Pope and cardinal ought to be ashamed
IT has been an awfully bad week for the Catholic Church: which is really saying something when you consider its history.
I know one should always avoid the temptation to judge any organisation or religion by the actions of a few individuals, but what do you do when it's hundreds (maybe thousands) of individuals who have betrayed their positions of trust and responsibility and when there is very clear evidence that their activities have been covered up by their superiors? And what do you do when it is equally clear that the needs of the Catholic Church outweigh the hurt of the abuse victims?
This isn't just about a 'few rotten apples' in the bottom of the barrel, either. This is a scandal which embraces every level of the Catholic Church from the Pope himself to priests in the backs of cars and in the laundry rooms of orphanages. It's about a culture of secrecy. It's about the systematic abuse of the vulnerable. It's about 'buying off' victims and then relocating the perpetrators to fresh fields and new victims. It's about threatening both the abused and their families with excommunication and 'God's wrath' if they talk to the police or go public in any other way.
I have absolutely no idea how or why Cardinal Brady's conscience allows him to remain in his post. Had he been the chief executive of any other organisation, or a senior political figure, he wouldn't even have had (let alone expected) the opportunity to spend a few weeks considering his position. He would have been drummed out of office and driven to a police station. The very fact that he says he needs a few weeks of prayerful contemplation says it all. If he doesn't already know that he has done wrong, then no amount of time will change his mind.
As for Bishop Hegarty, a Spotlight programme in 2005 accused him of introducing a secret levy on weekly collections to provide a compensation fund for the victims of a paedophile priest. He didn't deny the accusation and claimed that his parishioners would have approved had he told them. Yet here we are again with fresh allegations about his willingness to help – and there really is no other word for it – paedophile priests.
Does Cardinal Brady take any responsibility for Bishop Hegarty's actions; or for Monsigner Dooley's insistence that it is acceptable to hide behind canon law to protect sexual predators in the Church? Does he take any responsibility for the Ryan Report in May 2009 which said that rape and sexual molestation were endemic in Irish Catholic Church-run industrial schools and orphanages? Does he take any responsibility for the Murphy Report of November 2009, which concluded that 'there is no doubt that clerical child sexual abuse was covered up (in the Dublin diocese)'? Will he take any responsibility for a report due in June, which is expected to reach similar conclusions about what went on in the Cork diocese?
And if Cardinal Brady seems so reluctant to take responsibility for what has happened, what about Pope Benedict? Well, judging by the Pastoral Letter he published on Saturday, the answer seems to be that he is quite content to hide behind platitude and Jesuitical semantics. He writes about a 'well-intentioned but misguided tendency to avoid penal approaches to canonically irregular situations'. How could it ever be 'well-intentioned' to avoid a penal approach to rapists, brutes and the conspiracy of silence which protected them? Again, the very fact that he is able to include a sentence like that indicates precisely where his priorities lie.
Mind you, we knew where his priorities lay as long ago as May 2001 when, as overseer of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the then Cardinal Ratzinger sent a letter to every bishop instructing that investigations into child sex abuse claims be carried out in secret and by private tribunals in which the 'functions of judge, promoter of justice, notary and legal representative can validly be performed for these cases only by priests... Cases of this kind are subject to pontifical secret'. Cardinal Ratzinger is now Pope Benedict.
The Ratzinger letter was co-signed by Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone, who gave an interview in 2004 in which he hinted at the Church's opposition to allowing outside agencies to investigate abuse claims. "In my opinion, the demand that a bishop be obligated to contact the police in order to denounce a priest who has admitted the offence of paedophilia is unfounded," Bertone said.
Given that sort of background it's hardly surprising that the pastoral letter is so woolly and so utterly lacking in conviction. "Only by examining carefully the many elements that gave rise to the present crisis can a clear-sighted diagnosis of its causes be undertaken and effective remedies found," says the Pope. Let's list some of the elements not mentioned by him: if a priest got caught he didn't get reported to the police; he would rarely ever be defrocked; he would usually be moved to a new parish, school or orphanage; superiors would provide money to buy the silence of his victims; and individuals from the Vatican would help to cover his tracks. In essence, this was/is the Mafia in a red hat and dog collar.
Now, while it is true that there are many Catholic clergy who are decent, honourable and deeply spiritual, working as their God directs them, it is also true that the Catholic Church itself is a thoroughly rotten institution. It has put its own rules and laws above those of the Bible and Christ's teachings and has interpreted the Gospels in a manner that suits its own internal needs and purposes.
Pope Benedict and Cardinal Brady ought to be ashamed of themselves; and of a papal machinery which has, and for so long, willingly and skillfully protected individual rapists and organised sex rings. When protecting the Pope and the Catholic Church has become more important than promoting Christianity, it is no surprise that the standing and authority of both has been irredeemably tarnished.
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Tuesday 14 February 2012
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