Clare’s blog, aka rantspace

I seem to have had a lot to say about Catholics lately, in spite of my keenness to ensure that people don’t see clergy sexual abuse as a primarily Catholic problem. I guess they’re in the news a lot because of WYD, which is giving me fodder for ranting.

However, it’s also important to note that the reason it’s not just a Catholic problem is the main reason why I blog about any denomination, and not just the one in which I was abused (Anglican). Clergy abuse stems from a hierarchical power structure, which leads the dominant class/es to misuse and abuse the subordinate groups. That’s why almost no clergy sexual abuse is of adult males. Females, yes, because they’re subordinate in the church power structure. Children (both male and female), for the same reason. The few instances of adult males being abused – young priests by clergy superiors, usually – show clear indications of the power issues, involving other dynamics such as associated emotional blackmail (see here for example).

So this rant is really about power, and yet another instance of the patent reinforcing of church power.

Those who follow these matters will be aware of (Catholic) Bishop Geoffrey Robinson’s book, published last year, “Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church: Reclaiming the Spirit of Jesus”. In it, he not only disclosed his own (non-clergy) sexual abuse as a child, but also detailed his motivations for working within the church for recognition and redress for clergy abuse victims. And in doing so, he reiterated the doctrine of the primacy of conscience (from the Commentary on the Code of Canon Law). Now this is a major problem for Cardinal Pell, who denies such a doctrine and has said that if it exists it ought to be discarded.

Clearly, a doctrine of individual conscience presents danger for those who would like to see the church’s authority as absolute. And Robinson, by publishing his views in a book, has thrown the Australian Conference of Catholic Bishops into an apparent ferment. Read their response in their official statement here. Distilled of its polite praise of Robinson’s work for victims, the essential thrust is “don’t anyone dare believe that you should do anything other than what the Church tells you, because the Church is the ultimate authority, and is always right”.

And I don’t see how any organisation, while maintaining such an overbearing power structure, can ever rid itself of abuse within its ranks. Nor, incidentally, is it likely to respond well to victims who, by virtue of their history as well as their low status as lay people, are nonentities challenging the authority structure.