Last Updated: Friday - 09/24/2010

Media spotlight misses Church's tackling sex abuse and secrecy

Sexual abuse, especially of minors, is a horrible assault on the innocent, one that often leaves the victims emotionally scarred for life. It is well known that numerous Catholic clergy have abused boys, girls and women. Each case, as it becomes known, is publicized in detail in local media and sometimes to a much wider audience.

Less publicized is that Catholic parishes in North America are now likely one of the safest environments for young people. In Canada, after the scandalous events at the Mount Cashel Orphanage in Newfoundland, the Canadian bishops produced guidelines in 1992 for the handling of sexual abuse allegations.

The Church went further, subjecting potential seminarians to intense screening and making serious efforts to help future priests develop balanced and holy lives. Even before the abuse crisis, many dioceses had developed Ministry to Priests programs to further the human development of clergy.

Nevertheless, even after 1992, in some cases less attention was paid to the needs of victims than to protecting the public image of the Church. Such cases are rare, but that has not stopped anti-Catholic forces from trying to paint the Church as a secretive criminal conspiracy of child abusers.

It should be noted that the 1992 Canadian report, From Pain to Abuse, was dedicated to two groups. The first was "survivors of child abuse who have risked publicly disclosing their suffering. . . . We thank you because your heroic action has been a prophetic catalyst for fundamental change in the way we relate to those who are mistreated."

In other words, the seven-member committee, which included three bishops, welcomed disclosure by the victims. Also to be thanked are media, such as The Boston Globe, which unearthed the extent of clerical child abuse and efforts to cover it up. Without aggressive media reporting, the Church might well have been much slower to change its ways.

However, as Catholic writer George Weigel recently noted, 40 to 60 per cent of child abuse takes place within families. Weigel also cited a report by Charol Shakeshaft of Virginia Commonwealth University which estimated there were 290,000 cases of child abuse in U.S. public schools from 1991 to 2000.

The fact that homes and schools - much more than Catholic rectories - are the most likely places for children to be abused has simply not received the same scrutiny as abuse by Catholic priests. Pointing out this fact does not excuse the clerical abuse that has occurred. But it does raise the question of why the media spotlight is trained almost exclusively on the Catholic Church.

Any fair portrayal of sexual abuse would make clear that the Church is determined to end abuse and the culture of secrecy that surrounded it and that, at least in North America, it has already made major strides.

Glen Argan

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