Please find below a statement issued on behalf of Fr Ciaran Dallat, St
Peter’s Parish, Belfast.
Eddie McGee
Fr Edward McGee
Tel. 078111 44268
~~~Begins~~~
Statement of Fr Ciaran Dallat
31 March 2015
In acknowledgement of and in an effort to repair the damage and hurt that I
have caused, I will undertake over the coming months a directed retreat,
spiritual guidance and counselling.
My sincere hope is that with this support I will be able to resume the exercise
of priestly ministry.
I am immensely grateful for the many messages of support from parishioners and
others and I ask for your continued prayers and for forgiveness.
The Marist Sisters have been serving in St Peter's Parish from 1986. Sisters Georgina Cawley and Augusta Thornton are the present community at St Peter's Place and are supported by Sisters Bernadette Healy and Elsie Gilmartin living in Grosvenor House.
Backlash Against Chilean Bishop Threatens Francis' Reform Agenda
By Jason Berry
A thunderous protest engulfed the arrival of a controversial Chilean bishop to San Mateo cathedral on Saturday. To many, the appointment casts a shadow on Pope Francis' reform agenda for the clergy abuse crisis.
The scene of screaming protestors pushing and shoving as Bishop Juan Barros, 58, enters the cathedral in the southern Chilean city of Osorno can be seen on a YouTube clip.
Pope Francis' decision to send Barros, a bishop for 11 years who served as a military chaplain, to Osorno has ignited new media coverage on Rev. Fernando Karadima, 84, a notorious pedophile in Chile who was ousted by the Vatican four years ago, and who Barros used to share a close connection with.
Karadima was for many years the pastor of a parish in El Bosque, one of Santiago's upscale neighborhoods near a wooded park. Karadima had a cult-like following among youths he guided into seminary and had deep ties with politicians, the military and Vatican officials.
Barros and three other Karadima protégés grew up to become bishops.
"Pope Francis has to withdraw this appointment or I and others may find it impossible to stay on the commission," Peter Saunders, a clergy abuse survivor in London and a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, told GroundTruth in a lengthy email interview.
"I am beginning to get a sense of the misguided way in which many church officials operate," said Saunders, who said he met privately with the pope in July and came away impressed.
"I also sense that they feel extremely uncomfortable, probably threatened by the real prospect that their power -- the 'church's' power -- will diminish" in the oversight of bishops, Saunders said of the Vatican.
Three different boys once under Karadima's sway have become national figures in Chile by giving widely reported testimony of how the priest sexually abused them.
The most outspoken survivor, Juan Carlos Cruz, 51, has accused Barros of witnessing his abuse at the hands of Karadima, along with other cases, and covering them up.
"Barros knew what Karadima did to me -- he was there, he saw it as a seminarian eight years older than me," Juan Carlos Cruz told GroundTruth, recalling how Karadima abused him as a teenager.
"I am telling you, before God who is listening to us, it did not cross my mind that these things were going on," Barros said in a statement picked up by Patheos, a conservative Catholic website. "I would not have accepted it for any reason, and I am not a friend of Fernando Karadima."
Barros continued, "I never knew about these very tragic things. The pain of the victims hurts me enormously. I pray for those that carry this pain with them today."
Cruz and four other men testified at a 2010 criminal proceeding against Karadima,which ended on a statute of limitations dismissal. However, the judge delivered a stinging report on Karadima, who denied all the accusations.
The Karadima scandal ignited national media coverage of a kind never seen before in Chile, causing outrage against church leadership.
The Vatican opened a Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith investigation, which took testimony from the same men and in 2011 ordered Karadima to a "life of prayer and penitence."
Francis' decision to send Barros to the Osorno diocese after an intense public outcry has stirred criticism of a pope known as a reformer, rebuilding a church he has likened to "a field hospital."
On March 6, the AP reported that 51 of Chile's 120 national lawmakers and 30 priests from the diocese urged Francis to rescind the appointment before Barros was installed.
Cruz and two other men have a pending civil lawsuit against Karadima and the Santiago archdiocese.
Why did Francis, one of the most adroit public figures in the lens of global media, push forward with the appointment of Bishop Barros despite warnings by many people of serious blowback?
Chile's cardinals and most of the bishops did not attend the ceremony, perhaps foreseeing the volatile emotions that erupted in the cathedral. Although the bishops' conference issued a statement supporting Barros, the absence of Chile's leading Catholic officials to ceremonially welcome a new brother in the ranks added to the controversy.
"I believe the Catholic Church is not listening to its people," Christian Democrat congressman Sergio Ojeda told La Tercera newspaper. "That is why we are asking for Bishop Barros to show dignity and resign, putting an end to this tremendous problem."
"If you preach zero tolerance and real bishop accountability and then go against everything you've said," Cruz said of Francis, "what are you actually saying to the people?"
"I spoke to [Francis] at length about the consequences the appointment has had in Osorno and the country," Archbishop Fernando Chomalí of Concepción told The New York Times of his March 6 meeting in Rome.
Cruz, who has published a bestselling memoir in Chile, says that Chomalí debriefed him after his return from Rome.
"Fernando told me, 'The pope knows everything about you and said, "I agree Juan Carlos has suffered too much."'"
Cruz's relationship with Archbishop Chomalí stands out in high relief from his statement of anguish toward Barros.
A banker's son raised in a privileged society that supported the Pinochet dictatorship of the 1970s and '80s, Cruz was 15 when his father died.
The high school student turned to Karadima for solace, only to be ensnared in the priest's grooming rituals, which led to kissing and fondling, sometimes in front of older seminarians, Barros allegedly among them.
In a tormented adolescence, Cruz met Chomalí, then a young priest whose niece was in the adjacent hospital room as Cruz was recovering from a severe infection: He stuffed dirt in a post-surgical appendicitis wound, trying to kill himself.
Cruz recovered; the niece died. Her loss cemented a bond between the men, "though I never told Fernando what Karadima was doing to me at the time," says Cruz.
Cruz entered the diocesan seminary at 21 but didn't last long. He left religious life and became a journalist and eventually a corporate communications official based in Philadelphia, making occasional trips to Chile on vacation time.
Karadima's tentacles reached deep into the Chilean hierarchy.
Fernando Chomalí had become an auxiliary bishop in Santiago when Cardinal Francisco Javier Errázuriz Ossa -- reputedly Karadima's most powerful defender -- was forced to publicly apologize in 2011.
Cardinal Errázuriz ignored a victim's allegations in 2003, telling Karadima not to worry, according to news accounts and legal testimony.
After other victims spoke out, Errázuriz delivered a 700-page personnel file on Karadima to Vatican investigators.
Bishop Chomalí reached out to Cruz through a cousin, according to Cruz, who says he rebuffed him at first. When they did finally meet, Chomalí apologized.
"We have a very good relationship now," says Cruz.
Despite being tarred in the Karadima scandal, Cardinal Errázuriz now serves as one of nine cardinals in Francis' circle of reform advisors.
The question of how Barros won his appointment has become a matter of open speculation in Chile, none of it favorable to church officials.
Barros as a seminarian became secretary to the late Cardinal Juan Francisco Fresno, a position in which, says Cruz, "he knew everything going on in Chilean church. The triumvirate of power in the 1980s was Karadima, Cardinal Fresno and Archbishop Angelo Sodano" -- the Italian papal nuncio, or ambassador, who was openly supportive of the Pinochet regime.
Sodano left Chile in 1989 to become John Paul's Secretary of State, and in that position was responsible for the appointment of many nuncios, or ambassadors, until he retired in 2006, one year into Benedict's papacy. Sodano wielded immense power over appointments of bishops in Latin America.
Sodano is now Dean of the College of Cardinals.
As Karadima once helped Sodano with privileged information, Sodano rewarded Barros years later by helping him become a bishop after his role as a cardinal's secretary.
A Sodano protégée, Archbishop Ivo Scapola, is the papal envoy to Chile today. According to news accounts, he pushed Francis to appoint Barros as bishop of Osorno.
"The [Roman] curia is a brotherhood," Sodano once told The New York Times Magazine.
The dynamics of that brotherhood pervade choices of nuncios and bishops by Vatican officials, and it is assumed that the pope backs the choices for positions that the Congregation for Bishops makes, often in consultation with the Secretariat of State.
"Pope Francis' reform broom has not swept up Cardinal Sodano, who at 87 relishes the Vatican power game," said Gerald Posner, author of God's Bankers, a new history of the Vatican Bank.
"Despite his age and outsider's stance when it comes to Francis' inner circle, Sodano still wields influence with his acolytes, some of whom still have prominent Vatican positions. During Sodano's tenure as nuncio to Chile, he not only was close to the pedophile priest whose abuse Barros is charged with covering up, but he also influenced Ivo Scapolo, the nuncio who reputedly led the effort to get Barros elevated to bishop. When all the dust settles in the Chilean fiasco, Sodano's fingerprints will probably be found somewhere central in the Juan Barros appointment."
Andres Beltramo, Vatican correspondent for Notimex, reported on March 19 that Father Alex Vigueras, Chilean provincial of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts religious order, called on Barros to resign because the appointment "seems to have been a decision carried forward alone by the apostolic nuncio, without the backing of the majority of the Bishops of Chile."
Writing before the near-riot at the cathedral, Vigueras warned that a "small fire" could become "a catastrophe with irreparable losses."
By any objective gauge, Francis' decision to install Bishop Barros in Osorno was a preventable disaster.
Speaking by telephone from Dublin, Marie Collins, another member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, told GroundTruth: "I can't speak on behalf of the commission, but from my own personal view, as an abuse survivor, I just don't understand this appointment. It seems completely contrary to what the pope has been saying. I really feel for the survivors in Chile, Juan Carlos and the others. They've been so courageous and it must be very tough for them."
Jason Berry was co-producer of Frontline's "Secrets of the Vatican" and is author of Render unto Rome: The Secret Life of Money in the Catholic Church, which received the 2011 Best Book Award from Investigative Reporters and Editors.
BISHOP TREANOR - FATHER DALLAT AFFAIR - THE SPOTLIGHT
BY DEBORAH
MCALEESE – 24
MARCH 2015 BELFAST TELEGRAPH
Bishop Treanor
Catholic Bishop Noel Treanor has come
under pressure from clergy members over his handling of an alleged sexual
relationship between a priest and a parishioner.
West Belfast priest Fr Ciaran Dallat is
believed to have left his parochial house to stay with a friend along the north
coast as the storm over his alleged affair with a woman, who became pregnant
and then miscarried his child, failed to dissipate.
Sunday Life
While parishioners have organised a
rally of support for Fr Dallat to take place tonight outside St Peter's
Cathedral, where he is still officially an assistant priest, several members of
the clergy have said they believe he should not be allowed to return to
ministry.
Rally
They have also criticised Bishop
Treanor for not advising Fr Dallat to stand aside pending an investigation when
he first became aware of the claims more than a fortnight ago.
The Catholic Church last night said
that "Bishop Noel Treanor and the Diocese of Down and Connor assure all
parishioners and the public at large that all concerns and allegations that are
raised in a substantiated manner are taken seriously."
Fr Dallat has been accused by a
49-year-old businesswoman. known only as 'Linda', of having an affair with her.
She claimed she miscarried his child in July 2013 after a five-week pregnancy.
The north Belfast woman also said she
had showered him with £20,000 worth of gifts throughout their relationship
which allegedly began in September 2012 and lasted until April 2014.
According to 'Linda' she told Bishop
Treanor about the allegations around two weeks ago and asked for Fr Dallat to
be moved out of Belfast.
The Catholic Church last night refused
to answer any questions from the Belfast Telegraph for clarification about Fr
Dallat's position within St Peter's Cathedral and if he is expected to return. ANOTHER PRIEST:
Church officials also refused to
comment on claims that Bishop Treanor has been made aware of another Belfast
priest who has allegedly had three intimate relationships with his
parishioners.
A spokesman for the Diocese said that
the Diocese "does not consider it to be appropriate professional practice
to respond to third party commentary."
He added: "As stated in an earlier
press release, conscious of the welfare of all parties concerned, it is not
appropriate for the Diocese to comment further."
One priest serving in the Diocese of
Down and Connor criticised Bishop Treanor, on the online blog Thinking
Catholicism, for failing to "handle this matter more effectively when he
had two weeks to do so".
"The thing to do was to ask Father
Dallat to step aside temporarily while an investigation took place. This would
have made the woman involved feel that her suffering and her complaint were
being taken seriously by the Diocese. Now the situation is a whole mess,"
he wrote on an online blog.
Another wrote on the Thinking
Catholicism site, which is hosted by Bishop Pat Buckley, an outspoken
critic of the Church: "Bishop Treanor has let a lot of people down,
including "Linda" and her family, the people of the Cathedral Parish,
and also Fr Dallat who ... should have been suspended, pending a full
investigation. Bishop Noel showed very poor judgment, and further suffering for
many has been the end result of that. I hope he acts differently in future
cases; I for one will be watching closely."
In relation to the alleged affair, one
priest said that Fr Dallat's behaviour was "inexcusable".
"He must answer for those actions
both before his Bishop, in this life, and his God, in the next."
The revelations have reopened the wider debate
about celibacy and the priesthood. One priest wrote on the blog: "To put
it bluntly celibacy is not working for the majority of priests ... Fewer and
fewer men are seeing priesthood as a legitimate option, in particular because
of celibacy ... Things simply cannot go on as they are, either in Down &
Connor or beyond."
PAT SAYS:
"Linda" telephoned me at 11.30 am on Sunday March 1st - 30 minutes before I was due to celebrate my normal Sunday Eucharist.
She was in a very distressed and vulnerable state of mind. She had lost her mother through cancer; she had had a miscarriage for Father Dallat and Father Dallat had coldly told her: "Well, if you feel that low, as least you cannot feel any worse".
She had no where to turn. She remembered that Father Dallat had told her that I ran a support group for women who had had bad experiences in having relationships with priests. She went down stairs and googled me and rang me. Thank God she did. God knows what would have happened if she had had no one to talk to!
She was too distressed to travel to meet me that day. I offered to go to Belfast to meet her. She felt it would be easier for her if we met the next day. The next day - Monday - she came to see me. We chatted at length and at least she felt no longer alone and that she had someone to talk to.
Eugene O Hagan
When Linda left I rang Bishop Treanor's office for a private email address I could write to him at. I was refused his email address and told to send my email to Father Eugene O'Hagan - the diocesan chancellor - which I did:
My records show that Bishop Treanor received my email, marked "URGENT" at 4.50 pm on Monday, March 2nd 2015. On Wednesday March 4th Bishop Treanor replied:
I immediately supplied Bishop Treanor with Linda's contact details. Because of bad experiences in the past I was worried about Linda going to meet Bishop Treanor without a STRONG ADVOCATE - but as Bishop Treanor obviously did not want to meet me it was agreed that she would be accompanied by her sister. Linda had two meetings with Bishop Treanor - the first meeting where she presented him with her 4 page statement which can be found on this Blog - "FATHER CIARAN DALLAT - WOMAN'S STATEMENT" - 18th March 2015. Bishop Treanor told Linda he believed her story. Bishop Treanor then interviewed Father Dallat. In the meantime it had transpired that Father Dallat had told Bishop Treanor a year previously that he was / had been in a relationship with a woman. At Linda's second meeting with Bishop Treanor she felt his attitude had changed and she was highly insulted when he asked her to see a psychiatrist. She came away feeling that Bishop Treanor was going to do nothing about Father Dallat and that he would be continuing to minister and preach at St Peter's Cathedral! Linda had asked Bishop Treanor to move Father Dallat from St Peter's to avoid her having to see him as she has to frequent the St Peter's area everyday for family and work reasons. As a result of Bishop Treanor's inaction over a 2 week period Linda decided to go public about the matter on March 17th - without naming the priest.
The priest was only named by Sunday Life on March 22nd - THREE WEEKS - after Bishop Treanor was informed of all the details.
This resulted in Father Dallat disappearing and taking to the hills. It also resulted in Bishop Treanor going into hiding and issuing two meaningless statements through the diocesan press officer, Father Eddie McGee.
Eddie McGee
TWO MORE CASES: Since Linda went to Bishop Treanor two more cases of priests playing fast and loose with celibacy have been brought to Bishop Treanor's attention: 1. The case of a priest who has had several relationships with women in several different parishes over a long period of time - a case in which the parish council made representations to Bishop Treanor. Bishop Treanor moved the priest and other priests now claim that he has a new woman in his new parish and still receives visits from at least one woman from a former parish. 2. The case of a homosexual priest who has a long track record and who had a relationship with a professional male who left his wife and children for the priest. That priest was also moved. OF COURSE IT IS NOT EASY FOR ANY BISHOP TO DEAL WITH THESE MATTERS - ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY COME LIKE BUSES - IN THE THREES AND FOURS. BUT THE ALTERNATIVE OF NOT DEALING WITH THE PROBLEMS ARE: 1. A small number of priests operating as sexual predators. 2. Many different people - men. women and children - in different parishes getting hurt. 3. Other innocent and good priests being hurt and disillusioned - having their good names brought into question - and having to be bound by celibacy when some others are playing fast and loose. 4. The giving and spreading of scandal which discourages many ordinary Catholics who struggle to keep their faith as scandal after scandal - like bombs - explode all around them. Bishop Treanor is preparing to celebrate Holy Week's Chrism Mass next Thursday - and will call upon all the priests of the diocese to renew their commitment to celibacy. How can he do this and preside over most irregular situations in his diocese? Bishop Treanor - staying SILENT is not an OPTION. It is causing further DAMAGE.
ACCORDING TO MEDIA REPORTS SOME 30 - 60 WOMEN AND CHILDREN GATHERED OUTSIDE ST PETER'S CATHEDRAL IN BELFAST THE OTHER EVENING IN A "BRING FATHER DALLAT BACK" PROTEST.
This "protest" followed revelations at the weekend that Father Dallat had a 2 year relationship with a female parishioner who also miscarried their baby.
Father Dallat had visited the woman at least 4 nights a week and also had sex with the woman while on pilgrimages to Lourdes and Medjugorje.
The relationship continued until Father Dallat heard God's voice telling him to: "GIVE UP SEX FOR LENT".
When his girlfriend miscarried his baby - instead of going to her aid - he instead went out for a meal with friends and called by the lady's house after the wining and dining was over.
The lady's mother was dying of cancer and Father Dallat abruptly ended the relationship 2 weeks after her mothers death. When she told him how broken she was he replied:
"Well - at least if you are that low you can't feel any lower" !
How would these women protesters feel if Father Dallat had done that to them - or to their daughter or granddaughter? I imagine they would be on the warpath!
But instead they are now on the disgraced priest's side and "against" the woman!
Is that a GOOD and a MORAL stance to take - to be on the side of the predator and against the victim?
Or is it about goodness or morals at all?
Even if, as a Catholic, you believe that the celibacy rule is wrong - is it still okay for a priest to break his vow of celibacy?
Is it okay for a priest to be preaching about purity and chastity and be having sex on the side?
Is it okay for a priest to be giving lectures on MARRIAGE AND FAMILY LIFE and living a double life with a girlfriend?
Is it okay for a man to ignore the woman who had a miscarriage for him and go out and have dinner with his friends.
Would we accept that kind of behaviour from a husband? A fiancee? A boyfriend?
Are all these things in line with Catholic and Christian morals and ethics?
Where have these protesters got their moral compass from?
Did they get their moral compass from a Church that says that the only commandment that priests should not break is the 11th Commandment - THOU SHALT NOT BE CAUGHT ?
Did they get their moral compass from the Church that has spent decades covering up for priests who sexually abused children?
Did they get their moral compass from people like Cardinal Keith O'Brien who publicly opposed gay marriage but who seduced and tried to seduce at least 40 young seminarians and priests in the privacy of Archbishop's House, Edinburgh between 1985 and 2010 ?
The Father Ciaran Dallat protesters have very obviously not really thought out on what moral and ethical basis their campaign is based.
Will their campaign motto be - "FREE THE ST PETER'S ONE"?
In the meantime the real victims of the Catholic Church and its hierarchy and priesthood have no one to march and protest for them. Were Jesus on earth today would he be inside St Peter's Cathedral Presbytery - which cost £1.9 to renovate comforting Fathers Dallat and Kennedy? Or would he be in the home of the woman who lives alone and was targeted and seduced by Father Dallat?
I know where he would be - where HE IS in fact. As the Belfast granny would have said: "JESUS WEPT".
"Good forever on the scaffold;
Evil always on the throne.
But God stands within the shadows;
Keeping watch upon his own".
The Roman Catholic Church's negative and derogatory attitude to women goes right back to the beginning of the Church's history. Below is a short list of what some of the most famous Church Fathers and influential figures of the Church said about women: TERTULIAN: "Woman is the gate to hell and her gaping genitals the yawning mouth of hell" "Woman, you are the devil's doorway. You are the gate of Hell. You are the temptress of the forbidden tree. You are the first deserter of the divine law. ST CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: "Every woman should be overwhelmed with shame at the thought that she is a woman". ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM: "Among all the savage beasts none is found so harmful as woman".
ST AUGUSTINE:
"Any woman who acts in such a way that she cannot give birth to as many children as she is capable of, makes herself guilty of that many murders". THE COUNCIL OF MACON 584 AD: In the years in Lyons, France 63 bishops held a debate on the topic: "ARE WOMEN HUMAN"? The result was: 32 YES - 31 NO. SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS 13TH CENTURY:
"Woman is defective and misbegotten, for the active force in the male seed tends to the production of a perfect likeness in the masculine sex; while the production of woman comes from a defect in the active force or from some material indisposition, or even from some external influence". ST JEROME: "Woman is a tool of Satan and a pathway to Hell". POPE BOETHIUS: "Woman is a temple built on a sewer". ODO OF CLUNY: "To embrace a woman is to embrace a sack of manure". ST ANTHONY: "When you look upon a woman consider that you do not face a human being but the Devil himself, the voice of a woman is the hiss of a snake". When you realise that this kind of thinking has informed the Roman Catholic Church for hundreds and thousands of years its hardly surprising that right up until today the Church forbids women to be ordained or indeed have any meaningful say in the running of the Church. Even though modern Church leaders would not dream of saying such things out loud (even though they may think like that) things have not changed at all in the Church when it comes to women. Women cannot be popes, cardinals, bishops priests or deacons. Women cannot hold positions of influence on any Church body whether at the local, national or international levels. The men in the Church give the very lamest of excuses that "Jesus did not appoint women apostles". That is absolute rubbish. Jesus never had - or indeed envisaged - such offices as pope, cardinal, bishop, priest or deacon. These are man made offices. And Jesus had plenty of women co-operators and disciples:
- There was Mary he mother of Jesus - who travelled with him and was directly responsible for his first miracle - turning water into wine at the wedding in Cana. - There was Mary of Magdala - whom Jesus chose to be the FIRST witness of his resurrection. - There were the women who travelled with him who "provided for their needs out of their own resources". - There was Mary and Martha who ministered to Jesus at Bethany. And in the New Testament we see women as being the leaders of early Christian communities. The principle role of the priest today is the celebration of the Eucharist - what we believe to be the Body and Blood. It was Mary - Jesus mother - who first gave us the body and blood of Christ - LITERALLY by giving birth to him. If a woman can give the world the Body of Christ LITERALLY - then why can she not do it SACRAMENTALLY? Its nonsense to say that she cannot. There is no decent biblical, theological or rational reason for the subjugation of women in Roman Catholicism.
It is pure SEXISM and PATRIARCHALISM that is behind keeping women as second class members of Roman Catholicism. And yet women make up the biggest attending membership of the Church. In this sense are not women contributing to and co-operating in their own subjugation?
THIS IS MY BODY. THIS IS MY BLOOD (Francis Croake)
Among the animals in the cold dank dark of a stable, After the pain and the bleeding and the birthing; Mary looked down at the baby lying across her legs And said: "THIS IS MY BODY. THIS IS MY BLOOD".
In the shadows of the bleak Calvary hill, After the pain and the bleeding and the dying; Mary looked down at the broken frame across her legs and said: "THIS IS MY BODY. THIS IS MY BLOOD".
Its just as well that she said it to Him then. For now, dry old men, In brocaded robes belying barrenness, Ordain that she cannot say it to Him now.
March 13, 2013. The world is waiting. Television
screens show days-old footage of cardinals in red and white, processing past
Vatican guards into the magnificence of the Sistine Chapel for the papal conclave. Every image, from the polished
marble floors and gold ceilings to the priceless frescoes on the walls, tells a
story of wealth, pageantry and power. Outside, in St Peter's Square, the crowds
are cheering for a man whose name they do not yet know. But there is another
soundtrack. The day before, Pat McEwan, a 62-year-old from Scotland, had
described to me how he was raped at the age of eight by a priest. His voice
drowns out crowds and choirs. "I ran home shaking like a dog. I had wee
short trousers on and the shite was running down my leg. My mum and my auntie
had to wipe me down."
The juxtaposition of those two images: the powerful
institution that represents 1.2 billion Catholics and the abused child, tells
the story of a church with two faces: one public and one private. Last month,
the church was plunged into crisis when the Observer revealed
that three priests and one ex-priest had complained to the Papal Nuncio about
Cardinal Keith O'Brien, Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh. The cardinal,
who publicly decried homosexuals as degenerate, had, they said, privately been
making advances to his own priests for years. But the story was never about one
man. It wasn't about personal weakness. Keith O'Brien was merely a symptom of a
wider sickness: an institution that chooses cover-up as its default position to
conceal moral, sexual and financial scandal.
This was not paedophilia but it was an abuse of
power – a man in authority acting inappropriately to young seminarians and
priests under his control. It was made clear that a full sexual relationship
had been involved. Yet there were attempts to cloud his behaviour in moral
ambiguity. First, there was denial. The cardinal "contested" the
allegations. A day after publication, he resigned. The next week, he issued a statement admitting his
sexual conduct "as a priest, a bishop and a cardinal" had fallen
short. Many ignored what that confirmed about the extent and duration of his
behaviour: he was made cardinal in 2003.
Next, came obfuscation, with the church claiming it
did not know the substance of the allegations, despite being given written
notice before publication. Then, anger and the minimising of wrongdoing – the
cardinal had been destroyed for mere "drunken fumblings" from 30
years ago. Why, he had probably been to confession and received absolution. But
most revealing of all was the attempt to turn the spotlight on the
complainants' motivation, to blame the accusers rather than the accused. It has
been a familiar pattern in Catholic abuse cases over the years.
The stories you are about to read will take you
from the late-1950s to the present day, a sweep of more than 50 years.
Society has changed radically in those years, from the black-and-white morality
of the 1950s, tenement slums and rag-and-bone men, to the fast-living,
flat-screen, iPhone generation of 2013. And yet, through all those decades, all
those changes, the behaviour of the Catholic church towards abuse victims has
changed remarkably little.
Two concepts are critical to understanding church
behaviour. The first is "scandalising the faithful". Traditionally,
the hierarchy believed the greatest sin was shaking the faith of Catholic
congregations. Protecting them meant concealing scandal. Adopting that as your
moral standpoint means anything goes. You can cover up sexual misconduct from
those you demand sexual morality from. You can conceal financial corruption
from those who put their pounds in the collection plate. You can silence the
abused and protect the abuser. Guilt about sacrificing individuals is soothed
by protecting something bigger and more significant – the institution.
The second concept is "clericalism", a
word used to describe priests' sense of entitlement, their demand for deference
and their apparent conformity to rules and regulations in public, while
privately behaving in a way that suggests the rules don't apply to them
personally. (O'Brien was, in that sense, a classic example.) The Vatican is an
independent state; the Holy See a sovereign entity recognised in international
law and governed by the Pope. The Nunciature operates like government embassies
in different countries worldwide. It is even governed by its own rules: Canon
Law. All this contributes to the notion that the church can conduct its own
affairs without interference or outside scrutiny. It demands a voice in society
without being fully accountable to it.
In the weeks following O'Brien's departure, several
priests' meetings were held in his diocese. One was chaired by his temporary
replacement, Archbishop Philip Tartaglia of Glasgow,
and O'Brien's auxiliary bishop, Stephen Robson. Some priests
wanted messages of support sent to the cardinal, encouraging him to return to
Scotland for his retirement. Compassion for a sinner? Or clerical cover-up?
Some not only knew of the cardinal's behaviour, they may have been subject to
it.
Richard Sipe
"The clerical power structure not only
protects clergy who are sexually active but sets them up to live double
lives," says Richard Sipe, an American psychotherapist and
ex-priest who has spent many years researching celibacy and abuse.
"Corruption comes from the top down. Superiors, rectors and bishops do
have sexually active lives and protect each other – a kind of holy
blackmail."
Professor Tom Devine
Is this the biggest crisis for the Catholic church
since the Reformation, asked Professor Tom Devine, one
of Scotland's leading historians? But one cardinal is not the crisis. Thousands
of abused children around the world, and an institution that silences them:
that is the real crisis. The church claims child-protection policies have been
in place in Scotland since 1999. Judge them for yourself in the following
stories. Events come right up to the last few weeks, with Keith O'Brien's
resignation as backdrop. The American civil-rights activist, Martin Luther
King, once said, "There comes a time when silence is betrayal." In
the Catholic church, that moment has long since passed.
Speaking publicly for the first time, Pat McEwan
says he fell prey to a paedophile ring of priests. His main abuser, his parish
priest, encouraged Pat to visit him, then appeared to slip into a trance. Pat
shook him. "I've just been talking to Jesus and he says would you like to
go to heaven?" said the priest. Then he asked, "Do you love your
mummy?" Yes Father. "Do you love your daddy?" Yes Father.
"Do you love me? Because this is our little secret and you mustn't tell
your mummy or daddy or you will go to the burny fire."
Pat McEwan at the age of his abuse
This was the 1950s. Parish priests were honoured
guests in Catholic homes. The priest arranged for Pat's devout mother to visit Carfin
Grotto, leaving Pat with a priest friend of his. Pat remembers
watching through the window while his mother disappeared into the grotto. As
soon as she did, the priest turned to him. "I want you to do for me what
you have done for your parish priest," he said. Then he raped him.
Afterwards, he tried to quieten the child's tears before his mother returned.
"God doesn't like boys who cry. Be a soldier of Christ."
The Grotto
Child abuse is rarely contained within childhood.
The events bleed into every aspect of adult choices, relationships, employment
and health. Victims suffer from alcoholism, mental-health issues and
post-traumatic stress disorder. It is not uncommon for male victims to end up
in prison. Cameron Fyfe is a Scottish
lawyer who has dealt with more than 1,000 Scottish cases of abuse by the
Catholic church. "Not one person has come out unharmed," he says.
"Every one has had their life smashed." Pat is no different. He
became an alcoholic, though he has now been sober for 18 months.
Lawyer Cameron Fyfe
Pat approached the church in the late-90s. He never
once asked for money. Instead, he sought counselling, a spiritual retreat
– and acknowledgement. "This has always been about justice." He
enlisted the support of Alan Draper, a child-protection expert who had
worked for the church in the mid-90s. Draper had left, unhappy with the
bishops' persistent refusal to take appropriate action. Now, he accompanied Pat
to a meeting with Bishop Joseph Devine of
Motherwell. In their accounts both Pat and Draper say that the bishop's
solution to the horrifying tale was simple. "Pat, he's an old man,"
he said. "Please let him away with it."
Bishop Devine outside his retirement mansion
Pat produces a file of letters, not just from the
bishop but from his safeguarding team. The tone is frequently hostile, as if
"safeguarding" in the diocese is not so much about protecting victims
as protecting the church from victims. In one, Pat is berated for telephoning
the office. "Could I please ask," writes diocesan safeguarding
adviser Tina Campbell, "that if you wish to make contact with any member
of the diocesan safeguarding team, this is done by letter and not on the
phone?"
In 2010, Pat approached O'Brien. Despite being the
most senior Catholic in Britain, O'Brien said he could not interfere in Bishop
Devine's area. Draper subsequently wrote to Devine on Pat's behalf in February
2011, asking him to meet them both. He refused. Pat, he insisted, should meet
him alone. "If he were to be accompanied by yourself or anyone else, the
meeting would be cancelled," he wrote. "I take it that I have
made myself clear to you on this matter." At the meeting, Devine rounded
on Pat. "You are nothing but an alcoholic," he said.
"All Pat wanted," says Draper, "was
for the bishop to say, 'Sorry, we believe you.'" In November last year,
Pat finally received a letter from Tina Campbell saying that in "an
attempt to bring some sort of closure" they were referring the case to
Motherwell police, who are currently investigating. Pat's main abuser is now
dead, but one remains alive. It has been a long journey.
The reality of "safeguarding" in the
Catholic church is that each bishop presides over an independent fiefdom.
Draper has asked for evidence of annual reviews that the church agreed to back
in 1996. So far, they have not been forthcoming. In response to questions
regarding church procedures in abuse cases, the Catholic church's director of
communications, Peter Kearney, told the Observer,
"'The church' as referenced in your question doesn't actually have a locus
in this issue, in that in Scotland, 'the church' consists of eight separate and
autonomous diocese, each with its own bishop and each responsible for the issue
of safeguarding in their own area. The way a complaint is handled in one
diocese should be the same as in every other, but… that hasn't always been the
case."
It confirms, says Alan Draper, what he has been
saying for years. "The bishops exercise tight control and do nothing for
victims. The so-called national co-ordinator is effectively sidelined into
training the laity and is toothless to do anything that really matters. It is
a sham."
Ann Matthews also lives in Bishop Devine's diocese.
In the 1980s, she was regularly abused from the age of 11 to 17 by her priest.
She has never told her parents. They were extremely devout and the priest
frequently said prayers in their house. After visiting Ann's dying grandmother,
he came downstairs and tried to have sex with her on the sofa.
After accepting the abuse had happened, Devine
quietly sent the priest away for counselling, telling the parish he was
retiring due to ill health. That, says Ann, denied other parents the
opportunity to assess whether their children had also been affected. Some
studies suggest abuser priests may have around 50 victims.
Ann says her life has been broken. She suffers from
eating disorders, sleep disorders, anxiety and depression. She is frequently
suicidal. She has no job. She has a partner, but will never have children as
she doesn't want to inflict her insecurities on a child. "Sometimes, it
feels like I died a long time ago, that there's this body that walks around the
earth and doesn't know it should lie down."
In a meeting that included priests of the diocese,
she was asked why she allowed the abuse to continue. But Ann was a child. She
tried to convince herself abuse was love. "I said to them, I am
sitting here as a grown woman, but when this happened I had knee-high socks and
bobbles in my hair." "Oh come on!" retorted one of the priests,
before adding, "Give her money and let her run."
She never received money, but she did get
counselling, which she was grateful for. In the next 12 years, the church never
once asked for a report. Last year, they wrote out of the blue, telling Ann her
funding was being withdrawn. Her final session would be May 2013. Her
counsellor wrote to the church saying Ann has been suicidal for substantial
periods and still needs support. "It's as if they calculated that I was
abused for seven years," says Ann, "but had counselling for 12 – so
time up. I'm just someone who has had a vast claim on their resources."
On 11 February, the day Pope Benedict resigned, Ann
attended a meeting with safeguarding officer Tina Campbell regarding the
termination of her counselling. She was accompanied by her psychotherapist and
an advocacy worker. But the behaviour towards her was so hostile that she
quickly fled in tears. The advocacy worker confirms she had to intervene
because the church's behaviour was so unacceptable. An appeal was lodged and
they were informed it would be held in Edinburgh. Ann has since received a
letter saying that, "due to the complex situation in the Diocese of St
Andrews and Edinburgh", no appeal can go ahead. Now, she waits.
The church has no policy regarding counselling.
Again, individual bishops decide. Helen Holland was a victim of serious
physical and sexual abuse in the 1960s and 70s in Kilmarnock's Nazareth House.
As a child she was hooded, held down by a nun and raped by a priest. She
went on to become a nun herself, but eventually left her order. Now vice-chair
of the Scottish survivors' group, Incas, she has spoken on behalf
of victims in the Scottish parliament.
Helen Holland, who was sexually assaulted
during childhood by a nun at Nazareth House in Kilmarnock. Photograph:
Murdo Macleod for the Observer Murdo Macleod/Observer
The legacy of her abuse is still with her and Helen
has paid for counselling at different periods in her life. But in recent years,
she started experiencing "night terrors", regularly sleepwalking
outside her home. "It's like being a child all over again. My counsellor
said I was trying to reach the child within and I said that little girl Helen
died. She doesn't exist any more. But it's not as simple as that. I can't put
the lid back on it."
Now on disability allowance because of ill health,
Helen could no longer afford counselling. She wrote to the church last June,
asking for help. She never received a reply. The nun who abused her was Irish
so she made an application to the Irish government. It now funds her treatment
rather than the church.
Charles Simpson, an Edinburgh man who says he was
abused and raped by his parish priest in the 1990s, also ran into a church wall
of silence. Charles had alcohol and drug problems following the abuse, and
ended up in prison for continually breaking into the parish house where it had
happened. "I was hitting back at the church. It was an angry time in my
life." He is still on antidepressants and methadone. "I want to
be able to function, to be a member of society, but it's hard. He had me so
wrapped up in fear and loneliness, telling me my family was poor because they
were unemployed. The things he said made me feel I had no strength."
Charles sought the help of a priest who approached
O'Brien on his behalf. "The priest was told to keep quiet," says
Charles, who subsequently asked the church for counselling. He, too, got no
reply. The silence prompted him to take legal action: he is now suing the
Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh for £100,000. His lawyer, Cameron Fyfe,
says the church's official defences in the action have been surprising. For the
sake of a legal defence, they have denied that one of their objectives is to
"spread the word of God". And they have claimed they had no power to
move or remove the priest, or to control – or even direct – his activities.
The time bar rule in Scottish law means civil
action should be taken within three years of either the abuse, or the victim's
16th birthday. Most civil cases against the church have failed for that reason.
Fyfe hopes the court will use its discretion to allow this case to proceed, but
the process could take years. "Money…" says Charles wearily. "It
doesn't change what happened. I feel like I'm up against it. To me, they are
just legal gangsters."
In the wake of the O'Brien scandal, Archbishop
Tartaglia, said – as if it were a rare accusation – that the most
"stinging charge" against the church was hypocrisy. Yet the hierarchy
knows further scandal is only a whisper away. The four complainants against the
cardinal were accused of being part of a gay cabal. They were not. But priests
and church insiders say a gay culture does exist in the Scottish church.
This is about cronyism, secrecy and an all-male culture. The Scottish church
still bears the scars from Roddy Wright, bishop of Argyll
and the Isles, who ran off with a woman in 1996. Until O'Brien's behaviour was
revealed, it was perhaps tempting for the hierarchy to believe gay priests were
"safer". Homosexual affairs – especially with other clergy – are
easier to hide than those involving women and children.
Homosexuality is only an issue because of the
church's public stance on it. It should go without saying that there is no link
with abuse. But Richard Sipe believes there may be a link between abuse and
celibacy. In 1990, he published a 25-year American study showing that at any
one time, 50% of priests will have been sexually active in the past three
years. That figure has been replicated in other places: Spain, Holland,
Switzerland and South Africa. "O'Brien and Scotland are not alone or
exceptions," says Sipe.
The Catholic church has created a hierarchy of
sexual morality with celibacy at the pinnacle. But that can create distortions.
Sipe's studies suggest around 70% of priests display psychosexual immaturity.
Celibacy, he argues, is not something most people can achieve. When legitimate
sexual outlets are forbidden, some turn to illegitimate ones. "The
majority of clergy are unable to deal with sexual deprivation in healthy
ways," he argues. Around 6% of priests will have sex with minors. In
Australia, abuse by Catholic priests is six times higher than other churches
combined.
David has direct experience of Australia and New
Zealand. He rebuffed the sexual advances of a 65-year-old Jesuit in New Zealand
when he was 14. He later joined the religious life himself and was sexually
approached both in a Cistercian order and a seminary. In Australia, he was
approached by a senior priest in a Dominican priory. Many priests have
similar stories, but keep quiet because they are still part of the institution.
David, however, left the religious life.
Afterwards, he had an affair with a man he calls
Peter, who had left a seminary in Rome. Peter took David to his old
haunts, calling in on a convent he had visited for weekly confession. His
confession was always heard last, after the nuns, by a priest who later became
a bishop. "At the top of the convent," says David, "there was
a comfortable room set aside for confession. But what started as
confession turned into a weekly lover's tryst. Peter, who was somewhat
bitter about having quit Rome, was eager during that holiday to tell me the
exact nature of their lovemaking. It involved anal intercourse." The
priest – whom David names – was operating at the highest levels of the Vatican.
There were those who tried to make O'Brien into a
victim. Perhaps he was a victim of a dysfunctional system. But the real victims
are the powerless and voiceless. Many live lives they feel are tainted and will
never wash clean. Michael is an ex-seminarian who went to the police when
O'Brien refused to take appropriate action against his abusers in seminary.
Known in the Scottish press as "Michael X", he eventually received
£42,000 compensation from the Catholic church, which Sipe estimates has paid
out £3bn worldwide.
Michael has previously described how he told his
spiritual director about the abuse. The man assured him he was not to blame –
then made sexual advances, too. What Michael hasn't revealed before is his
guilt at what happened next. He had to serve on the altar for the spiritual
director at a private mass. "At the prayer, 'Lord have Mercy',"
Michael recalls, "he dropped to his knees and grabbed my legs. He was
shaking from head to toe, saying, 'Lord have mercy, Michael have mercy.' It was
horrendous. He disintegrated in front of me." The priest died of a brain
haemorrhage not long after. When it was suggested the cause was stress, Michael
felt devastated.
Many shoulder the guilt and shame that belongs to
their abusers. Ann cannot let go of that question, "Why didn't you do
something?" In an email after we talk, she writes: "I am not
sure how much longer I can go on. The sad thing is that even if I ended my life,
I would simply become another statistic."
Crisis always provokes choice: to go on in the same direction or to
change course. When Martin Luther King talked of the betrayal of silence, he
said decisions had to be made. "If we but make the right choice," he
continued, "we will speed up the day… all over the world, when justice
will roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty water fall.