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Accusations of Abuse in Institutions

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The Evening Post
May 20, 2002

Church accused of abuse cover-up
by Antony Paltridge

The Catholic Church has failed to confront the legacy of sexual abuse in its ranks and is still covering it up, says a counsellor who has helped victims of clerical sexual abuse.

Lower Hutt's Brent Cherry, a long-standing ACC-approved counsellor, said he had counselled eight male victims of abuse in Wellington inflicted by six priests or members of Catholic religious orders.

He is angry that New Zealand's most senior Catholic cleric, The Most Rev Cardinal Tom Williams, told The Evening Post late last month that New Zealand would not suffer the incidence of sexual abuse rocking the Church in the United States.

Mr Cherry said each victim he'd helped knew of many other men abused at Wellington and Hawke's Bay Catholic schools. They never came forward to lay complaints with police or the Church because of fear at being labelled homosexual, feelings of shame, the "myth" that victims became abusers and that they wouldn't be believed.

Mr Cherry said the victims were aged between 11 and 17 when they were abused between 12 and 36 years ago. The abuse went on for lengthy periods and involved serious allegations of sodomy and rape.

Mr Cherry spoke to The Post with the support of a victim abused by a Catholic priest at a Wellington school. The victim cannot speak of his abuse or be named because of a confidentiality clause in an out-of-court agreement he reached with the Church last year.

Mr Cherry said priests and those in religious orders were seen as akin to "God" by many Catholics.

"Being a Catholic is really significant to them and that's absolutely taken away by the abuse."

Mr Cherry said in one case the priest made his victim pray after he had abused him.

In many cases, the abusers had discredited the victims to their families by describing them as trouble-makers and liars so if they said something, they wouldn't be believed.

The victim's lives were often ruined, failing at school and work, suffering relationship difficulties, and confusion about their sexuality. Some attempted suicide or abused alcohol and drugs.

While there were many "good people" on the Church's protocol committees, which investigate abuse allegations, Mr Cherry said clients who had taken that route had been "re-victimised" by the process. The committee could only recommend actions and in one meeting, a priest on the committee fell asleep, he said.

He believed the process, in which confidentiality agreements were "forced" on victims, continued to cover up the abuse. The Church should have a "zero tolerance" policy, reporting all cases to police, and face up to its past, he said.

Catholic Communications director Lyndsay Freer said the Church did not cover up allegations of abuse. Its procedures for dealing with sexual abuse were totally transparent and were contained in a public document, Te Houhanga Rongo - A Path To Healing.

For example, the Church, in December 2000, had backed the lifting of name suppression against Kaperiere Petera Leef, a lay teacher and religious studies director at Auckland's Hato Petera College, a Catholic integrated school, she said. Leef was jailed for 3<<1/2>> years on charges of sexually abusing his students. Leef's naming allowed other potential victims to come forward and for the school to counsel those affected, she said.

All complainants were given the opportunity to go to the police and were helped to do that if they wanted, she said. While zero tolerance would ensure the police would be made aware of all allegations and proven offenders would be brought to justice, it could also mean that some people would not come forward at all, she said.

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LITANY OF SCANDAL

Sex abuse in the Catholic Church is a worldwide problem, with public concern sparked by recent scandals in the United States.

Recent developments include:

* The suicide of Connecticut priest Alfred J Bietighofer last week after allegations of sexual abuse were made against him.

* The shooting of Baltimore priest Maurice Blackwell last week, who had admitted having sex with one teenage boy. Blackwell was seriously wounded by a man who claimed the priest molested him nine years ago.

* Father Paul Shanley, a 71-year-old Boston priest accused of some of the most shocking sex abuse crimes, including repeatedly raping a boy in a church confessional, pleaded not guilty to the charges earlier this month.

* The senior US prelate, Cardinal Bernard Law, defended his decision to move Father John Geoghan from parish to parish after 86 claims of abuse were made against him. Two weeks ago Cardinal Law told a court hearing he was given medical assurances it was safe to do so.