By Ashlie Rodriguez
Daily Aztec (United States)
October 5, 2009
http://www.thedailyaztec.com/state-of-mind/against-all-odds-church-fails-to-resolve-sexual-abuse-cases-1.1937776
It's hard to have faith in a justice system that seems to ignore the cries for help coming from hundreds of churchgoers who claim they were the victims of sexual assault during their youth.
Sexual abuse of minors in the church has gone on too long and without due punishment. It's time we start talking about the issue and push for reform of how these cases are handled; that way dangerous priests can be rooted out before they turn more children into victims.
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| The Catholic Church fails to address the issue of sexual abuse of children by priests. The church refuses to reveal number of cases. |
When he was a young boy at a Roman Catholic-run institute for the deaf, Alessandro Vantini said, priests sodomized him so relentlessly he came to feel "as if I were dead," reported www.huffingtonpost.com. "You couldn't tell your parents because the priests would beat you," Vantini said to reporters.
Vantini suffered depression until he was 30, Vantini. Now 59 years old, decided to go public this year. He was joined by countless other youth who were also forced to perform sex acts with priests. Almost nothing will be done for Vantini. His claim will take years to investigate and will be bogged down in the system until it's forgotten — just like the hundreds of others who will never receive the justice they deserve.
The Catholic Church refuses to release the total number of sexual abuse cases victims have brought against them — possibly for fear of public outcry. While we can assume they're in the hundreds, it's hard to estimate with so many victims scared to go public. Just last year, the U.S. Roman Catholic church paid out $436 million for sex abuse cases involving clergy members, comparable with the $526 million paid in 2007, according to International News.
A report, commissioned by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, showed that 803 new allegations of abuse were lodged last year, a sharp increase from the 692 in 2007.
Two-thirds of the victims were male, and more than half were younger than age 18.
And this is only in the U.S.
Published last May, the report by Judge Sean Ryan revealed that beatings and humiliation by nuns and priests were common. A nine-year investigation found that Catholic priests and nuns terrorized thousands of boys and girls for decades, while government inspectors failed to stop the abuse.
The rampant sexual abuse of minors is a worldwide phenomenon on the rise, yet we're hearing nothing about it in the media and our political leaders aren't doing anything about it. What's worse, the public doesn't seem to care — which is exactly why the problem isn't being handled.
Hidden in the murk of headlines was the case of Raymond Lahey, a 69-year-old Roman Catholic bishop in Canada, who was caught with child pornography on his computer last week. This same man recently oversaw a lawsuit brought by more than 12 victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. For a child pornography viewer to be in charge of serving justice to pedophiles is a huge hypocrisy, but this hypocrisy seems to be the theme of how the church handles sexual abuse cases.
In a statement issued by the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, the Vatican said "the majority of Catholic clergy who committed such acts were not pedophiles but homosexuals attracted to sex with adolescent males," according to www.guardian.co.uk.
This statement is not only ridiculous, but shocking as a man in his position should not be trying to soften the brutality of the issue, but confronting it head on.
The Vatican tried to displace the blame by saying that most U.S. churches dealing with child sex abuse allegations were Protestant.
The public expects the Vatican to clean up the church, but they refuse to acknowledge this as a pervasive issue. No longer can we allow the church to handle its own pedophiliac priests. Instead, let the state's justice department investigate and convict the church.
Coupled with this, justice departments, especially in the U.S., need to be proactive. They cannot wait for victims to find the courage to go public — but should investigate before any more children become victims.
Most importantly, the public, media and our lawmakers need to make a point to address this issue consistently. The more it is publicly condemned, the more the Catholic Church will feel pressure to prevent it.
The sexual abuse of minors in the church can't be swept under the rug forever and it's time we bring them to justice, regardless of how uncomfortable people may feel about condemning their church leaders. This isn't an issue of faith, but one of security and justice.
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