The Windsor Star
22 July 2011
The London diocese admits it didn’t properly deal with pedophile priests in the past, but defends the previous practice of shipping accused and convicted clergy to new churches without warning parishioners.
Vicar-General Rev. John Sharp said moving a priest to a new church, which often happened when victims or others complained, was seen as a “new opportunity” for them. “You don’t necessarily want your past to be a block for you,” said Sharp. “That’s not an excuse but that’s the reality of it with anything.
“Any of us at any work or field we might do, we might realize we have made poor choices and mistakes. We acknowledge that, we would hope the next place we would go to would take a different attitude, and we would not want to see our pasts come along with us.”
The diocese has been criticized in recent years after revelations that officials and other priests were aware of abusive priests but didn’t remove them from ministry. Victims of several priests have launched about 150 lawsuits against the diocese.
Bishop Ronald Fabbro said he knows officials didn’t properly deal with abuser priests in the past, and some victims were disregarded when they asked for help.
“The way we have to stop this from happening is for victims to know that they can come forward and that they are going to be believed, which was a problem in the past,” said Fabbro.
He said he’s made public apologies and is trying to be more transparent in the church’s handling of sex abuse allegations.
“We issue a public statement when this happens now.”
Fabbro said he now also immediately removes a priest’s faculties. A priest is granted faculties after being ordained that allow him to do things such as minister the sacraments, celebrate mass, hear confessions and do baptisms. Fabbro said he could remove any or all of them. Sharp, now tasked with overseeing disposition of the lawsuits, said the church handled abuse differently in the past because it didn’t fully understand the problem.
“It was the appreciation and value and understanding of the whole question of this kind of conduct,” said Sharp.
He said it was believed a perpetrator could get treatment and return to ministry.
“We understand all of this now to not have been correct,” said Sharp. “But it wasn’t in isolation.”
But even after priests abused children, were moved to other churches and abused again, Sharp said the church still didn’t understand what it was dealing with. “I really think that the people at that time made decisions in the light which they truly believed to be the good.”
‘BE CLOSE TO VICTIMS’
Catholic bishops must meet child abuse victims in person in order to fully understand their suffering, says the Vatican’s main investigator into pedophilia scandals.
“If you don’t do this you will never really understand the drama of these terrible sins,” Charles Scicluna, the Canon Law prosecutor of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, told the Vatican Insider website earlier this month.
Such meetings will be “a traumatizing, life-changing experience as it was for me,” he told the website.
He added the church should “be close to the victims, who have been considered for too long as ‘enemies’ of the Church’s good reputation.”
I have trouble with this. I really and truly do.
First, I believe that any employee who has really ‘botched’ it at a job will find that their past follows them to a new job – IF, of course, employers are honest and pass on that information to those condsidering hiring their former employee.
The Cloyne Report is proof postive that all of the ‘we didn’t knows’ in the past have mean nothing. Even when they presumably ‘know’ it’s the same old same old.
Perhas things are different in the Diocese of London? If they are then we can assume that beyond a shadow of a doubt there is not one single priest serving in the Diocese of London who has been charged, or sued or had ‘credible’ allegations against him, either in the London Diocese or anywhere in the world. And, we can likewise assume that there is not one single priest belonging to or formerly from the London Diocese and now serving elsewhere in the world who was at some time charged, sued or had ‘credible’ allegations against him. The same holds true for ex priests from the diocese. If that’s the case, then it’s a good start and welcome news.
We know, for example, that until recently convicted molesters Fathers Jack McCann omi, Michael J Walsh and Ed MacNeil omi were serving in dioceses and the faithful were NOT told of their backgrounds as child molesters. Is that because all of the bishops and Church officials who tolerated and permitted this dimension of the sex abuse scandal in Canada still don’t know and still don’t understand what Father Sharp now knows and understands?
So, I have trouble with the notion that once upon a time well-educated men of God didn’t know and understand what we laity seem to inherently know and understand, and that somehow these men now know and understand, but ….somehow not ALL of their colleagues know and understand as do they. It makes no sense. But, perhaps possible?
As for Msgr. Scicluna wanting bishops to be “close to the victims” so they can fully understand their suffering. Well, sad to say, in many instances it was bishops who inflicted further pain and suffering on victims. Despite meeting with and hearing the heartache and anguish of the victims they had not an iota of understanding or compassion. Those bishops weren’t interested.
Why, I wonder, does Msgr. Scicluna not take the step which must be taken but is avoided at all costs? Laicize/defrock every child molester and sexual predator in the Church? Purge the priesthood.
Please Monsognor, if you now truly understand “the drama of these terrible sins” then take the steps required to eliminate from the ranks of the clergy ALL those who masquerade as men of God to prey upon the vulnerable.
Sorry…I meant for this comment to be here…..
I feel so much better now……..”they erred”, they didn’t know that it was a crime, they didn’t know that it was an abhorent crime, they didn’t know that it went against everything they preached of and taught. WE DID!!!!!!!!!
Sylvia I will say what you won’t……..HORSESHIT!!!!
John
Well, Jeez.
It’s so nice to know that is was only a little ‘err’ and not a major screw up.
Too bad I didn’t know this on Monday before I was committed for overnight observation.
Instead of lying there on the mattress of the floor in the isolation room (they didn’t lock the door, I was a good boy) staring at the ceiling wondering what the hell I did to deserve this, I could have been at home breathing a sigh of relief knowing that this was all just the result of a little ‘err’ and nothing too serious.
There is a common theme that I seem to detect. And that is no one wants to own up and admit that these kiddie diddling priests RUINED a lot of lives.
Fine, sure, the priest is going to have to find ways to support himself. Let him do work where there is absolutely no risk of being around children. Period. It seems that once they’ve had a taste of children, they are no longer able to control themselves. Just to be on the safe side, give them chemical castration. But under no circumstance let them ever work around children again.
Get rid of the ‘celibacy’ thing. From what I’ve been told, there is no actual requirement for it other than one of the popes in the middle ages instituted it so that when a preist passed away, his possession would go to the church and not to his heirs.
Anyways, it would be nice for the church to admit the amount of toxic damage that has been done. The sad thing about the victims is they quite often are not able to form normal relationships in their adult lives. Even though they go through the daily motions of living, they are almost completely dead on the inside.
I like this part the most:
—————————————————
Catholic bishops must meet child abuse victims in person in order to fully understand their suffering, says the Vatican’s main investigator into pedophilia scandals.
“If you don’t do this you will never really understand the drama of these terrible sins,” Charles Scicluna, the Canon Law prosecutor of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, told the Vatican Insider website earlier this month.
Such meetings will be “a traumatizing, life-changing experience as it was for me,” he told the website.
He added the church should “be close to the victims, who have been considered for too long as ‘enemies’ of the Church’s good reputation.”
————————————————
Yeah, I’ll be more than happy to let some of these church officials come lodge with me for a week or two. I’m sure I could give them a good run down on just exactly what it’s like to live with this for 31 years.
Maybe, if they’re lucky, we could spend some time together in the psych ward pacing back and forth at 4 in the morning.
I’m so sorry to hear that you’ve been going through tough times Bobbie. So sorry.
Yes, if only some of those church officials could spend some time with you. What does it take?
I can tell you one thing Bobbie. Many of ‘them’ follow the site. Your message is getting out. “They” have read what you’re saying. I read it. Those who silently support you and care about what you’re going through read it. And “they” read it too.
Will that make a difference? Will it make a difference to those Church officials who read it? Perhaps in the long run. I dearly wish I could say it will make a difference for you in the here and now, but I can’t.
Hang in there Bobbie. Know that there are people who care.