Do Sex Offenders Deserve Dignity?

By Peter Kirkwood
The Eureka Street
December 3, 2013

http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=38590#.Up3IYsRDua8

[with video]

In Australia, sexual abuse by clergy is the Church issue of the moment. The ongoing national Royal Commission, which is due to begin public hearings into the Catholic Church next week, and separate recent enquiries in Victoria and NSW, ensure the crisis has been, and will continue to be in the headlines.

The results of a survey of Mass-going Catholics released at the end of October by the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference Pastoral Research Office shows anger and disillusionment among grassroots believers. The survey of about 2800 Catholics in over 200 parishes found 54 per cent agreed that 'the response of church authorities to these incidences (of sexual abuse) has been inadequate and shows a complete failure of responsibility'.

But how to diagnose accurately the complex issues underlying sexual abuse in the Church? How to deal fairly, justly and adequately both with victims/survivors and with offenders? Why such a dismal failure of leadership by Church hierarchy and how should it be practicing its responsibility? What is the way forward?

The man featured in this video is a prophetic voice in this fraught territory. What he says is informed and grounded through decades of experience. He speaks with clarity, insight and authority, and his words are deeply challenging.

Gerard Webster has spent all his working life as a psychologist dealing with victims and perpetrators of sexual abuse. He spent the first ten years in the Departments of Community Services and Juvenile Justice in the areas of child protection and juvenile offending.

In this context he received specialist training and supervision working with these clients and much of his work was with sexual abusers, victims and their families. This included juvenile offenders, and adults and children with intellectual disabilities who had been abused or were abusers.

After this, 20 years ago he set up a private practice and this coincided with victims of abuse in the Church first raising their voices. Since then many of his clients have been men abused in a church setting, and male clerics and religious who have committed crimes of abuse.

In the interview he explains how he balances the needs of victims and offenders by using a human rights approach to all his clients. This recognises the inherent dignity and worth of all. It leads to his somewhat controversial position of engaging with perpetrators and speaking out against demonising them. He argues this leads to a safer and more dignified environment for everyone.

He also has strong views on the causes of abuse in the Church, and believes there are structural problems that actually encourage abuse. As he states in the interview, 'What is it about the structure [and] culture of the Church that has allowed this to happen, and, in fact, in some ways encourages it? Such as, the hierarchical system is one of domination and submission, and sexual abuse is about domination and submission.'

Of course this raises issues of major reform of Church governance that overturns centuries of tradition. With Pope Francis's call for decentralisation of authority in his recently released apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, perhaps such reforms might actually happen.

A few weeks ago Webster delivered an inspiring address to members of Catalyst for Renewal and the Aquinas Academy in Sydney entitled 'A Meditation on Human Rights: Responding to Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church'. It outlines his position in more detail, and gives the theological and biblical underpinnings to his approach.