Crime

The Church Sex Abuse Conference: Too Little Too Late, Or Has It Made A Difference?

Change must come to the church, or credibility (already eroding) will be lost forever.

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Every time I force myself to read more of the 1,356-page grand jury report detailing sex abuse in the priesthood in the state of Pennsylvania, I wonder anew: How did the church get away with this for so long?

The cover-up lasted for decades.  It was initially not in the church’s interest to let the world know just how deep and wide the sex abuse went, but now, due to a confluence of factors, they can’t deny it further.  As the Pope himself said at the recent conference of bishops called to discuss the scandal, what’s gone on “is utterly incompatible with [the church’s] moral authority and ethical credibility.”

There were high hopes that the recent summit would thrust a new set of initiatives, guidelines, and mea culpas before the public; that the church might get ahead of this crisis and salvage its credibility. The Pope opened the meeting acknowledging that “the People of God were expecting concrete, effective measures” to combat clerical abuse and not just the repetition of “simple and predictable condemnations.”

But in reality, the meeting produced nothing concrete, no future agenda, no timetable. The church’s decision to hold the conference dedicated to sex abuse, while remarkable because there was a meeting at all, produced much of the same — promises and a recognition of a need for rules on how to deal with misconduct, but no rules themselves.

Why not agree to form study groups on why men with predatory interests are attracted to the priesthood? Why not mandate that priests accused of sex crimes, when the source is credible and corroborated, be immediately defrocked?  Why not rethink the very nature of celibacy itself and permit priests to marry?  Why not begin a discussion on permitting women to become priests?

Although many think the Pope can wave a wand and make this happen, the Catholic church is far too decentralized and less autocratic than it appears.  The Pope is actually “the bishop of Rome,” not the bishop of the world.  Although he heads the Vatican and is believed to be “infallible,” each bishop of each diocese (according to Wikipedia there are 5,100 in the world) has control over what happens in his group of parishes, not the Pope.

Think of it more like a police precinct having its own rules and procedures with no one in charge of police in general throughout the world.  Or another example: While the President of the United States can help influence representatives from his party to do his bidding, he can’t force them to.

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The other issues the Vatican faces in dealing with this crisis are a long-held allegiance to secrecy and an aversion to change.  Think of how long it took to move the language of the church away from Latin, or to have the priest face the congregants during services rather than give them his back.

In nature, the slowest moving animals, the garden snail and the giant tortoise, survive the longest.  This has been the Vatican’s long-standing model.  Today, however, the church can no longer take refuge in inaction and denial.  The world has come knocking and thanks largely to the investigative work of journalists and grand juries, the issue of priests abusing children has taken center stage.  Change must come to the church, or credibility (already eroding) will be lost forever.

Enforcement agencies, not just in the U.S. but around the world, are taking matters into their own hands.  The longtime practice of giving the church a pass to its own matters internally, is no longer an option.  Last week, a former cardinal, George Pell, was taken into custody in Australia to begin a prison term after his conviction for sexual assault.  Pell was the highest-ranking prelate ever convicted of sex assault. Earlier last summer, also in Australia, Philip Wilson, a former archbishop, was found guilty of covering up sex abuse.

Congregants are no longer the mere sheep spoken of in the Bible.  They’re voicing their discontent by leaving the church in droves, and for those who stay, they’re not so readily (if at all) letting their children spend time alone with priests, go on camping trips, or inviting the clergy to stay in their homes.

Priests have now become as suspect (if not more so) than any other adult stranger in the presence of a child.

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With the 2018 Pennsylvania grand jury report, there is no way for the church to further deny what’s been happening, so explicit are the allegations against individual priests. They are not random accusations by unhinged former altar boys, but painstakingly detailed reports with corroboration. In one case, a young boy said a priest in Allentown routinely fondled his genitals, sometimes in front of his parents. (The priest’s hands were hidden by the long sleeves of his robe.) He was afraid he wouldn’t be believed and had a friend, hiding in a closet, watch.  The church paid the boy’s family a settlement, and even though this abuse happened in the 1940s (!), the boy suffered scars into his 80s when he still couldn’t hug his own grandchildren. The grand jury wrote, “To this day, he cannot shake hands with men. He cannot be seen by male doctors or dentists.”

The Pope, in last week’s conference, called such behavior “evil.”  Something to be rooted out and changed so that the church can “turn this evil into an opportunity for purification.”

“The brutality of this worldwide phenomenon becomes all the more grave and scandalous in the Church,” he said.

So true.

Among the guidelines presented were:

  1. A “change of mentality” to focus on protecting children rather than “protecting the institution.”
  2. A recognition of the “impeccable seriousness” of these “sins and crimes of consecrated persons.”
  3. A genuine “purification” beginning with “self-accusation.”
  4. Better training in “the virtue of chastity” for those becoming priests.
  5. Strengthening and reviewing guidelines relating to responses to accusations.
  6. Assisting priests and other clergy to combat addictions to pornography.

None of the guidelines were earthshaking or came with a plan of implementation.  However, changes have already been occurring.

Most of the crimes documented in the 2018 Pennsylvania grand jury report relate to the decades before the year 2000.  The fact of the matter is, there have been fewer allegations of sex abuse since the church sex scandal broke in 2002.  (If you haven’t seen “Spotlight,” you should.)

Thus, whether codified or not, the mere fact of spotlighting the problem is making a difference.  Even though the actual way forward within the church — plans and procedures — is yet to occur, people (priests included) are taking notice.

Toni Messina has tried over 100 cases and has been practicing criminal law and immigration since 1990. You can follow her on Twitter: @tonitamess.

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