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	Church Must Bar the Blame Winnipeg Free Press April 13, 2010 http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/editorials/church-must-bar-the-blame-90725884.html The Roman Catholic church has had abundant chance to set the course straight on reporting of sexual abuse in the church, but it instead has taken to seeing itself a victim of gossip and injustice as a spate of scandalous revelations consumes it. Tongues are wagging but the church can only blame itself. The scandals have touched the top ranks at the Vatican. There are allegations that Pope Benedict XVI, in his former role until 2005 as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, allowed pedophile priests to evade criminal prosecution. The kindest interpretation may be that he abdicated the responsibility of his office. In Canada, new information has revealed that some bishops were aware of crimes here and chose not to call in police. Bernard Prince, ordained in 1963, was convicted in 2008 of molesting 13 boys between 1964 and 1984. He had a long association with parish boys around his hometown of Wilno, Ont. A letter to the Vatican in 1993 by then Pembroke bishop Joseph Windle is a damning indictment of the church's complicity in hiding the crime. Prince, a personal friend of Pope John Paul II, was shuffled to Rome. The Windle letter noted he initially agreed to Prince's transfer to the Vatican because it got him out of the area. He warned Rome, however, that elevating Prince to work with missionary societies might provoke one victim to make a criminal complaint. The bishop worried the stories about Prince's many victims would start to leak out, that charges might be pressed. He said the church was fortunate that the victims were from the Polish community, which had strong loyalty to the church. The letter, recently filed as part of a civil suit, revealed many Ontario bishops were aware of Prince's history, including then archbishop of Toronto, Cardinal Aloysius Ambrozic. Prince's deeds caught up with him as his victims aged and found their voices. He was defrocked a year ago by Pope Benedict XVI, but the back story now tumbling out exposes a trail of deliberate cover-up. Most damning is the fact the letter was written a year after the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops penned the report From Pain to Hope, in response to a cascade of sex-abuse scandals. It was meant to guide dioceses on how to prevent sex abuse and respond to allegations. The report stressed that every province has a law obliging people to report allegations to civil authorities. It speaks of the destruction wrought upon victims and families, and the necessity of compassion for convicted priests. Yet, it and its 2007 update -- which set out to again clarify protocol -- came up noticeably short in laying out how officials were to comply with obligations to report. It recommended allegations be referred to a bishop's delegate, who would then determine if there are reasonable and probable grounds to believe a child was sexually abused. That gives too much discretion to church officials, who cannot assume the role of police in determining the veracity of allegations. Yet even by those slippery standards, the silence of Pembroke's former bishop and his brethren cannot be excused. The uproar consuming Pope Benedict is similarly understandable. There has been wide confusion about what is the Holy See's rule when it comes to reporting allegations. On Monday, the Vatican website posted notice that bishops must report sexual abuse where that is the civil law in their jurisdiction. This, however, maintains the pecking order of reporting inside the church institution. It also seems to say that the church will follow the letter of the law of the land. Churches, like all institutions and people, have a legal obligation to report abuse. But the church's problem is that the public sees that in ignoring law and following self-serving protocol the obvious moral obligation was skirted. Until it is clear that allegations belong immediately in the hands of police, pedophiles will find ample room to claim serial victims.
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