The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection just released its annual report and is pleased to announce that reports of clergy sexual abuse trended down during the pandemic!
According to the report, which was conducted by StoneBridge Business Partners of Rochester, New York and covers the year from July 1, 2019, through June 30, 2020, there was a slight decline in people alleging they were sexually abused by priests, deacons, and other church officials.
Just 3,924 sexual abuse survivors filed 4,228 allegations in 2020, down from 4,220 filing 4,434 allegations in 2019. So, that’s progress, right?
While the number of allegations was still incredibly, incredibly high, the report states that only 22 of the allegations, or 1%, were new cases of abuse and the “vast majority of these reports were historical in nature.”
Of those 22 allegations, six were found to be substantiated, two were declared unsubstantiated, seven are still being investigated, three have been determined “unable to be proven,” and four were classified as “other.” Nine of the allegations included the use of child pornography.
Of course, the whole report should be taken with a huge pillar of salt.
Two eparchies refused to participate in the audit (we wonder why?), and two dioceses and two more eparchies were determined to be in noncompliance with auditors (again, why?). On top of that, the pandemic prevented auditors from making on-site visits, meaning much of the information had to be cobbled together online.
Then, of course, these are only reported cases, and it’s a well-known fact that most sex crimes go unreported. It’s also a well-known fact that the Catholic church isn’t great at keeping records when it comes to this kinda stuff. But, hey, at least they’re trying.
“By the grace of God, the church is working toward being accessible, accountable, and safe,” Deacon Bernie Nojadera, executive director of the USCCB Secretariat for Child and Youth Protection, said in a letter accompanying the report. “We continue to rely on the Holy Spirit and the intercession of Our Mother to guide our efforts as we promise to protect and pledge to heal.”
A new study of millennials in the United States of America has revealed a third of those surveyed identify as LGBTQ.
The number of people who recognise themselves to be non-heterosexual or non-cisgendered has been slowly climbing over the years thanks to visibility, law changes and acceptance.
But the Arizona Christian University wanted to see just how many people are comfortable with their sexuality or gender expression.
They surveyed 600 people aged between 18 to 37 in the hope it would give them an insight into how these two aspects of identity are tracking in the modern age.
They found 30 per cent of millennials now categorise themselves as being lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer.
A decent chunk of these millennials (39 per cent) are aged between 18 to 24.
According to the Daily Mail, the study concluded: “[Millenials are] redefining sexuality, their own and how to perceive and respond to the gender identity and sexual-orientation choices of others.”
But sexuality wasn’t the only focus of the study.
The Arizona Christian University’s investigation asked young people about the world around them and they found millennials are largely ‘anti-establishment, unpatriotic, pro-freedom of religion, and desperately trying to find a purpose in life’.
The age group said managing the coronavirus pandemic was the most important issue in the US.
They were split nearly down the middle when asked whether they prefer socialism or capitalism, with the former gaining a little less than half the vote.
Forty per cent of people listed themselves as progressive, while 29 per cent categorised themselves as conservative.
One in three millennials had been to a protest recently, highlighting how young people are particularly pro-activism.
However, this age group has largely admitted to being racked with stress, depression, anxiety and feelings of being lost.
Three quarters of those surveyed said they are still trying to find their purpose in life, which isn’t surprising considering a big chunk of them would still be in university and might be facing a crisis about whether they want to keep studying.
The Arizona Christian University’s director of research at the Cultural Research Center, George Barna, explained how this data is crucial to understanding young people.
He noted: “Rather than blasting them for a range of perceived inadequacies, perhaps we can support them with perspective, solutions, resources, and encouragement.”
The Roman Catholic Church in France will sell some of its assets to compensate victims of sexual abuse, French bishops announced on Monday, one month after the release of a sweeping report on sexual abuse by the clergy that has fueled growing calls for reform.
“We will ensure that no one is left behind,” Éric de Moulins-Beaufort, the archbishop of Reims and the president of the Bishops’ Conference of France, told reporters after a meeting of bishops over the past week in Lourdes, a popular Catholic pilgrimage site in southwestern France.
The measure, one of several approved near unanimously on Monday by the bishops, was greeted by victims groups as a significant step in the French church’s reckoning of sexual abuse in its ranks, which accelerated after the release of the report last month.
But they cautioned that they would keep a watchful eye on the implementation of the measures announced Monday, which also included the creation of an independent reparations body to process victims’ claims. The bishops also said they planned to set up working groups, presided over by laypeople, that will draw up concrete proposals by 2023 on issues like the training of priests.
Olivier Savignac, a member of De la parole aux actes!, an umbrella association of victim groups established after the report was released, said that a culture of opaqueness and secrecy had been “broken.”
“Now we want to see how things are going to be implemented,” Mr. Savignac said, citing the staffing of the working groups and of the reparations body, which will be led by Marie Derain de Vaucresson, a legal expert who specializes in the rights of children.The devastating church-ordered report last month estimated that 200,000 to 300,000 children or vulnerable people had been abused over the past 70 years by clergy members or people affiliated with the church — a projection based on a general population survey, a public call for victims’ testimony, archival analysis and other sources.
For the first time last week, France’s 120 bishops recognized that the church bore an “institutional responsibility” for “systemic” abuse.
It’s the sign of a positive dynamic, which must still be confirmed,” Jérôme Chapuis, the editor in chief of La Croix, a respected Catholic newspaper in France, wrote in an editorial on Sunday. “Because this fragile process is only in its early stages.”
The announcement on compensation was widely awaited by victims of clerical abuse, who had balked at earlier suggestions by France’s Catholic leadership that the victims compensation fund should be financed mainly by parishioner donations.
“It’s what we were hoping for,” said Mr. Savignac, who was sexually abused by a priest at age 13. “Because it’s the institution that is taking responsibility and paying.”
The Church will sell assets, including real estate, and could even take out a loan if needed, Archbishop de Moulins-Beaufort said. Each victim will also be compensated individually — another key demand from victims groups, who had rejected suggestions of a flat fee and said each case needed to be evaluated separately. Some victims say they need to recoup years of medical bills and other expenses linked to the trauma caused by the abuse.
Archbishop de Moulins-Beaufort did not provide any details about how much the church expected that the compensation fund would grow, but said it would be endowed gradually as victims came forward. Nor did he provide an inventory of what the church expected to sell. Some French dioceses, like the one in Paris, have sizable real estate assets, but others are struggling financially.
“Obviously we must gather sums that are far greater than what we had imagined, given the scope of the abuse,” he said.
The bishops have also asked Pope Francis to send a team of “trusted” advisers to help evaluate the French church’s child-protection measures. The Vatican’s role in the handling of abuse scandals in the Catholic Church has been criticized by victims’ groups, who argue that it is an obstacle to reform on some issues, like holding negligent bishops accountable, requiring that allegations be reported to civil authorities, and, in rare cases, using confession to keep abuse secret.
The bishops voted on Monday to create a special canonical court that will handle abuse cases nationwide, to avoid having priests accused of abuse judged by local church leaders who may be inclined to protect them.
But other issues related to canon law are outside of the French church’s purview and would require a policy shift in Rome. French Catholic leaders are expected to meet with Pope Francis in December.
“We are not at the end of the path,” Archbishop de Moulins-Beaufort said in his closing speech on Monday. “But a path is possible, it has been laid out for us, and we must follow it step by step.”
Spanish tour guide Fernando Garcia Salmones, 60 years old, poses at his home during an interview for AFP in Madrid on October 18, 2021. Unlike in other countries where child sex scandals have forced the Catholic Church towards accountability, the Spanish church has actively avoided investigating abuses by its clergy to the fury of victims.
In recent decades, thousands have spoken out about harrowing abuses by clergy across the United States, Europe, Australia and beyond, prompting probes in many nations seeking redress for the victims. But why not in Spain?
In France alone, a study commissioned by the French Catholic Church found last month its clergy had abused some 216,000 minors since 1950.
But in Spain, there are no official statistics on child sex abuse.
The Church says it has counted just 220 cases since 2001, and has ruled out “actively” investigating any such allegations.
“The case of the Church in Spain is… shameful,” says Fernando García Salmones, who was abused as a teenager at a school run by Roman Catholic priests in Madrid.
“They have no desire to know the truth,” the 60-year-old tour guide told AFP, saying the abuse destroyed his life and left him feeling “dirty”, “guilty” and “like a piece of shit”.
Historically, Spain has always been a deeply-Catholic country, and some 55 percent of the population identifies as Roman Catholic, a religion deeply embedded in the country’s culture.
The Church in Spain has not explained why it is refusing to hold a comprehensive investigation, saying only it has put in place protocols to manage allegations of abuses by its clergy.
No accountability
For García Salmones, memories of abuse still haunt him today.
“I was studying at the Claretian School of Madrid, I was 14 and one day, the priest jumped on me and continued abusing me every day for practically a whole year,” he said.
On one occasion, he was “abused by the priest and another person who came into the room”, leading him to conclude that the school “knew what was happening and protected” his abuser.
He didn’t speak about his ordeal until he was 40 but by then, the crime was too old to be investigated.
The priest he accused of abuse died in 2009 “without any kind of accountability”.
After García Salmones went public in 2018, he said the school moved to prevent any fresh abuses, with a management statement stressing its “zero tolerance” of any such conduct and commitment “to always investigate any inappropriate behaviour by its members”.
But he says the first reaction of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference (CEE) was to dismiss his account as “a bid to seek financial compensation”.
A picture taken in 2014 shows archbishop of Granada and other priests during a mass in a gesture of apology to victims of abuse.
‘Stonewalling and denial’
The Bishops’ Conference declined an interview with AFP.
In a written response, it said it had put in place “protocols for action where cases of abuse were identified and specific training for people working with young people and children”.
It “was aware of 220 cases that had been investigated since 2001”, and had set up offices for “child protection and abuse prevention” in its 70 dioceses where complaints could be filed.
Such offices could also “help victims” and “investigate, where possible, the circumstances under which (abuses) occurred”.
According to the CEE’s website, its 2010 action protocol outlined steps such as barring anyone accused of abuses from working with children.
In 2019, a committee presented a draft child protection decree, which remains unfinished.
But the Church has ruled out any exhaustive inquiry.
“We are not going to proactively engage in a comprehensive investigation of the matter,” Monsignor Luis Arguello, the CEE’s secretary general said in September.
The Church “gives the appearance of doing something but it’s not,” says Juan Cuatrecasas, head of victims’ association Infancia Robada, or ‘stolen childhood’ in English.
“It is doing its homework very quickly and very badly,” he says, pointing to a bigger picture of “stonewalling and denial”.
‘Damaging human rights’
Jesús Zudaire, who runs a victims’ association in the northern Navarre region and was himself abused, says Spain could “easily” have a similar number of cases to France.
He highlights the power of the Church in Spanish society and its cosy arrangement with the decades-long dictatorship of Francisco Franco, which ended in 1975.
El País newspaper began investigating abuse allegations in 2018 and has since received details of 932 cases.
In not taking a proactive approach, the Church “is damaging human rights” and inflicting further harm on the victims, says campaigner Cuatrecasas, whose 24-year-old son was abused by a teacher at a Catholic school in Bilbao between 2008 and 2010.
The teacher was initially handed 11 years in jail but the Supreme Court reduced his sentence to two years, and as a first offender he spent no time behind bars.
Although the Church follows abuse prevention protocols in line with those laid out by the Vatican, victims’ groups want the Spanish government to step in with legislation to prevent Church cover-ups.
Earlier this year, Spain’s parliament approved a child protection law extending the statute of limitations for abuse cases, meaning survivors can report abuses for up to 15 years after they turn 35.
Previously, the clock started when they were 18.
Although victims wanted the legislation to be retroactive, they hailed the step as a positive first move.
Archbishop José H. Gomez, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, railed against “new social justice movements” during a speech Thursday (Nov. 4), decrying them as “pseudo-religions” that ultimately serve as “dangerous substitutes for true religion.”
Gomez, who heads the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, delivered the remarks in a video message sent to a meeting of the Congress of Catholics and Public Life in Madrid. The prelate argued the United States, like Europe, has been subject to “aggressive secularization,” insisting “there has been a deliberate effort in Europe and America to erase the Christian roots of society and to suppress any remaining Christian influences.”
He also lambasted “cancel culture,” contending that “often what is being canceled and corrected are perspectives rooted in Christian beliefs.”
But Gomez saved his most strident criticism for “new social movements and ideologies,” the influence of which, he said, accelerated after the murder of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020.
Although Gomez noted that Floyd’s killing was “a stark reminder that racial and economic inequality are still deeply embedded in our society,” he suggested the movements that inspired related demonstrations last year have been “unleashed in our society” and serve as replacements for “traditional Christian beliefs.”
“With the breakdown of the Judeo-Christian worldview and the rise of secularism, political belief systems based on social justice or personal identity have come to fill the space that Christian belief and practice once occupied,” he said. “Whatever we call these movements — ‘social justice,’ ‘wokeness,’ ‘identity politics,’ ‘intersectionality,’ ‘successor ideology’ — they claim to offer what religion provides.”
Gomez’s remarks echoed an argument increasingly common in conservative faith circles. In June, a Southern Baptist minister characterized critical race theory as “paganism,” calling it a “new religion that is on the wrong side of history.”
Gomez did not mention Black Lives Matter by name but claimed that while “many of those who subscribe to these new movements and belief systems are motivated by noble intentions,” the movements themselves — namely, “critical theories and ideologies” — are “profoundly atheistic” concepts that “deny the soul, the spiritual, transcendent dimension of human nature.”
He insisted the movements resemble “some of the heresies that we find in church history,” as well as liberation theology — a poverty-focused field of theology with historic roots among Latin American Catholics, but which has brought complicated and often fraught responses from Catholic hierarchy.
“I believe that it is important for the church to understand and engage these new movements — not on social or political terms, but as dangerous substitutes for true religion,” he said.
Gomez’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.
While Gomez characterized new social movements as evidence of “extremism” and a “harsh, uncompromising and unforgiving approach to politics,” some observers noted that he did not mention anti-vaccine demonstrations or violent incidents such as the Jan. 6 insurrection, when supporters of then-President Donald Trump attacked the U.S. Capitol — including many who invoked their faith while doing so.
In a 2020 book co-written by Pope Francis and his biographer, the pontiff warned that protests can be manipulated but expressed overall support for Floyd demonstrations. He also criticized those who demonstrated against pandemic restrictions “as if measures that governments must impose for the good of their people constitute some kind of political assault on autonomy or personal freedom!”
The pope suggested some Catholics had exacerbated the issue, saying, “you’ll never find such people protesting the death of George Floyd, or joining a demonstration because there are shantytowns where children lack water or education.”
Gomez, who recently tweeted that Catholics “are not activists,” did invoke Dorothy Day, a famous Catholic activist best known for her efforts to combat poverty in the 20th century. Day, Gomez said, was “an important witness for how Catholics can work to change our social order through radical detachment and love for the poor grounded in the Beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount and the works of mercy.”
