Catholic Church ‘weaponised God’ in bid to cover up abuse of children
Victims silenced by paedophile priests
THE Catholic Church ‘weaponised’ God to help silence the victims of paedophile priests and justify their abuse, an inquiry has found.
A report into the psychology of people who abuse children was released by the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI), which is probing allegations of institutional child abuse in living memory.
Experts told the probe that abusers from religious settings ‘had the capacity for self-delusion, engaging in thinking that was illogical’ – and that some ‘handed the moral responsibility for the abuse back to God’.
The 33-page report said it might have been easier for those from religious settings to abuse children because they were able to take advantage of the habitual deference offered to them.
Abusers could rely on being in high regard, using this as a way to silence children, and may even have allowed the abuser to think he had the permission to abuse children and ‘act with impunity’.
An expert panel told inquiry chairman Lady Smith that God was ‘weaponised’ and the Catholic Church ‘reinforced that sense of permission to abuse children’.
Last night, Helen Holland of the In Care Abuse Survivors (INCAS)
‘Legacy people should avoid’
victims’ group said: ‘The church’s priority has been trying to protect itself – its reputation and its senior people – at all costs.’
Martin Henry, formerly a lay adviser on safeguarding to the Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh for 22 years, said ‘there is a historical legacy that people should avoid at all costs bringing scandal’ on the church.
He added: ‘When you add God in as the other factor, who is always there, omnipresent, watching what you are doing and listening to what you’re saying and knowing what you’re thinking, it becomes all the more powerful.
‘As a mechanism to silence children, it had proven very effective.’
He told the inquiry he was ‘astonished’ so many had found the courage to ‘really break through that and talk about it’.
Mr Henry said: ‘But as an institution, there was this message: avoid bringing scandal which translated across institutions into protect the institution before you protect the young person.’
The experts also said there was no link between celibacy and the abuse of children.
The report also concluded that recruitment processes are not sophisticated enough to identify those who are going to be a risk to children if appointed to the role for which they are applying.
Lady Smith said: ‘The findings record what I identify to have been the most significant points that emerged from the roundtable discussions, particularly those that may have relevance for recommendations for the protection of children in care from abuse.’
Last night, a spokesman for the Catholic Church said: ‘A cultural change in recent decades has seen safeguarding practice become permanently embedded.’
In June 2017, Sister Anna Maria Doolan, the United Kingdom superior general of Catholic order the Sisters of Nazareth, who was not herself involved in the care of children, said the order was ‘very sorry’ for any child who suffered.
In March this year, a former Catholic monk who sexually abused children was deported to Australia only eight months after he was sentenced. Denis Alexander, 85, preyed on two youngsters at Fort Augustus Abbey, Inverness-shire, in the 1970s.