Abuses of Trust and Power: whose problem is it?

There are many (too many) who would respond to this question with the answer, "The Church's".

Is this a fair response?  The answer has to be, "Nah, don't think so!"

There there are many stories relating to sexual impropriety and abuse of trust and power doing the rounds of late, and they pose a number of questions and even more learning outcomes. To set for ourselves some sort of datum from which we can work and perhaps establish some norms and set standards, let us reflect on the media times that have come into my consciousness so far this year (you will undoubtedly know of others, but let's see where this takes us before we start posting names and other cases, eh?):

The Gibb report (An abuse of faith) which relates to a former Bishop Peter Ball and what appears to be a fair degree of complicity from senior clerics and the institution.

The news stories relating to the Revd Andrew Sloane, who misappropriated £14,500 of church funds to pay for rent boys.

The Netflix series 'Keepers' and the awful tales of complicity, cover-up and betrayal by the Catholic church in Baltimore relating to sexual abuse and the murder of Nun.

The film 'Philomena' - a true story of forced adoption,  abuse of power and trust, cover-up and lies from the Catholic Church relating to Philomena Lee and the search for her son, Anthony.

The data handed to an Australian commission on abuse in the Catholic church suggesting that in the period 1950 - 2010 some 1,265 Catholic priests, brothers and nuns had their names passed on to some 93 Catholic authorities as abusers by 4,444 people. Following the commission's report, Australia's senior cleric, Cardinal George Pell, was quoted as saying, "The Church had made 'enormous mistakes' and 'catastrophic' choices by refusing to believe abused children, shuffling abusive priests from parish to parish and over-relying on counseling of priests to solve the problem."

Sadly,  just over a week ago Cardinal Pell was charged  with a number of historic sex offences and is awaiting a visit to the magistrate's court. Regardless of the outcome, that's sure to open a bigger can of worms!

This week I've read of an eighty year old Muslim man (Mohammed Haji Sadiq) who apparently  taught at a Cardiff' mosque and abused children there for something up to thirty years before being caught and convicted.

There's been numerous football coaches accused of sexual (and other) abuse this year.

A doctor associated with US Gymnastics has been committed for trial for sexual abuse of some of those under his care. There was also a recent piece in the news of a Canadian ski coach who also abused those he taught.

The Rochdale sexual abuse scandal, complete with cover-ups, looking the other way by authorities and the accusations that this was an 'Asian' problem (not helped by the "Rotherham' and other cases in the news) makes for poor and uncomfortable reading. Add to this the Jersey care home scandal and the abuse by foster parents, by natural parents, by adoptive parents, family members and friend of the family, the abuse by media stars, DJs, and entertainers and what do we have?


Only this week a Reigate Scout leader was jailed for 26 years for sexual abuse and I've found another eight stories relating to Scouting. These were all historical, the reason for this being that the organisation, being aware of past problems, has become more proactive and alert to safeguarding needs..

The BBC's Panorama programme recently looked at abuse in the uniformed cadet organisations. Statistics produced during the programmes the statistics on the left were quoted.


The reality is that sexual (and other) abuse can occur in every area of life and the perpetrator can be almost anyone. I remember the sixties when the jokes about sexual abuse and Scout leaders were always going the rounds and now they are one of the better examples of safeguarding practice.

My problem with abuse, regardless of what form it takes or the group in which it has occurred, is the breach of trust that causes it to happen and the institutional deceit that seems to raise its ugly head to work at concealing the sin (for sin it is) and further destroy any remaining trust in the organisation that might have existed.

Worse still is the fact that people judge Jesus and the Church as a whole when individuals act to abuse. Now I have to say that we, as the Gibbs report shows, don't help ourselves in this area and the lies, cover up, misdirection and ignoring of the abused only seek to show Church to be full of hypocrites and liars.

BUT NOT EVERY CHRISTIAN DESERVES OR FITS THIS LABEL!

We need to be vigilant but not paranoid.

We need to be trusting but not naive.

We need to protect the weak, the vulnerable and the young - remembering that everyone is vulnerable at some time in their life.

Gentle as doves, cunning as serpents and protective of all as if they were our own.

Pax

Journal: Philomena - not an easy watch!

I watched the film, Philomena, today. It's one of those films that relate to the 'Magdelen Laundries' and the actions of various members of the Catholic Church relating to the care of young 'fallen' and/or 'unrukry and wayward' young women.

The film featured harsh and bitter treatment of the young women at times but that want the worst bit, for it also pointed to the results of these young women's sin, the children, being effectively sold off to adoptive couples.

In 1952, Philomena Lee (played by Judi Dench) gave birth to a son in a 'mother and baby home'. Three years later that same child was passed on for adoption (with another child) and money changed hands. The institution was legal led allowed to do this because the mothers were made to sign a document passing all rights regarding the child to the order of nuns and the Catholic church. Seems to me that, having read other books on the subject, this was a nice little earner - but that's not the bit that causes me distress (even though it is distressing).

What gets my goat is the institutional corruption and deceit that saw all paperwork, save the legal transfer of rights, destroyed by the nuns. Add to this the fact that the organisation denied access to information that would have enabled morhter and son to be reunited when they came looking and you have sprinkles on the cake already bedecked with the cherries of sexual immorality and abuse. Is it any wonder that people distrust the Church (all and every brand of it) when our recent past is held up to scrutiny.

Add to this the remarkable film 'Spotlight' and the exposé of the sexual abuse covered up and buried, and the institutional suppression of the truth and the oppression aimed at those who sought to find it: and you have a picture of something extremely wrong in terms of Church and the discharge of the Gospel.

This is not a Roman Catholic issue alone, as happenings in the CofE and other denominations and groupings clearly demonstrate. Wherever there is power on offer, there are people who will abuse that power for their own gain and pleasure. What is tragic (and that's a polite word) is the fact that the Church (universal) has looked the other way and so permitted wrong to have happened and then covered it up - lying, using its institutional power and the pressure its members can impose on friends and family should they be rocking the boat - and so compounded their sin.

The Church is made up of flawed, fallible and potentially awful people. But evil does triumph and Jesus, the Christ, falls from the cross onto the floor impotent as the Church, stumbling and falling seeks to cover things up. The triumph is that there are good people doing good things and standing against evil inside and outside of Church.

The good (should that be 'amazing') thing is that there are people like Philomena Lee who maintain their faith in God, seeing past the flawed and fallible representatives of the church before them, to Worship God. A most uncomfortable and angst-filled, Anger-making film indeed.

Worth a watch,