Clare’s blog, aka rantspace

Kevin Rudd has back-pedalled on his calls for federal agencies to investigate the Brethrens (see story). Now this may be merely a tactical move, allowing him to gather forces to promote such an enquiry at a better time. But it may equally be that Rudd has discovered that Brethren influence is strong enough to stop him proceeding. And such behind-the-scenes, clout-wielding political manoeuvres are not unusual. Catholics and Anglicans both do it too (how else do you think an archbishop got to be GG??). But people don’t raise an eyebrow at that, because they’ve been around a long time and their beliefs are well-known. In other words, they’re “safe”.

People get scared about the thought of weirdos wielding power, and with good reason. But just because a religion (or a denomination) has been around a long time doesn’t make their high priests any less prone to misuse of power. Or, indeed, any less weird!

And it’s no good sitting back and thinking the government will come to our rescue, because they’re often subject to the power themselves. It takes ordinary people – mostly outside the church – to see, and keep calling attention to, the failings of churches.

***
<sigh> I said this much better at my first attempt, but that version disappeared into the ether. Don’t you hate that?

Okay, so it’s not possible to limit the number of the Church’s most heinous sins to seven! Though I guess this one actually comes under the wider heading of no. 3 (see blog entry 30/4/08), it’s almost bad enough to give it an “8th sin” listing on its own – re-employing an abusive priest. Now in this instance (see The West Australian, p.3, 5/5/08 and Townsville Bulletin here) the abuse was confirmed “on the balance of probability” by an internal church investigation, the victim was offered compensation, and the priest had long since resigned from the priesthood, since when he has been working as a uni professor (not an unusual career move for an ex-priest). Criminal charges failed to proceed due to the age of the complaint.

But now the church employs him as director of their welfare agency, with duties including counselling child abuse victims, in Townsville – far removed from Perth, where the abuse happened and the victim lives. And the Archbishop of Perth says he can’t do a thing about it; it’s the Townsville archbishop’s decision. Well, sure – it is. But a) doesn’t Queensland have Child Protection laws, and b) how does anyone hold the Townsville archbishop to account for his choice?

And therein lies the fundamental problem of dealing with the church – they are widespread enough to make it very difficult to find out if an abusive priest has simply been moved somewhere “out of sight, out of mind” of the victim, and they are very nearly completely non-accountable. When even other archbishops can say “I can’t do anything about it” (whether true or not), what hope does a victim have?

Oh, and perhaps it’s just coincidence that the guy’s brother-in-law is WA’s Attorney-General…

If I wasn’t laughing, I’d be crying:

THE body of an inspirational Catholic who died in 1925 will be flown to Sydney for World Youth Day. Pier Giorgio Frassati will play an important role in the huge Catholic festival despite being dead for more than 80 years, Fairfax Media reports. Mr Frassati was only 24 when he died from polio, but he has become a role model for young Catholics because of his fervent faith, teamed with good looks, a robust physique and sunny nature. The idea of bringing his body to Sydney seems to derive from personal contacts between the Frassati family and the Archdiocese of Sydney, Fairfax Media reports. Italian sources told Fairfax Media his body would be flown to Sydney in June, and would be displayed in St Mary’s Cathedral during the World Youth Day period in July.

…and these figures:
Cost to taxpayers A (of funding extra police, turning schools into dormitories, and extra public transport) $86M
(see here)
Cost to taxpayers B (compensation to AJC for disruption to income due to WYD being held at Randwick Racecourse) $41M
Cost to Catholic Church (presumably including the transport of body as described above) $150M
(see here)

Benefit to nation’s economy $150M (but that figure, and its breakdown, is in doubt because the govt has used FoI provisions to ensure the report detailing it isn’t published)
(see here)

Spiritual benefits:
1. Preaching to the converted
2. The chance to venerate a dead body
3. Potentially more religious (a vocations expo will be handing out showbags)
4. Plenary indulgences for those who participate in rituals around the WYD cross

And in amongst all this lavish spending, the average Catholic payout to clergy abuse victims, usually after years of fighting to get it, is around $40,000. That means, in case you don’t want to do the arithmetic yourself, that the amount the church is paying for WYD would fund approximately 3750 abuse payouts. The amount the govt is paying would fund another 3175 payouts. Benefits in goodwill, and spiritual benefits, from settling without fight nearly 7000 abuse claims are about as unconfirmable as the economic benefit supposed to be the outcome of WYD.

I can’t help wishing they’d spend a lot less on self-promotion and a lot more on restoring the damage they’ve caused in the past.

Oh, and though the dead Frassati will be there, presumably Jesus won’t be – he was Jewish!

Clergy abuse victims get criticised for going to court, but what else are they to do? In this case, the church made an internal investigation of child sex offences, but failed to refer the matter to police, thereby hiding a serious crime. In another case, the diocese (Catholic), in spite of appearing to support the victim’s claim, says “it’s not our policy to pay compensation”. But the Towards Healing program for compensating Catholic victims is a national one, and individual dioceses should be working on victims’ behalfs to ensure they get some redress through the program.

But when churches continue to hide crimes, and refuse justice and redress to victims, those victims have no other option but to seek justice in civil or criminal courts. And people wonder why we lose faith in the church!

Pardon me for being cynical but first there was this:

Pope Benedict XVI has begun his first papal visit to
the United States by speaking out against the sexual abuse scandals
that have rocked the US church in recent years. He told journalists
on the flight from Rome he was “deeply ashamed” of the scandals, and
he vowed that paedophiles would not be allowed to continue as
priests or to be ordained into the Roman Catholic priesthood. [ENI-08-0309]

1. At this point he was not scheduled to meet with any abuse victims, but adverse media publicity changed that later.
2. I’ll be very interested to watch and see if all the 4% of US RCC priests identified by the church itself as abusers get sacked. I’d lay bets on it not happening.

And then there was this:

Pope Benedict XVI has met privately and prayed with several survivors of sexual abuse by clergy during his visit to the United States, in a move that is believed to be the first time a pontiff has met with abuse survivors. The unannounced meeting on 17 April, reportedly at Benedict’s request, was held at a chapel at the papal nuncio’s residence in Washington. [ENI-08-0316]

1. If he met with (and prayed with) abuse survivors in a chapel, then he didn’t meet with the most damaged ones. Because the most damaged ones a) have lost their faith and wouldn’t pray, b) wouldn’t go into a chapel, and c) probably wouldn’t want prayer in a chapel to be the focus of the meeting.
2. Notice that in spite of clergy abuse having been on the RCC radar since at least 1985, when an internal report told them that it was a public relations problem just waiting to explode (not to mntion years of individual victims pleading to meet with both this and the previous pope), in 23 years this is the first time a pope has bothered to put abuse victims into his schedule. And he only did it at the last minute due to media pressure.

And finally there was this:

Pope Benedict XVI, head of the worldwide Roman
Catholic Church, capped a six-day visit to the United States, his
first as pontiff, with a public Mass at New York’s Yankee Stadium in
which he declared the need for US Catholics to be obedient to church
authority. While the 15-20 April visit is likely to be remembered for
the Pope’s public declarations of shame about the sexual abuse
scandals that rocked the Catholic Church in the United States, the
trip also provided an opportunity for Benedict to meet a range of US
Christian leaders. [ENI-08-0322]

“Okay, you abuse victims (and everyone else) – we may have abused you in the past, and manipulated and lied to you, and fobbed you off and refused to deal appropriately with your pain and suffering – not to mention refusing to deal with the problem priests in our ranks – but you’ve still gotta do what you’re told by the church.”

I’d like to know how any clergy abuse victim is supposed to have faith that the situation is going to get any better, given that the church still asserts control and moral authority – the two things that enable abuse to happen and be covered up over and over.