The Catholic Church Is Making Progress on Taking Responsibility for Past Mistakes on Abuse

By Liz Leydon
Herald Scotland
February 12, 2016

http://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/14274501.Agenda__The_Catholic_Church_is_making_progress_on_taking_responsibility_for_past_mistakes_on_abuse/

As the film Spotlight brings the Boston Catholic Church clerical abuse crisis back to the forefront of our minds, reopening old wounds for all involved, it draws inevitable but inaccurate comparisons between the abuse crisis and cover up in the church in the US, dating from the turn of the millennium expose, and what is happening in the Scottish Church at present.

I have had the demanding privilege of working on Church abuse stories on both sides of the Atlantic during my time with the Boston Herald group at the height of the Church abuse crisis and now as editor of The Scottish Catholic Observer (SCO), Scotland’s independent national Catholic newspaper. It is clear from survivors’ accounts in both countries, others such as in Ireland and from subsequent investigations that crimes occurred, serious mistakes were made and the Church as an institution had a steep learning curve on reporting and handling accusations of abuse, issues too repulsive to imagine. While I have respect for the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize winning-team featured in Spotlight, wider mistakes were also made in the early reporting on the abuse issue – such as sensationalism of already horrific news– due to a lack of understanding about such an emotive subject and of the Catholic Church; also, because of agendas.

I do not work for the Church but my previous and current roles give me an informed perspective on the differences between the two situations: the horror and scale of the situation in Boston in circa 1999 onwards involving Paul Shanley and John Geoghan, prompting the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law, and the reality of the issue in Scotland at present that seems to have eluded Herald and, yes, Scottish Catholic Observer columnist Kevin McKenna.

There is and cannot be any excuse for clerical abuse, nor for any attempts to prevent justice being done and a comprehensive reporting and investigatory procedure involving the police must followed uniformly in all cases. We all know this as we have learned and benefited from what the world saw went wrong in Boston leading to abuse cases and cover ups.

However last year’s McLellan report on the handling of reports of abuse cases in Scotland – and the very system it recommended that is being putting in place –cannot be dismissed out of hand. Such changes are also much more than "another box-ticking exercise as the Government and the Catholic Church in Scotland seek to continue their mission to bury this out of sight," as Kevin McKenna chose to put it.

Taking responsibility for past mistakes is something the Church has to do and is making progress on, even though it is in the impossible position of judging by, and being judged on, today’s standards regarding the mistakes made in historic abuse cases. However, attempting to bring the Church to its knees, and "tarring" all clergy with the same brush is neither a constructive path nor one that appears to offer any benefits. The majority of clergy already carry the weight and stain of the few within their numbers guilty of these crimes. In Scotland, cases reported have often been within religious orders rather than within dioceses; nonetheless they require scrupulous attention.

The needs of abuse survivors must be at the centre of any abuse handling or reporting system, a key part of the McLellan recommendations and Pope Francis’s own panel (which, sadly, appears to be at odds with its survivor member). Many victims are so traumatised, however, that, understandably, no process or any amends could make reparations. The Church will keep trying.

Safeguarding standards for children and vulnerable adults being updated and rolled out in the Scottish Church shows there is a difference between confidentiality and cover-up. I hope that will encourage groups like White Flowers Alba to come forward, to participate and be heard.

While the Church in England and Wales awaits it own fate on abuse via the Justice Goddard Inquiry instituted by UK Home Secretary Teresa May, the Scottish Church is making progress; progress best measured by independent scrutiny, not solely judged in the court of public opinion or the press in Scotland. Therein lies a key difference between American "lawsuit" and Scottish culture.

Liz Leydon is editor of the Scottish Catholic Observer.