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Accusations of Abuse in
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New Zealand Herald
June 29, 2002
Call in police for abusers says ex-priest
by Catherine Masters
Priests
who sexually abuse should be investigated by the police and treated no
differently from ordinary citizens, says a former priest.
Chanel Houlahan, now
married with children, could not accept the Catholic Church's strict
authoritarian stance on a range of issues - especially its
covering up of sexual abuse by clergy - and quit his ministry in dismay seven
years ago.
The Weekend Herald last week revealed that, after years of refusing to go
public, the church had substantiated 38 cases of sexual abuse by men in its
ranks.
Mr Houlahan is a founding member of the Safe
treatment programme in
He and other counsellors believe the men the church has acknowledged to be abusers are the tip of the iceberg.
The church now says it strongly recommends abuse victims take criminal
complaints to the police.
But traditionally, it dealt with cases by internal committee, and still does
with some.
Mr Houlahan says internal investigations are wrong
and dangerous.
"There is no question the police should be called ... I believe the church
is not competent to deal with investigation."
He says he is encouraged by the church's change of heart in confronting sexual
abuse, but it now needs to be made safe for the people.
"I don't want to knock them, and I don't want to bag the church.
But a range of measures borrowed from mainstream society need to be adopted, he
says.
"We'll have to be accountable to the police,
we'll have to be accountable to the system of law, so that people are
assured."
Mr Houlahan is also alarmed at the church's method of
treating men who have been involved in sexual abuse and believes that some may
be able to offend again.
The church once shifted offenders to other communities, where many preyed on
new victims.
Now it sends them to
Support groups and behavioural contracts when they get back are intended to
make sure they do not relapse.
But Mr Houlahan says six months is not enough to
change predatory behaviour, and he believes the course may be flawed.
Sending the men to
He is still shocked that some of the fellow clergy he lived and worked with,
and considered family, have been found to have been interfering with altar boys
and sexually preying on the young and the vulnerable.
When he started finding out - some of the priests and brothers revealed their
secrets to him and he counselled their victims - the committed young priest who
had trained in sexual abuse counselling went to his order, the Society of Mary,
and offered his help and expertise in stoping them.
His offer was not taken up.
Mr Houlahan remembers telling senior figures in the
church about 10 years ago that it should take the moral high ground, admit some
guilt and address the issue openly.
He was told that would be an "unwise" and "giddy" approach
which would expose the church to all manner of "cranky" claims.
For Mr Houlahan, this was the last straw.
He was already frustrated by issues such as inequality of women, hard-line
approaches to homosexuality and priests not being allowed to marry, and within
a few years he had left the priesthood.
Now a guidance counsellor at
Celibate for most of his life, he fell in love about five years ago and went
straight into family life.
Now he has two stepsons and a son and daughter of his own and could not be
happier.