My old friend, Keith Porteous Wood, Executive Director of the National Secular Society, launched a ferocious attack this week on the Pope and the Vatican’s record on child abuse at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva.
Keith made the intervention under the auspices of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU). He said: “Billions of dollars – and euros – have already been paid out in respect of thousands of victims in the USA and Ireland. News of further abuse has since appeared in Austria, the Netherlands and now Germany – and this is just the tip of the iceberg. How much more evidence of children’s suffering at the hands of the Church will the UN and the international community tolerate before fulfilling their responsibility to those children to hold the Vatican to account?
“The Vatican is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), but has contravened several of its articles, and is more than 10 years behind in its reporting. It has habitually compounded the abuse and facilitated multiple reoffending by moving offenders around and shielding them from prosecuting authorities by imposing the “pontifical secret”. Major investigations in the USA and Ireland have been deliberately and cynically obstructed by the Church at all levels without censure from above. This includes the Vatican’s representative in Ireland, suggesting that he acted under instruction from the highest level in the Church. All this has led to abusers being allowed to continue offending and to escape justice, while their victims despair – some even committing suicide.
“The Church cannot claim it is being victimised. It still places the protection of its reputation, and even more its assets, above the protection of those entrusted to its care. Over 90% of the compensation payments paid by cash-strapped Ireland came from the tax payers, including the abused themselves.
“When we raised this issue at the UN in September 2009, the Church blamed everyone else, but did promise one paltry paragraph on clerical abuse in its report to the UN. Even that mandatory report – already 13 years overdue and promised last September – has still not been filed with the UN.
“Following an instruction from Cardinal Ratzinger when head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, all suspicions and accusations of child abuse were to be sent to the Vatican in secret. Furthermore, when acceding to the Convention, the Vatican arbitrarily – and disingenuously – excluded “Vatican City state” from the jurisdiction of the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC). IHEU calls on the Holy See to:
1. remove its reservation to the CRC to bring the territory of Vatican City state, to which it has instructed all abuse accusations are to be sent, under the jurisdiction of the CRC;
2. open up its files and records to CRC and state investigators; and
3. instruct all its representatives to cooperate with legal investigating authorities worldwide –something that they have signally failed to do, for example, in Ireland.”
You can see video of Keith delivering his fusillade here: http://www.youtube.com/user/IHEUUnitedNations#p/f/12/71UefLWpm2A
The text of the NSS’s previous intervention in September 2009, together with a detailed statement published by the UN, the Holy See’s response and the hostile worldwide press reaction is available here: http://www.secularism.org.uk/uploads/unhrc-holy-see-pack.pdf
I think it is up to the catholic population themselves,to sort out their church,it was the same arrogance and decetfulness that started the prodistant movement in the first place,all those years ago.the people have moved on scince then,they are better educated and should have more say in their church,they do not want phedaphiles in their midst.there must be a cleansing,from within,ad it should be instegated by the pope himself.all who are found to be involved should be thrown out and be prosicuted in civil courts.only then will the people see justice being done.otherwise it will shrivvel on the vine…….
There are so many inaccuracies in this speech I hardly know where to begin. I realized half way through I was reading a high school essay.
He refers to an “instruction from Cardinal Ratzinger when head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith [that] all suspicions and accusations of child abuse were to be sent to the Vatican in secret”. Presumably he means De delictis gravioribus.
Far from being a sinister or secret ‘instruction’, it is available on the Vatican website here:
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20010518_epistula_graviora%20delicta_lt.html
The political secrecy applies only to information given in the external forum, for it established procedural norms ad canonicas sanctiones declarandas aut irrogandas. It does not preclude a bishop, nor indeed anyone else, from reporting the crime to the police.
His assertion that “[o]ver 90% of the compensation payments paid by cash-strapped Ireland came from the tax payers” is incorrect. Compensation for abuse victims of secular priests is paid wholly by the diocese. Compensation for historic abuse in institutional schools is shared by the Religious Orders and the Irish Government, but the proportion contributed by the latter is much less than 90%. The reason why the contribution of the Orders was so comparatively small was because the Superiors were reluctant to be part of a process that would have the conduct of their members judged without due process. They wanted every case to be tried in open court. But the Ahern Government wanted the ‘quickie’ of the Redress Board process. The Orders co-operated reluctantly – they were under no obligation to do so – and settled for the contribution level.
His call on the Holy See to “open up its files and records to CRC and state investigators” is arrogant. The Holy See is an independent sovereign state. No government in the world would allow their confidential files to be given over to foreign governments for investigation – especially not when such information is highly sensitive and was given in the fullest confidence. Mr Wood might care to reflect on his own government’s record of non-cooperation with the inquiry into the Dublin & Monaghan bombings.
Shane, I have drawn Keith’s attention to your comment and will ask him to respond directly.
Hi,
It’s off-topic, but are you aware of moves in Stormont to give money from dormant bank accounts to faith-based organisations?
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/ni/?id=2010-03-16.4.31&s=speaker%3A13867#g4.36
My understanding is that money from dormant accounts is supposed to be distributed to the wider community “for social and environmental purposes”.
The line being trotted out is that “faith-based” groups apparently have difficulty accepting grants from the Lottery Fund for example because they are from the proceeds of gambling. It is implied that therefore, they should be given some precedence in the distribution of money from dormant accounts.
It would be my contention as a secularist that faith groups should take their place in the queue and that money should be distributed on merit, and for the benefit of the community as a whole, and not to narrow little interest groups who tend to be extremely discriminatory in terms of who can benefit from their activities.
Set aside the climate change denial from the “rapture readies”, there are many groups which could use that money more judiciously. I’m thinking particularly of mental and sexual health charities, medical research charities, and community groups which are not concerned with extremely narrow interests of one section of the community.
Maybe you could look into this?
Time permitting I will and thanks for drawing my attention to this.
Shane,
It was not the “instruction” which was to be kept secret, but the allegations of abuse. It wouldn’t make much sense to keep secret the instruction to keep abuse secret now, would it.
You say: “The political secrecy applies only to information given in the external forum, for it established procedural norms ad canonicas sanctiones declarandas aut irrogandas. It does not preclude a bishop, nor indeed anyone else, from reporting the crime to the police.”
No, it doesn’t. But hardly anybody knew about that letter until the investigations in America.
Even so, as Johann Hari wrote in The Independent this week:
“Far from changing this paedophile-protecting model, Ratzinger reinforced it. In 2001 he issued a strict secret order demanding that charges of child-rape should be investigated by the Church “in the most secretive way… restrained by a perpetual silence… and everyone… is to observe the strictest secret.” Since it was leaked, Ratzinger claims – bizarrely – that these requirements didn’t prevent bishops from approaching the police. Even many people employed by the Vatican at the time say this is wrong. Father Tom Doyle, who was a Vatican lawyer working on these cases, says it “is an explicit written policy to cover up cases of child sexual abuse and to punish those who would call attention to these crimes… Nowhere in any of these documents does it say anything about helping the victims. The only thing it does say is they can impose fear on the victims, and punish [them], for disclosing what happened.” Doyle was soon fired.”
Ratzinger himself was put in charge of the Vatican’s response to abuse allegations and had every case referred to himself directly for 20 years.
You say: “His assertion that “[o]ver 90% of the compensation payments paid by cash-strapped Ireland came from the tax payers” is incorrect. Compensation for abuse victims of secular priests is paid wholly by the diocese. …”
For a start, and excuse me if I’m being stupid, but what’s a “secular priest”?
Aside of that, I think you are obfuscating somewhat here. You are right to point out that the abuse in schools was “shared” by the Orders and the government, but your implication that this happened as a consequence of some noble quest for “openness” and due process is quite laughable.
The cost incurred by the Irish taxpayer – the 90% – was run up partly because of repeated attempts by Church bodies to keep details secret. First, the Christian Brothers took the Ryan Commission to the High Court to keep secret the names of people alleged to have abused children, arguing that many were now dead of infirm.
It was also suggested that the names of the institutions be kept secret.
The result of this was that the commission was forced to operate by much more strict rules on procedure. The suggestion on naming institutions was rejected as it was deemed it would have been “fatal” to the entire investigation.
The Brothers lost in the High Court. They then took their case to the Supreme Court. There they only dropped their case after they had extracted a guarantee that the Commission itself would not name anyone responsible for abuse.
Now, all of this posturing, which resulted in the names of abusers being kept secret, was not paid for by the Brothers, who won their costs in court. The bill was footed by the child abuse commission, set up by the Irish government with Irish taxpayers’ money.
Ahern capped the amount the Church needs to contribute at €128m. The Rsidential Institutions Redress Board was expected to incur costs in the region of €1.3bn. That is where the 10% figure comes from.
I think you’re attempting to defend the indefensible. Can I remind you, because it’s so easy to forget in the storm of all these facts and figures and manoeuvering, that we’re talking about €1.3 billion’s worth of child abuse here? That’s only in Ireland. We are talking about a global cover-up of endemic levels of the most heinous of crimes.
And you call Porteous Wood “arrogant” for having the temerity to demand that the Vatican open up its files, since it is now quite clear it has been complicit in this cover-up? Do me a favour man.
The Vatican is a state when it suits and a church when it suits.
It suits the Vatican to be regarded as a state when, for instance, the Pope was personally accused of covering up the sexual abuse of three boys in Texas, and the US granted him diplomatic immunity.
Or when it signs up to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child – but excludes itself.
But it is to be regarded as a church when it attempts to cover up allegations of child abuse by holding up the Sacrament of Penance as one of those deeply-held inviolables that the religious routinely use in order to justfiy persecution such as of homosexuals.
It is at best a quasi-state, and its history as such is ignominous – it was a sop from Mussolini and won him the silence of the Church about the horrors of his Fascism. There is no moral equivalence between the church withholding details of endemic, worldwide sexual abuse of children, covering up and protecting the abusers and a state’s government keeping national security issues secret. Your analogy is cheap.
The charge of arrogance is cheap too, because it is the one thing the Church has been consistent in displaying through all of this. Half-baked, mealy-mouthed “apologies”, pleading persecution and victimhood and the most breathtaking arrogance are all we have got from the Catholic Church as it has been exposed again and again as having been complicit in this crime.
To use my favourite Ulster phrase: Wind your neck in.
Lew, all I can say is, “well said”. It’s wonderful to see Shane’s witterings being rebutted so comprehensively.
Thanks Jeff. Good to see a response from Keith Porteous Wood too. I overlooked Shane’s posting when at the top I saw the “high school essay” swipe. I’m not generally one who goes out of my way to get annoyed. But then I saw the “arrogant” swipe and couldn’t resist reading what he had to say.
When a clump of mostly bacterial cells – one among more than six billion of their kind on a tiny speck in the solar system, itself a speck buried in the Milky Way, 1,000 light years across, itself a speck among some 170 billion galaxies in the observable universe, which is some 280 billion light years across – claims to have the ear of the all-powerful creator of it all, they’ll forgive me (as they are wont) for finding that just a bit uppity.
And when they start talking about what that creator wants me to do… Don’t get me started.
Jeff,
Further to the dormant bank accounts thing, I’ve just received this from someone:
“I have worked in regeneration and churches get around “we do not accept money from the N Lottery” by leasing the property or part of, to a regeneration group, who then get the grants etc in their name, does the work then hands the property back to the church!”
Lew, just shows how greasy those Christians can be.