This is in response to two articles by Father Brendan Lee. The first, “Sexual abuse not a church only concern” (April 13) criticised Adrian Piccoli for his mockery of the seal of confession in relation to child sexual abuse, and his hypocrisy in light of abuse in NSW schools. The second, “Protection of children up to everyone” (April 20) defended confession and stressed its importance.
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I feel it’s necessary to preface this – this isn’t an attack on Father Lee. I don’t believe I’ve met him, but based on his writing he seems very moral, with deep convictions. Nor am I attacking Catholicism. I’m not religious, I don’t have any enmity toward it. To be honest, it’s just a response to a flawed argument.
And Father Lee’s argument is deeply flawed, to say the least. He asks why Piccoli didn’t call for a Royal Commission into abuse in state schools, citing the swathes of abuse-related dismissals, and the fact they more than doubled in frequency under Piccoli. The problem is, Lee ignores the Royal Commission’s purpose.
It wasn’t formed to catch rogue priests, but to investigate the widespread and deliberate cover-up of abuse by the church. How widespread? That Royal Commission found 7 per cent of Australian priests were accused from 1950 to 2009.
The NSW education system, meanwhile, is not engaged in a vast and systemic cover-up of abuse, as evidenced by the fact it regularly and publicly removes dangerous teachers from circulation. A Royal Commission into abuse in the school system wouldn’t be viable, because it’s not the system that’s the problem, it’s the fact that child abusers go where children are.
Lee’s call for investigation hinges on the idea that “sexual abuse in Catholic institutions almost entirely dates back decades, while sexual abuse in NSW State schools is current”. Now, there’s an element of truth to that – most allegations date back decades, giving the appearance that the problem is going away. In a certain light, you could argue the Church is reformed.
But if you look at the Royal Commission’s findings, the notion of abuse being a thing of the past is kind of laughable. First, the Royal Commission found that the amount of time it takes for abuse by priests to be reported averages 33 years, and had insufficient data to make any judgement on current rates; second, the Catholic Church is the largest, wealthiest, most powerful religious organisation on earth, and it actively worked to make abuse allegations go away. That’s what a cover-up is.
Father Lee closed his first article with a defence of the seal of confession, and the promise “I will explain next week”. There remains a lot to say, so I will have to do the same.
- Continue reading part two of Tom’s reply here.
