By Peter Mcc
The Catholic Church finds itself in a bit of a bind these days. They love having their exclusive gentlemen’s club, with all the trappings and showmanship, fancy dresses, fine wines, and immunity from the Law, but suddenly folk have had enough of their treatment of children and society wants, demands actually, that they start behaving morally.
Sounds more than fair to me, but this includes changes to their sacred sacrament of Confession, and this little escape hatch will not be surrendered easily.
For those unaware of this neat little marketing tool, Confession allows you to tell the Priest your sins, and for the more than generous price of a handful of Our Fathers and Hail Marys, you get to purge your record and it’s back onto Santa’s Xmas list. Or entry to Heaven, whichever comes first.
Sounds pretty harmless, doesn’t it? But here is the sting in the tail. God doesn’t want the Priest to tell anyone what has been confessed. It’s a secret between the Sinner, God and the Priest. That means if a Priest takes Confession from a fellow Priest, and the Sin is sexual abuse of a child, the chap hearing the Confession cannot dob the offender in. Not even to his Bishop.
The Priest then has the added pressure in his job of watching repeat offenders going on to rack up more sins against kids, then rinse and repeat.
What does each party stand to gain by this behaviour?
- The Priest taking the Confession? A ton of workplace stress unless they are also an Abuser. (And most aren’t)
- The Sinner? Further adventures with children and literally a “Get out of Jail Free” card.
- God? Initially no bad Press, but eventually a shit ton more and a king-sized credibility problem. Also, fewer recruits for the ground crew, unless they are a paedophile, which makes the whole approach a self-sustaining disaster.
- The kids? They become the biggest losers. Sustained abuse, and if they are very unlucky, multiple Abusers in a party environment.
Recently Archbishop Hart expressed his preference for going to jail rather than breaking the sanctity of the Confessional so we know where his concerns lie, and I’m not going to lose any sleep over him doing time and possibly copping the same treatment from ex-victims currently in prison, but there is another option.
A survivor of Abuse at the hands of the Church, suggested, it’s dangerous to allow the Catholic Church access to kids, so he offers the following.
Simply remove the Catholic Church from the education system.
I say simply, but it would take years to achieve, but a heck of a lot easier to manage than trying to micromanage chaps who get into their secret enclaves and take a long time to root out.
There are a stack of advantages though. Hart can keep pretending he has a special relationship with God and the Sinner, the kids catch a break, the Catholic Church gets a lot less bad Press, society has less traumatised people floating around, the Church saves billions in compensation. Priests taking Confession have a heck of a lot less stress by not being an Enabler, quality recruitment should jump as their reputation improves, the current Pope can keep his head buried in the sand, but it won’t look quite so bad, and the Catholic Church will not have to suffer horrific testimony such as that given by Cardinal Pell.
Of course, the trick is how we can bring about this change. Parliament is riddled with mates of the Catholic Church. Some have even done part of the training. They are not interested in losing access to developing minds and the earlier the better. They really need to cram in their dogma before critical thinking skills click in. Ideally, they would not have access to Primary schools, and if we really want to play it safe, Secondary schools should not be under their control. That still leaves them with Catholic Universities which can be quite profitable.
This is nowhere near dealing with the entire problem, such as in other religious schools, or government institutions, but at least it tackles one of the worse groups for taking the problem seriously. When our current (popular) Catholic Pope thinks it’s enough for Priests to “look into their soul and resign” if they have sinned, then we know it’s not being taken seriously. Imagine if the police rolled up to a State school investigating a complaint of sexual abuse, and the Principal said: “I’ll make an announcement that anyone who has been naughty should hand me their resignation.” Imagine the outcry, especially from those apologists who defend the Church these days.
I’m guessing the Royal Commission will have a few recommendations aimed at prevention, and it’s highly unlikely something so drastic will get a mention. But rest assured, this sort of approach would certainly get the Catholic Church’s attention.
References
Bishop Hart statement: https://goo.gl/kvCgtn
UN tells Vatican to act: https://goo.gl/Nn2TBm
Confessional definition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessional
Survivors suggestion: https://goo.gl/zds7yH
Catholic abuse costs $4B in US alone: https://goo.gl/H4SLFi
The movie Spotlight: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1895587/
Enabler definition: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/enabler
This article was originally published on 1Petermcc’s Blog.
I would not be holding my breath waiting for reforms that would pretend to clean up institutional abuse. Just like computers, there is always more than one way to get around a problem.
Any financial compensation to the victims of sexual abuse should come from the various churches and institutions that allowed this abuse to take place- it should not come from taxpayers government revenue. The churches and many of these institutions enjoy a tax free status and are very well off, making them pay up will cause them some pain-but it is money they have taken from many of those families whose children have had their lives ruined.
I would not only concentrate on the Catholics only and look into all the religions including the Anglican, Church of England, Evangelical, etc.
If we do not do that we are playing with a distractions allowing another groups to get away with it.
I wonder what would happen if the confessor wanted to commit property damage or attempt to kill the clergy? Would the priest then sit on his hands? Swings and roundabouts
Freethinker, you have to start somewhere and why not choose the worst offender? I’m more than happy to see others dealt with too, especially the Salvos who have the same level of respect for the rule of Law that the Catholic Church has, but you need a starting point and you need to shock the Catholic Church into action. With any luck, other churches will learn to fear society.
At the very least, this should be the threat hanging over their heads as we seek to bring them under control.
The problem is too vast to take them all on at the same time, but if you take out the worst first, it should see knock on benefits from others and then we can work our way down the list. That should give us the maximum impact for our efforts.
Mandy vuk, Church rules require that info not to be passed on, but as we can see in the courts, rules are not always followed. I’d be surprised in just such a scenario is not part of a Priests training.
No arguments about that, 1petermcc as long as the it not finish here.
Many heads have to roll IMO
Quite simply, NO power exists that can condone abuse of children.
In NSW, mandatory reporters are required by law to report to Family and Community Services if they suspect that a child is at risk of significant harm.
Mandatory reporters are people who deliver the following services, wholly or partly, to children as part of their paid or professional work:
Health care (e.g. registered medical practitioners, specialists, general practice nurses, midwives, occupational therapists, speech therapists, psychologists, dentists and other allied health professionals working in sole practice or in public or private health practices)
Welfare (e.g. psychologists, social workers, caseworkers and youth workers)
Education (e.g. teachers, counsellors, principals)
Children’s services (e.g. child care workers, family day carers and home-based carers)
Residential services (e.g. refuge workers)
Law enforcement (e.g. police)
Seems to me that if the Catholic Church refuses to abide by these laws then they should be precluded from having anything to do with children.
To focus on Catholics in particular, It’s probably the act of confession itself that helps perpetuate many wrongs.
If you believe you can do whatever you like and have “the evil meter” reset periodically and without consequence, why the need for morality or ethical behaviour? It’s like a get out of jail free card for your conscience.
It’s one of the benefits of membership and not so much different from the days of selling Indulgences – a handy product to attract customers.
As for all the offending religions, what bothers me is the high incidence of offenders from within the church itself. Are priests somehow turned toward pedophilia over time as part of their profession or does the church naturally attract predatory and opportunistic people?
Like many inward-looking organisations, the church always places itself above its members.
As for changing the legal standing of confession I think there are some Concordats in place that give priests legal immunity. These are secret deals between governments and the Catholic church in particular and I would be amazed if they can be broken http://www.concordatwatch.eu/
Some persistence will be required John Kelly.
Absolutely Freethinker. I hope we have the staying power to run the course.
Couldn’t agree more Kaye Lee. One rule for all.
Ta for the link Zathras. When i’m back at the PC I’ll check it out even though I suspect it’s going to depress me.
While professing the importance of faith in their agenda, the aim is overwhelmingly to further their religions teaching………… Faith is their smokescreen and “white lies” are allowed.
Truth is one must concentrate on wherever children gather. Paedophiles seek out such places. The churches have made it easy for them. Sexual abuse occurs within families so seeing priests marry will make little difference. Until society treat the abuse as criminal, not to be kept within the family or institution, nothing will change.
Keep in mind the RC has more opportunmities for paedaphiles to commit their crimes, especially 50 years ago.
More schools both day & boarding. More orphanges & children’s homes. Priests given too much respect in the community, families & church.
Time to go out and help the poor , feed the needy, shelter the lost, provide for the refugees fleeing death, give voice to the great unwashed isn’t that was it all about in your sunday school classes what the f*ck happened when it became a rock spiders feeding ground and all your good deeds lay in the dust of poor tortured children. Sell the churches and form a fund like “GETUP” get off your asses travel the world and help he war torn counties with food and shelter, time to reset and find your true meaning in life.
I’d start by getting rid of those effing ridiculous school chaplains inflicted on us by Chimpy. I understand they aren’t necessarily Catholic, but they are religious and in my book they are all as bad as one another. My child started to realise he was transgender in junior high school. In the absence of Safe Schools he was bullied by students and even some of the staff, and the school psychologist, unequipped to deal with this issue, was totally unable to help him. I shudder to think what would have happened to him had the school chaplain got his hands on him.
A total distraction. Child abusers in the church would NEVER mention it in confession. I doubt if any of the serious offenders actually believe in god.
In the Sydney Morning Herald today we learn that,
“….Archbishop (Melbourne Catholic Archbishop, Denis Hart) has ruled out any change to breaking the seal of confession to report allegations of abuse that may be revealed by a priest or a victim.”
We later read that,
“He (Melbourne Catholic Archbishop, Denis Hart) said he would do anything in his power to ensure any reports of abuse made in the confessional were followed up outside of that forum, but said he could not defy canon law and break the seal of confession, and did not expect the Holy See would ever consider changing that sacrament….
..”I cannot see that the sacrosanct nature of confession would ever change,” Archbishop Hart told Fairfax Media after the press conference””
Also, later in the same article,
“It (The Royal Commission Report) also recommends that religious ministers be brought into line with police, doctors and nurses who are all obliged by law to report sexual abuse. This would include any abuse disclosures made to clergy in confession.” See,
http://www.smh.com.au/national/vatican-should-be-asked-to-make-celibacy-optional-childsex-abuse-commission-20171215-h05g97.html
To me, all this on one huge danger signal which warns of how religious organizations can ‘work the system” in their favor. It is almost as though religious people are somehow, ‘above the law’. Somehow, ‘God’s Law’ takes precedence over the laws made for our society.
It seems that by declaring your organization to be ‘a religious organization’ you can get ‘special treatment’. Often,you are not only able to get around laws that affect other people and organizations, you are also eligible for tax exemption, taxpayer subsidies for your schools and the witch-doctors for your organization are supposed to be treated with some kind of special reverence by the rest of society. If anyone has the temerity to question any of this then they are immediately accused of “denying religious freedom”, bigotry, racism, prejudice, discrimination, you name it.
Freedom of religion is even constitutionally protected in America under the First Amendment of the Constitution.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_religion_in_the_United_States
The purveyors of fairy-tales, hocus-pocus and mumbo-jumbo (all backed up with liberal lollops of fear and guilt) have certainly got it made.
If you think that it is bad now, just wait until the purveyors of Sharia Law reach a critical mass.
As the bulk of the offenders are catholic, a simple answer would be to make it mandatory for all ordained priests to have their testicles removed before their ordination.
That should sort the problem out.
saeworks, tht it is an excellent idea because they suppose to not have any use for them.
The first step could be with absolution and penace.
For the pertpretator the former is deferred to heaven and the latter is a letter to the bishop.
For the victim the absolution is absolute and guilt destroyed and the penance an informal dinner with the bishop for the whole family.v
It is not just the church but all institutions that caters for kids. Yet the church should take the lead in bringing WOMEN into the fore. As they are the key to cleaning up all messes caused by men.
ps there is no celibacy for those who cannot copulate. Maybe sexreassignment may fast track women??
Denis Hart has already stated his explicit intention of breaking mandatory reporting laws, this clearly includes the segment of the organisation over which he has authority – to my mind that renders that segment of the organisation a criminal enterprise – worthy and deserving of being outlawed
Robert REYNOLDS at 3:33 pm I thought you were doing rather well until the last line:
So you are prone to jump at shadows too? Any evidence that Sharia is taking root in Australia? Perhaps Pauline is your source? If not – then Please Explain.
The evil perpetrated by these cults of control requires dyer retribution. The destruction of the church of the offender. A set punishment, similar to one punch death. We are discussing the destruction of the child’s life here, into adulthood a prison sentence of hell. This criminal act is not beyond the laws of the land, to deny this morel responsibility, kick the scum out of Australia.
Freedom of religion may indeed be constitutionally protected in America under the First Amendment of the Constitution but there is a Freedom FROM Religion Foundation over there hard at work trying to maintain the separation between Church and State.
Before that Amendment the authors of that Constitution deliberately intended to keep religion out of government and even the “In God we trust” motto didn’t officially appear on their currency until 1956.
Their Founding Fathers went to great lengths not to imply that the USA was to be “A Christian Nation”. That’s something claimed by others.
Extremist Evangelism has been nibbling away at their society for decades to the point where attempts to teach creationism in place of evolution in schools is still very active today, as well as other matters that would even embarrass the Taliban.
Matters Not at 10:03 pm, let me remind you of an old saying that has much relevance in this instance.
“From little things, big things grow.”
For example, Matters Not, a metastasizing cancer. A very apt metaphor I would suggest.
“So you are prone to jump at shadows too? ”
Not at all, Matters Not, I feel that,
“A stitch in time saves 9”.
And in response to your “Please Explain” (gosh Matters Not, you are sounding a little like Pauline yourself)
The Australian Federation of Islamic Councils has already tried to get ‘its foot in the door’ over 6 years ago. See,
https://www.google.com.au/search?client=firefox-b&dcr=0&biw=947&bih=737&ei=vHE1Wou7DcP28AXTrJ2gCA&q=Australian+federation+of+islamic+councils+inc.+letter+to+Joint+standing+committee+on+Migration+4+April+2011&oq=Australian+federation+of+islamic+councils+inc.+letter+to+Joint+standing+committee+on+Migration+4+April+2011&gs_l=psy-ab.12…0.0.0.51186.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0….0…1c..64.psy-ab..0.0.0….0.vp10Tx5B9qY
Also in Australia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T06Akk1f0Ss
The are myriad warning signs from Europe of what can happen when (not if) things get out of control. For instance
https://clarionproject.org/2-places-dont-want-go-europe/
In case you are unaware of it Matters Not, Sharia Law has already gained a foothold in the U.K. See
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3001087/sharia-law-uk-muslims-islamic-legal-system/
I would also Matters Not, give the highest possible recommendation to you to read Douglas Murray’s book, The Strange Death of Europe, Immigration Identity Islam”. If that does not alarm you then nothing will.
“Jumping at shadows” Matters Not? I do not think so my friend!!
matters not I was surprised to read this two days ago:
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/dec/15/religious-freedom-review-appointee-has-argued-for-limited-sharia-law-in-australia
Care should be taken not to paint complex scenes with too broad a brush.
‘Sharia’ is a broadly defined concept within the religions of Islam, which is itself a faith with myriad permutations.
For example, the principles and practices of adherents to philosophical/spiritual Sufism are very different from those of fundamentalist Salafists and Wahhabists.
Unfortunately, it is Islam of the latter, more hard-line varieties that gain public/media attention, and, more disturbingly, it is also the more militantly fundamentalist, less tolerant variants that are being aggressively marketed in Australia.
Saudi Arabia, a country deeply associated with the more repressive aspects of Islam and Sharia (eg public executions and hidden women), are spending vast sums of their oil money in order to set up mosques, religious schools and other agencies (especially ‘youth centres’) in order to promote and propagate their narrow, hardline Wahhabi ideology.overseas.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-yousaf-butt-/saudi-wahhabism-islam-terrorism_b_6501916.html
For the record, I oppose any concessions being made to those who seek to implement aspects of sharia law, the same as I oppose any other form of religion having any legal exemptions or favors granted due to their metaphysical superstitions.
Peter F, you are right to draw readers’ attention to this article from the Guardian. I was not surprised to read comments in that article such as the following,
“(University of Queensland constitutional law professor Nicholas ) Aroney is an expert on legal pluralism, law and religion who has warned that religious freedom has become a second-class right to anti-discrimination and argued that religious freedom should include a right to practise sharia law within “strictly justifiable limits imposed by the general law”.”
Islam has, if you like, established a beachhead in this country. The next task for them is to extend their influence in any way possible. This is why attempts such as those described by Nicholas Aroney must be resisted as strenuously as possible. If Muslims detect that there is an opening to do this then that opening will be exploited as vigorously as possible.
We should never lose sight of the fact that when you dress yourself up as a ‘religion’ you will get away with much more for much longer.
Robert Reynolds _ I haven’t read the book but I have read a number of reviews. This one resonates
Want to read it again from this perspective in mind?
Well Matters Not, I will at least say this for you, you do admit not having read Douglas Murray’s book at the outset of your post.
You then proceed to quote from a review that ‘resonates’ with you.
The author of this rather hysterical ‘review’ seems to expect that Douglas Murray should have referenced every line that he wrote. I feel the Murray did an excellent job with his referencing. While reading the book I did take the time to check a number of the references. I found that all were quite legitimate.
The author of this review also seems to try to convey the impression that Murray’s claims about the effect that Islam is having on Europe, are made in isolation and that they are not supported by or consistent with what many other observers and commentators are saying.
After a (short) while this ‘review’ becomes little more than a meandering diatribe against a well-argued and reasoned and highly valuable literary piece.
It is interesting that while the reviewer fails abysmally to refute any claim made by Douglas Murray, the reviewer nevertheless does concede,
“However, much of what he has written IS true and no sensible person would try to deny it.”
This person then goes on to say,
“It is the disingenuous and quite unnecessary presentation of untruths, omissions and misrepresentations, to bolster his position, that is increasingly frustrating as the reader progresses through the book.”
What were all these “untruths, omissions and misrepresentations,” that Murray used to “bolster his position”? Well Matters Not, your intrepid reviewer provides us with not a shred of detail to support this claim.
This ‘review’ Matters Not is an embarrassment. If I do get the chance to read “The Strange Death of Europe” again (and I do want to do that, time permitting) I can assure you that I will have this ‘reviewer’s “perspective” in mind.
My advice to you Matters Not is not to read the book as I doubt that you possess the cerebral wherewithal to process the information contained in it. First things first, for you Matters Not and that would involve removing the blinkers that so restrict your view of the world and what is occurring in it.
Gee Zathras. I knew that was going to depress me.
Folks, it’s worth a quick read of the link provided by Z. http://www.concordatwatch.eu/
And just a quick point about castration, that ignores the main cause which I judge to be Power.
Unrestricted power seems to lie beneath the corruption and we can see that in other Faiths (and institutions for that matter).
mick loughlin. I see a couple of issues with your contribution. Firstly, the broad brush you have applied to the priesthood. There will certainly be some who are struggling with their behavior. As there are some who struggle with their belief in God. What it comes down to is the numbers and the support services offered to Priests. Interestingly, the Catholic Church claims all their Priests believe in God, but the Anglicans have a more credible claim of about 5% having lost their Faith. With the shocking track record of Abuse, I can’t help thinking the Catholic Church would be seriously higher.
But a more serious point is the claim of this being a “total distraction”. What we have here is a serious lever for bringing the Church to account that we should not lazily ignore. Every attempt to address the Abuse issues has been blown off by the Church from way back when their religion started to become popular. The number of times I have heard the claim the Catholic Church is too big to control is uncountable and I believe the Church likes to throw that claim around as well to weaken our resolve.
The level of outrage has grown markedly, the arrogance of Hart has grown too, and pollies are starting to realise that the safety net of claiming religious belief can be a negative in their campaign. This is a rare opportunity to get real action and to force accountability on institutions that have had a free pass on morality.