Cops and Catholicism: the Cultural Connection between Police and the Church

ABC - Religion and Ethics Report
May 8, 2013

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/religionandethicsreport/cops-and-catholicism3a-the-cultural-connection-between-police-/4675996

An official enquiry into an alleged cover-up of sexual abuse among Catholic priests in the NSW Hunter Valley has heard claims that a 'Catholic mafia' inside the police force may have hindered investigations. Police whistleblower Peter Fox said he had heard that a group of officers 'aligned to the Catholic church were attempting to discourage ...investigations into clergy'. The man who allegedly told Inspector Fox about this so-called mafia, the policeman-turned-National Party MP Troy Grant, says he never used the phrase. But there are strong historic and cultural ties between the Catholic Church and police forces in Australia and, especially, the United States. For many Irish immigrants, a job on the force was a respectable passage out of social disadvantage. There are even formal organisations for Catholic police such as the NSW Police Guild of St Christopher in Australia; the New York Police Department Holy Name Society in the US; and the Catholic Police Guild of England and Wales. One of Australia's leading experts on Catholic culture, Professor Des Cahill of RMIT University in Melbourne, says that while these organisations can provide spiritual and fraternal support to officers doing stressful work, devout police can experience emotional conflict when their church becomes the subject of investigation.