So today Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and Cardinal Sean Bready met with Pope Benedict XVI to discuss the report of the Commission of Investigation into clerical sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Dublin.
After their meeting the Vatican issued the following statement:
Today the Holy Father held a meeting with senior Irish Bishops and high-ranking members of the Roman Curia. He listened to their concerns and discussed with them the traumatic events that were presented in the Irish Commission of Investigation’s into the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin
After careful study of the Report, the Holy Father was deeply disturbed and distressed by its contents. He wishes once more to express his profound regret at the actions of some members of the clergy who have betrayed their solemn promises to God, as well as the trust placed in them by the victims and their families, and by society at large.
The Holy Father shares the outrage, betrayal and shame felt by so many of the faithful in Ireland, and he is united with them in prayer at this difficult time in the life of the Church.
His Holiness asks Catholics in Ireland and throughout the world to join him in praying for the victims, their families and all those affected by these heinous crimes.
He assures all concerned that the Church will continue to follow this grave matter with the closest attention in order to understand better how these shameful events came to pass and how best to develop effective and secure strategies to prevent any recurrence.
The Holy See takes very seriously the central issues raised by the Report, including questions concerning the governance of local Church leaders with ultimate responsibility for the pastoral care of children.
The Holy Father intends to address a Pastoral Letter to the faithful of Ireland in which he will clearly indicate the initiatives that are to be taken in response to the situation.
Finally, His Holiness encourages all those who have dedicated their lives in generous service to children to persevere in their good works in imitation of Christ the Good Shepherd.
His statement has not exactly been lauded. For obvious reasons.
The suggestion that the Pope was “deeply disturbed and distressed” by the content of the report is pretty ambigious to say the least. Benedict XVI was for more than twenty years the head of the Congregation for the Doctorine of the Faith (CDF), when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. In this capacity he headed the Vatican department which was responsible for the management of abuse cases right across the global Roman Catholic Church.
In 2001 he wrote to every Bishop in the world in May 2001 instructing them on how they were to handle cases of child sexual abuse by priests. The letter stated that the CDF would “continue to have exclusive competence” for how cases were to be handled. Note the word “continue” here, as in it alreaday was the entity with exclusive competence to decide how cases were to be handled.
The letter said the CDF was to be informed about all cases of priests who sexually abused children and asserted the church’s right to hold its inquiries behind closed doors and kep the evidence confidential for up to ten years after the victim reached adultood. Link to news coverage here.
So Pope Benedict XVI has detailed personal expereince of managing the issue of clerical sexual abuse for many years, at the global level. He is fully aware of the scale of the problem and is the source of the document about which the Commission of Investigation wrote to both the Papal Nuncio and the Vatican in an effort to discover the nature of the church cover up of abuse in Dublin. The Vatican and the Papal Nuncio, the Pope’s ambassador to Ireland, both failed to even reply to the letters from the Commission. Link here to that story.
Any expression of surprise or outrage by the Pope on reading the report of the commission is disingenuous in the extreme. He can not be surprised by either the scale and nature of the abuse, or more importantly, the deliberate cover up of the absue by the Archdiocese and its Archbishops and Bishops over many decades.
What is especially outrageous is the suggestion that the Pope shares the “outrage, betrayal and shame felt by many of the faithful in Ireland”. Isn’t it obscene that the leader of this global church who has personally previously dicated a policy of secrecy in the handling of abuse by priests. So how has he been betrayed exactly? Is he himself guilty of a staggering betrayal of children and members of the church he now leads?
It is frankly sickening that the Pope is portaying himself as a victim in this context.
It is interesting though to read how the Vatican, and the Pope, have clearly decided to place the bleame for the cover up identified by the Commission fully on the Irish church authorities. Given that every bishop is directly and solely accountable to the Pope, and that in 2001 the Pope, in his previous role with the CDF, directed the approach national churches and individual bishops were to adopt in managing complaints of abuse by priests it seems clear that he, and the Vatican share responsibilit with national or local church authorities.
The undertaking to continue to work to “understand better how these shameful events came to pass and how best to develop effective and secure strategies to prevent any recurrence” is also galling.
The Roman Catholic Church has been aware of paedophilia in its ranks almost since its foundation. As I detailed in my book Beyond Belief, Church history is littered with references to previous scandals and church law going back as fard as the first century AD. Just how long does the Church need to understand its own actions?
Much more detailed information on this history is documented in the excellent Sex, Priests and Secret Codes by Tom Doyle, Richard Sipe and Patrick Wall.
Finally, the suggestion that those of us affected by this cover up and these apalling crimes might gain somekind of comfort from the announcement that the Pope will now write a pastoral letter to the Irish demonstrates an appalling arrogance on the part of the Vatican.
We don’t need a letter, announced in breathless excitement by Archbishop Martin.
We don’t need any more papal expressions of regret at the actions of some priests and clergy.
The only thing we need is the truth.
Admit the nature and scale of the cover up. Get real, tell the truth and take responsibility.
Try and be at least a little Christ-like in your response to the deliberate and wilfull disregard of the welfare of children by the church you head, and then, and only then, you might begin to deal with this issue in a meaningful way.
Three months on and I am only now finding time to listen to some of the media I did to launch Beyond Belief.
I loved Midweek on BBC Radio 4 with Libby Purvess. Libby was great, she was so engaged and got the very best out of a pretty diverse panel.
Actress Penelope Wilton was about to tread the boards as Gertrude in Hamlet in the West End, with Jude Law as Hamlet. She was lovely, and my twelve year old son was mightly impressed that I met the actress who played a Prime Minister in Dr Who!
Anyone who was described as “a very dangerous man” by Margaret Thatcher must be doing something right. Thatcher wasn’t a fan of Donald Reeves, the former Rector of St James, Piccadill. Donald is a true radical, driven by principle and common sense.
Soren and Bradley Stauffer Kruse are The Sugar Dandies. The couple are World Same Sex Ballroom Dancing Champions. Their take on life and all things ballroom was intriguing. When he isn’t twirling Bradley in a pink poodle costume around the dance floor Soren works as a counselling psychologist.
Intrigued? You can listen here.
Triumphing over a tormented childhood
Eamon Maher reviews Beyond Belief in The Irish Catholic
It would be difficult not to know of Colm O’Gorman. He is regularly on the radio and television, mostly in the past as Director of One in Four, the organisation set up to provide support for people who have suffered from sexual abuse or violence. From his polished calm exterior, one would never suspect the massive traumas he has had to endure in his life.
Abused by two local Wexford male sexual predators at the age of five, as well as by an adolescent boy who invited him to his house on the pretext of giving him music lessons, it is not surprising that Colm had problems with bed-wetting as a child. At no point did he dare to mention the cause of his anxiety to his parents.
He had a huge desire to impress his father to whom felt he was a disappointment because of his lack of interest in ”normal” boyish activities like sport. Another reason for his silence was the fact that the Ireland of the 1970s and 80s was not ready to face up to the horrors of child sexual abuse.
Shattered
Horrific as these initial sexual experiences were, the actions of Fr Sean Fortune would leave O’Gorman totally shattered. Having spotted the 14-year old at a youth group event, the priest arrived at his house two weeks later ”with the absolute expectation of an open door; that he had the God-given authority to impose himself was never in question”.
Shortly afterwards the abuse started. It would continue for a couple of years. The descriptions are harrowing: ”Words like abuse are easy to use. Words can’t show what it was. Words can’t describe the smell, the sounds, the taste of it all.
”It was sordid and degrading and hateful. Hateful was an important word here, it was full of hate. This priest manipulated me into his bed and used my confusion and innocence against me. And once again the world as I knew it, as I was required to know it, as defined by every authority in my life, came crashing down.”
The day after the first incident, Colm felt as though he was in some way responsible for what had happened – Fortune had told him he had a ‘problem’ and that he would have to discuss it with his parents. Naturally, the boy recoiled from that prospect:
”In order to escape I would have to name the abuse and that couldn’t happen because to do so would destroy the very fabric of the society I lived in.”
Homeless
Thus silence and denial continued for years. At the age of seventeen, after his parents were on the point of separating, Colm found himself homeless in Dublin, where he sometimes allowed himself to be used by men in return for food and a bed – never money. He ended up in London, where he trained as a therapist, a process that forced him to face up to his demons.
All the time, the memory of what Fr Fortune had done to him left him angry and concerned at the thought that he might be doing the same thing to other boys. Finally, he made a statement to the Garda Siochána and initiated court proceedings against the diocese, and subsequently against the Pope. Others followed suit and soon there was a considerable file on the priest. However, the suicide of Fr Fortune prevented his victims from ever proving their case against him in court.
In spite of this setback, Colm kept busy. He founded One in Four and featured in a stirring documentary aired initially on BBC2, entitled Suing the Pope. He also was awarded damages for the failure of the Church to act on the threat posed by Fortune, against whom there had been several allegations, dating back to the year before his ordination.
When the Ferns Report was finally published, it confirmed the extent of abuse in the diocese and the inactivity of successive bishops and the hierarchy to deal adequately with the issue: ”Their overarching priority was to prevent scandal and protect the reputation and authority of the Church.”
Resilience
What emerges from this stirring book is the resilience of the human spirit. After all he endured, Colm O’Gorman could so easily have ended up in the gutter. That he did not is a credit to his courage and fortitude.
He managed to be reconciled with his father months before the latter’s death, to find true love with his partner Paul, to pit himself against the powerful institution that is the Catholic Church and win, while maintaining a dignity and a balance that are admirable.
Beyond Belief brought tears to my eyes, anger to my heart and the joy that comes from reading about how truth wins out in the end. I cannot recommend this book too highly.
Brodcast on May 20 2009, on this episode on BBC Radio 4’s Midweek Libby Purves is joined by Colm O’Gorman, Penelope Wilton, Donald Reeves and Bradley and Soren Stauffer Kruse.
Colm O’Gorman is Ireland’s executive director of Amnesty International and founder of the charity One in Four, which helps victims of abuse. When he was 14 he suffered sexual abuse over several years by a local parish priest, who went on to be accused of 66 charges of sexual offences against teenage boys. In 1998 he sued the Roman Catholic Church and the Pope. Beyond Belief is published by Hodder & Stoughton.
Penelope Wilton is one of Britain’s leading actresses. She is about play Gertrude in Michael Grandage’s production of Hamlet. Her work is extensive and includes – for theatre – The Family Reunion, The Chalk Garden (for which she won the Evening Standard Award for Best Actress) and The House of Bernarda Alba, for television Half Broken Things, Dr Who and Ever Decreasing Circles, and for film The History Boys, Pride and Prejudice and Calendar Girls. Hamlet is part of the Donmar in the West End season at Wyndham’s Theatre.
Donald Reeves is probably best known for being Rector of St James’s, Piccadilly, where he created a radical church with a coffee house and street market. In his book, Memoirs of a Very Dangerous Man, he tells of life in the church as well as his several brushes with Lady Thatcher and his devotion to working for peace in the Balkans. Memoirs of a Very Dangerous Man is published by Continuum.
The Sugar Dandies are made up of Soren and Bradley Stauffer Kruse. They are the same sex ballroom dance champions and the first male couple to be regular ballroom dance competitors.
Listen to Colm’s first major interview about his memoir Beyond Belief with Ryan Tubridy.
This interview was broadcast on RTE Radio 1 on May 11th 2009.
Click here to hear the interview.
Jumoke Fashola
I’ll do my first ever live in studio interview for Beyond Belief this morning with the fabulous Jumoke Fashola on BBC London. Really looking forward to it. I’m in London for the next five says and have lots of media lined up. After months of waiting its all go. I am relieved that the waiting is finally over and I can get on with it at last.
Link here to Jumoke’s site whre you can hear the interview.
