Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

[Paidiske]

Yeah, that's what they said on the census. But only 10% of Australians attend a form of public worship once a month or more often.

 

[Radagast]

In our country we have laws in most states protecting clergy from prosecution for holding information in confidence when it is part of their religious duties.

In your country allegations of abuse often seem to lead to civil litigation. This means that churches can purchase insurance against being sued. And it means that insurance companies have quite detailed (and sensible) recommendations on what constitutes "best practice."

There was a recent thread here on CF, for example, on the "best practice" rule that no adult acting in a church capacity should ever be along with a minor.

 

[FireDragon76]

There was a recent thread here on CF, for example, on the "best practice" rule that no adult acting in a church capacity should ever be along with a minor.

That's a realistic way of dealing with the problem. Attacking the integrity of a religious rite is not. It also fails to understand Catholic theology regarding the sacraments. Anybody who came to a confessor disclosing this sort of criminal behavior would be desiring to receive help and amend their life (and a person who does not come to confession with that attitude renders the sacrament invalid according to Catholic theology), so its unclear what exactly attempting to pressure Catholic priests would accomplish, except to dissuade penitent individuals from taking confession seriously. That does not serve the interests of society at large.

 

[FireDragon76]

No one's suggesting that what's confessed should be grist for the gossip mill.

Of course not, but I see it as a matter of principle, not pragmatism. The stuff of religion should be far more than simply whatever people deem pragmatic.

 

[FireDragon76]

In other countries that have addressed this, it's been found a culture of clericalism contributes far more to this problem. At one time people just implicitly trusted clergy and put them on a pedestal above other people, making them exceptional. That attitude hopefully will change.

This can have other consequences too, such as emotional and social isolation. It's hard to make friends when you are seen as above them.

 

[Bob Crowley]

As an Australian Catholic, and ex-Protestant, the business of child abuse has been frustrating. However I'll be sticknig with the church, since I think it's "closest to the truth", despite the obvious fact it's made up of sinners (and so is every other church).

I was actually warned about this years ago by my old Presbyterian (ex-Methodist) pastor, who predicted that I'd become Catholic. But he also predicted there would be a lot of trouble with historical child abuse cases in the Catholic Church, saying "From what I've heard there's been a lot of them!" And he died in January 1992 himself, so I was told well in advance.

Of course when I joined the Catholic Church nearly 20 years ago now, that wasn't even on the radar as far as the news agencies were concerned, and it wasn't part of my thinking. However what's done is done, and no amount of hand wringing or excuses will change that.

Apparently two of the recommendations of the commission had to do with the celibacy rule and the confessional. Of course these are the only two that the news media bother to report on when they mention the Catholic Church, since it's grist to the mill of their anti-religious sentiments (completely ignoring the fact that child abuse occurs right across society, in religious and (in Australia mostly) non-religious backgrounds), with the great bulk of child abuse cases occurring not in institutions but in and around the family home. As far as that goes, I could claim to be an abused child myself in the emotional sense, from my father who was an atheist.

I think the commission's recommendation about the Church changing it's celibacy rule is a load of garbage. I admit I'd like to see the Catholic Church admit married priests, but that's got nothing to do with child abuse. It has to do with church reunification - if the Protestants can run their churches very successfully with married pastors, then I fail to see why the Catholics cannot do likewise.

As far as I'm concerned the confessional is sacrosanct. Moreover how many of the offenders actually bothered to go to a priest to tell him about their child abuse or paedophilia? If they didn't even confess it, what difference is changing the confessional rule going to make?

On other recommendations, the Catholic Church is rapidly implementing safeguards to ensure it doesn't happen again. I've attached a link to our own Archbishop's response to the Royal Commission's findings.

A response to the Royal Commission's final report - Archdiocese of Brisbane

In a nutshell I was warned about it by my old Protestant pastor over 25 years ago, so it didn't surprise me when it did happen. As another example He also warned me that he thought my sister wouldn't live long, but would get leukemia. She died of Leukemia in 2005, aged 45. I wasn't happy about that either, but I wasn't surprised for the simple reason I'd already been told about it by the pastor the better part of 15 years beforehand.

Now that it has happened, it's disappointing, but there's no way to go but forward, to quote St. Paul (Philippians 12:12-14)

"12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been perfected, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have laid hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize of God’s heavenly calling in Christ Jesus.…