In her letter to The Malta Independent on Sunday last week entitled “The global plague that is child abuse” (but it wasn’t really about child abuse, as I’m sure many of your readers with a modicum of intelligence noticed), Jacqueline Calleja wonders why the Catholic Church is being “singled out from among other institutions and organisations” for a special kind of opprobrium. I would hazard a guess that the main reason is, in the words of the writer(s) of the report pertaining to the sexual and physical abuse of children by certain members of the Irish clergy from 1975 to 2004, that ‘the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the Church and the preservation of its assets was more important than justice for the victims’ (The Guardian, 27 November 2009). At least “the army of abusers in every stratum of society all over the world” doesn’t preach to us from pulpits on how to lead unblemished lives, with special emphasis on the obstacles presented by the sins of the flesh, the evil of divorce and the aberration of homosexuality.

It galls me to be reminded ad nauseam by apologists of the Vatican (I differentiate between the lay Catholic Church and its ruling class) each time the subject of child abuse perpetrated by men of the cloth is brought up, that the “vast majority of priests are innocent” of such abominations. Well, it’s a good job isn’t it! Is this obviousness any consolation to those thousands of shattered lives I wonder? Whenever policemen and judges fall foul of the very law they once swore on oath to uphold, how often is it that somebody chirps up with something like ‘but we mustn’t forget that – yes, you said it! – the vast majority of judges and policemen are innocent’.

Let’s get one thing straight here: it is not just the anti-clerical brigade with its agenda of hate that is up in arms against popes, cardinals, archbishops, bishops and parish priests who have wounded the pupil of God’s eye in such a fashion by failing these little ones so miserably. All men and women of goodwill, all men and women who love the Truth are sickened by the whole sordid affair – and some of them had the courage to say so in public well before the outpouring of contrition that is currently emanating from Rome. Righteous anger must not be confused with downright animosity. Certain arch/bishops, as some have themselves admitted, didn’t even lift a finger to at least ensure that the molesters were kept at arm’s length from any more children, in their frantic efforts to transfer them from parish to parish, hoping thereby to avert the opening of Pandora’s box. Now a lot of these so-called shepherds of the flock are learned and academically gifted men. Some are entitled to put the letters ‘DD’ (Doctor of Divinity) after their name. Is it conceivable that they knew nothing of the workings of the mind of a paedophile? That very few respond to treatment? It is not enough to beat one’s breast and utter mea culpa, mea culpa, mea massima culpa. Will every single victim who lost their innocence at the hands of these members and ex-members of the Roman Catholic clergy be approached by the Vatican and asked this question: “What can we do to make amends?”

The words of Jesus Christ that Ms Calleja quoted liberally in her letter are, in my opinion, out of context. Perhaps she should have mulled over inserting Matthew 5: 13 instead: “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt has lost its taste, with what shall it be salted? It is thereafter good for nothing but to be thrown out and walked on by the people.”

Martin Bugeja

BALZAN