Media Release

Road to Recovery
December 5, 2013

http://www.road-to-recovery.org/helping-victims-clergy-sexual-abuse-suggestions-pope-benedict-xvi

Response by Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity that assists victims of sexual abuse to the news that the Vatican is establishing a papal advisory commission on sexual abuse of children, teenagers, and vulnerable adults

The specifics of the Vatican commission on sexual abuse have not yet been determined, but many aspects of the commission already announced cause us to be skeptical. Why?

1) The proposed commission will be composed of an international range of experts and will focus on the pastoral aspect of the continuing clergy sex abuse crisis.

Our response: Once again, the Catholic Church emphasizes the “pastoral” aspect of its programs, hoping the faithful will empathize with their attempts to be sensitive and caring, the hallmarks of “pastoral ministry.” Instead, the Church should be focused, first of all, on the criminal and psychological aspects of clergy sexual abuse. Sexual abuse of children and many others is criminal behavior, for the most part, and cases should be handled by civil authorities. Establishing a commission that “appears” to be focused on the pastoral aspects of sexual abuse diverts attention away from the needs of victims: justice in the civil and criminal arenas, and psychological services that promote healing.

2) The proposed commission will be composed of priests, women and men religious, and lay people.

Our response: Once again, the Church turns inward instead of outward to solicit the opinions and counsel of “experts.” The “experts” regarding clergy sexual abuse are the victims themselves, yet no victims will be invited to sit on this commission. In addition, should the Vatican want to assemble an international panel of “experts,” it should never begin with priests and men and women religious because they and their colleagues have been the abusers, enablers, and deniers of clergy sexual abuse for centuries. The Church must look “outward” toward experts if it wants an independent commission. Entrenched lay people would be just as myopic as priests and men and women religious.

3) The proposed commission will have no clout or independence, in the same way that international Church review boards, panels, and experts appointed by Church officials have no clout and are not objective entities.

Our response: Unless and until Church authorities are held to the same legal and moral standards as other service-oriented persons, the Church’s credibility will continue to be virtually non-existent. There are Popes, Cardinals, Archbishops, and Bishops who have concealed crimes against children and the vulnerable but continue to serve as Church leaders. If the new commission is able to charge, indict, prosecute, and punish those Church leaders who covered up and enabled the serial sexual abuse of children (and continue to do so), then it will have clout. Otherwise, the new commission will be a paper tiger, just like all other Church commissions.

Contact: Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Co-founder and President, Road to Recovery, Inc. – 862-368-2800 – rmhoatson@gmail.com