Some church leaders, fearful at being held up over others’ actions, tend to foot-drag.
ACCORDING
TO Oscar Wilde, in this world there are only two tragedies. One is not
getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.
The Irish
Catholic bishops may be grimly reflecting on that thought after the
publication of the third report of the National Board for Safeguarding
Children in the Catholic Church (NBSC).
They wanted a crusader, someone
who would once and for all bring order and credibility to child
safeguarding in the church.
They wanted to bring an end to the seemingly
endless saga of mismanagement and damage concerning clerical sexual
abuse.
They got just that in Ian Elliott, a blunt Northern
Presbyterian with a passion for the safety of children, appointed by
them as chief executive of the board, and in other excellent people like
John Morgan and Sr Colette Stevenson.
It is now obvious that at least
some of the bishops are deeply uncomfortable with the consequences of
their wish.
Ian Elliott wants Irish children to be safe.
He wants
the Irish Catholic Church to be an exemplar of best practice, a leading
light in children safeguarding.
He will therefore blow the whistle on
any practices he sees as impeding those aims.
My mental image of
him is of a whirlwind of impatient energy leaving consternation in his
wake as he strides through dusty corridors, where until now people crept
quietly and spoke in hushed voices.
I have probably met more bishops in
the course of work than the average person.
As individuals, I have the
greatest respect for some, and would accept the fundamental decency of
the vast majority.
But, however harsh it may sound, as a collective
entity they are dysfunctional.
In fact, they scarcely exist as a
collective entity, meeting only a couple of times a year, and
scrupulously careful about never telling a brother bishop what to do.
Ian Elliott refers to the dioceses as 26 kingdoms, and the religious
congregations as 162 independent republics.
It is an apt
description.
Each bishop sees himself as only responsible for his own
diocese. The sad thing is that so many of them are doing the right thing
in their own dioceses.
The evidence is clearly available on diocesan
websites and bulletin boards and in the huge numbers of trained
personnel, which put the statutory authorities to shame.
But despite
doing the right thing themselves, I suspect most of them would see
demanding accountability from another bishop as a gross infringement of
the authority of the other man.
I am convinced the bishops did not
think through the consequences of creating the NBSC.
They have created
something unprecedented, an independent entity that can call them to
account and demand that they act as one on a national level.
It
cannot be emphasised enough how this clashes with centuries-old church
culture.
The bishops are used to only being answerable to Rome. At the
stroke of a pen, bishops and congregational leaders made themselves
answerable to the safeguarding board.
I suspect that some bishops are
desperately afraid of being held to account for the actions of
predecessors.
A small minority can foot-drag, thereby focusing the
attention of the media on the deficits, not on the excellent work and
commitment of so many others.
In fact, I would not be surprised if
some bishops or congregational leaders want to delay long enough to be
safely retired, or preferably dead, before some of the historic evidence
comes out.
Such thinking is understandable, but the consequences could
be disastrous. The first casualties will be children.
Child abuse
is not a historic issue, largely dealt with and in the past. It is a
reality today.
Children will be brutalised and deprived of childhoods if
everything possible is not done to ensure their safety.
Our
record in Ireland is dreadful. We focus on the church, but Gordon Jeyes,
appointed to investigate child deaths within the Health Service
Executive (HSE), said recently:“I don’t think Ireland has got a proper
child protection system. It has good practice, it has superb
practitioners and good procedures but it doesn’t have a system.”
How
damning is that in 2011? The lack of a system in the HSE has led to
child deaths.
The programme for government promises to set up an agency
which integrates services to children and families.
In short, it will
ensure consistency and that a system exists.
Ironically, the
church now has a system and incredibly dedicated and well-trained lay
volunteers, but if the institution bottles it now, begins to become
fearful of what it has created, children will suffer and the church will
slowly wither in Ireland.
It is not easy to be a church leader.
But
legitimate concerns about data protection cannot be used as an excuse to
stymie the work of an independent board.
We are at a tipping point.
There is another tsunami coming.
The Cloyne report will soon be
published.
God knows what is in it.