Charity cover-ups

FIVE of the top charities in the country – Concern, Trócaire, Goal, Christian Aid and Oxfam Ireland – have confirmed to this newspaper that they have taken disciplinary procedures against staff for sexual misconduct, with some employees dismissed as a consequence.

On foot of today’s World Vision revelations and those about some Oxfam International aid workers who paid young and vulnerable girls to engage in prostitution, this is disturbing news. It is hard to imagine anything more cynical than the exploitation of the poor and desperate for sexual gratification. The fact that this is not as bad as murdering babies in their cots, as the Oxfam chief suggested, does not mean it is not wicked in the extreme.

What his organisation then did was to cover this up. When the Catholic Church did the same and tried to escape censure by saying it did many good things, these evasions and excuses quite rightly increased the fury against it.

For aid charities, just as for the Churches, there is an extra dimension. The people and the organisation are supposed to be working selflessly for the cause of good. To instead abuse those they claim to love is a gross betrayal of trust.