Clergy survivors of child abuse due to meet on Friday
January 26, 2012
Posted by:Jonathan Wheeler
Further to the coverage in The Times last week, clergy survivors groups and child abuse compensation lawyers are meeting in London on Friday to discuss plans to call for a public enquiry, as prosecutions against priests grow. I signed the letter which was published in The Times last Tuesday, and which formed the basis of a major feature on child abuse in our religious institutions, starting on the front page. Whilst I had received word that the letter was going to be published I had no idea that it would be the catalyst for such a wide reportage, and I thank The Times for giving the oxygen of publicity to this important issue. I will be attending the meeting on Friday, which is supported by the Association of Child Abuse Lawyers, Ministry and Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors and Survivors Voice.
And just today it's reported that a defrocked Catholic priest, Peter Kennedy has been extradited from Brazil via Britain to Ireland to face 55 child abuse charges in a Dublin court. Kennedy is accused of molesting 18 children between 1968 and 1984. When his accusers told the police in 2002, Kennedy fled to England to escape justice. By the time the Church had removed him from the priesthood in 2003, he had emigrated to Brazil using his British passport. I am heartened that through the collaboration of the British, Brazilian and Irish authorities this priest will be forced to face his accusers. This is however typical of many of the cases that we are dealing with at Bolt Burdon Kemp. I am personally amazed at the number of priests who have tried (some successfully) to evade justice by jumping bail. We also have evidence on our files which would suggest that the Church authorities themselves have been complicit in moving priests to new parishes when child abuse allegations threatened to surface. Often there were no restrictions on the priests' ministry in their new parishes and they were free to continue abusing others. In addition some clients of mine will say that they were actively discouraged from reporting allegations to the police by an Archbishop and others high up in a Catholic diocese. And these people are supposed to be the guardians of morality! Whilst these allegations may be denied by the Catholic Church, anyone who wants to look into this further is recomended to read "The Case of the Pope" by Geoffrey Robertson QC. He has uncovered an apparent policy of moving abusing priests from Europe to Africa, and from the USA to Mexico or South America, where it is recorded that priests continued abusing unabated, running orphanages and schools. This is nothing but a major scandal. We know that Canon Law instructs bishops to keep allegations secret, not to report priests suspected of abusing children to the police or other civil authorities, and instead to undertake their own internal investigations. The Vatican would then decide on the "sentence" to be imposed, the worst of which was ex-communication and only three such cases have ever been recorded. This law, which threatened bishops with ex communication if it was not enforced, was detailed in a decree dated 16 March 1962 called "Crimen Solliciationis" and was approved in a letter from Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict) on the 18th May 2001.
But child abuse is not of course just the province of the Catholic Church. The Church of England has its own problems, as the enquiry announced by Dr Rowan Williams last month into the Diocese of Chichester most recently shows. This is the first time since the 1890's that the Archbishop of Canterbury has ordered an archiepiscopal visitation. Two vicars have already been convicted of abusing boys in the 1970's and 1980's in the Midlands and East Sussex, Roy Cotton and Colin Pritchard. They had been allowed to continue in post despite senior church officials knowing they were facing serious child abuse allegations. Apparently further allegations have been made to the police, and other churchmen linked to Cotton and Pritchard are implicated. A review into the case by a senior judge, Baroness Butler-Sloss concluded that there was "a lack of understanding of the seriousness of historic child abuse" across the Chichester diocese "and probably in many other dioceses". At Bolt Burdon Kemp we probably have more compensation cases against Anglican priests than Catholic ones. And we are seeing allegations from other denominations and church groups too - such as evangelical churches, the Salvation Army and Boys Brigade clubs.
I will report back after Friday's meeting and hope anyone reading this blog will support our campaign for a public enquiry.