THE ILLS OF SOCIETY ARE ALSO THE ILLS OF CHURCH

 

We heard from France that the study that the Bishops of France commissioned concluded that there were over 200 thousand cases of sexual abuse within the Church during the past seventy years in France. The greatest numbers of abuse cases happened between 1950 -1970.

 

Unfortunately, the leadership of the French Church were involved in covering up these abuse cases until about thirty years ago. There has been serious fall-out and a breakdown of trust in leadership toward the Church (and toward the larger society). 

 

We must never treat any case of sexual abuse lightly. We have thirty years of the reports of sexual abuse and exploitation in sports, athletic training, the media world, schools, the medical world, business and family life. 

 

Now after thirty years of revelations and charges being laid against the abusers, we need to have some context. This is not an issue that arises in any one social group. Sexual abuse is part of the dark side of being human. People (very often male) did use and exploit the vulnerable for their own pleasure and power.  

 

But this was always kept a secret. People knew and often suspected that something untoward was happening toward some children but they did not have the tools to deal with the abuse nor did they have the social and legal structures to prosecute the offenders. We have always had in our everyday language, “he’s a dirty old man.” Obviously, this was founded on some unseemly behaviours.

 

Families kept secrets. There is always the fear within a family/community that revelation could split the  family apart. The consequences of revelation were very serious. These fears (and all the cover-ups that went with it) were opeating in the Church and all of social institutions. The leadership of the Church were not acting any differently than the leaders of other institutions: families, schools, medical and government.

 

What this reflection is leading to is to see that the crimes/difficulties of society are also the crimes/difficulties with the Church itself. We do not bring into the Church perfectly redeemed human beings who have not sinned or do not have some terrible sexual temptations. What happens in our families also happens in our Church. In no way does this excuse or lighten the seriousness of the sexual abuse crimes. 

 

This scenario cannot happen in real life. It is given to help us understand the prevalence of sexual abuse among children.  But if we could ask any gathering (Church, family, work place), “Would all the people who have been abused sexually as a child please stand up,” (Such honesty and revelation is not possible), we would be shocked at the numbers of people who would stand up. I have no figures to prove this but just from listening the peoples’ stories you safely conclude that sexual abuse has been quite common in the growing years.

 

The Church is being faithful to its own calling when it is transparent about the weaknesses of its own members. The past thirty years have seen so many measures and procedures put in place to prevent abuse but also to make reporting and accountability possible. We will never eliminate child abuse completely but we are taking a very responsible approach to dealing with any situations of child abuse. 

 

The past thirty years have been very painful. But this has been a time of purification for the Church. It has been a time to rebuild trust and recognize our past failures of silence (just as our families were equally silent), but that was so wrong.  Our failures are our point of conversion to greater protection to vulnerable persons, to more honest accountability and a trust to listen to the truth-telling of the victims.