Sex Crime Cover-Ups Expose Vatican’s Failings

Jakarta Globe

March 22, 2010, Celestine Bohlen

The time is right for the Catholic Church to drop its celibacy rule for priests. As new cases of child sex abuse erupt across the globe, even church leaders are suggesting the question be examined. At the Vatican’s usual pace, this might bring change by the end of this century.

Marriage, of course, won’t make pedophilia go away. It’s well known that most cases occur within families.

Still, the vows of chastity imposed on Catholic priests since 1139 don’t help, nor does the church’s attitude to sexuality in general. Sex outside marriage, homosexual “practices,” masturbation: The church still condemns all of it on the anachronistic, almost tribal pretext that sex should only be about procreation.

No wonder some devout Catholics seek the celibacy of the priesthood to bury “their conflict-laden sexuality,” as Klaus Beier, head of the Institute for Sexology and Sexual Medicine in Berlin, put it. No wonder the ranks of the Catholic priesthood are dwindling.

But as the scandals continue to unfold, the message for the church is that this isn’t just about sexual abuse. Like any political scandal, it’s also about the cover-up. In case after case, country after country, the Catholic Church chose to conceal the crimes and protect criminals from the law.

That includes those at the top of the church’s hierarchy who ordered that the scandals be wrapped in silence. It is now shockingly clear that their first concern was the church, not the victims.

No Comfort

In its 2009 report, Ireland’s Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse found that until the mid-1990s, when cases of child abuse were revealed, the Dublin Archdiocese’s main preoccupations were “the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the church and the preservation of its assets.”

So much for the church’s role as a moral example or as a source of comfort for the defenseless. According to the Irish commission, the archdiocese not only did its best to avoid the law, it also didn’t implement its own code of canon law.

In Austria and Germany, where the scandal has even touched Pope Benedict XVI’s record as Cardinal of Munich, bishops and churchmen are broaching the subject of child molestation with unusual bluntness. One bishop went on television to talk about how an all-male priesthood was more affected by pedophilia because most sex crimes were committed by men. Another agreed that the celibate lifestyle could attract people who have an abnormal sexuality.

“That’s when a dangerous situation can arise,” said Hamburg Auxiliary Bishop Hans-Jochen Jaschke. Those are amazing admissions from a clergy that, until now, has been mostly in denial about the perils of a men-only club.

Strongholds Threatened

This kind of breach in the church’s distaste for public discussions about sex and the clergy is welcome. When the US scandals broke in 2002, the church leadership had a different reaction, at least initially. Commentators then traced the Vatican’s bunker mentality to its perception that the scandal was being manipulated by a hostile, sensation-seeking US media.

That view has changed as the scandals threaten the church’s moral standing in Catholic strongholds such as Ireland and even the pope’s native Bavaria.

This time, nobody is blaming the messenger and the debate is at long last turning inward. Maybe the scope of the scandal had become too big; maybe the church realizes it needs to attract a new kind of priest, but already church leaders, including Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, archbishop of Vienna, are hinting that the celibacy rule — a “discipline,” not a doctrine — should be examined.

Confidential Letter

Since the 1960s, the church has insisted on absolute secrecy for cases of sexual abuse, and even prescribed penalties for those who violated it. In 2001, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — then head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, now pope — issued a confidential letter, advising bishops to send cases of sexual abuse to him for adjudication. He said his office would take care of them.

It didn’t and there was no reason to think it could or would. It’s well known that self-policing rarely works — not for doctors, lawyers, police or priests. And yet church leaders kept insisting on trying to deal with its scandals in-house.

Not only did Ireland’s Cardinal Sean Brady fail to report a case of child molestation to the police in 1975; he actually made the two victims, former altar boys, sign oaths of secrecy.

This week, in his St. Patrick’s Day sermon, Brady said he was sorry for his actions, but that hasn’t stopped the pressure for him to step down. The apology came 35 years too late.

Celestine Bohlen is a columnist for Bloomberg News.