Staggering sex abuse in the Church

The New Indian Express
First Published : 27 Mar 2010 12:08:00 AM IST
Last Updated : 27 Mar 2010 12:36:15 AM IST

Sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church has a long and dishonourable history. Long before the present uproar about the sexual abuse of children in its care, there were many sniggering references to the bambini of the more notorious popes of antiquity. Nor did this always refer to their illegitimate children; in some cases it was a reference to catamites. Given this background, sexual abuse should come as no surprise, but the sheer scale of continuing revelations is staggering.

The latest case involves the abuse of 200 boys in a Wisconsin school for the deaf. Before that was the truly horrifying tale from Ireland of decades of abuse. Thousands of children were the victims, and the church suborned the police into covering up the crimes. From Germany, the home of the Pope, 300 cases have been reported, and similar allegations are coming out of Austria, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland.

It is only recently that this tale of wholesale betrayal and subsequent cover-up has begun to come out. For a long time the church’s response was denial. It systematically aborted attempts to uncover the truth. When that did not work, the sort of apologies began. Pope Benedict XVI’s statement on Ireland expresses remorse and shame for the conduct of guilty Irish priest and prelates, but he ties in their behaviour with the uncertain morals of their times. Surely, this is the most egregious of defences, coming from an organisation that preaches a code for all time.

The story has troubling implications for the Third World, too. In Brazil three priests are under investigation for their conduct. There could be many more. It is impossible at this moment to say whether abuse happens in other countries as well, but one case from India is instructive. Simon Palathingal, a Catholic priest of the Salesian order, was convicted in 2004 of sexually abusing a boy by a Wisconsin court. The abuse happened in the early 1990s. The same man was vice-principal of a prominent Chennai school in the late Seventies and Eighties. Given its record it is possible that the church knew of his leanings and did nothing.

If paedophile priests got away with their crimes in countries with robust legal systems, think how much easier it would be in India, with its endemic corruption. That is something for child rights activists to ponder as they struggle with the already Herculean task of protecting their charges from sexual predators.