DURHAM (UNITED KINGDOM)
The Tablet [Market Harborough, England]
April 30, 2024
By Catherine Pepinster
The report paints a picture of a damaged community which has yet to come to terms with the scandals that have beset the Church in the past 30 years.
The culture, habits and practices of the Catholic Church have played their part in the sexual abuse crisis and so need to change, according to a new study from the University of Durham.
A fear of scandal, a tradition of silence and secrecy, together with a culture of clericalism and a lack of accountability are all highlighted in the report as helping to cause abuse remaining hidden for generations and exacerbating the trauma felt by victims. It urges not only Church leaders but the entire Catholic community to counter the habits that allowed abuse to linger for so long.
The report, The Cross of the Moment, has been produced by Durham’s Centre for Catholic Studies after four years of research which included listening to survivors of abuse as well as members of the laity affected by scandals in their schools and parishes, members of religious communities, priests and bishops. Like the Government-led Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, it focused on the experiences of abuse victims and survivors but is the first study to examine how the abuse crisis affected the whole Catholic community in England and Wales.
It paints a picture of a damaged community which has yet to fully come to terms with the revealed scandals that have beset the Church in the past 30 years. According to the report the scandal “has tested and, in some ways, broken crucial parts of what we thought we knew about ourselves as a Catholic community. It has caused deep harm and damage, and the impact continues still, most profoundly for victims and survivors, and for our life as a Church and our mission here in England and Wales”.
It goes on to highlight the way in which priests were once treated as men who were above the laity by placing them “on a pedestal and [seeing] them as special and holy, rather than sharing the same humanity as everyone else in the community of faith, prone to weakness and failure just as we all are, albeit with a distinctive ministry of leadership and presiding at sacramental celebration. This tendency is implicated in the experience of many victims who felt unable to disclose their abuse or were not believed when they tried to disclose it. It is also implicated in how laypeople feel unable to challenge priests when they have concerns which need to be raised.”
Previous research has shown that from 1970-2015, 931 separate complaints of child sexual abuse were made by 1,753 individuals to Catholic authorities covering 3,072 instances of alleged abuse. Of these, around 63 per cent were to dioceses and 37 per cent were to religious orders.
In the same period, there were 177 prosecutions of offenders resulting in 133 convictions.
The Durham researchers conducted dozens of interviews with survivors of abuse by a priest or person in authority, priests and deacons and laypeople from parishes affected by abuse scandals and members of religious communities.
The study highlights the distress and sense of betrayal that many Catholics felt as they learned of abuse by priests they had trusted. They also recalled that some Catholics left the Church over the revelations. Abuse scandals could also lead to guilt and self-doubt among the laity who were concerned that they have never spotted that a fellow Massgoer has fallen victim to an abuser.
Priests who were never involved in cases themselves spoke of also falling under suspicion and the shame they experienced about abuse carried out by fellow clergy. Five bishops were also interviewed who expressed feeling at a loss over abuse and finding it very difficult but ultimately rewarding to meet survivors. They are also increasingly aware, said the report, “that their pastoral instincts should be more important than advice given by insurers”.
“Bishops are still feeling their way through these dilemmas, learning how to respond, drawing on the expertise of safeguarding professionals. Sometimes this has worked well and sometimes being risk averse and over dependant on professional advice has impeded a pastoral response,” says the report.
Although the Durham study recognises that progress has been made in safeguarding practice and in finding more compassionate ways to accompany and support victim-survivors, it says more can be done and recommends learning from restorative justice and healing circle practices as a way of improving relations between survivors and the Catholic community.