False
Churches, False Brethren, False Gospels
Pope's UK visit prompts tsunami of sex abuse allegations
against church
Body set up to improve Catholic church's response to abuse reveals
three-fold rise in allegations in 2010
* Riazat Butt
* The Guardian, Thursday 28 July 2011
Pope Benedict's visit to the UK in 2010 prompted a three-fold
increase in the number of sex abuse allegations against Catholic
clergy.
Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Britain last year led to more reports
of sexual abuse allegations, finds the National Catholic
Safeguarding Commission, the body set up to improve the church's
response to abuse claims.
Publicity surrounding the pope's four-day tour, in addition to his
statements on the paedophile priest scandal, saw the numbers of
abuse allegations rise in 2010 from 20 a year to 63.
The commission, which was established in 2008, said the three-fold
jump concerned incidents from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.
In its annual report the NCSC also revealed that 37 clergy have
been laicised, or dismissed from the clerical state, since 2001.
Of these, 23 were diocesan priests and 14 were members of
religious orders.
The NCSC said "the overwhelming majority" of the 37 would have
criminal convictions but it did not know how many of the
convictions dated back to 2001..
The group said the publication highlighted the "many positive
developments" in child protection within the Catholic church in
England and Wales while acknowledging there was "no room for
complacency", especially in the way it dealt with abuse survivors.
"The NCSC is both challenged and heartened by the fact that last
year and, in particular, following the pope's visit more people
have felt confident enough to come forward to report incidents of
abuse in the hope of finding some kind of reconciliation and
closure. Overall, however, we are aware that our response [to
survivors of abuse] is not always sensitive, timely or
appropriate."
The commission's chair, Baroness Scotland, said she was aware
there was "still much to do". In a foreword she wrote that a point
of focus should be development of "a more sensitive and pastoral
response to the victims and survivors of abuse".
Richard Scorer, a solicitor with Pannone LLP, who has been
involved with several claims against the Catholic church, said
that "intense public debate" about the church's failings at the
time of the papal visit "undoubtedly emboldened" many victims to
break their silence. But he warned that it could be years before a
full picture emerged.
He said: "It is a well-recognised pattern with child abuse that it
produces shame and fear and these often make victims reluctant to
disclose often until many years after the event, if at all. We
simply will not know for some years whether the child protection
policies adopted by the Catholic church since reforms in 2001 have
been effective or not. Victims of abuse in the last decade may
well wait 10, 15, 20 years to disclose."
Scorer accused the church of not taking its legal and moral
obligations seriously, citing the lengthy laicisation process and
a high-court case in which the church is claiming that it is not
responsible for priests' actions.
He added: "Compare how long it takes to defrock paedophile priests
with how secular organisations work. We would appalled if a
teacher convicted of child abuse had still not been banned from
teaching by the General Teaching Council three or five years after
the conviction."
The NCSC report comes at a time of renewed criticism about the way
the church deals with abuse allegations.
This week the Vatican recalled its Irish ambassador after the
country's prime minister, Enda Kenny, denounced Rome for its role
in the alleged cover-up of abuse in the County Cork diocese of
Cloyne.