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Accusations of Abuse in Institutions

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The Press
May 11, 2002

Sins of the fathers
by Yvonne Martin


A clergy sex abuse scandal in the United States has shaken the faith of Catholics everywhere, provoking fresh debate on taboos of celibacy, homosexuality, married priests, and women clergy.

The Catholic Bishop of Christchurch, John Cunneen, is well aware that his religion is the butt of office jokes right now.

As allegations of clergy sex abuse and official cover-up mount in the United States, he knows that the Catholic reputation has been sullied worldwide.

The scandal has rattled skeletons in the Christchurch diocese that the Church would rather have forgotten -- a priest child molester and a Catholic brother convicted of indecencies. And it has raised questions about whether such shames are handled better today.

"Many people reading the newspapers will go to work and say `Oh, you Catholics'. It is a very hard time for Catholics who have a love for the Church," says Bishop Cunneen. "It's understandable ... The Church has such high ideals and lofty objectives for her clergy and her people, that if people stumble, falter and fall, then it's newsworthy."

Such falls from grace are rare, says the bishop, but "one case is one too many and we are rightly shamed and saddened because it has happened".

It is not only the crime, but the way the stern hierarchical Church has handled abuse problems that has left some churchgoers deeply disillusioned.

Paul Shanley, 71, a Boston priest charged with repeatedly raping a boy -- sometimes in a church confessional -- was reassigned to new parishes without warnings to authorities or parishioners of abuse allegations.

New Zealand clergy who stray over professional boundaries are also dealt with in-house, and in the strictest confidence, by a group picked by the bishop.

Errant priests may have to apologise to victims as penance. Or they may suddenly be despatched to Australia for a few months, where a therapy programme specialises in treating Catholic clergy. Few back home will know the reason they left.

Only the Pope can defrock or dismiss an offending priest, and only for grave crimes under Canon Law such as murder and rape.

How does the Catholic Church reconcile its culture of tolerance and forgiveness of sinners against protecting its members from wolves among the clergy?

How do the Sunday faithful know that the hands that perform the holy act of consecration (that Catholics believe change bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ) have not misbehaved?

And is the hallowed tradition of celibacy limiting the number and sexual orientation of men applying to join the depleted ranks of priests?

Liberal Catholics argue that churches might get more healthy, sexually mature candidates if married men and women were allowed in.

Proportionately, the number of deviant priests here and overseas is still small.

A study of the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago in the early '90s found that, of 2200 priests who had served, about 40, or 1.8 per cent, were probably guilty of misconduct with minors at some point in their career.

As US Catholic Church leaders try to regain their moral authority, they are promising new policies to oust predatory priests more quickly.

Bishop Cunneen likes to think the incidence in Canterbury is lower, but it is probably comparable.

Riccarton's Father Paddy Thwaites was found guilty of sexually molesting three boys in the '80s and '90s and sentenced to 2½ years jail in 1999.

He still lives in Christchurch at a Catholic rest home, Nazareth House, and remains a priest, but has been suspended from public ministry. Thwaites works part-time for Lamb and Hayward funeral directors.

A Catholic brother, Bernard Kevin McGrath, was jailed for three years on 10 admitted charges of indecencies on six boys in 1993.

The Catholic Church has taken modest action against rogue priests since then, but some in the laity suggest it has a long way to go. So far, it has adopted a national protocol to deal with sexual allegations against clergy and set up investigating committees to make recommendations to bishops.

A new set of professional standards, based on Australian guidelines, advises priests not to counsel people in bedrooms, to stay away from children sleeping, dressing, or bathing, and not to ply minors with alcohol.

Some priests have installed a glass door or panel into their church confessional so the rest of the congregation can see through it.

But the Catholic Church's complaints procedure against straying priests is not as open or transparent.

Christchurch's complaints team consists of two priests, two lawyers, two lay women and a psychologist -- four men and three women -- led by Father Paddy Cahill, of Addington.

In the last decade the professional standards committee has heard six complaints of sexual misconduct against priests in the diocese and upheld four.

Another eight complaints were investigated on behalf of other Catholic religious orders, and a further complaint against a lay worker resulted in his dismissal. Two other complainants decided not to proceed.

Complaints can be about anything from sexual advances such as touching breasts, to provocative comments or sexual jokes.

"Some (complainants) may want to tell their story. Some may be wanting to receive an apology and that's sufficient," says Father Cahill.

The committee's focus is supposed to be on healing and reconciliation, not punishment and penalty. Whatever action is recommended -- counselling, a face-to-face meeting, or an apology -- stays within the group. "In other words, even his brother priests wouldn't know," says Father Cahill.

The national protocol cautions against requesting written apologies from priests which could incriminate them in any future criminal or civil action.

Complainants are reminded that they can go to the police, but few do. Support for mandatory reporting is mushrooming within the Church, but it has yet to eventuate.

Catholic Women Knowing Our Place spokeswoman Pat Roughan says police are the appropriate authority to investigate sexual abuse complaints, not the Church.

"It should be dealt with in a very open and above-board way. Any suggestions of abuse should be dealt with by the justice system, in fairness to the perpetrators and the victims."

Other lobby groups have called for investigation findings to be published and offenders named, much like other professional bodies such as the Nursing Council.

Professional standards committee member Barbara Matthews, who represents the laity, says complainants have various reasons for not involving the police. Often it is to do with the historic nature of the incident.

"Some people will come to you in their 50s about something that has happened when they were 17. They want something done, but they know the police won't and can't follow it.

"Sometimes the complainant doesn't want it going further because they could be identified."

Like its counterparts in the US, the Christchurch diocese has had to open its purse on occasions. Bishop Cunneen confirms two cases of financial compensation "in the low thousands" have been paid to victims, but he will not identify the cases. Confidentiality clauses prevent complainants speaking about their settlements.

Defrocking a priest, or dismissing them from the priesthood, is difficult, even if sexual abuse is proved in a court case.

Canon Law from Rome dictates that ordination, properly received, never becomes invalid. Priests can apply to be laicised, or return to a lay state, for example, if they wish to marry, but circumstances for dismissal must be exceptional.

"There is a basic tension between Canon Law and what dioceses see as being appropriate," says Barbara Matthews. "But dioceses are still faithful to Canon Law, even whilst they work behind the scenes to change it."

A new papal directive requires bishops to refer to Rome cases of abuse of minors once early inquiries establish reasonable grounds for complaint.

The bishop says there is strong feeling in the diocese that complaints should be resolved locally. "Our feeling would be that it's important that we don't just say that cases are being dealt with elsewhere. We accept responsibility locally and we deal with it," he says. "We can always do better and we need to."

Church leaders will be watching US bishops and cardinals who are proposing new policy to oust "notorious" priests guilty of sexually abusing minors. A meeting last month between Pope John Paul II and US church leaders stopped short of recommending a "one strike, you're out" policy.

Liberal Catholics suggest that sexual conduct among the clergy could be reduced if the Church abandons its celibacy policy. Catholic priests may not marry and married men cannot be priests.

Barry Allom, a member of Advocates for Survivors of Sexual Abuse Within the Catholic Church, argues that over the years the clergy has developed a homosexual culture.

"It is a career that would appeal to gay males because they don't have to marry and don't have to explain why they are still single," he says. "It gives them social standing and a legitimacy to be single."

Allom belongs to Ascent, a support network for gay people in the Church, which has some priest members.

"The danger is that if gay priests don't admit it to themselves, they can justify taking risks that they wouldn't if they were openly gay."

Allom says the Church may get more balanced candidates if they allowed married men in. "And it would be even better if there were women priests".

Trainee Catholic priests at the national Holy Cross Seminary in Auckland undergo psychological tests on their identity, intellect, and spirituality. Non-practising homosexuals are seen as morally "neutral".

Holy Cross rector Father Colin Campbell says the question is not a seminarian's sexual orientation, but whether he can stay celibate -- seen as a gift to the Church.

"When you look at the situation in the world today, the idea of living that way is counter-cultural. It flies in the face of the secular world and it is living according to a gospel that the world finds difficulty with," says Father Campbell.

A poll of Boston Catholics found 74 per cent favoured an end to priestly celibacy, but such a poll has not been conducted here.

Bishop Cunneen does not accept that the vocation is attracting homosexuals.

"The psychological testing our students undergo would be picking it up," he says. But he agrees celibacy could turn off potential candidates.

In 1960 the first-year intake was 44. It hit its lowest ebb in 1997, when there were only two new students. This year, there are seven. Trainees are also older and wiser. They used to come fresh from school, or in their late teens, but today the average age is 30.

Already there are signs the celibacy rule could change. Anglicans who converted to Catholicism in England have wives, as do Eastern-rite Catholic priests.

Some Catholic priests are grandparents, having entered the priesthood in a single state, later in life.

But so far, the hierarchy has remained firmly opposed to ordaining women.

Pat Roughan, from Catholic Women Knowing Our Place, believes women do get spiritual callings to the priesthood and should be able to follow them.

"Usually they will serve in the best way they can, some by joining a religious order," she says. "But because Catholic Church decision-making is made on a hierarchical basis, women have no real voice in the process."

Betty O'Dowd, who teaches Church history to pre-seminary trainees at Good Shepherd House, believes women who think they have been called are genuinely mistaken.

"I am not wishing to be disrespectful to them at all, but why would God call them to be something they can't be?" she says.

The Church won't yield on this, despite pressure from women wanting to be priests, she says.

"The Pope has definitively said in a way that is completely binding that the Church has no power to ordain women, because Christ only conferred priesthood on men and the apostles followed that."

Liberal Catholic women are more optimistic, but they say it will take many years, and at least two changes of Pope, to topple this final bastion.