On Ash Wednesday we pray,
Father in heaven,
the light of your truth bestows sight
to the darkness of sinful eyes.
May this season of repentance
bring us the blessing of your forgiveness
and the gift of your light
through Christ our Lord
Lent challenges Christians to learn to see things more clearly and to recognise
that we are sinners. We learn to see God's truth, light and mercy revealed in
the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Jesus came into the world to free us from sin and death and from every evil.
In his life, God's healing and transforming love were at work: 'He went about
doing good, and his actions concerned primarily those who were suffering and
seeking help... He was sensitive to every human suffering, whether of the
body or of the soul'.1 We who are Christians are called to continue the
healing mission of Christ in the world. The Good Samaritan is our model.
We must not, like the priest and the Levite in the parable, pass by on the
other side, failing to see somebody's suffering because we are too wrapped
up in our own business to notice. To be a Good Samaritan means being available
to listen, to learn, to understand and to offer wholehearted help.2
In recent years the pain of people who suffered sexual abuse as children has
at last begun to receive the public attention and understanding it deserves.
We bishops, like all members of the Church, are very painfully aware of the
dreadful betrayal of trust and the scandalous contradictions that are involved
when a child is abused by an adult. This betrayal is vastly greater when that
adult is a priest or religious. Instead of being respected and protected by
people whom they trusted, the children were used and humiliated and damaged
in unthinkable ways. All of us, bishops, priests, religious and lay faithful
have a particular responsibility to learn the deep wrong that has been done
to them, to share their pain and to help in their healing. We want to show
them that the whole Church community is appalled at what has happened to
them and wishes to listen, to understand and to help.
In this reflection, we do not attempt to address every facet of the issue
of child sexual abuse. It is our intention to publish further reflections
on other aspects of this painful and complex reality. We have learned some
lessons. We know there are more that we need to learn.
It is a clich‚ to describe the last ten years as a 'steep learning curve'.
One of the most important services we can offer to members of the Church
and to Irish society in general is to share the experience of that deeply
painful learning.
Anything that could allow child abuse to happen and to be hidden has to be
addressed and corrected. We will do all we can to ensure that young people
will find in the Church an active and warm welcome carried on according to
the highest standards of best practice in the area of child protection.
It is perfectly clear, however, that a great deal of what we have learned
is applicable in every area of society. The beginning of Lent is an appropriate
time to reflect on those lessons.
1. Disbelief
We have learned for instance how extremely difficult it can be to overcome
the disbelief which responds to a report of child sexual abuse by saying:
'I have known this person very well for years. He is a friend. I have seen
him doing admirable work. He appears to be well liked by everyone. There
is no way that he could be involved in something so appalling as the sexual
abuse of a child.'
It would be a tragedy if the necessary exposure of the ways in which this
kind of thinking was at work in the Church were seen simply as having
revealed something peculiar to the Church. It would be foolish to believe
that these incredulous responses to someone voicing a complaint or suspicion
have not occurred, and may not still occur, in families, in neighbourhoods,
in professions and in organisations. The real learning curve will be when
we as a society honestly ask how far the very same factors were part of the
reason that the other 97 per cent of abuse - not related to clergy or religious
- happened and did not come to light.
Perhaps nobody can fully learn that lesson until they have undergone the
horror, the disillusionment, the disgust and the anguish of discovering
that a colleague, a family member, a friend is indeed capable of such behaviour.
We all have to learn the lessons of the need for vigilance and for a willingness
to listen, even to something we had never imagined could be true. And we have
to learn these lessons without arriving at a point where all ministry to
children and all work with children takes place in an atmosphere of mistrust.
2. Discretion
We bishops have also learned that an instinct to deal with such matters
discreetly can lead to a failure to take necessary steps. A certain misplaced
loyalty may contribute to the tendency to keep matters secret in organisations
as well as within families. It has not been an easy lesson. A similar discretion
was, and is, at work throughout society. The media have done Ireland a service
in bringing the sexual abuse of children into the public arena. Much of what is
now coming to light happened three or more decades ago in every area of society.
There does not appear to have been willingness at that time to speak or write
about incest or sexual abuse wherever it might have occurred; perhaps there
was also an unwillingness even to hear about such things.
Whether in families or in neighbourhoods or in organisations, the temptation
to 'deal with this as quietly as possible' is still very strong. The reasons
for this are not all dishonourable. This is a difficult area in which to work
out the right path.
The first concern of those who care about a child or young person who has
suffered sexual abuse may be to spare them further suffering. Parents may
be tempted to 'play down' their own horror and anguish lest it intensify
the young person's trauma. The child may dread the thought of reporting the
crime and becoming involved with a police investigation. These natural
feelings need to be confronted by the overriding need to ensure that an
abuser is identified and dealt with by the law and that the risk is brought
to the attention of the relevant officials of civil child protection agencies.
Sometimes friends and family can be so traumatised by what they are hearing
and so concerned for the person who has suffered, that they do not address
the possibility that this dreadful act may be taking place with other children
or may be repeated in the future. Wisdom and courage may be required to take
the steps that are necessary to prevent an abuser from harming other children.
It may be that a third party will have to decide that it is necessary to
report the abuse in direct opposition to the wishes of the person who has
been abused, even when that information had been communicated in confidence.
The 'Framework Document' of 1996 formulated our Reporting Policy as follows:
In all instances where it is known or suspected that a child
has been, or is being, sexually abused by a priest or religious
the matter should be reported to the civil authorities. Where
the suspicion or knowledge results from the complaint of an adult
of abuse during his or her childhood, this should also be reported
to the civil authorities.
When someone wishes to make a report of child sexual abuse 'in complete confidence',
it is hard to have to tell them that one is not willing to accept their report
on that basis. It is particularly troubling when the person then walks away
without imparting the information. Nevertheless, undertakings of absolute
confidentiality should never be given to a person reporting child sexual abuse.
3. The right to one's good name
The 'paramountcy principle', which says that the protection of children must
be 'the first and paramount consideration',6 has been explicitly stated as
our policy since the publication of our 'framework document' in 1996. We are
committed to applying it.
There are, however, difficult issues to be faced and lessons to be learned in
applying this principle. The steps that are necessary in order to protect children
may involve a grave risk of destroying the good name of a person against whom
nothing has been proven.
When someone is accused of child sexual abuse, it is understandable that there
may be calls for information and for transparency. These can be in conflict
with the rights of a person who has been accused, but not found to be guilty.
Where somebody must be made to stand down from his or her position because there
is a fear that there may be a danger to children, it is often important to do
so with the minimum publicity lest one irrevocably damage the good name of an
accused person whose guilt has not been established. The paramountcy principle
certainly demands that someone who may be a risk to children should be taken
out of the situation where he or she allegedly abused and, so far as that is
possible, from any situation where abuse might take place. It certainly demands
that the civil authorities should take all necessary steps to protect children
and should urgently investigate the allegation. In what circumstances this might
involve a public announcement before there is any outcome to the investigation
is not so clear.
Where it is necessary to ask a person to stand aside pending an investigation,
any statement which needs to be made should include a sentence highlighting
the presumption of innocence. Any subsequent coverage in the media should avoid
anything that might reveal the identity of the person stepping aside. If this
does not happen, grave injustice and hurt may result.
It would be a pity if people concluded that struggling with this dilemma was
simply the result of a culture of secrecy. We all need to come to an understanding
of the complicated issues of creating a proper balance of various considerations:
child protection first and foremost, the rights and interests of all concerned,
the desire for openness but also the importance of respect for the good name
of those against whom nothing has been proven.
4. Deficient responses
The most important learning process in the last decade has been about the measures
that need to be taken to prevent further abuse by someone whose guilt has been
established.
In the case of a priest who had abused, bishops in the past often responded by
having him assessed and/or treated by experts, and by taking steps which tried
to ensure that he would not behave in this dreadful fashion again. If the experts
indicated that he was not a threat to children, he was often assigned to a new
parish, accompanied by serious warnings. There were a number of serious flaws
in that approach.
The main one was a failure to recognise the obsessive, repetitive nature of
child abuse by many abusers. This resulted in a failure to appreciate the risk
to other potential victims. There was often a readiness, not only among bishops,
but also among professional psychologists or psychiatrists, to believe a priest
who claimed that this was an isolated aberration, carried out perhaps under the
influence of drink. We now know how necessary it is in these circumstances to
consider that this man might have abused many times and might continue to do
so no matter how strongly he was warned or how carefully he had been assessed.
The temptation to make responses that are now seen to be inadequate was not
confined to the Church. There were angry fights and threats in families, maybe
barring a relative from the home; there were bitter rows among neighbours;
there were severe warnings by police officers; there were incidents where
local people beat up someone they believed to be a 'dirty old man'. What all
of these responses had in common was that those who engaged in them were left
with what all too often proved to be an unfounded hope that 'he will never
do anything like that again'.
The various agencies that may have a role to play - Gardaˇ or PSNI, Health
Boards or Health and Social Services Boards, and those who have responsibility
in the particular context in which the abuse occurred may all need to know
and, so far as possible, work together.
The second flaw was that professional opinion in the past was more optimistic
about the prospect for successful treatment of paedophiles than it is today:
'This led many of those treating paedophilia to believe that paedophiles
could be returned to their environment with minimal or no risk of repeating
their behaviour'. While the advice of professionals in this area is to be
valued and taken with the greatest seriousness, it is necessary to remain
acutely aware that knowledge in this area is still developing.
5. Discerning the Questions
Unfortunately, one of the most overwhelming lessons that we have learned is
how much we still need to learn. Many of the questions cannot be addressed
and responded to by bishops or by Church bodies alone. They can only be
addressed if we as a society address them together.
a) The question about what happens to those, whether priests, religious or
laypeople, who have sexually abused children after the civil authorities
have dealt with the complaint is one for the whole community. It might be
tempting just to wish that offenders, having been convicted and served a
prison sentence, would simply vanish. That is failing to face the issue.
Our society as a whole needs to ask what kind of circumstances, management,
structures of answerability and support will best protect children, the
community, and the offender, against the commission of further offences.
Who in the community should know about his or her presence and whereabouts?
b) It would be unrealistic to take refuge in some supposed ability of the
Church, or even of the Garda Sioch na or PSNI, to monitor and supervise
every moment of a released offender's life - or indeed to monitor a person
who is under investigation or awaiting the outcome of a trial. It may be
that some sort of support structure is at least as important as supervision
in providing an effective safeguard. It might even be that the sense of
being unremittingly monitored and mistrusted could make rehabilitation less
likely and a released offender more dangerous. There is a great need for
thorough research to provide a basis for seeking the social consensus
necessary to deal realistically with this issue. It will be essential to
evaluate the effectiveness of various preventive measures so that society
can implement the best possible strategies to minimise the danger of abuse.
c) The lengthy period that may elapse between learning of an allegation
and the outcome of a thorough criminal investigation raises particular
problems. If a person has been made to stand aside, a promise that he or
she may be reinstated should the case prove to be unsubstantiated becomes
less and less credible as time goes by. After four or more years, which
would not be unknown, it may have become extremely difficult for someone
shown to be innocent to take up his or her life again. This is particularly
true of a priest, given the public nature of his ministry.
d) Our experience shows that there are no obvious signs that characterise a
child-abuser. A perpetrator is often the person one would least have suspected.
There needs to be well-founded research about the causes and the warning
signs of a predisposition towards child sexual abuse.8 Professions which
give privileged access to children and which may, therefore, prove attractive
to paedophiles, need to be especially careful in screening and monitoring
candidates. This is a priority for the Church and is an important part of
the child protection measures to which we are committed.
e) It is also important to reflect about how we as a society should respond
to situations where abuse may have occurred, but nothing has been or is
likely to be established. On the one hand we have to consider the rights
of the accused person. From the point of view of the accused it might seem
reasonable that if no prosecution is taken or after acquittal by a criminal
court he or she should be treated as an innocent person. Others might say
that it would be necessary to reach at least the level of evidence required
in a civil court where the balance of probabilities would decide. But we
also have to consider that children and their parents or guardians have a
right to be as certain as is possible that those who have access to their
children are not abusers. Does this, however, mean that accused persons
are required to prove their innocence beyond reasonable doubt and might
that often be impossible? What kind of criteria or decision-making process
should apply to such cases? Obviously if we bishops try to work out the
answers to such questions we will be accused of bias. But these are not
just issues for us; failure to see their wider applicability would be an
evasion of responsibility by the whole of society. We are very willing to
participate in a discussion of the principles and criteria that should
apply to these issues.
6. The Wider Impact
Our first concern must be the harm that has been done to those whose trust
was betrayed when they were children. It is also true, however, that other
people are caught up in the effects of child abuse.
The report, Time to Listen, did a valuable service in studying the impact
of child sexual abuse by clergy and religious on those whom it called
'secondary victims':
Families of those who have suffered abuse, and particularly parents, often
experience a sense of helplessness at not having been able to protect their
children, a sense of powerlessness and anger when civil or church authorities
are not responding as they had expected, and apprehension about the long
term effects of the abuse.
Families of those who perpetrate abuse often experience grief, humiliation
and a loss of friends. They have a constant struggle, torn between not wishing
to abandon their relative yet abhorring his actions. They may wonder whether
they could have done anything to detect and prevent the abuse.
Colleagues of an abuser often feel shock and disbelief. They have had to cope
with the shock of realising that a colleague or colleagues have been guilty
of a terrible offence against innocent children. They wonder whether they
should have noticed something. Priests frequently express their dissatisfaction
about how the issue was handled either because they believe things were hushed
up or because they believe that colleagues they regard as innocent were treated
too harshly. They have felt themselves to be the objects of suspicion and hostility
which they have done nothing to deserve.
Members of the wider Church community suffer. They suffer in a very personal
way when a priest they have known, a priest who has ministered to them, is
accused and either admits his offence or is clearly shown to have abused
children. This can cause great disillusionment, worry about the effects of
this on their own children's faith, a less trusting attitude towards priests
in general.
All of this points to the wider dimensions of the task of healing, which is a
major task for the Church and for society in the years ahead.
People who have suffered abuse tell us repeatedly that what they want above
all is healing and closure. They need above all to find reliable and understanding
companions to walk with them along the often disheartening and difficult road
towards healing. Space and time are needed in order to be able to discover and
respond to the many dimensions of healing that are needed in each individual's
journey.
In its response the Church, not just the bishops and clergy, but all Christians
through their gifts and skills and time and friendship, must aim to bring healing
to those who have suffered child sexual abuse. In response to these needs bishops,
and religious superiors, have been ready to make provision for counselling and
for other kinds of support. The various efforts that have been made in this
direction need to be strengthened and expanded. It is especially important that
they should be disentangled from any legal process that may be going on.
We are committed to finding and offering ways by which those who have suffered
abuse can explore with competent and compassionate people the steps that might
lead them towards healing. These may involve ongoing counselling; there may well
be a need for marriage counselling or family counselling; it may be that a person's
education has been blighted by the experience of abuse and that some kind of
educational provision would help to realise his or her potential; there may be
a need for financial advice or help with various needs, for instance ways of
relieving pressures, financial and otherwise, on the family, there may be a place
for a financial recognition of the pain that the person has suffered; there may
be issues that a survivor of child sexual abuse wishes to address about his or
her relationship with God or with the Church.
In many cases the journey towards healing will involve different needs at different
stages of life. As we learn more about how people can be helped on the road towards
healing, new dimensions may need to be added to our response. We recognise that
the journey of healing may need to continue for a lengthy period or that it may
need to be taken up again at a later stage.
We should not forget those who were abused by people other than clergy and
religious. They too should be able to meet Good Samaritans among the followers
of Christ. The figures in the SAVI Report make it clear that every community has
many people who experienced some level of sexual abuse as children - almost one
third of women and a quarter of men.9 Those who have been abused by people other
than priests and religious, especially those whose abusers are now dead, may feel
that there is no one to whom they can turn for redress. They too have a claim on
our response and we wish them to feel that they can turn to the Church for help.
One of the greatest losses for people who were abused as children, and indeed
for their families is that it has often made it hard for them to see the Church
as a source of hope and consolation and strength. This is true in a particularly
raw and intense way of those whose innocent trust was exploited and destroyed
by people who were supposed to be expressions of the Church's mission, which
is to be a sign and instrument of God's tender, healing, welcoming love. If,
when they found the courage to report the matter, they failed to find the
understanding and help they hoped for from Church personnel and Church bodies,
their sense of disillusionment and distress was intensified.
They know that the Church is their Church, yet the continuing effects of the
unjust and cruel way in which they have been treated makes it very difficult
for them to feel at home or at ease in participating in religious ceremonies.
At the same time, they often feel a deep tug towards something that they have
lost. They are often touched by memories of a time when these signs and
ceremonies meant a great deal to them.
Many of them remain strong believers in God and find support in prayer and
will say that they will never allow the abuser to take away their faith.
Others, however, say, often with a great sense of loss, that they have been
'robbed of their faith'. All of us who try to serve the Church as best we
can feel that loss too. We believe that they have been robbed of what is
most precious. We would dearly love to be able to restore what was taken
from them through actions that were in complete contradiction to the faith
their abusers were meant to serve.
It is a duty on all of us to help people who have suffered abuse to see the
face of Jesus in the life of the Christian community. That means that we all
need to learn more about the anguish and harm that child abuse causes and about
the need for healing in so many lives. We need to make our communities ones
in which the journey towards peace and wholeness can be made.
A person whose trust has been damaged by a priest or religious may find it
difficult to begin to participate more fully in the life of the Church. Their
decision to do so will, please God, be taken in their own time and their own
manner. In coming to that decision they should find gentle and discreet support.
We must try to ensure that we do not put obstacles in the way of that return
to fuller participation.
There are many resources in the community of the Church - spiritual direction,
counselling, educational skill, financial know-how, medical and psychiatric expertise,
artistic talent - the list could go on. To people with these skills - and with many
others - we say, 'Would you consider putting these at the service of the journey
towards the many dimensions of healing that are needed to address the great harm
done to those who have suffered child abuse?'
It would be a practical and realistic step towards healing if each diocese could
call on a pool of people who would be willing to help someone along the road
towards putting their life together and, perhaps, towards finding their way
back to the Church and to our loving God.
The needs that such a resource could meet would not be confined to the people
abused by priests and religious. The hand of friendship could be offered also
to those who were abused in other contexts and whose trust and, perhaps religious
faith, may also have been undermined by their experience.
Both those who have been abused and those who walk with them along the road
to healing are making a Lenten journey. They face together the darkness that
evil casts over human life and learn to trust in the promise of the new creation
in Christ which offers all of us a hope beyond all we have ever imagined.
This is the promise of Easter. Even the darkness, the betrayal, the devastation
and the agony of Calvary cannot defeat the light:
Through your faith, God's power will guard you until the
salvation which had been prepared is revealed at the end
of time. This is a cause of great joy for you, even though
you may for a short time have to bear being plagued by all
sorts of trials; so that, when Jesus Christ is revealed your
faith will have been tested and proved like gold - only it
is more precious than gold, which is corruptible even though
it bears testing by fire - and then you will have praise and
glory and honour (I Peter 1:5-7).
God our Father and our rock,
Jesus Christ our Saviour,
Holy Spirit, Giver of Life,
we are all in need of your healing.
Help us to open our broken hearts to your restoring love.
Help us to be for one another support and strength.
May we journey together towards the joy of your presence,
where every tear will be wiped away
and all things will be made new.
ENDS
|
|
