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Religious Life Without Integrity
The Sexual Abuse Crisis in the Catholic
Church
By Barry M Coldrey
18: THE FORMATION STAGE
Seminary staff need to be aware that cases of abuse of seminarians
(by rogue staff) have occurred, with devastating results all around when
all is revealed as in the modern world it is likely to be.
'Over 100 priests (10% of the sample) reported incidents of sexual approaches
while each was in the seminary. Betrayal of the generational barrier was
severely traunmatic.' (Sipe, 1990, p. 112)
'A group of priests who gathered to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary
of their entrance into their Religious Order were sharing stories about
their novitiate experience. One of the men confided that their novice master
had a two-year relationship with him. The news came as a shock to most of
his thirty classmates who considered the Novice Master the epitome of all
the virtues for which the religious order stood.' (Sipe, op. cit.,
p. 138).
In his memoirs, Morris West described his own Novice Master. It is
the world of the early 1930s. 'I still regard him as an ignorant and coarse
man, psychologically maimed, anti-intellectual, spiritually blind, who did
grave and sometimes irreparable damage to many of the youths in his charge.
With males he was always in contestation; from females he always scuttled
away.' (West, M. A View from the Ridge, Harper-Collins, Sydney,
1996, p. 6)
If Morris West's analysis is correct, one might wonder that such a person
may have molested students. In fact, during my investigation, one allegation
(only) came to light and that was pooh-poohed at the time since the accuser
had such a low reputation for either sanctity or good sense. However, with
the advantage of hindsight - which allows 20 - 20 vision - it is possible
to suggest that the disturbed nature of the accuser may have been due to
molestation when he was young, molestation from a high-prestige authority-figure.
'Cardinal Groer, now aged 79, is alleged to have sexually abused novice
monks at Gottweig some 20 years ago...last week at 600-word declaration
issued by four Austrian bishops, and made 'in agreement with other bishops'
declared that they had reached 'moral certainty' that the accusations against
Groer were 'in essence correct.' Groer had molested students on trips and
in shower rooms. (The Tablet, 14 March 1998, p. 358.)
(Father P.H.Pritchard, four years jail, Brothers of St. Gerard
Majella,
eight teenagers abused). 'Each of the offences involves a serious breach
of trust. The victims were young men who were striving to prove their suitability
for religious life. They were vulnerable to his manipulation and were powerless
when faced with the prisoner's sexual advances'. (Mitchell, A. 'The priests
of prey', Sun-Herald (Sydney), 16 November 1997,
pp. 56-57.)
'In 1969, during my second year of training (aged 17) at the Juvenate
(Junior Seminary) at Edmund Rice College, Bundoora, I was molested by one
of the Brothers at the college. Whilst I was drying myself in the shower
block, alone at the time, Brother X came up behind me and without saying
anything started to fondle my genitalia. I remember feeling violated, angry,
degraded. Shortly after this incident in mid-1969, I decided to leave the
Brothers.' - Victim impact statement.
'Another priest when he was a 15 year-old (junior) seminarian once experienced
anal intercourse with a 25 year-old priest. He along with other young seminarians,
were on a summer pilgrimage to a religious shrine. The sleeping arrangements
were haphazard and he was assigned to a bed with the older man. Years later
he recalled with regret and excitement his one and only sexual experience
with another person.' (Sipe, A.W.R. A Secret World: Sexuality and
the Search for Celibacy, Brunner/Mazel, New York, 1990, p. 168)
Seminary and training college staff must be aware - with vivid examples,
if necessary - that peer homosexual experiences have been quite common over
the years in some groups; and staff may need to discuss how these undesirable
practices may be prevented. Their memory can have serious repercussions
down the years.
'(Sometimes) sexual friendships begin in the seminary and continue through
periodic contact over the years.' (Sipe, 1990, p. 126)
(Michael Lannen, 49, 4 years jail, 1996, sex offences) 'In the 1980s,
be became a trainee priest at Banyo...until he was found to be in a sexual
relationship with a (younger) seminarian.'
'A Catholic priest yesterday pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting
young boys from Melbourne parishes for nearly two decades. Father Wilfrid
Baker, 62, faces charges dating back to 1960 when he was training to enter
the priesthood.' (Mc Mahon, G. 'Priest admits boys' assault', Herald-Sun
(Melbourne), 10 March 1999, p. 31)
'Sam (Penny, Manchester Archdiocese) blamed his family, saying that they
wouldn't talk of sex. It was taboo in his house. He blamed his friend Seamus
in the seminary who touched Sam when he was sixteen. The night, Sam claims,
he went to Seamus. As an abuser or as a homosexual lover ? After that he
couldn't stop himself, claiming the children loved it as they kept coming
back for more.' (Flanaghan, E. Father and Me: A story of sexual abuse
at the hands of a priest, Harper Collins, Australia, 1995, p. 99).
When a homosexual ring was discovered in one novitiate many years ago,
one of the staff snapped to me: 'What do you senior teachers actually say
to these young people in your Religion classes ? He was suggesting that
the novices, all from the Congregation's schools or institutions, seemed
to lack any formed moral conscience in matters in which they should have
been instructed. It was not merely a matter of human weakness; they seemed
plain ignorant in areas in which it was presumed they knew; they were ten
commandments ignorant.
The virtue of celibacy was passed on to young students by men who appeared
to have little knowledge of human sexuality. (Campion, E. Rockchoppers:
Growing up Catholic in Australia, Penguin, 1982, p. 68)
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