.

60. the Holy See has systematically placed preservation of the reputation of the Church and the alleged offender over the protection of child victims... Child victims and their families have often been blamed by religious authorities, discredited and discouraged...

Yes, this used to happen. Is there any evidence that it is still happening systematically?

When I read the report, sometimes I felt I also needed to see the Convention, the Holy See's report to which the committee was responding, the transcript of testimony, plus, if possible, the Committee's briefing material. Either the Committee was misinformed on some issues, or it was erring on side of protecting kids, or it knows problems we don't, or it was hostile to the Holy See. (Would be interesting to read and contrast reports on other signatories.)

Few if any reporters or readers would investigate so deeply, of course, so Holy See would be well advised to be less defensive and legalistic in its immediate public response, I think. Otherwise, the public might believe that the Holy See still places "the reputation of the Church ... over the protection of child victims". i.e., "Child protection is our first priority. We believe that we have taken steps to ensure it. However, we will carefully review the committee's recommendations for any areas needing additional attention, and report back in 2017."

>108 margd:: " The committee took church to task for anonymous surrender via "baby boxes", which made me wonder where and how they are used these days."

They've also come into more frequent use in Germany in the last decade or so -- I'd be curious to know if the committee has reprimanded the Germans for it, too.

>114 margd: I think you're right that the Church has done a very poor job of raising public awareness about what it has actually done over the last ten years or so, and I agree that it could have handled this committee thing better too.

Incidentally I think the committee's comment on trafficking forgot to mention the 75-year old Catholic nuns in Mexico who are sheltering trafficked women and children: "The nuns tell me, without hesitation, that they would stand together and create a wall with their bodies and die for the women and children they protect." (Guardian)

UN, Vatican scrutinized following child abuse report (NCR)

Pope hits out at criticism of Church over sexual abuse (BBC)

>119 John5918: I know the Pope discussed other matters in his interview (as reported on Francis thread), but unfortunate that the two lines--

"The Catholic church is maybe the only public institution to have moved with transparency and responsibility", "No one else has done more. Yet the church is the only one to be attacked"

--were in there to be picked up by BBC and other media, and on the eve of Lent... (IMHO)

"Yet the church is the only one to be attacked" YIKES! Don't know about institutions, but what about all those kids??

>120 margd: Yes, I think his public relations sense slipped a little here.

On the other hand, I know where he's coming from. The national Catholic Church in most countries in the world has instituted robust protocols to reduce the opportunities for child abuse. New cases are routinely reported to the civil authorities. Any priest accused of child abuse is suspended until the investigation is concluded (including the civil investigation). Special focal points have been established in each diocese to deal sensitively with new cases. The Church's protocols on all this are publicly available on the internet. The climate within the Church has changed radically. There is a real sense in the Church that the media fails to notice all of this, which actually is quite a transparent and responsible progress.

Our fault (both our real fault and our PR mistake) lies in our failure to be transparent about the past, and our failure to deal responsibly with past victims. I don't think we are sheltering many paedophiles any more; when old cases come to light the priests are suspended and brought to justice (if they are still alive) and new cases are generally immediately dealt with properly. But our reluctance as yet fully to come to terms with the past overshadows all the very real progress which has been made in the last ten years or so.

Sex abuse investigations target top state schools (Guardian)

121> Yes, I think the Pope messed this one up. My interpretation is he's not excusing what happened, but that the church has made a real effort to change. Too soon to tell if the honeymoon with Francis is over, but I don't think so. For a public figure, having one year in the spotlight with one stumble is remarkable.

The Church is not the only institution attacked. The BBC has experienced their share of problems (based on looking the other way too long).

>123 pmackey: the church has made a real effort to change

That's definitely my own experience amongst the bishops and priests I work with.

The BBC has experienced their share of problems (based on looking the other way too long)

True. Although it's an unpopular thing to say now, I think there was a different attitude a few decades ago. Of course that doesn't justify abuse, but it does help to explain how it got covered up not only in the Church but in educational institutions (see 122>) and the world of celebrities. One or two senior politicians and judges also appear to have turned a blind eye (at the least) to the Paedophile Information Exchange back in those days.

The late Sir Jimmy Saville is not in a position to defend himself. A couple of the celebrities who are still alive to defend themselves have been acquitted (I think of Dave Lee Travis and that bloke from Coronation Street), so not all accusations of past abuse stand up in court. On the other hand Stuart Hall was found guilty, and of course Gary Glitter had his collar felt a long time ago. It will be interesting to see how Rolf Harris and one or two others make out.

>124 John5918: I think there was a different attitude a few decades ago. Yes, and I'm glad, but as Professor Moody said in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, "Constant vigilance!" Sometimes I think it isn't attitudes that have changed, but the increased fear of being exposed.

I had a friend who was a priest, and sent to a village parish in Bush Alaska, one of those places where you cannot drive to, you can only get there by river boat or airplane. After a bit he began to feel unnaturally attracted to some of the boys in the village, and self-reported. He was immediately removed, sent for about a year of therapy, and is now no longer a priest.

Unfortunately HE is not the kind of cleric I worry about, but in this case the church acted quickly, and probably rightly.

This has been such an evil perpetuated upon the youth of our Church, and consequently, a terrible burden for the Church, largely self-inflicted, from truly evil priests and incompetent and often evil bishops, and popes who acted too often too late; and for those with strong stomachs, the magisterial work to read about it is The Rite of Sodomy: Homosexuality and the Roman Catholic Church, by Randy Engel, 1200 some pages of horror the Church is still extricating itself from, which can be bought here http://newengelpublishing.com/

As I came into the Church during this scandal, I had to learn all I could about it to determine if it was endemic to the Church or the result of individual sin, and what I found was the latter.

>60 John5918:. the Holy See has systematically placed preservation of the reputation of the Church and the alleged offender over the protection of child victims... Child victims and their families have often been blamed by religious authorities, discredited and discouraged...

Yes, this used to happen. Is there any evidence that it is still
happening systematically?

==============

Dino Cinel was a former priest who had been defrocked in 1988, after the Church discovered 160 hours of homemade pornographic videotapes showing him engaging in oral sex, anal sex, and group sex with at least seven different teenage boys. Cinel’s pornographic photos of one of the young men had been published in the Danish magazine Dreamboy USA. They also found an extensive collection of commercially produced kiddie porn in his room at the rectory, including films of children performing oral sex on adult men.
There seems to have been a cover-up instigated by the Church and joined by the New Orleans district attorney. “The New Orleans D.A. at that time, and for the previous fifteen years, was Harry Connick Sr., father of the pop singer. Although the D.A. testified before the state legislature in favor of one of the country’s fiercest antiporn laws, he was also a parishioner at St. Rita’s, where Cinel celebrated mass and heard confessions. Cinel had been a guest in Connick’s home, and had presided at his brother-in-law’s wedding. When the archdiocese handed over Cinel’s videos to the D.A., they were accompanied by a letter that concluded, ‘This action on the part of the Archdiocese should therefore not be considered by your office in any way seeking the initiation of criminal charges with respect to this material or any activities of Dr. Cinel in relation thereto.’ Connick obligingly kept the entire case secret for two years, explaining later that he didn’t want to embarrass ‘Holy Mother the Church.’ The cover-up was later shattered by a local TV investigative reporter, Richard Angelico.
Wiener, Jon (2012-03-13). Historians in Trouble: Plagiarism, Fraud, and Politics in the Ivory Tower (Kindle Locations 2054-2061). New Press, The. Kindle Edition.

The Chicago Tribune (May 22, 2013), reports that "internal church records released this past May, showed that Chicago Jesuits consciously concealed the crimes of convicted sex offender Donald McGuire for more than 40 years as the prominent Roman Catholic priest continued to sexually abuse dozens of children around the globe."

>104 timspalding:
Was Christ responsible for Judas? ;)
======
Yes!

See: The Book of Judas; Reading Judas: The Gospel of Judas and the Shaping of Christianity by Elaine Pagels and King, Karen L., or The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot by Ehrman, Bart D.

>128 quicksiva: I think we're in agreement. It used to happen. I don't think it happens systematically any more, and indeed it would be very difficult for it to do so given the new protocols implemented by the Church as well as the different attitudes within Church and society, but of course there may be odd cases as no system works 100% perfectly.

Another famous dead person who can't defend himself is accused:

British military commander considered one of UK’s greatest World War Two generals is accused of molesting children ‘as they sat in his Rolls-Royce’ (Daily Mail)

131, Shame on him if it's true!

>132 cl1914p: And shame on his accusers if it is not true. We will probably never know, as he is not alive to tell his side of a story which ultimately is just one person's word against another's.

>133 John5918: just one person's word against another's...

One person's word against 65 others. When he lived, the general undoubtedly had more cards to play in defending himself than did the children...and now he's dead, and we are supposed to speak well of the dead. Even so, surely 65 voices against his, stilled as it is, must count for something?

Which isn't to say that people are never wrongly accused.

>134 margd: Which isn't to say that people are never wrongly accused

The cases against some of the British celebrities who are still alive to defend themselves and who were accused by multiple people but subsequently acquitted suggests that numbers aren't everything.

Abuse victim Marie Collins on Vatican committee (BBC)

O'Malley, abuse survivor named members of new Vatican clergy abuse commission (NCR)

Pope Francis names first members of child sex abuse commission (Guardian)

135> Another celebrity case: Jimmy Tarbuck will not face abuse charges (BBC)

"The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops released their eleventh annual report on the progress of implementing the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People as part of the effort to increase transparency with regards to sexual abuse."

"Takeaways from the report:
936 Allegations Of Sexual Abuse Were Made Last Year...
Twenty-Seven Allegations Of Sexual Abuse Have Been Substantiated...
730 Clerics Were Accused Of Abuse During The 2013 Audit Period...
28% Of Accused Clerics Are Currently Deceased...
Victims Of Abuse Were Overwhelmingly Male...
Over 40% Of Victims Were Between The Ages Of Ten And Fourteen...
The Most Frequent Instances Of Abuse Occurred In The 1970s...
The Church Spent Almost $3 Billion On Allegations In 11 Years...
Over 99% Of Priests Have Undergone Background Checks...
Four Church Bodies Refused To Participate In The Audit..."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/04/sex-abuse-catholic-church_n_5085414.htm...
http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/child-and-youth-protection/upload/2013-An...

>138 margd: Thanks for the link to the report, which I've just skimmed through. I think it's worth clarifying that rather stark statement, "936 Allegations Of Sexual Abuse Were Made Last Year" and pointing out that almost all of them refer to historic cases dating back decades. Only a handful were new cases of abuse relating to 2013.

>139 John5918: Only a handful (of 936 allegations) were new cases of abuse relating to 2013.

I suspect that a few more reports will be made for 2013 as alleged victims grow up.

Sunlight (these annual reports) can only help.

>138 margd: "Over 99% Of Priests Have Undergone Background Checks..."

Less than 100%? Maybe it's different in the US, but here in the UK it would be unthinkable that anyone would be able to work with children without having a background check.

A different type of alleged abuse and cover up...

Hiding in plain sight in France: the priests accused in Rwandan genocide (Guardian)

Catholic leaders accused of acting as apologists for the slaughter by helping priests accused of murder in Rwanda evade justice...

Editorial: An engaged laity demands answers on finances, abuse (NCR)

Pope Francis asks forgiveness for child abuse by clergy (BBC)

Pope apologizes for clerical sex abuse, promises tough sanctions (NCR)

> 144. There is an aspect of this that continues to confound me. One the the stories to which you link states: "The Pope set up a committee last year to organise help for victims of clerical sexual abuse." I don't know the precise charge issued to this committee, but news accounts all say something like this: "The Vatican in December announced that Francis would create the commission to advise the church on best policies to protect children, train church personnel and keep abusers out of the clergy." (NY Daily News) There is no mention about what would seem to be the first and highest priority: providing succor and healing to the victims and their families.

In any natural disaster, the obvious first response is to assist the victim. Why does this not seem to be the top priority for the Church, which appears to be more concerned about punishing malefactors and assuring the public that the problem is now under control. Other than paying settlements to victims and "asking forgiveness", what specific programs/guidance/therapies are offered to address the spiritual health of victims?

>145 jburlinson: In any natural disaster, the obvious first response is to assist the victim

I would suggest that the comparison with a natural disaster is not an apt one. Most of the cases under discussion are historic cases, and it seems to me that the obvious first response is to make sure that this does not happen to any more children. That's why the Church has put so much effort during the last ten to fifteen years into establishing systems to minimise the opportunities for criminals to abuse children, and also to make it extremely difficult for anyone to cover up such crimes. The latter has also involved a change of culture within the Church. At the same time new victims are receiving much better support from the Church than previously; "providing succor and healing to the victims and their families" is indeed a priority in new cases. Even the UN report was generally positive about what is happening now as opposed to the past.

However the Church has been slow to recognise the need to support past victims. I think there are many reasons for this. The large number of different victims in different countries who have different needs and expectations makes it difficult to find a simple response. There are studies and examples of good practice in supporting victims (I think I referred to some of them in one of the two predecessors to this continuing thread), but as far as I know there is not yet a consolidated and comprehensive approach. It's a work in progress.

Nigel Evans urges review of historical sex assault cases (BBC)

Another high profile British establishment figure acquitted of sexual assault, in this case against young men but not children, I believe. I think there's an increasing realisation how difficult it is prove beyond reasonable doubt that someone is guilty in historical cases, when there is no evidence and only the word of one party against one (or more) others; even more so when the accused party is deceased (as in the case of Sir Jimmy Savile) and cannot even give his side of the story.

High profile figures may be acquitted, but they are not necessarily innocent. I think of 2008 movie "Doubt". (Trailer is at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0918927/)

"To make sure that this does not happen to any more children", the Church needs to have a lower bar than "beyond reasonable doubt" for reassigning priests where no kids. "First, do no harm."

Comparison with chemicals in the environment may be apt? To be "precautionary" in protecting public health from chemicals, "weight of evidence" approach may be preferred over clinical trials.

>148 margd: High profile figures may be acquitted, but they are not necessarily innocent

Well, I think you're going down a very slippery slope indeed there. That smacks of vigilantism. There's not enough evidence to convict someone, but "we" (who?) still think he's guilty. How shall we punish him? Hold a kangaroo court and then lynch him?

The Church has already put in place mechanisms to "make sure that this does not happen to any more children", at least as far as is humanly possible. It no longer reassigns priests in the way it used to, and of course in "live" cases it takes a precautionary approach. But protecting children today and in the future has nothing whatsoever to do with finding people innocent or guilty of crimes that happened decades ago.

As you say, a case may come down to he said/she said, and a priest may be acquitted. His bishop, however, may be aware of other information that could not be introduced in court, such as past accusations or a child-porn collection. IMO, a bishop interested in the well-being of children--and the reputation of the church--should ensure that such a priest has no further contact with children.

>150 margd: And of course that's the case; that's what actually happens. But I'm not talking about a bishop protecting children in a current case; that is taken for granted. Most of what is being read about in the media now, both church and establishment figures, is about historical abuse which happened many decades ago, where it is extremely difficult to make a fair judgement.

Edited to add: "Past accusations" would have to be judged on their merits; once again they are one person's word against another's. A "child-porn collection" is a separate case and a separate crime; there would be evidence, not just word of mouth accusations.

Another ongoing case of alleged historic child abuse by a (non-church) establishment figure and cover up by the authorities:

Lib Dems face 'questions' over Cyril Smith abuse claims (BBC)

And two conflicting claims about John Paul II on the same website, NCR:

Vatican: John Paul II took 'immediate' action on sexual abuse

Records show that John Paul II could have intervened in abuse crisis - but didn't

Here's an example of the kind of thing I was thinking of: My Peace I Give You: Healing Sexual Wounds with the Help of the Saints by Dawn Eden (what a wonderful name for a Christian writer!) Although she was not abused by a priest, the author is an adult convert to Catholicism at least partly because, according to her: "I also instinctively felt from what I understood of the Catholic faith that somehow the wounds I retained from the abuse, these effects had some kind of meaning in Christ, that they weren’t my fault. But I struggled to understand what meaning these wounds might have." In her book, she uses the lives of certain saints, like Blessed Laura Vicuña, to explore models for how to cope with childhood trauma. Here's another quote:

"I really began to see my own wounds in light of the wounds of Christ. And I realized, with Christ now being glorified and yet retaining his wounds, that if I united my own wounded heart to the wounded and glorified heart of Jesus, then somehow my wounds could become the crack that Christ’s light could get in. This was a revelation for me because all this time I’d been thinking that my wounds separated me from the love of Christ, that they were simply an obstacle. But this insight made me realize that in fact I could actually find healing in Christ not in spite of my wounds but through my wounds. My wounds could lead me to greater intimacy with God through realizing my dependence upon him for everything, and through personally participating in the victory over sin that Jesus won for me through his passion."

The quotes above all came from an interview with the author at
Spiritual Healing After Sexual Abuse - The Catholic World Report

Cyril Smith abuse: council may face cover-up investigation

A familiar term - "cover up"

Vatican: States must tackle child abusers among clergy (BBC)

Vatican tries to draw line under clerical sex abuse scandals at UN hearing (Guardian)

Not church-related, but institutional:

Abuse in Britain's boarding schools: why I decided to confront my demons (Guardian)

For generations of boys, sexual abuse was part of the everyday cruelty of boarding school. In this painfully honest report, writer Alex Renton confronts the demons of his past at Ashdown House, where some of Britain's most powerful men were also educated – and reveals the scale of the outrage about to engulf the private education system...

56> Not church related, but institutional" Yes, but the church clergies ought to know better. The church has a duty: it is to uphold righteousness; and so those who are working for the church should do so or get out!

>157 cl1914p: Of course. Teachers also ought to know better, as their whole vocation is to nurture children. But obviously some of them didn't. If we want to understand how and why leaders went wrong, whether in the church or in other institutions, and try to prevent it happening again, it can be helpful to examine how the same dynamic has worked out elsewhere in society.

158>Yes, I think you are very right, John! Blessings!!!

Puerto Rico arrests priest charged of child sexual abuse (BBC)

Pope to meet sex abuse victims at the Vatican (BBC)

Vatican's ex-ambassador to Dominican Republic defrocked (Guardian)

An archbishop, no less.

>163 timspalding: Yes. I think this is important because it shows that the Church is trying to deal with the problem. The last paragraph of that article reminds us that over 800 priests have been defrocked and two and a half thousand disciplined in other ways since the Church began to take the issue seriously a decade or so again.

Ultimately I don't think the problem will be dealt with, and the whole thing stop stinking up the church, until the people who protected the pedophile priests--and the institution--are also punished. So long as you have people like Bp. Finn still in office--a man whose criminal conviction for shielding a pedophile would render him ineligible to teach Sunday school in his very own diocese!--accountability hasn't arrived.

>165 timspalding: Agreed. Dealing with those who covered up the crimes has kicked off more slowly than dealing with the original criminals, but I think there are signs that it is beginning.

Home Office under fire over lost paedophile dossier (BBC)

Another cover up, this time by the British political establishment?

Edited to add:

Edwardian house at heart of a long-simmering sex scandal (Guardian)

Calls for full inquiry as allegations of 1980s abuse by 'powerful paedophile network' in London resurface...

Interestingly the then Home Secretary mentioned in the article, Leon Brittan, is now reportedly also being investigated for a historic rape claim (Leon Brittan 'questioned by police over historic rape claim'), albeit not of a minor.

Edited again to add:

Child abuse 'may well have been' covered up - Norman Tebbit (BBC)

A former cabinet minister has said there "may well have been" a political cover-up of child sex abuse in the 1980s. Lord Tebbit told the Andrew Marr Show the culture at the time was to protect "the establishment" rather than delving "too far" into such claims...

Sound familiar?

Pope Francis holds first meeting with sex abuse victims (BBC)

Related to 167>:

Child abuse claims: Evidence of '20 prominent figures' (BBC)

And perhaps obliquely related:

Whitehall study wanted age of consent lowered to 14 and sentences for sex cut (Guardian)

Girls as young as 12 'may not only want to take part in but initiate sexual activity', said 1979 Home Office report...

And a reflection on another establishment figure, this time in the entertainment industry, who has been convicted of historic paedophile offences:

Rolf Harris: columnists offer balanced views of the disgraced entertainer (Guardian)

Pope Francis lambasts Catholic bishops who helped cover up child abuse (Guardian)

Pontiff makes strongest condemnation yet of paedophile priests and senior clergy who obfuscated rather than punished...

Historical abuse cases 'diverting attention from children at risk' (Guardian)

Officers are dealing with hundreds of cases involving abuse in the past in institutions including schools, churches, children's homes and a number of allegations relating to high profile people...

many had spoken to her of their concern at being diverted from current cases of abuse to investigate historical cases as a result of clamour from politicians and the media...

Statistics show that the vast majority of child sexual abuse takes place in the home...

the political climate meant that important current cases could not be dealt with because "they are being diverted to dealing with these historic cases. The thing about historic abuse in the main is that the abuse has stopped, there are not children at risk now who need to be removed from the situation"...

Police fear being overwhelmed as 660 suspects are arrested over paedophilia (Guardian)

Chief constable warns of 'unprecedented increase' in allegations of child abuse in wake of Jimmy Savile and Rolf Harris cases...

Calls for Resignation Mount for Minnesota Archbishop in Scandals

...for the last year and a half, the archbishop, John C. Nienstedt, has been battling to hold onto his post in the face of a series of scandals, which further deepened on Tuesday with the filing of an explosive affidavit by the former chancellor of the archdiocese.

The troubles started in May 2013 when the accountant for the archdiocese pleaded guilty to stealing more than $670,000 in church funds, and intensified when the chancellor, Jennifer M. Haselberger, quit and went public that autumn with allegations that the archbishop and his inner circle had covered up the actions of pedophile priests in recent years and funneled special payments to them.

This month brought new revelations, first reported by the Catholic journal Commonweal, that Archbishop Nienstedt had earlier this year commissioned an investigation of himself in response to allegations that he had a series of inappropriate sexual relationships with men, including seminarians and priests he supervised, as he moved up the church’s hierarchy in Detroit and Minnesota.

The archbishop said the accusations are “entirely false,” and do not involve minors or criminal conduct, and that he had authorized his auxiliary bishop to hire a law firm in Minneapolis to conduct an independent investigation...

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/16/us/calls-for-resignation-mount-for-minnesota-a...

StarTribune calls for Nienstedt resignation (NCR)

How many men are paedophiles? (BBC)

The article also contains an interesting link to a story on the Paedophile Information Exchange, which campaigned openly in favour of paedophilia in Britain in the 1970s and '80s.

Curious whether paedophilia is inherent or learned behaviour, I came across this Guardian article:

http://www.sott.net/article/255768-Ponerized-society-UKs-Guardian-publishes-favo...

Anglican Bishop of Gloucester questioned over claims of sexual assault in 1980s (Guardian)

Private Eye

Cardinal George Pell’s trucking company analogy outrages sex abuse survivors (NCR)

Former Vatican ambassador stripped of immunity over sex abuse claims (Guardian)

Not church-related, but another example of institutional failures.

Rotherham child abuse scandal: 1,400 children exploited, report finds (BBC)

Polish priest Wesolowski may be extradited in sex abuse case (BBC)

NPR: Report Details 16 Years Of 'Horrific Abuse' Of Children In U.K. Town
http://www.npr.org/2014/08/26/343476152/report-details-16-years-of-horrific-abus...

Rotherham child sex abuse could be tip of an iceberg (Guardian)

the same abuse is continuing to happen across the country, and is hidden in other boroughs that refuse to acknowledge the problem...

"What we see time and time again is that young people are not treated as victims, there is a real failure to see the vulnerability of these young people..."

A culture of impunity among abusers can also create an environment where abuse is almost casual... "there has been this sense that everybody does it and everyone gets away with it."

Defrocked, former Vatican Ambassador Jozef Wesolowski faces criminal charges by the tribunal of the Vatican City, which last year updated its laws to specifically criminalize sex abuse of children. It is not clear, however, if the new law can be applied retroactively.

http://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2014/08/25/vatican-ex-envoy-can-be-tri...

Stripped of diplomatic immunity, Wesolowski may be tried for sex abuse in Dominican Republic, if extradited. However, the Vatican does not have an extradition agreement with the Dominican Republic. Polish authorities have also been looking to extradite the former archbishop.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/26/jozef-wesolowski-trial-extradited_n_571...

The Vatican’s handling of the case shows both the changes the church has made in dealing with sexual abuse, and what many critics call its failures. When it comes to removing pedophiles from the priesthood, the Vatican is moving more assertively and swiftly than before. But as Mr. Wesolowski’s case suggests, the church continues to be reluctant to report people suspected of abuse to the local authorities and allow them to face justice in secular courts. ... A Dominican bishop, Victor Masalles, visiting Rome in late June, said in a Twitter message that he was surprised to see Mr. Wesolowski “strolling the Via della Scrofa,” in the city’s picturesque ancient center. He added, “The silence of the Church has hurt the people of God.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/24/world/americas/whisked-away-vatican-ambassador...

>`85 the church continues to be reluctant to report people suspected of abuse to the local authorities and allow them to face justice in secular courts

That may still be the case in some countries, but in other countries it is now a routine part of the Church's protocol on dealing with alleged child abuse to immediately report the case to the police as well as to suspend the accused person while investigations are carried out. That is the case in the UK and South Africa, for example.

>146 John5918: it seems to me that the obvious first response is to make sure that this does not happen to any more children

With respect, this does not seem like the obvious first response. The obvious first response is to attend to the abused child. Here's an analogy: a cop happens sees someone assaulting someone else. The cop approaches and makes her presence known. The perp flees. What does the cop do -- chase the perp or tend to the victim? Standard policy in the USA and other countries is to tend to the victim first and follow up tracking down the perp later.

That does not seem to be how the Church has dealt with this problem. The various posts on this thread and its predecessors are all about uncovering new instances of abuse and actions taken to punish abusers of the recent or distant past. There is almost nothing about how to heal the victim. I realize that in # 146 you wrote: new victims are receiving much better support from the Church than previously; "providing succor and healing to the victims and their families" is indeed a priority in new cases. Even the UN report was generally positive about what is happening now as opposed to the past. But these efforts receive next to zero attention in the media, even the Catholic media, as far as I can tell. Admittedly, I'm not aware of everything that happens in Catholic media, so maybe you could point me to the appropriate places.

The large number of different victims in different countries who have different needs and expectations makes it difficult to find a simple response.

I admit that this is true, in some ways. But, on a fundamental level, the Church faces a fairly simple problem -- how can people who have been fundamentally betrayed by its official hierarchy receive emotional and spiritual help? The first step seems to me to be to acknowledge that this is challenge #1 and then to do everything at the local, regional and global level to figure that out.

>187 jburlinson: I don't really want to get into an argument about which is more important amongst things which are all important. A great deal of work has gone into preventing child sexual abuse (or at least minimising it, since there is probably no foolproof system for preventing some criminals from committing some crimes) and I do think that is a priority. As you note, care for the victims of any new cases has greatly improved. I think it has proved more difficult to deal with the victims of historic cases for many reasons, some good and some not so good. Clearly we haven't got it right yet.

Here's an analogy:

I don't think your analogy works. We are dealing with historic abuse cases, many of them decades old. Clearly the victims of these old crimes are still suffering and still need help, but I'm not sure it is analogous with the need to tend to someone who has just this moment been assaulted. If your hypothetical cop refused to chase a new perpetrator who is actively assaulting people now because he had to go round and check up on someone who was assaulted by a different perpetrator thirty years ago but is currently under no threat whatsoever, questions might be asked about his priorities. But it doesn't have to be either/or, and I think efforts are being made in all directions. Incidentally I think my 146 > which you reference was also a response to an analogy which I felt was not apt.

these efforts receive next to zero attention in the media

Precisely.

Church deacon who sexually abused 10 schoolboys is jailed for nine years (Guardian)

Yvette Cooper calls for change to law after abuse scandal (Guardian)

Shadow home secretary says Labour would introduce mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse...

Interesting. I wasn't aware that reporting was not mandatory already in the UK, although as the government says, ""Existing statutory guidance is already crystal clear that professionals should refer immediately to social care when they are concerned about a child or vulnerable adult..."

>188 John5918: I don't think your analogy works.

Perhaps it doesn't, since you rightly point out that the choice in the analogy relates to helping a victim immediately upon the event of the assault, not prioritizing victim services years or decades later. I get that.

But what I still struggle to understand is the Church's apparently ongoing system of priorities, its public strategy, if you will, which seems to be assuring the world that now the Church is taking every possible step to (1) ensure that potential abusers do not become priests, (2) find and expel, or take other strong action against, priests who are still or have been abusing, (3) punish abusers and their enablers within the hierarchy.

What doesn't seem to be as much a priority is tending to the emotional and, most pertinently, spiritual damage suffered by the victims, victims' families & loved ones, and even non-victim people of good will who are shocked when they observe respected, even venerated, organizations, like the RCC or the BBC, show evidence of sweeping despicable behavior under the rug. I acknowledge right away that I'm not a Catholic, and therefore am very much an outsider who, for the most part, only sees what's depicted in the media, including the Catholic media. With that as my knowledge base, I can't get over the feeling that the Church has made and is still making a mistake in not putting victims' needs at the very top of its to-do list.

I can see that it would be hard, considering the years that have passed in many cases; but it strikes me that, purely for its own self-interest, if nothing else, the Church would be well advised to make this the number one priority. For example, instead of saying 'look at all the reforms we're making, priests and bishops we're disciplining, etc.", why not first say "people in our care have experienced devastating trauma, and, although we're doing everything we can to be sure this never happens again, our number one concern is using our considerable resources and the healing power of the Holy Spirit (or some such language), to identify all those who have been traumatized and to alleviate their suffering. To that end, look at all our programs that we believe can heal and comfort the afflicted."

>191 jburlinson: I don't deny that the Church has handled this badly, but I suspect that if we had put all our resources into helping people who were abused forty years ago and had not tried to inform the world that we are doing everything in our power to stop it from happening to children who are actually at risk today and in the future, we would also have been pilloried. Likewise if we had not tried to deal with the perpetrators; since we are already historically guilty of covering up abuse cases, it would make it even worse if were seen to be perpetuating the cover up. It has been difficult to work out what victims want also, as they are by no means a monolith and the high-profile campaign groups do not necessarily speak for all, but it seems that "justice" (ie punishment) for the perpetrators was one of the things that many were calling for. We have done relatively well at identifying the rapists and getting them into the legal system, as well as disciplining them within the Church, but obviously we have done very badly at dealing with those who covered it up. However as the cases of the BBC, the political establishment, schools and social services show, it's not always easy to work out exactly who is to blame for covering up, what their motives were, how much they understood, and what to do about them. It's only now that some bishops are being called to account.

I wouldn't say that the Church is ignoring victims. Counselling, healing, spiritual solace is often offered to them. However for those who want, for example, financial reparations, this is a fairly new area for the Church and is bankrupting some dioceses, thus depriving ordinary Catholics and other beneficiaries of the Church's work, so it is taking a while for Church authorities to come to grips with this new phenomenon. All of this makes it a very complex issue, which we have not handled well. But there is no doubt in my mind that the culture within the Church has changed irrevocably, and we can only get better at dealing with these cases.

Rotherham child sex abuse: it is our duty to ask difficult questions (Guardian)

Anyone who wants to fight for emancipation should not be afraid to examine religion and culture...

Edited to add a different one, also from the Grauniad, connected with abuse in a UK school:

Chetham's music teacher jailed for historical sexual assault on pupil

Sex abuse church elder McConaghy 'too fat for jail'

Scott Rogers murder: TV host in sex abuse claims

Both from BBC

A different take on abuse of children, by Gordon Brown in the Grauniad:

These attacks on children are crimes against humanity

Child protection is 'gospel priority' for Church, Pope Francis (Catholic News Agency)

Addenbrooke's Hospital cancer doctor admits child sex offences (BBC)

Vatican arrests former nuncio on sex abuse charges (http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2014/09/23/dominican-republic-josef-wesolowski-vatican-puts-ex-dominican-envoy-under-house-arrest/).

>198 hf22: This one was big news on BBC World Service this morning. A high profile case in which the Vatican appears to be doing the right thing.

>199 John5918:

Agreed. Good work by the Pope and the others involved.

>200 hf22: BBC phrased it interestingly, that Pope Francis has 'got it' and understood that sexual abuse of minors is not just a sin but also a crime.

>201 John5918:

Yeah, there are some in the Church who have not.

At the current Royal Commission into this matter in Australia, a line up of senior Catholics (mostly former heads of religous orders) made clear that until recently they would have thought of child sex abuse by a priest as a "moral failing", and never would have considered calling the police.

So about the same as you might treat a priest who had a temporary and consensual sexual relationship with an adult.

How the hell they managed to think that, I do not understand, but that seems to have been the culture between the 1960s to the early 1990s in these orders. Damming stuff.

>202 hf22: Yes, I think it's very clear that many bishops and priests did think of it primarily as a moral failing. Because it was to do with sex, they instinctively equated it, as you say, with consensual sex by a priest with a woman (or a man, for that matter), which is a sin but not a crime. As you say, "how the hell"? In some ways I think it was an inevitable by-product of the out-of-touch, patriarchal and nominally-celibate old boys' club which all too often characterised the clerical life.

>203 John5918:

"Nominally-celibate" might be the key point. What on earth else were they up to that made this seem not a big deal?

There are public claims, from people such as John Hepworth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hepworth), of seminaries being places where students regularly suffered from unwanted sexual advances from peers and teachers. I have also heard stories privately indicating the same.

I don't want to believe them, but I think there must be truth in them. Thoroughly corrupt.

>203 John5918: In some ways I think it was an inevitable by-product of the out-of-touch, patriarchal and nominally-celibate old boys' club which all too often characterised the clerical life.
>204 hf22: What on earth else were they up to that made this seem not a big deal? ... Thoroughly corrupt.

One of the things that they might have been up to possibly concerns the RCC's longstanding conviction that sexuality, as practised in post-Edenic times, constitutes an "interior imbalance", according to John Paul II in Theology of the Body. According to these teachings, people have a shame of their own sexuality relative to other human beings. At the beginning, shame is explained by lust and lust by shame. The birth of shame in the human heart leads to the beginning of lust, the three-fold concupiscence of the body St. John describes. A person is ashamed of his/her body owing to lust or evil desire. Desire comes from a lack or necessity. Human lust is a desire for what was lost from the meaning of the body.

If this is the kind of thing that is a core belief, then, inevitably, the desire of a priest for a child is only one expression of a general, even universal, malady. If all are corrupt, by nature, then one kind of corrupt behavior is no different in kind from another. Hence, no particular big deal, if the whole kit-and-kaboodle is screwed up, to coin a phrase.

>205 jburlinson: Thanks - interesting insight.

>205 jburlinson:

In terms of the thinking of various individuals, you may be right.

However I don't find that tendency in the Catholic Tradition. The fallen nature of humanity, and the fact we are all sinners, comes through very strongly.

But that focus does not appear to prevent making distinctions between various sins and their level of seriousness. In fact, one of the criticisms of Catholic moral theology before Vatican II were its manuals, which graded a seemingly limitless number of sins by their gravity.

Accordingly I don't think it holds up more broadly.

Interesting contribution however - Many thanks.

>207 hf22: one of the criticisms of Catholic moral theology before Vatican II were its manuals, which graded a seemingly limitless number of sins by their gravity.

But what seems to have happened in this situation is the opposite, in a way, in that the Church apparently refused to grade these priests' sins of the flesh as more grave than any other person's. In these cases, it's the society at large that makes a distinction between pedophilia and other lustful activities. It seems a little perverse to blame the Church for being reluctant to adopt social norms that are not rooted in its theology; in fact, some might consider it arbitrary and cruel to say that one type of lustful act is worse than another. At least it seems that's how some might have viewed the situation.

>207 hf22: I think one always has to make the distinction between official Catholic teaching and what was held to be true popularly, including by many of the priests and nuns. We had popular devotion, popular piety and popular teaching. Official teaching was actually very inaccessible to the punter in the pews and to many low-level pastors before Vatican II, except at the very basic level of the penny catechism. Limbo is a good non-controversial example of something which was widely taught and believed by most to be Catholic teaching until it was dropped a few years back.

Sex was generally held to be a Bad Thing and we Catholics excelled at sexual guilt. Was it Augustine who conceded that it was a necessary evil in order to procreate, but insisted that it was a sin if you enjoyed it? Any sex act which did not have procreation as its goal was sinful for that very reason, whether it be masturbation, homosexual sex, rape of a child, or simply a married couple practising coitus interruptus. It's not too difficult to see how that all got perverted in the minds of many. Many Catholics thought (and many priests taught) that masturbation was as bad a sin as adultery; how many people would come to confession and say, "I have sinned against the seventh commandment" when they simply meant they'd had a wank? And some priests and bishops thought that sex with a child was no worse than sex with a woman.

>208 jburlinson:

At least it seems that's how some might have viewed the situation.

Could well have been. As I said, I don't get it, so your proposal is as good as any.

>209 John5918:

I think one always has to make the distinction between official Catholic teaching and what was held to be true popularly, including by many of the priests and nuns.

Agreed. True today as well.

We had popular devotion, popular piety and popular teaching. Official teaching was actually very inaccessible to the punter in the pews and to many low-level pastors before Vatican II, except at the very basic level of the penny catechism.

Sounds about right.

Limbo is a good non-controversial example of something which was widely taught and believed by most to be Catholic teaching until it was dropped a few years back.

Off topic, but strangely enough limbo has the same offical status it always had. Clever speculation, which may be held as a pius opinion, but not taught as true by the Church.

Now it has certainly lost favour as a possibility, both at an offical level, and even more so at a popular level. We might count it as an attempted development of doctrine which failed.

And some priests and bishops thought that sex with a child was no worse than sex with a woman.

The misunderstanding may well be the cause.

>208 jburlinson: society at large that makes a distinction between pedophilia and other lustful activities

Although I think it's worth noting that in the '60s and '70s, while they may have been unpopular minorities, it was at least possible for voices to speak out in favour of child sex without attracting the pretty universal condemnation that they do today. The Paedophile Information Exchange, man-boy love societies, Roman Polanski, groupies in the entertainment scene, tacit collusion with the likes of Jimmy Savile, abuse in schools and social services, political figures, etc. I'm not saying that western society at large was ever in favour of sexual abuse of children, but nevertheless there were a number of dynamics which clouded the issue a little.

Useless Bishop who protects child abusers removed by the Pope in Paraguay (https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/blog/pope-francis-removes-paraguayan-bishop-updated).

Pope wants rigor in child abuse cases as former Nuncio placed under house arrest (Vatican Radio)

Pope calls for unity among Paraguay's Catholics as he dismisses bishop (NCR)

'Unfaithful' Bishop of Arundel and Brighton resigns (BBC)

his actions "were not illegal and did not involve minors"...

Interesting comments from a celebrity:

Stephen Fry: Drug use different from sexual abuse cases (BBC)

Vatican's actions show progress on sex abuse (NCR)

Moreover, it appears that Francis is finally making headway in holding bishops accountable for the protection of children...

Pope Francis accepts Bishop Conry’s resignation (Catholic Herald)

There will be No Tolerance to Priests on Issues of Child Sex Abuse - Cardinal Pengo (AMECEA News)

Geoffrey Robertson QC criticises arrests over alleged sex crimes (BBC)

'Historic settlement' in Minnesota yields plan to guard against future sex abuse

A "historic settlement" of a lawsuit Monday in Minnesota produced more than financial compensation for the alleged survivor of clergy sex abuse. It also saw the formation of an unlikely partnership among two dioceses and one of the nation's most prominent abuse litigators...

Former altar boy on monsignor: 'I have never seen him touch or harm anyone'

Both from NCR

Archbishop of York 'wholehearted' apology to abuse victims (BBC)

Church of England to examine 1950s records in child abuse investigation (Guardian)

Philadelphia priest arrested on child pornography charges, put on leave (NCR)

Child sexual exploitation ‘now normal in parts of Greater Manchester’ (Guardian)

Sexual exploitation of vulnerable children has become the social norm in some parts of Greater Manchester...

Ex-archbishop of York quits church position over report into alleged abuse (Guardian)

Lord Hope steps down from role following finding of ‘systemic failures’ by the Church of England over child abuse allegations...

Italian diocese laments suicide of priest who admitted abuse (Catholic News Agency)

Three Cincinnati priests on leave for misconduct have been laicized (NCR)

>227 John5918: suicide of priest who admitted abuse

The former pastor of our summer church (and a local high school) is thought to have committed suicide after being convicted of abusing a teenage boy among other crimes. (Priest was out on bail awaiting appeal.) Police, lawyer, newspaper alluded to cause of death but never quite came out and said for sure. Police: "No foul play." Lawyer had mentioned possibility of suicide in court case, but declined to comment further after the fact. Sad, yes, but I was disappointed that diocese didn't include victim in its call for prayers for the priest and his family. It seems to me that having one's abuser apparently kill himself could be an emotional event for victim. Some victims might feel guilt, however unwarranted?

Speaking of guilt-inducing suicide, sounds like the Italian priest arranged his suicide, so bishop who was disciplining him would be one to find the body...

>229 margd:

Sad, yes, but I was disappointed that diocese didn't include victim in its call for prayers for the priest and his family. It seems to me that having one's abuser apparently kill himself could be an emotional event for victim. Some victims might feel guilt, however unwarranted?

Agreed. In such circumstances, I would have thought the victim should remain the number 1 priority.

Speaking of guilt-inducing suicide, sounds like the Italian priest arranged his suicide, so bishop who was disciplining him would be one to find the body...

Bloody hell.

Taking Clergy Celibacy out of the Sexual Abuse Equation (Aleteia)

Studies of scandals within the Anglican Church may rule out celibacy as a cause...

Archdiocese of Chicago releases files on 36 more accused priests

The files cover the full range of documentation of allegations, investigations, and continued response. The sheer amount of paper is staggering.

>231 John5918: Taking Clergy Celibacy out of the Sexual Abuse Equation (Aleteia)

Are all other variables the same in comparing RC and Church of England? For example, I suspect more Anglican priests than RC spent their early years in boarding schools and were more likely themselves to have been abused as youths? (Just an impression.)

>233 margd:

There may well be other variables, but most Catholic priests of that era would have gone to minor seminary, which was effectively a boarding secondary school, so I suspect they would have had as good a chance of being abused as a normal boarding school oik.

‘They may smear me as a traitor. But the IRA will never stop me telling of how I was raped at 16’ (Guardian)

many in Ireland are comparing the Sinn Féin leadership’s handling of her case as akin to the hamfisted way in which the {Catholic Church} hierarchy tried to minimise the extent of child abuse among its clerics when paedophile priest scandals emerged in the mid-1990s...

>235 John5918: You know, the ease of that comparison suggests the Catholic church is now associated with child sexual abuse in the same way that Jesuits are associated with the Spanish Inquisition, or that American Southerners are associated with the Klu Klux Klan.

It's as if this was not just a deplorable event in the history of the Church, but an indelible stain that will never really go away.

Media ‘gagged over bid to report MP child sex cases’ (Guardian)

Security services accused of aiding Westminster paedophilia cover-up...

Spain arrests Granada priests over child sex abuse (BBC)

A case of historic sexual abuse from an unusual angle:

Rail worker who sexually assaulted girl in signal boxes facing 'extremely lengthy' jail term (Daily Mirror)

Scout Association says it is deeply sorry for child abuse within the movement (Guardian)

Organisation admits paying £500,000 in compensation to abuse victims since late 2012...

When giving blood in the US, we are asked whether we have been in jail for more than 32 hours--the implications of which horrify me According to article below, if one includes the prison population, men are raped more often in the United States than women.

As Michael Brendan Dougherty writes, "Acceptance of prison rape is a stinking corruption. No conception of justice can include plunging criminals into an anarchic world of sexual terror. And obviously it thwarts any possibility of a rehabilitative justice that aims to restore criminals to lawful society. Inmates are not improved or better integrated into society through physical and psychological torture."

"Prison rape also vitiates any sense of retributive justice, since rape is not a proper punishment for a crime. Allowing prison rape is just a vindictive horror, and when accepted under the name of punishment makes criminals the victims of justice."

"...(Our society) should actively prevent (rape) and punish it when it happens directly under state supervision, as any reasonable magistrate would do. Antiwar activists like to say that they do not want bombs dropped "in our name." But we should remember that the collateral damage at the state penitentiary or at the juvie hall is just as much in our name as a bomb with "Made in the USA" painted on it."

"That word "magistrate" reflects the conviction — born from the transition from private vendettas to a state-run justice system — that the law and its agents have a magisterial (teaching) function. Absent major and drastic reform of our prison system, however, the "lesson" our justice system teaches is not that crimes will be punished, but that getting caught may send you to unpredictable horrors; that our society's primary way of dealing with criminality is plunging you into more of it; and that the rod of the law comes in the form of supermax cruelty."

"This is rot at the foundation of our civilization, and it is time we confronted it."

AMEN!! If we fail to protect prisoners, we are not much better than ISIS, which allows enslavement, sexual and physical abuse of women and children who do not share its beliefs and who have the misfortune to be under its control.

http://theweek.com/article/index/273258/the-rape-culture-that-everyone-ignores

London police: we believe claims of ‘VIP’ child sex abuse and murder (Guardian)

Victims 'should not lead abuse inquiry' - Butler-Sloss (BBC)

An interesting comment on how much power victims should have in these cases.

MP says scale of historical child abuse claims 'too many for state' (BBC)

The number of victims claiming historical child abuse could reach the tens of thousands and is too many for the state to cope with, an MP says....

Judge in Spain charges 10 priests with child sex abuse (BBC)

Australia 'faces A$4bn' child-abuse compensation bill (BBC)

Secret 1981 file naming senior diplomat as paedophile is released to public (Guardian)

#241 on prison rape, contd.

I hope this is the beginning of change:

"Michigan's prison system is the target of a class-action lawsuit alleging that guards and other workers failed to prevent the sexual assault of male teen inmates who were locked up with adults..."

http://www.seattlepi.com/news/crime/article/Michigan-fighting-claims-of-sexual-a...

Pope: Church must rid itself of the scourge of child sexual abuse (Vatican Radio)

Never try to cover up child sex abuse, Pope Francis tells clergy (Guardian)

Gary Glitter trial: Singer guilty of historical sex abuse (BBC)

Gary Glitter found guilty of child sex offences (Guardian)

Another celebrity figure found guilty. This is not the first time for Gary Glitter.

And for the UK political establishment:

Child sex abuse inquiry will consider claims going back to 1945 (Guardian)

the scope of the inquiry covered a “very broad landscape” after it was pointed out that it had been asked to cover allegations of child abuse, and the way they were handled, in state and non-state institutions including government departments, parliament, police, prosecuting authorities, schools, local authorities, health services, prisons, churches, political parties and the armed services...

the newly constituted inquiry would expose “the hard truths” about past child sex abuse, those who had failed to act and those who “positively covered up evidence of abuse”...

And the medical establishment:

Doctor Michael Salmon guilty of indecent assaults (BBC)

USA: 'Rape dungeon' allegations emerge in abuse report on Dozier School for Boys (Guardian)

MI5 accused of covering up sexual abuse at boys’ home (Guardian)

Sexual abuse charges dropped against Spain priests (BBC)

The charges... were dropped because the crimes fell within the statute of limitations... too much time had passed between the alleged crimes and the complaints being made...

UK: Child sex abuse awareness not filtering down to frontline (Guardian)

Roman Polanski to attend extradition hearing (BBC)

One of the longstanding ongoing cases of child sex abuse by a celebrity figure.

Guildhall School of Music teacher jailed for sex attacks (BBC)

Parents sent their boys to Knox Grammar to get the best start in life. Instead some were abused – and it went on for decades (Guardian)

For two weeks, an inquiry has heard how a ‘paedophile ring’, as one victim described it, sexually abused scores of children at one of Australia’s most prestigious private schools. Why was it allowed to go on so long?

Child sex abuse is 'woven into British society' - Theresa May (BBC)

Theresa May: Child abuse in the UK runs far deeper than you know (Telegraph)

Metropolitan Police probed over child abuse 'cover-up' claims (BBC)

Cyril Smith child abuse probe 'scrapped after his arrest' (BBC)

Westminster child sex abuse claims: missing pieces remain in inquiry jigsaw (Guardian)

Why the police won’t talk about Cyril Smith, child sex abuse and corruption (Guardian)

Historical child abuse: Met Police seeks witnesses (and victims) (BBC)

Hundreds in Chile try to stop Bishop Barros ordination (BBC)

Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson charged with concealing child sex abuse (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-17/philip-wilson-archbishop-charged-concealing-child-sex-abuse/6325326).

SA convicts ex-tennis doubles star Bob Hewitt of rape (BBC)

DJ Neil Fox charged with nine sex offences (Guardian)

A couple of historic cases of underage sex abuse by celebrities in two different countries.

Sex abuse poses 'significant risk' to UN peacekeeping, says leaked report (Guardian)

> 263 UN Peacekeeping

Without significant civilian oversight, some individuals in all militaries will abuse through torture, sexual assault, and killing. I'm afraid it must be part of the male warrior ethos?* No doubt worse since 911, but transparency and justice is not yet what it needs to be.

Even Canada, to its shame, was responsible for atrocities ... However, Canada did show what zero tolerance looks like. After brutal murder of Somali teenagers in 1993, Canada disbanded its elite Canadian Airborne Regiment, reduced military funding, and there were many resignations. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somalia_Affair

(The Somalis were suspected of stealing. In Egypt (1958), Canadian Peacekeepers were advised to pretend sleep if they awoke to a thief in bedroom. Sikh Peacekeepers apparently had different orders, however, and the thieving soon stopped...Dad found himself grateful that the Sikhs were "on our side" and not the other. Once Dad appealed to a local Bedouin leader for return of telephone line. He was shocked by the condition of the man who returned--he had been beaten "within an inch of his life". Harsh world out there as JTF no doubt knows. )

ETA: * The small part of the hypothalamus linked with aggressive behavior (in male mice) is also associated with mating behaviors. In some instances, the same neurons activated during aggressive encounters appear to be activated when the animals mated.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/mapping-aggression-circuits-brain
&
D. Lin et al. Functional identification of an aggression locus in the mouse hypothalamus. Nature. Vol. 470, February 10, 2011, p. 221. doi:10.1038/nature09736.

Doctrinal chief says bishops must be accountable in abuse prevention (NCR)

Pope faces protests by sex abuse board against bishop’s appointment (Guardian)

Members of Vatican abuse commission question Francis' inaction in Chile (NCR)

And now the British juvenile prison system:

Medomsley abuse inquiry: two former officers arrested on suspicion of abuse (Guardian)

Laicized Polish priest gets seven years in jail for child sexual abuse

Helena diocese reaches sex abuse settlement via 'consensus model'

Both from NCR.

Edited to add another story involving sexual abuse of minors:

US army investigates reports that soldiers raped dozens in Colombia (Guardian)

Plus:

UK Reported child sexual abuse has risen 60% in last four years, figures show (Guardian)

Investigation into abusive priest's transfer between dioceses (Tablet)

Gordonstoun linked to child sex abuse (Guardian)

And sexual abuse of adults:

Mennonite seminary apologizes to victims of famed theologian John Howard Yoder (NCR)

Bishop resigns years after conviction for shielding paedophile priest (Guardian)

Peer still being protected, alleged victim claims (BBC)

And, unusually for this thread, an actual book:

Book offers insight into canon law's role in sexual abuse crisis (NCR)

POTIPHAR'S WIFE: THE VATICAN'S SECRET AND CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE by Kieran Tapsell

Bishops must support the children of priests (Tablet)

While much justified coverage has been devoted to child abuse by members of the Catholic clergy, a different issue, with again children as the main victims, has been largely neglected by the media and governments: the discrimination faced by children whose father is or was a Catholic priest...

Paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale: 'I was out of control abusing altar boys'

Paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale faces two-day grilling at royal commission

Controversial documentary An Open Secret reveals paedophilia in Hollywood

Murphy-O’Connor: I should have insisted schools adopt abuse measures

All from the Grauniad

Vatican publishes statutes for commission to protect minors

Australians push for Vatican cardinal to testify on abuse

Both from NCR

Methodist Church apologises for abuse spanning decades (BBC)

Vatican finance chief legal threat over 'sociopath' claim (BBC)

The Vatican's finance chief George Pell is seeking legal advice after being accused of an "almost sociopathic" approach to child abuse allegations...

Pell seeks legal advice after Vatican official slams 'mockery' of abuse victims (Guardian)

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor memoirs 'censored' by church (Guardian)

To be released tomorrow, 300 p executive summary for Canadian truth & reconciliation final report about church-run residential schools for aboriginal children, 60% Catholic...

...About 150,000 children attended residential school over more than 100 years, starting in 1880s until the last school was closed in 1996. Many students as young children were forcibly removed from their families and sent to the schools to live. The commission heard thousands of statements about their experiences, which often included emotional, physical and sexual abuse...

..About 150,000 children attended residential school over more than 100 years, starting in 1880s until the last school was closed in 1996.

...Some of the truths about residential schools uncovered in the last six years include horror stories of homemade electric chairs, malnutrition experiments and the deaths of more 6,000 children.

Justice Murray Sinclair, head of the commission, said that number is likely higher.

"Undoubtedly, the most shocking piece of information that we uncovered was the number of children who died in the schools," Sinclair said. "The number of children who died was a significant number, and we think that we have not uncovered anywhere near what the total would be because the record keeping around that question was very poor."

...Provinces are still handing over death certificates for aboriginal children from the residential school era....

http://www.cbc.ca/news/aboriginal/truth-and-reconciliation-aboriginal-people-con...

Downtown Vancouver’s churches are coming together for a rare joint service and other special observances on Sunday to show their commitment to reconciling with Canada’s Aboriginal Peoples.

Clergy from the United, Anglican, Catholic, Baptist and Presbyterian churches are co-operating in the daylong event, which includes a combined service at St. Andrew’s Wesley United Church, a sacred fire, a street fair in the Sheraton Wall Centre courtyard, ecumenical prayers at First Baptist Church and other public rituals.

The Christian event is timed to coincide with the release on Tuesday of the final report of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The commission, or TRC, has spent six years researching what happened to about 150,000 aboriginals who were required to attend church-run residential schools until nearly all the institutions were closed by the early 1970s...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/aboriginal/truth-and-reconciliation-aboriginal-people-con...

Vatican official and sex abuse survivor 'will not be silenced' by George Pell legal threat (Guardian)

Vatican in middle of war of words between cardinal and abuse survivor (Guardian)

277 contd. Quelle horreur! What went on in these schools to cause so many deaths? In 1960s, a nun-teacher of mine rationalized the schools to me as a way of giving kids a chance to be successful by adopting the predominant culture, which of course, being a child, I accepted as reasonable. In my 20s I remember hearing about some sex scandal in a Newfoundland school run by Catholic brothers, which shocked even my pious little mother.

...In media interviews, Sinclair has also revealed that the (Canadian Truth & Reconciliation Commission) has documented the deaths of over 6,000 students while in residential schools, adding that there are probably more.

That would put the odds of dying in Canadian residential schools over the years they operated at about the same as for those serving in Canada's armed forces during the Second World War.

...Odds of a student dying over the life of the program: 1 in 25 (if 6,000)

- Odds of dying for Canadians serving in the Second World War: 1 in 26

- According to Saturday Night magazine, reporting on residential schools, Nov. 23, 1907: "Indian boys and girls are dying like flies.... Even war seldom shows as large a percentage of fatalities as does the education system we have imposed on our Indian wards."

Odds of a residential school student dying in the early years of the program: 1 in 2

- Duncan Campbell Scott, then deputy superintendent-general of Indian Affairs, wrote in 1913: "It is quite within the mark to say that fifty per cent of the children who passed through these schools did not live to benefit from the education, which they had received therein."...

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/06/02/truth-and-reconciliation-_n_7491120.html

Nadine Dorries: I was abused in childhood by vicar (Guardian)

Vatican ex-envoy Wesolowski faces child sex abuse trial (BBC)

And three from NCR:

Archbishop Nienstedt resigns after Twin Cities archdiocese charged with failing children

Former Polish archbishop, nuncio to stand trial for sex abuse of minors, child pornography

Francis approves process of accountability for bishops on sexual abuse

UK: Number of sexual assaults on children soars to 85 a day (Guardian)

More smoke and mirrors from the Vatican on child sexual abuse (NCR)

Woman abused as child by Jehovah's Witness minister (Guardian)

Female Headteacher faces jail for sex with teenage boys (Guardian)

Irish cardinal admits inquiries into child rapist priest were only to protect church (Guardian)

St. Louis priest files federal lawsuit after being cleared of child sex abuse charges (NCR)

First Vatican child abuse trial places former nuncio in dock (Guardian)

And another one from the Jimmy Savile era of the BBC:

Freddie Starr groped teenage girl on Savile show, judge finds (Guardian)

Vatican sex abuse trial halted as ex-archbishop falls ill (BBC)

First Vatican child abuse trial delayed as accused taken to hospital (Guardian)

It's time to end pattern of deceit and denial on clergy sex abuse cases (NCR)

The day I realised the child abuse I suffered wasn’t my fault (Guardian)

Alexis Jay on child sex abuse: ‘Politicians wanted to keep a lid on it’ (Guardian)

Priest, 70, gets 12 years for child porn, sex assault (NCR)

Bishops have striven to keep their promise to protect children

Tom Doyle addresses priest sex abuse survivors

Both from NCR

Milwaukee archdiocese to give $21 million to survivors of clergy sex abuse (NCR)

How easy it is to convict the dead and defenceless (Guardian)

Roman Catholic Church in Scotland issues apology for child abuse (BBC)

KC diocese offers healing services to victims of sex abuse

Priest admits sex with minor, says teen 'wanted' it

Both from NCR.

And another non-church celebrity case:

Prisoner star Maggie Kirkpatrick seeks to appeal child sexual assault conviction (Guardian)

Maggie Kirkpatrick avoids jail time for child abuse (BBC)

Catholic priest sentenced to six months in prison for groping woman on flight (Guardian)

Vatican ex-envoy Wesolowski dies ahead of abuse trial (BBC)

"Whew!" — the entire Vatican.

>301 timspalding: Conspiracy theorists will be wondering whether they did a John Paul I on him!

>299 John5918: groping a woman on flight

Eew. One midnight in a nearly deserted Detroit airport, I came upon a Vatican priest washing up in the women's bathroom. We had been chatting earlier, and I accepted his explanation that he'd mistakenly entered the women's bathroom. Now I wonder.

(It must be hard on good priests that people now tend to wonder.)

Catholic church child abuse film decently tells an awful story (Guardian)

Australian bishop testifies on prevalence of child sex abuse in the church

German priest wants more action, transparency from Vatican to clear sex abuse cases

Both from NCR

Pope Francis: 'God weeps' at child sex abuse (BBC)

Lifting the lid on Australia's child sex abuse (BBC)

What's the truth about the VIP 'paedophile ring'? (BBC)

Sex abuse claim against Leon Brittan ‘began as joke’ – BBC report (Guardian)

Sexual abuse victims of Peter Ball sue Church of England (Guardian)

Incidents of priestly sex abuse keep cropping up locally, most recently one in neighboring town. One reads details aghast and wonders that hierarchy has chutzpah to pronounce on second marriage.

Don’t let ‘ordinary’ child sexual abuse fall back into the shadows (Guardian)

Focus on VIP sex offenders is putting victims at risk, says NSPCC chief (Guardian)

'Witchcraft' abuse cases on the rise (BBC)

Sylvia's Site
Blogging the sex abuse scandal and betrayals of trust in the Roman Catholic Church in Canada

http://www.theinquiry.ca/wordpress/tag/kingston-archdiocese/

Church of England bishop George Bell abused young child (Guardian)

How cardinal disgraced in Boston child abuse scandal found a Vatican haven (Guardian)

Brisbane archbishop 'told abuse victim to ditch sinful path' of litigation, inquiry told

Abuse survivors turn to vigilantism: 'it shouldn't be us doing this work'

Both from the Grauniad

The Church of England’s shameful betrayal of bishop George Bell (Spectator)

This fair, just, brave man deserves the simple justice of the presumption of innocence...

Doesn’t Bishop George Bell deserve the presumption of innocence? (Guardian)

But here’s the deeper dilemma: how do we balance the need for the victim to be taken seriously against the presumption of innocence? Without something like the former, victims are understandably reluctant to come forward. Without the latter, we threaten the very foundations of justice itself.

Cardinal O'Malley: We have a moral and ethical responsibility to report abuse (NCR)

George Pell: church had 'predisposition not to believe' children who complained about priests (Guardian)

Damning report reveals Church of England's failure to act on abuse (Guardian)

Not just sexual abuse, and Catholic Church not only to blame, but tell that to the victims...

...The landmark settlement agreement required 50 Catholic groups that ran the (Canadian residential) schools (for native kids), known in court documents as the Catholic entities, to pay a combined $79-million for their role in the abuse.

Of that, $29-million was to be paid in cash, most of which was to flow to a now-closed Aboriginal Healing Foundation. Another $25-million was to be donated in unspecified “in kind” services. And an additional $25-million was to be raised for healing programs through the “best efforts” that the entities could make at fundraising.

In an attempt to make the Catholic Church pay the full amount of the $29-million cash settlement, the government inadvertently released it from any obligation it might have had to continue with a dismal fundraising campaign...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/legal-misstep-lets-catholics-off-ho...

(Ottawa's) Archbishop Terrence Prendergast (vows that “we will do better” in tackling sexual abuse in the church) in a column in the Ottawa Sun, in the wake of a Postmedia series about historic abuse by local Catholic clergy published last week.

Prendergast calls the articles “shocking” despite containing “not many surprises,” the impact coming from “seeing all the details displayed in one place.”

“They laid out the enormity of the evil committed and the need for ongoing healing,” Prendergast wrote, later adding that “the situation in which we find ourselves humbles us all, making us feel raw in our exposure to public vilification and scorn.

“Still, the ties of communion among us Catholics will help us in this moment of testing. God is inviting us to come to grips with our sinfulness so that we can strive together towards a better future.”

A Postmedia analysis of court records, newspaper files and Sylvia’s Site, which is devoted to tracking the sex abuse scandal in Canada, revealed that a total of 11 Ottawa priests were connected to sexual abuse through criminal and civil actions. It includes three previously unreported cases.

...“Regrettably, all we can do at this moment is hang our heads in shame at the past and commit ourselves to making the necessary changes to improve, raising our hands to help wherever we can,” he wrote.

“Past mistakes in handling errant priests cannot be undone, but we can and do wish to do better in the future and to heal.”

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/archbishop-church-must-do-better-help-t...

Pope Francis reveals new church law to deal with paedophile priests (Guardian)

Bishops face sack for mishandling abuse under papal plans (BBC)

>323 John5918:

A important and overdue move, but it is also a blow against synodality, and in favour of centralization in the Roman Curia.

Which renders Vatican liable for misbehavior of bishops?

>324 hf22:

As you know, I'm against over-centralisation, but I'm not sure that this development is a move towards further centralisation. Currently the pope appoints bishops, so dismissing them is not a radical departure. As the Grauniad article says, the Vatican already has the power to dismiss bishops, but "Francis said he wanted the 'grave reasons' more precisely defined". For me the collegiality would come in how he consults before either appointing or dismissing bishops.

>325 margd:

Who knows - Might make a US judge more likely to accept that. But it is hard to sue a sovereign, and US dioceses and orders can have more money than the Vatican anyway.

>326 John5918:

But the power here has been given to the relevant congregations in the Curia, rather than say to a metropolitan or Bishop Conference. Which us to say it has explicitly negated the need to consult - The congregation can initiate and run the process itself. If they had wanted to put in an obligation to consult they could have - Such obligations are not unusual in canon law.

Further for reasons of not wanting to kill the independent authority of local bishops, Rome has generally insisted on resignations, rather than talking of direct dismissals. The bluntness of this document in that regard is striking.

There is no way around it - It is centralizing. And the Eastern Orthodox will hate it#.

Still a good thing IMO. But it is what it is - Inconsistent with wanting a more synodality Church. And shows the limitations of synodality in the modern world for things which matter.

This can be seen for example by comparison with the annulment reforms, and their providing first appeal to the local metropolitan. That is both traditional and synodal. Equally the dismissal of bishops could be done, normally in the first instance, by say the local bishops conference (as local synods once did historically). With a right of appeal to Rome of course, and the ability of Rome to act directly if required.

But instead it is the Roman Curia which has been charged with providing accountability in all circumstances, which is a very different approach. A likely more effective approach, and likely necessary given the importance of the matters. But clearly a centralizing, not synodal, approach. A sign of the times in the modern world I think.

# For example, under this law, the Pope can remove by force a Bishop for causing spiritual harm. Which would be a real easy pretext if Pope Pius XIII wanted to conduct a purge of say the Belgian or German bishops.

Episcopal accountability and the motu proprio (NCR)

How long can the cognitive dissonance between my faith and the Catholic church last? (Guardian)

280 contd. residential schools (in Canada)

‘There was nothing good’: Anglican church disputes Senator’s claim that residential schools contained ‘good’
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/there-was-nothing-good-anglican-church-...

___________________________________________

There was nothing good: An open letter to Canadian Senator Lynn Beyak
By Anglican Church of Canada on March 20, 2017

...we are compelled to say that while there are those glimpses of good in the history of the Residential Schools, the overall view is grim. It is shadowed and dark; it is sad and shameful...

...In 1993, Archbishop Michael Peers made an apology to Residential School Survivors on behalf of the Anglican Church of Canada. Among his expressions of remorse for what had happened to so many innocent children he said “I am sorry that we tried to remake you in our image…We failed you. We failed ourselves. We failed God.”...

http://www.anglican.ca/news/nothing-good-open-letter-canadian-senator-lynn-beyak...

Renegade Catholic order in UK 'harbours clergy accused of sexual abuse' (Guardian)

"SSPX Resistance" - an extremist group led by Richard Williamson which has broken away even from SSPX.

>332 John5918: Wow, that's disturbing. However, on a brighter note (for me) it's nice to know not all the cuckoos live in America. In today's environment I was beginning to wonder.

>333 pmackey:

Yes, we have our fair share, although the comforting thought for me is that most of ours don't have guns!

>334 John5918: Guns... such a passionate issue. Most of the nuts, even if they own guns, won't be shooting anything but their mouths. I don't own any guns anymore. It's too much of a responsibility -- like owning a chainsaw.

Boston Globe reporters who reported on RC scandal (Spotlight) have found abuse at private schools. (JFK attended Choate Rosemary Hall.) A lawyer interviewed on last night's PBS News Hour was amazed that school administrators who would have heard the painful RC accounts, likewise kept incident reports hidden and gave references to offending teachers who went on to teach at other schools.

Private schools, painful secrets

More than 200 victims. At least 90 legal claims. At least 67 private schools in New England. This is the story of hundreds of students sexually abused by staffers, and emerging from decades of silence today.

This story was reported by Spotlight team reporters Jenn Abelson, Bella English, Jonathan Saltzman, and Todd Wallack, with editors Scott Allen and Amanda Katz.

Update: Report names 12 at Choate Rosemary Hall who allegedly abused students https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/04/13/choate/nwt6knYgaVa3UR55ULu2SP/story...

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/05/06/private-schools-painful-secrets/OaRI...

Not Christian and not abuse by clergy, but a welcome move from within another much-maligned fath community to address one aspect of sexual abuse of minors:

Female Islamic clerics in Indonesia issue rare child marriage fatwa (BBC)

Minnesota bishop sued for coercion, blackmail over sex abuse accusation

Indian Catholics frustrated over clergy sex abuse cases

Whistleblowers group offers Cardinal Dolan support, criticism

All from NCR

UK child abuse inquiry: three Catholic schools 'should form case study' (Guardian)

Justin Welby asks George Carey to quit over church abuse report (Guardian)

Collusion, cover-up and child abuse in the Church of England (Guardian)

The Guardian view on abuse in the Church of England: a reputation deservedly damaged

George Carey resigns honorary Oxford post over Anglican sex abuse scandal (Guardian)

Continued in new topic at http://www.librarything.com/topic/260636