Before the child abuse scandal of the last decade, Catholic priests held influential and highly respected roles within the community. They enjoyed the trust of the public and unquestioned access to children. We know that created extensive opportunities for sexual abuse.
What we don't know is the true scale of that abuse. Child abuse is accompanied by fear and shame, and most victims never come forward. Only around 10% of sexual abuse allegations result in criminal convictions. And there's a further reason, which is that for many decades the Catholic Church persistently ignored and in many cases covered up complaints of abuse. As a lawyer acting for victims, I've seen evidence of cover ups on many of my cases - victims warned against taking their complaints to the police, priests transferred away from parishes suddenly until complaints die down.
The Catholic church now maintains that it abhors child abuse and that it wants to root it out. If the Catholic church is serious about this - and I've no doubt that there are at least some in the church hierarchy who are determined to confront the problem - then in my view it has a responsibility to come clean about past abuse. And there's a simple way for the Catholic church to do this - open its secret archives to the police.
"Secret archives" sounds like something from a Dan Brown novel. But this isn't the Da Vinci Code we're talking about, it's the Code of Canon Law. Canon Law is the legal system of the Catholic church. Canon 489 is very clear that every diocese of the Catholic church must maintain:
"...a secret archive, or at least in the ordinary archive there is to be a safe or cabinet, which is securely closed and bolted and which cannot be removed. In this archive documents which are to be kept under secrecy are to be most carefully guarded."
Canon 489 forbids any documents to be removed from the secret archive under any circumstances and only the Bishop is permitted to have the key to it. The documents which Canon 489 says must be kept in the secret archive are:
• Documents from historic criminal cases (ie within Canon law) concerning "matters of a moral nature"
• Documentary proof of canonical warnings or corrections when someone has been about to commit an offence, or is suspected of having committed one, or has been guilty of scandalous behaviour
• Documents relating to preliminary investigations for a penal process that was closed without a formal trial; and
• Documents relating to any other matters the bishop considers secret.
In simple terms, every diocese has a secret archive of information about past allegations of abuse. I've come across this myself on cases where we've forced the church to make a disclosure affadavit detailing what information is held in the secret archive about a particular priest. The church has accepted in those cases that the secret archive exists and that only the Bishop has access to it, so that only the Bishop can make the disclosure affadavit. I've no doubt that stored in those archives is a mass of information about past abuse allegations. And because so many of these allegations were hushed up at the time, many of them will never have been known to the police. It's time they were.
So the choice for the Catholic church is simple. It has in its possession documentary evidence of criminal wrongdoing. Is it prepared to hand that evidence over to the proper authorities? It is prepared to open the secret archives? It seems to me that there's no better test of whether the Catholic church is genuine about confronting the evil of child abuse by priests.
Angela Bonavoglia: The Catholic Church: Abusing, Endangering, And Intimidating Women
David A. Love: The Catholic Church: A Safe Haven For Criminals?
Jennifer Delaney: Could I Raise My Children In The Catholic Church?
Vatican Secret Archives - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Vatican Secret Archives (Office) [Catholic-Hierarchy]
Courts around the world need to treat the church as criminals and go after all evidence that will put offenders and those who protected them in jail, for the protection of children.
Graham Wilmer - Founder The Lantern Project. www.lanternproject.org.uk
The well-fortified and heretofore impregnable barriers that the not so holy Roman Catholic institution has erected and formulated within the framework of Canon law, designed to insulate themselves from legal challenges must be torn down once for all so that victims may have their day in court and those who have perpetrated these reprehensible crimes may be vigorously prosecuted.
In the interests of the Victims of RC Clergy Abuse which the RC hierarchy has time and time again assured us is their first priority, lawyers must have unfettered access to a legal discovery of information contained in the 'child abuse files', evidence that has long been hidden under lock and key and relegated to their “secret archives”.
Any reluctance to do so will be the compelling evidence that the so called “princes of the church” are not in TRUTH committed to transparency and accountability and the “pastoral response” which they have avouched to victims was both disingenuous and insincere!
“For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; nor hid, that shall not be known.” (Luke 12:2)
I want you to know . . it is a continued source of inspiration to have the encouragement of one who is of "like precious faith" to encourage me in my witnessing for Christ!
In Christian love & fellowship,
JuneAnnette
Sister Maureen Paul Turlish
Advocate for Victims & Legislative Reform
PA & DE
maturlishmdsnd@yahoo.com
www.Justice4PaKids.com
www.Catholics4Change.com
www.AbolishSexAbuse.org
Christianity is a faith of especially caring for the weak and the vulnerable especially children.As in the Scriptures it remains quite clear where Jesus Christ stands on this.
These abusers and protecters can know nothing of the faith the profess to be part of, it is a smoke-screen of self-protection of such heinous crimes as child abuse.
They should have the FULL FORCE of earthly laws seeking them out and punishing them as seen fit by that same law.There should be NO WHERE to hide.
Even if these people have the most basic knowledge of my faith they will have read, but obviously not understood that God hold ultimate justice and that will be paid in full at a time known only to Him.
The protection and welfare of children SHOULD BE the concern of everyone in society, and is embraced in what Christ said was the 2nd greatest commandment, namely, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” (Matt. 22:39b)
But instead of placing the welfare of children first, the RC “church” placed their interests first. Instead of telling the TRUTH the so-called “princes of the church” have routinely answered the charges of clergy abuse by resorting to the clever ploy of “mental reservation” (a euphemism for LYING), as they capriciously deem necessary to preserve both “their precious church” from SCANDAL!
As Christ said: “But whoso shall offfend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” (Matt. 18:6)
Christ said “Ye shall know them by their fruits. .” . . God's Word as it is found in Matt. 7:16
Christ exposed the pharisees and scribes as hypocrites, and it is his example we are to follow: (Matt. 23:`13-33)
The Roman Catholic “church” is not Christ's Church! As a former Roman Catholic, this I say without apology and without “mental reservation”
JuneAnnette,
a Christian . . by the grace of God (Eph. 2:8-10; 1 Cor. 15:10)
Refreshing to read your opinion as political correctness abounds within what is sometimes refered to as the church, and does such damage to Christianity as the world views it.
I am not a Catholic I abhor any self styled supremacy that mocks a loving God.
As you were once Roman Catholic l am glad you also speak in truth, and not in fear!
The Dutch just found 10,000-20,000 cases last month.
In the U.S., the FBI should use RICO statutes to investigate the Catholic church and bring their pedophile protection program to justice. In other countries, they should put pressure on law enforcement to do an independent investigation, and don't let Catholics within that group do it, or they will be pressured to cover it up.
Parents - keep your children away from Catholic priests and teachers.
The Dutch did not find 10-20,000 'cases', they estimated that many instances of abuse based on samples and the real findings of 1800 complaints dating from 1945 - that's a span of 60+ years.
They did not find that there are 'more hidden pedophiles in the Catholic church than anywhere on the planet'. You are ignorant of child sexual abuse statistics when you make that claim. In fact the Dutch found that the overwhelming majority of abuse occurred outside of the Church. The investigation concluded that the sexual abuse of moinors was widespread throughout Dutch society.
The overwhelming majority of abusers in the USA are adults with a close relationship to the child - parents, relatives, friends, teachers, coaches, etc..
If you on\ly worry about Catholics, you are endangering your children.
I'm guessing the true extent and horror of what the Catholic Church has hidden away from us, once revealed, would be the beginning of the end for them.
The catholic church is a business, and should therefore be subject to normal business laws. The police should be able to raise a warrant and have access to the archives. Isn't withholding evidence a crime? And surely having information on a crime that wasn't reported makes them an accessory after the fact?
Organisations of such size and wealth are bound to be corrupt and driven by greed and power; but the fact that they place themselves as moral leaders and guides, (actually dictators would be more accurate), makes them, in my opinion, possibly one of the most evil and corrupt businesses on the planet.
Doherty was convicted of five offences of indecency against a boy under 16,and sentenced to 6 years. The parishioners of Salford diocese were subsequently led to believe that Doherty had been laicised, and, of course many believed their bishop's publicly announced resolve to implement the Nolan recommendations including 77 & 78. However, in 2008, having strong reasons to doubt Doherty's laicisation, I began to ask questionss, initially by letter to Bishop Brain and then by contacting the press. Four years later, I have still received no reply whatsoever from bishop Brain, but in January 2009, received an e-mail from an editor from the Tablet informing me that, in response to her enquiries, Father Barry O'Sullivan, the then child protection co-ordinator in the diocese had told her that Doherty was "effectively laicised".
Then, in October 2010, following Doherty's death, the same Father O'Sullivan admitted to the ''Todmorden News' that Doherty had never been laicised!
Subsequently,, in November 2010, I wrote again to Bishop Brain asking , amongst other things "3) When can the people of your diocese expect you to publicly justify your failure to initiate the process of laicisation in Doherty’s case? "
I am still waiting for a reply!
For more examples from Salford, see http://caads.blogspot.com/ Read about Father William Green and Monsignor Thomas Duggan.