Delegates at Lutheran Synod Unofficially Discuss Child Abuse, Helsingen Sanomat, May 4, 2010

Delegates at Lutheran Synod Unofficially Discuss Child Abuse

Helsingen Sanomat
May 4, 2010

http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Delegates+at+Lutheran+synod+unofficially+discuss+child+abuse/1135256580063


Jukka Paarma	Seppo Hakkinen

Is a four-year-old boy a human being? This rhetorical question was put forward on Monday morning by Archbishop Jukka Paarma in his opening speech at the spring Synod of the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church.

Paarma was illustrating point according to which society needs to value people other than those who do productive work.

However, many of the 108 delegates at the Synod were thinking about another issue involving children. The question of sexual abuse within ecclesiastical circles has been a hot topic in a Laestadian community of the Lutheran Church in Pietarsaari, as well as with the Roman Catholic Church worldwide. It has also been discussed on the pages of Helsingin Sanomat.

“The matter, which had been kept in stale darkness has been brought out into the fresh air, and keeping abuse hidden would be more difficult than before”, Paarma said during a coffee break in the proceedings.

The issue of abuse was not on the official agenda.

But what should be done with a minister or other church employee who is found to have committed sexual abuse?

Seppo Hakkinen, the Bishop of Mikkeli, who is specialised in the church’s work with children, notes that the confidentiality of private discussions between ministers and parishioners can be broken if it is known that a child is being abused, or if abuse is being planned.

The church as about 21,500 employees, of whom 4,000-5,000 are involved in child, and youth work.

“Even in an old case the procedure could be that the Cathedral Chapter initiates disciplinary action, and that on the basis of the investigation, a minister who has committed abuse could lose his or her lifelong rights as clergy”, Hakkinen put forward on Monday.

Hakkinen said that the church can do this even if the event took place so long ago that criminal prosecution is not possible.

Paarma noted that in the postwar period, there have been fewer than 20 such cases that have come to light.

Synod delegate Sami Ojala wants the church to take a more forthright stand on the matter.

“The Catholic Church has not taken action yet, but the bishops of our church and the high officials of the Church Council have the power to clear this up. We could even hire an outside investigator.”

Ojala is the secretary of special youth work of the Church Council, and a former director of youth work in the east of Helsinki.

“And if an investigation shows that some bishop has covered things up, then put his head on a platter”, Ojala said (invoking a biblical metaphor that is commonly used in Finland, and not meant to be taken literally).

According to a report by researcher Johanna Hurtig, members of the Conservative Laestadian movement have been given long prison sentences in recent times.

Usually among the Laestadians, cases of abuse involve a male relative who takes advantage of children, says a Conservative Laestadian delegate from Oulu, Esa Koukkari, a lawyer and former police chief.

“Nobody needs to suffer violence because of his or her faith. We must try to clear up the problem and support both the victim and whoever committed paedophilia”, Koukkari explains.

The Finnish Evangelical-Lutheran Church, like the other Nordic churches, have drawn up guidelines on dealing with abuse ever since the late 1990s. There are instructions from 2000 on what to do if such a crime comes to light.