The Church seems to have a problem of rampant sexual abuse all over the world. The church tries to hush up these issues and maintain a straight face to protect its religious identity and maintain its clean image of working as enlightened God men. Pastors, Fathers and other priests have often tried to cover up the mistakes of their brethren in the olden times too when the churches used to control the government and in turn the public opinion. The good old days of the church are long gone now, as it has become apparent by the expose of countless charges against men of the church in the past few years in India as well as in other parts of the world.
Recently, in the United States, a new grand jury report released by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on sex abuse in Catholic Church credibly accused 300 “predator priests” of sexually abusing more than 1,000 child victims.
These accused were not just protected by the Church authorities but the Church leaders also indulged systematically covering up the cases of child sexual abuse.
The report said, “As a consequence of the coverup, almost every instance of abuse we found is too old to be prosecuted.”
The grand jury report states, “We believe that the real number of children whose records were lost or who were afraid ever to come forward is in the thousands.”
The report further adds, “Priests were raping little boys and girls, and the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing; they hid it all. For decades. Monsignors, auxiliary bishops, bishops, archbishops, cardinals have mostly been protected; many, including some named in this report, have been promoted.”
The 18 month long probe covered six of the state’s eight dioceses – Pittsburgh, Allentown, Scranton, Harrisburg, Erie and Greensburg and also followed- and follows other state grand jury reports that exposed abuse and coverups in two other dioceses. The grand jury reviewed over 2 million documents including the “secret achieves”- the reports of child abuse buried by the Church from the eyes of public for decades.
The Vatican press office refused to comment on the report.
Not just United States, this problem of child abuse by the Catholic Church is rampant all over the world. About seven percent of all priests who worked in Australia from 1950 to 2010 were accused of sexually abusing children. Pope Francis defended Chilean Bishop Juan Barros who is accused of concealing cases of child abuse by a priest. Child sexual abuse is a systematic problem within Catholic Church. Father Michael Baker is accused of molesting 23 boys during his 30 years as part of the clergy.
In India also scenario is not very much different. In India, child abuse by the church is rampant. In 2014, Raju Kokkan, the vicar of the Saint Paul’s Church in Thaikkattussery, Thrissur, Kerala, was arrested on charges of raping a nine-year-old girl. In 2017, Father Robin aka Mathew Vadakkancheril of St Sebastian church in Kannur, was arrested in Kochi on the charges of sexually abusing a minor girl who later gave birth to a child. In April, a priest in Jaipur was booked under POCSO Act for allegedly sending indecent messages to a class 9th student at an Alwar school. Instead of condemning his actions and excommunicating him, the Bishop of Jaipur, Oswald J Lewis, has asked people to ‘fast and pray’ for the accused Georgish Britto.
Recently, The Supreme Court of India had expressed concerns over the rising number of rape cases involving priests from the churches of Kerala. The SC bench comprising of Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan said, “What is happening in Kerala, priests are becoming accused in rape cases.” It is about time the Church acknowledges that it has a systematic problem or authorities around the world must take strict action against the Church.