Soul Murder in the Church

I'm a big fan of the writing of Canadian author Linden McIntyre and his novel The Bishop's Man is one of his best and most disturbing. It is about a priest who is essentially a "fixer" for the Roman Catholic church in Nova Scotia, successfully addressing abuse scandals in a number of parishes in Cape Breton and elsewhere. It is a grim tale of institutional cover-up and the perverse logic behind it.

This novel came to mind two days ago when a Grand Jury in Pennsylvania released a 900 page report on sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy which took place in the state over decades. More than 300 priests were implicated and 1,000 victims were identified. Of course that latter figure won't be accurate. This is the number of victims included in church records. The likelihood is that there are thousands more who weren't recorded. The vast majority were children, often "groomed" by priests who were in positions of trust.



The stories are horrendous: several daughters abused in one family which welcomed the priest into their home; boys who were given gifts of large gold crosses so others in a ring of paedophile priests could identify them. As disgusting as these incidents were, there are many others which are as bad.

The report describes what happened in what was a sophisticated and systemic network of secrecy and deception. What was unfolding was known by those in authority and every effort was made to protect the priests rather than the victims. Millions of dollars was paid to these victims as part of the cover-up, but it bought their silence rather than providing restitution and contrition.

This sort of "soul murder," which is how I describe child sexual abuse, is so despicable I can hardly contain my anger. I truly believe that the perpetrators should be imprisoned for life because of the predatory and destructive nature of their crimes. The fact that they were supposedly servants of Christ in positions of trust makes this exploitation even more egregious.

So far there has not been a word of response from Pope Francis, who has denounced clergy abuse on a number of occasions but has been slow and even obstructive when it comes to addressing actual incidents of exploitation. He and other church leaders know that there are huge implications regarding the hierarchical and patriarchal structure of the church. This is a top-down, authoritarian institution which is well suited to systemic abuse and the statements of dismay ring hollow because meaningful change is not on the horizon.

Sexual abuse is evident in other denominations as well. Sadly, in every sphere of life and every profession power corrupts people. I am also aware that the majority of priests in the Roman Catholic church have been faithful pastors, and that Pope Francis has done a great deal to bring about reform in a number of areas. Still, this is one more example of a world-wide cancer in the body of Christ.

Pope Francis -- we are waiting for honesty and justice, for Christ's sake.