Sexual abuse compensation claims have been filed against the Catholic
Church in almost every province in Canada — and similar lawsuits are
being filed in other countries around the world.
But has the Catholic
Church, as an institution, taken reasonable steps to address the problem
of sexual abuse by priests?
Background
Before he became the current Pope, Bishop Joseph Ratzinger was
Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for more than
20 years. The role of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is
to “safeguard the doctrine on the faith and morals throughout the
Catholic world” and deals with, among other things, priests accused of
pedophilia.
Casting blame
In the recent past, officials in the Catholic Church, including Pope
Benedict XVI, have stated that the Catholic sexual abuse crisis was the
responsibility of the media, homosexual priests, pornography and even
the devil.
Reporting of sexual abuse
Sexual abuse litigation in the U.S. has uncovered a letter
purportedly from the Vatican’s Cardinal Silvio Angelo Pio to Bishop
Moreno of Tucson Arizona, which says in part: “To the second question
(‘Should we allow or disallow civil lawyers from obtaining Father’s
personnel records from our Chancery files’) we reply that under no
condition whatever ought the afore-mentioned files be surrendered to any
lawyer or judge whatsoever.”
The letter goes on to say: “Your Excellency should therefore make
known immediately and with clarity that no priest’s files will be sent
to any lawyer or judge whatever.”
Last year, the Vatican asked a court in Kentucky to strike a lawsuit
that claimed Catholic bishops are employees or officials of the Church.
Counsel for the Vatican denied the Pope has control over bishops,
saying: “The pope is not a five-star general ordering his troops
around.”
Liability in Canada
The liability of the Vatican has yet to be determined by a court in
Canada. But based on existing case law, there is an argument to be made
that, at least in Canada, the Pope would be found vicariously liable for
the actions of Catholic bishops.
Supreme authority
Canon law establishes the Pope as the supreme leader of the Catholic
Church, responsible for prescribing what rules are to be followed by the
faithful and to take what measures he deems necessary for the
preservation and the propagation of the Catholic faith. Under Canon Law,
bishops are appointed by the Pope. The Pope is the sole authority over
bishops and the only person who has the power to assign bishops to a
diocese, remove bishops from a diocese and discipline bishops for
misconduct.
In Doe v. Bennett, [2004] S.C.J. No. 17, the Supreme Court
of Canada found the Catholic Diocese of St. George’s vicariously liable
for sexual abuse by one of its priests, stating: “The relationship
between the bishop and the priest in the Diocese is not only spiritual
but temporal. First, the Bishop provided Bennett with the opportunity to
abuse his power. Second, Bennett’s wrongful acts were strongly related
to the psychological intimacy inherent in his role as priest. Third, the
Bishop conferred an enormous degree of power on Bennett relative to his
victims.”
One would think that the same reasoning would apply to hold the Pope
responsible for the acts of bishops, because the Pope grants bishops “an
enormous degree of power” over Catholics throughout the world.
Recent developments
Two recent developments raise questions about whether the Catholic
Church is prepared to accept responsibility for acts of sexual abuse by
its priests.
Jay Report
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops recently commissioned a
report from the John Jay College of Criminology. The report, “The Causes
and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United
States, 1950-2010” is almost Orwellian in the lengths it goes to direct
attention away from the Catholic Church’s responsibility to abuse
survivors.
Redefining pedophilia
One of the most appalling examples of the report’s manipulation of
facts is the researchers’ conclusion that it is inaccurate to describe
sexually abusive priests as pedophiles because, according to the report,
only 22 per cent of reported victims were under the age of 10. The
problem is that according to the American Psychiatric Association’s
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the
definition of a pedophile is someone who is sexually attracted to
children under the age of 14.
According to statistics published in the John Jay report, if the
authors used the medically accepted DSM definition of pedophilia, the
percentage of so-called “pedophile priests” would
increase from 22 per
cent to almost 73 per cent of reported cases.
Another example of Orwellian “doublespeak” is where the authors of
the report use the word “vulnerability” to describe the Catholic priests
who committed sexual crimes against children.
Vatican’s guidelines
Last month, the Vatican released guidelines to bishops for dealing
with claims of priest sexual abuse. Cardinal William Joseph Levada,
Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said the
guidelines were drafted to “facilitate the correct application” of the
Pope’s instructions.
The idea that individuals are responsible before their god for their
sins and before the law for their crimes is something that is
universally accepted — except, it seems, by the Catholic Church. The
Vatican stops short of ordering the bishops to comply with laws
requiring the reporting of sexual abuse of minors.
The guidelines state: “Specifically, without prejudice to the
sacramental internal forum, the prescriptions of civil law regarding the
reporting of such crimes to the designated authority should always be followed.” [Emphasis added]
Unfortunately, the Vatican has missed two opportunities to take
decisive action to address the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic
Church.
The Jay report identifies “egregious” failures by diocesan leaders to
take responsibility for the harms caused by priest sexual abuse and
“concerted efforts” to prevent allegations of sexual abuse from reaching
law enforcement officials. But the report fails to explore what
responsibility the hierarchy of the church has in the priest abuse
crisis.
The Vatican’s guidelines recognize that child abuse is a crime. But
the Vatican won’t order bishops to report crimes of sexual abuse.
By
recommending that bishops should comply with laws requiring reporting of crimes against children, instead of emphatically stating that bishops must comply
with the law, the Vatican shows that the guidelines are simply a public
relations exercise, rather than a legitimate attempt to address sexual
abuse by priests.
The Vatican and the Pope have an enormous degree of power over every
bishop, priest and Catholic parishioner in the world.
Perhaps it is time
the Pope accepts the responsibility that comes with that power.