No more cover-ups

Is The Southern Cross taking delight in what can only be described as a hurricane of sex scandals in the Catholic Church worldwide? Of course not.

Readers who have expressed their disquiet at the frequency of stories of yet another scandal involving the clergy may be assured that the coverage in this newspaper only hints at the full extent of the problem. In dealing with news of this nature, The Southern Cross has erred on the side of discretion lest some readers be shaken in their faith.

It must be clearly understood that the impropriety of some priests and ecclesiastical authorities does not depreciate the salvific truth taught by the Catholic Church.

Revelations of a priest who has sexually abused children (or adults), or a bishop who has covered up these abuses, are by their very nature shocking. The frequency and diversity of such revelations do little to numb our collective pain. The body of Christ is hurting.

For this, the media cannot be held accountable. The culpability rests entirely with those who have committed the crimes and those who, for their own reasons, hushed up these offences—an exercise which many Catholics understandably regard as a betrayal of the faithful and of the vast majority of virtuous clergy.

Predictably, the traumatic series of revelations involving sex abuses and cover-ups has given much ammunition to anti-Catholic bigotry. The moral leadership and authority of the whole Church has been compromised.

Disturbingly, there are few cogent arguments to convincingly counter critics on this issue.

Not all bishops—probably very few—have been party to subterfuge. But those who for whatever reasons have ignored warnings about predatory clergy must be held accountable in the present crisis, possibly the most damaging the Church has faced in many decades.

Time magazine, in a balanced review of the topic, asks with some justification: “How long does it take powerful institutions to learn that it’s not just the crime, it’s also the cover-up that damns you?”

In the past cover-ups were designed to keep scandal out of the public arena—a notion that has generally been in line with the Vatican’s approach.

This expediency has yielded tragic results, not least for the victims of abuse. The real scandal has been the apparent conspiracy of silence inside some chanceries.

It would be naïve to presume that no Southern African diocese has recorded allegations of sexual abuse against Church personnel. While no such instance has received wide publicity, we must trust that all such complaints have been dealt with according to the applicable protocols, moral imperatives and the law.

Should it be the case that a local bishop has failed in this regard, now is the time to courageously make things right and take corrective measures, publicly.

There can no longer be excuses.