The Catholic Church has been under fire for decades by Catholics and non-Catholics alike because of its mismanagement of priestly abuse claims and the problem of priestly abuse itself. Despite efforts from churches to reduce child abuse and ensure that justice is had for victims, many believe that the Catholic Church is not doing enough. This Saturday, the Vatican announced a major conference primarily focusing on what can be done to combat child abuse that will be taking place in February of 2012. Why the wait, one would ask? Why is this still an immense problem that the Catholic Church is facing? Nationwide stories emerge revealing that bishops and others within the Catholic Church knew about offending priests, but they either did little about the problem, nothing about the problem, or relocated priests to different parishes or offices. One need not look further than the Diocese of Scranton to see significant problems.
A 2006 article from The Times Leader, “The Sins of Our Fathers,” states, “As early as the 1960s and as late as 2002, the Scranton Diocese knowingly employed priests who had been accused of sexual misconduct, according to court documents and diocesan statements.” Former Bishop James C. Timlin, bishop of the Scranton Diocese from 1984 to 2003, according to the same article, “knew that at least five of his priests had been accused of sexual misconduct with minors, according to lawsuits and diocesan statements.” While abuse happens across other areas, the article notes, the tragedy is how abuse within the Catholic Church is handled. Thomas Plante, author of two books regarding priestly abuse and psychology professor at Santa Clara University notes, “It's the secrecy. It's the cover-up. It's the leadership making tragic mistakes.”
Timlin is no longer the bishop of the Scranton Diocese. He was replaced by Bishop Martino who was replaced by Bishop Bambera, the current bishop of the Scranton Diocese. In another Times Leader article from February of 2010, “Advocate Group for Abuse Victims Raps Choice,” David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), states that Bishop Bambera, now the bishop of the Diocese of Scranton, while serving as Vicar of Priests from 1995 to 1997, admitted under oath that “he refused to report a credibly accused predator priest to police, in violation of the diocese's own child sex abuse policy.” Diocesan spokesperson Bill Genello, though, rebutted the claims of Clohessy stating that “Bambera did everything that was within his authority at that time.”
Beyond and within the Diocese of Scranton, people wonder why cover-ups exist and why diocesan officials refuse to report sexual misconduct. Why don't bishops fully disclose all of their records regarding sexual misconduct to secular authorities? Why isn't abuse of children a top priority of dioceses across the United States? Most of the usual top concerns of Catholic churches are homosexuality, marriage, abortion, contraceptives, and what consenting adults are doing in their private bedrooms. Church officials are very quick to release and endorse statements 'defending traditional marriage,' professing that homosexuality is an 'objectively disordered state,' rail against contraception and pre-marital sex, and announce that gay marriage will destroy society. One would expect the same effort and attention in matters of priestly abuse.
While conferences addressing priestly abuse might be a step in the right direction, significant changes must take place within the Catholic Church to address significant problems. Various guidelines and suggestions are given to bishops, but there appear to be no worldwide and standardized procedures regarding priestly abuse. One of the most important and effective steps would be to require, for instance, bishops to fully disclose information about sexual misconduct to secular authorities according to SNAP. Are bishops really pushing for reform with the same fervor they have for railing against homosexuality and abortion, for instance? It seems that this is not the case.
The response and efforts from the Catholic Church to make sense of and combat abuse often appear to be extremely awkward. A recent study conducted by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice noted that the "increased deviance of society in the 1960s and 1970 was closely correlated with the rise in abuse incidents," according to a prominent Catholic website. Reports of this study can, of course, be found elsewhere, but it is interesting to see how Catholic reporting websites focus on certain topics. In the same article, the author of the article and a bishop seemingly deflect attention away from the Catholic Church and say that "sexual abuse [is] a society-wide problem, and not something unique to the Catholic Church." This is true, of course, but the problem within the Church, again, is the massive cover-ups and failures to adequately deal with abuse. Catholics and non-Catholics eagerly wait for genuine reform within churches, but they have been waiting for quite a long time. No significant change seems to be taking place despite what church officials might believe.
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