Clergy child abuse crisis far from over

The speakers who addressed the issue of the child abuse phenomena at the conference, Tom Doyle, Barbara Blaine, David Clohessy and Jason Berry were in total agreement that the crisis is far from over. In fact, all of them emphasized that it has become international in scope. Ireland and Spain have their own scandals and priests are being moved around the globe by their religious orders one step ahead of the police.

Fr. Tom Doyle, a well-known expert witness, said that the bishops cannot fix the problem because of their refusal to even examine the clericalism that has contributed to the abuse of children since the fourth century and their failure to extend pastoral care to the victims. Despite the long history of abuse in the church documented in his book, “Sex, Priests and Sacred Codes”, there has never been a study exploring the relationship between mandatory celibacy and the abuse of children by clergy. He said while anger has given birth to groups like VOTF, they haven’t learned yet that speaking to the bishops does no good, though a minority of people have claimed their baptismal rights by standing up to the bishops and ministering to those harmed by priests. “Clericalism is a dis-ease”, Doyle said, “that is contrary to Christianity and is heresy.” Doyle was adamant that the child abuse issue is the most pressing issue both in the institutional church and in what he called the “real” Catholic church of the gospel.

Barbara Blaine and David Clohessy of SNAP discussed ways to apply pressure to the bishops to make change by working with reporters, holding events to get publicity, and writing letters to the editor. All of these are public strategies because only external pressure has moved the bishops to do anything positive.

Jason Berry showed his new film, “Vows of Silence” based on his book about the pedophile who founded the Legionaries of Christ, Fr. Marcial Maciel. Maciel was finally removed recently from public ministry by Pope Benedict XVI after being protected for decades by John Paul II. In a discussion after the film, Berry emphasized the international scope of the crisis and the involvement of the Vatican at the highest levels.

All of the speakers emphasized that victims continue to come forward and more information is revealed as cases progress though the courts and the bishops are forced to disclose documents. Bishop Wilton Gregory betrayed his ignorance when he declared in 2003 that the child abuse crisis was “history.”