The Pope has come and gone. A Pope hurt by the media that is ever too ready to pass judgement and dictate what should and should not be done. A media that, under the pretence of educating and informing, has knowingly done untold harm to the Church and its authority. As I stated in a previous article, what is wrong always remains wrong and should be condemned and punished according to the severity of the crime committed. Paedophilia is a horrendous crime against the innocent and must be condemned in the severest terms. And the law should be harsher with those whose responsibility includes the prevention and punishment of such crimes that taint the entire institution.
The atheists and the secularists, of course, have had a ball. This was their moment, an opportunity to appear credible when encouraging society to cut its links with a supposedly corrupt Church and the faith it represents. What only a few seem to realise, and I quote a correspondent of The Times (UK), is that “the Catholic Church in Ireland now operates arguably the most robust child protection system in the country, something that is rarely acknowledged. The public still appears to believe that the Church has learned nothing, and done nothing. This is simply not true.”
Interestingly, the same article takes a close look at one of the two reports that appeared in Ireland last summer and started the tsunami of paedophilia. Canon law, or Church law, has been blamed for forcing bishops to cover up the allegations, to hide them, and certainly it is true that anyone taking part in a canonical investigation is required to swear an oath of secrecy, or confidentiality, as Judge Caruana Colombo himself reminded us.
But the Murphy report itself is very interesting about canon law. It points out that a big problem with this law isn’t that it was used, but that it wasn’t used.
It says: “The Church authorities failed to implement most of their own canon law rules when dealing with child sex abuse... canon law appears to have fallen into disuse and disrespect during the mid 20th century. In particular, there was little or no experience of operating the penal (that is, the criminal) provision of that law... for many years offenders were neither prosecuted nor made accountable within the Church.”
Why did it fall into disuse and disregarded? It was because priests and bishops began to regard it as being overly legalistic and too focused on punishment. They decided, in true Christian spirit, that it lacked compassion.
Therefore, they stopped using it. No longer did priests accused of child abuse face a canonical trial and the possibility of “defrocking”. Instead, and with disastrous consequences, they were sent for therapy, “cured”, and then reassigned to another ministry. Those responsible for bringing about the alleged cures have not been mentioned, but they were certainly not all clerics.
The bottom line is that if canon law had been used properly, fewer children would have been abused. Civil authorities would still not have been informed, but priests found guilty of child abuse under Church law would have been punished and likely removed from the ministry, making it more difficult for them to offend again.
All this good goes unnoticed by those who hate the Catholic Church and its beautiful teachings of love, generosity, truth and justice. What a difference from the articles propagating hatred, revenge, homosexuality, infidelity, immorality and obscenity! The word of Christ is penetrating, illuminating, encouraging, uplifting and it has been passed on to us by many thousands of priests, friars, monks and nuns that have stood up to tyranny on our behalf and suffered martyrdom on our behalf. Being human, all religious are liable to sin and to error like the rest of us, but the relatively few bad eggs should not tarnish the good and even the holy.
Crusading atheist Richard Dawkins has said he will call for the arrest of the Pope when he arrives in Britain. Will he do the same should Roman Polanski land there? Probably not, for it is not the sinner he is targeting but the institution. And yet, ironically, this is the same man who in his book The God Delusion, published in 2006, wrote then that “we live in a time of hysteria about paedophilia, a mob psychology that calls to mind the Salem witch hunts of 1692”. Dawkins went on: “The Roman Catholic Church has borne a heavy share of such retrospective opprobrium ... I dislike the Catholic Church, but I dislike unfairness even more and I can’t help wondering whether this one institution has been unfairly demonised over this issue, especially in Ireland and America.” Which is the true voice of Dawkins?
I am not ashamed to admit that the faith passed on to me by the Church has given me courage and hope. It taught me to love and to forgive, to help and assist the less privileged and the ones most in need. Without that faith, I would have been a lesser human being.
Benefits across the board
A young couple walk into my clinic and during the visit our conversation somehow shifted over to single parents. The couple obviously felt hurt and complained that they resented having to pay taxes that were distributed or given to single parents, while they themselves could not make ends meet and could hardly afford to buy medicines for their children.
I pointed out that not all single parents could be put in the same basket but certainly it is wrong to give benefits across the board without investigating circumstances. But what do you say when you are told of a ‘single’ parent with three children and father/s unknown living together with her mother who has a three-storey house? As my client put it to me: “Dott, dawn jiehdu tal-mard, susidju tad-dawl u l-ilma u hadu l-flus biex jibnu sular. Aktar min hekk, selfu lill omm il-mara Є40,000 biex tixtri d-dar li issa qeghdin jghixu fiha.” (“Doc, these people are receiving social benefits and a subsidy on water and electricity bills, as well as they money to build another storey. On top of all this, they lent the woman’s mother €40,000 to buy the house in which they are now living.”
In view of all this, it was heartening to read that our Prime Minister, in answer to a journalist’s question, said that just throwing money at people in need did not solve their problems, alleviate their hardships or ameliorate their standard of living. We seem finally to be realising a hard and sound fact, which means we need to think again and distribute our taxes in a way that will help the needy to stand up and walk independently instead of living the life of a parasite. They must be encouraged to become participating members of society; they must earn their badge of citizenship, which comes to those who work.
Footnotes
I would like to congratulate Justyn Caruana, the Labour MP who opposes divorce, who said that what is needed at this stage is to study what is happening and why it is all happening. Lawyers have more than enough work to cope with without adding piles of divorce papers on their desks.
I would also like to congratulate the ecclesiastical and civil authorities for the impeccable and extraordinary organisation of the Pope’s visit. Congratulations to all concerned. Malta has gained internationally, thanks to your endeavours.
On a completely different matter, I would like to commend the contractors, architects, workmen and all involved in the rebuilding of the Marsascala bypass. What stood out was the excellent planning of the whole operation, which resulted in the least disruption of the traffic flow and consequent harm to the local business community. We experienced customer care in the true sense of the word. Congratulations and thank you all for a job well done. If only the same planning and execution were to be seen everywhere and at all times!