LIKE many Catholics I look with dismay and hurt at the ongoing revelations of clerical abuse of children.
One has barely regained balance from one destructive report on an area in the world where one had trust and confidence – ie clerical moral credibility – when a new one is blazoned across the headlines.
In former times there would be cases where a nun or a priest would take off with a lover. This would not be openly spoken of so that scandal might be minimised (Mt 18:6; Mk 9:42) but it would be whispered around.
Fear of giving scandal, to some degree, explains the lack of openness about these present events.
But in these cases serious criminal offences have been committed against children, and the just laws of the state have been set aside by the fact that no effective action was taken to prevent further offence. Instead, a change of location was the usual response. On removing the offender from the area of his crime, efforts are then made to silence the victim and generally quell any other voices that may arise. This is close to a tacit acceptance of the criminal behaviour.
In the case where this criminal behaviour is enabled to continue, by such inadequate reaction of bishops and religious superiors, the guilt of the offender covers a much wider scope.
It is also true that where those responsible have failed to take action that would have singled out the culprits, these covert crimes remain smeared throughout the clergy as a whole.
The whole sordid matter brings to mind David’s psalm:
Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in their hearts;
There is no fear of God before their eyes.
For they flatter themselves in their own eyes
That their iniquity cannot be found out and hated (Ps 36 1:2).
It may be argued by some that the Gospel tells us to forgive seventy times seven (Mt 18:22). However it does not follow that children be put at risk seventy times seven.
It is fair to ask the question: If the guilty person had been found siphoning off money – like Judas (Jn 12:6) – in a financial position of trust where he had been placed, would he have been so readily re-posted, where he could so easily re-offend?
A key focus in the Fitzgerald Report on police corruption was the primary loyalty given by many police to the police camaraderie. This meant that police would cover for each other, rather than seek the integrity of the law, and with it, the rights of others. This sorry observation appears to have significant parallels with the priestly fraternity.
The events bring maturation to the Catholic soul, which extended an implicit trust to clergy. Our trust, primarily and unstintingly belongs to God. Where humans are concerned, we should know by our own lives, that good and evil is involved, weed and wheat, as an important Scripture tells it (Mt 13:25).
The clergy should be mindful of the serious failings which will always be in their midst, and not attempt to regain the ‘confidence’ of the people. Instead they should take side with the just, and alert them with Paul, to ‘test all things’ (1 Th 5:20-22).
In a sense, we owe it to our secular opponents in the media, who have opened up this covert rot, even though there is an ill-concealed satisfaction at our discomfiture.
However, the greatest child abuse of all is abortion which literally kills tens of millions annually. For example, viable, late term, healthy or unhealthy children are brought to partial birth, and with the top of their head showing, their brains are sucked out, the passage of the remainder of the corpse is thus made easy. This abuse is totally embraced by the majority of secularists, as a progressive freedom for women. People who support such activity, have less credibility than paedophile clergy.
J.K. CREEVEY
West End, Qld
