A former priest told an Australian state inquiry into the Catholic Church’s handling of child abuse cases that more than one in 20 Victorian Catholic priests became a child abuser.
Des Cahill, an intercultural studies professor and a former priest, said the Church’s senior leaders may have to go to jail for covering up the sex abuse crimes.
Cahill told the inquiry the Catholic Church had created a “holy and unholy mess” it was incapable of taking action to resolve.
“It is an unfortunate reality that as a result of this inquiry some senior religious people may end up in jail for dereliction of duty, and they must be treated with compassion and understanding,” Cahill said.
He said that based on his analysis of priests in the archdiocese of Melbourne who trained at Corpus Christi College between 1940 and 1972, about one in 20 ordained priests in Victoria and Tasmania became child abusers.
“I remain comfortable with that figure and the incidence is much higher than in the general population and much higher than for any other professional group,” Cahill told a parliamentary inquiry.
“The one in 20 is a minimum – it may be one in 15, perhaps not as high as one in 10,” he said.
The former priest called on the Catholic Church to accept married clergy to help change a culture which has contributed to sexual abuse of children, said a report by The Australian.
Allowing married clergy in the Catholic Church could be the “circuit breaker” needed to change the whole culture of what he called “celibate caste clericalism,” he said.
He said celibacy in a closed community such as the priesthood could contribute to emotional immaturity and lead indirectly to a culture of offending.
“If a celibate does not receive the emotional support of a close community, such as a marriage, there’s a greater likelihood of offending,” he said.
While reported cases have decreased in the past 20 years, Cahillsaid sexual abuse in the church may rebound in the coming decades because the “underlying problems have not been addressed.”
The Church has been criticised by police for not reporting any of the 620 cases of alleged abuse to authorities.
Sources
- The Australian
- ABC News
- Image: The Australian
Additional reading
News category: World.
