BishopAccountability.org
	Church in Europe Battles Scandals By Woon Wui Tek Asia One March 11, 2010 http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/World/Story/A1Story20100311-203917.html THE Catholic Church in Europe, mindful of the disastrous fallout from the paedophile-priest scandal in the United States, is striving to show decisive leadership as a wave of paedophilia cases buffets Europe. Its public commitment to openness may help contain anger, but a senior spokesman's bid to put the issue into "perspective" by saying "sexual abuse of children went far beyond church walls" - even quoting statistics - may fare less well and be seen as missing the point. Alleged paedophile priests have cropped up in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands - where bishops are to probe over 200 claims of abuse at church schools - and beyond. Touching especially close to the quick was the admission that, in the southern German city of Regensburg, members of a boys' choir directed for 30 years by Pope Benedict XVI's elder brother had been sexually abused. On Monday, Germany's justice minister alleged that Vatican secrecy helped foster a "wall of silence" surrounding allegations of predator priests. This is a damaging claim. In the US scandals, which erupted in 2002, it was the way clerical superiors hushed up abuse cases and protected wrongdoers that damaged the standing of the Church even more than the nature of the crimes themselves. US Catholic dioceses have since shelled out billions in compensation to victims - reportedly US$436 million (S$611 million) in just 2008 - with some forced to file for bankruptcy. The Church in Australia and Ireland has also been roiled by abuse scandals. This time, Father Federico Lombardi, the Jesuit director of the Holy See Press Office, came out to say that church leaders in the affected European countries "have faced the emergence of problem with timely and decisive action". "They have demonstrated their desire for transparency and, in a certain sense, accelerated the emergence of the problem by inviting victims to speak out, even when the cases involved date from many years ago," he said. A convincing show of transparency by church leaders can only help. But at the same time, Fr Federico also argued that "all objective and well-informed people know that the question is much broader, and concentrating accusations against the Church alone gives a false perspective". "It would be as well to concern ourselves also with (abuse elsewhere)", he added, saying that during the relevant period in Austria, there had been 17 cases of abuse in Church institutions, versus 510 "in other areas". Most recently, on Tuesday, the head of a Salzburg monastery lost his job over allegations he victimised a boy as a trainee priest then offered money when confronted years later. Fr Frederico's second point is more problematic. Obviously, priests are human and in any set of humans some will succumb to certain frailties. But given the special pedestal on which priests are placed and their emotive role as shepherds, offering comparative statistics can seem like a bid to deflect blame. Fr Frederico himself conceded clerical abuse was "particularly reprehensible", given the Church's "educational and moral responsibility". Yet the matter goes beyond that. One remembers in this context the well-known story recounted by the actor Alec Guinness. In Burgundy, France, he had been garbed for professional reasons as a priest when he was taken to be the real article by a young boy. Such was the trust engendered by the priestly robes that the child took the hand of the stranger "cleric" and babbled happily in French as the duo strolled along. When their ways parted, the child left with a wave, apparently never realising Guinness could not speak the local lingo. This was, admittedly, in the 1950s. But the episode deeply affected Guinness, later a convert to Catholicism. When this fundamental stratum of trust - however worn down in a more cynical age - is suddenly scraped by predator scandals, it seems inadequate to point out even that, say, priests are statistically less likely than other folk to stray.
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