Sign me up for communal guilt trip

by Letters Editor · June 17, 2010

From Luky Whittle, Kroonstad:

In his letter, Fr Bonaventure Hinwood (May 26) states that in his opinion there is no need for Catholics to go on a communal guilt trip on the issue of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests and religious. I disagree.

To me, Catholics are a family. Unlike Fr Hinwood, who states that in a family situation the whole family does not wear purple ribbons when something goes wrong, I believe that in a true family the abuse or pain caused or felt by one diminishes all.

Fr Hinwood cites an estimated figure of guilty clerics and religious of 1,5%, and bishops and Vatican officials involved in cover-ups at less than 3%. The Vatican Yearbook for 2007 gives the total number of priests as 408,000, and in 2008 a figure of 739000 was given for women religious. This totals 1,148 million priests and religious. This would set the figure of abusers at 17,220. With roughly 4,800 Catholic episcopal seats worldwide, at Fr Hinwood�s seemingly arbitrary guess of 3% this would set the figure of bishops who covered up at 144. These are staggering figures.

Moreover, it is not impossible that some priests and bishops carried their secrets to the grave because few victims like to speak out. I cannot speak for the hierarchy, but some of us lay Catholics were aware of some allegations and were acquainted with some alleged perpetrators and their alleged victims.

It is because we buried our heads in the sand rather than make our voices heard that we are now hanging those same heads in shame.

This is why I thank Pope Benedict and the Catholic hierarchy for their healing apologies, and include my own stammered plea for forgiveness.

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From Aideen Gonlag, St Michael�s-on-Sea, KZN:

Father Bonaventure Hinwood�s cavalier approach to the tragedy and crisis in the Church caused by the sex abuse sandal contrasts sharply with the attitude of Archbishop Buti Tlhagale of Johannesburg who said unequivocally that �what is happening in Ireland, Germany or America affects us all� and that as a result of the scandal, the Church�s image is in ruins.

Moreover, Fr Hinwood�s dismissive letter, coming a week after the courageous letter by Bev Coleman, the mother of an abused youth, could not have highlighted more clearly how mistaken his view is.

As the Colemans showed, it was the hurt and shame they sensed in Archbishop Lawrence Henry when he visited them after the trial that made them ask him to come and celebrate a Mass of healing for them and their parish at which �all those who attended experienced the miracle of healing�.

No, Fr Hinwood, the Church is not dealing with a flea bite, as you seem to think, but a boil that needs lancing, as The Southern Cross advised (editorial April 7-13). The evil is within and affects the whole Body of Christ. As Pope Benedict said on his flight to Portugal in May, the scandal is a �terrifying� crisis that requires purification and penance to overcome.

As I read it, the Holy Father means that the Church as a whole Body of Christ. This cannot be dismissed, as you would seem to suggest, as a �communal guilt trip�.