The claim is made by in Abuse and Cover-Up Refounding the Catholic Church in Trauma, a new book by New Zealand born anthropologist, theologian and international scholar, Fr Gerald Arbuckle SM.

Using the psalmist's image, Arbuckle says the Church was once a "strong mountain of great prosperity", but that power and prestige previously granted the Church has all but disintegrated.

Arbuckle describes the Church as the People of God who are demoralised and who are not sure what to do.

"The gap between Church rhetoric and reality is a chasm."

"Lay people feel betrayed, disillusioned, and angry," writes Arbuckle.

He says the suppression of public grief has only intensified the sadness and rage in people's hearts, destroying people's trust in their leaders.

"The short-sighted fear of scandal has been, and is, the curse of the Church…. Because it is an easy and much-used cover for cowardice, it exploits the future in the interests of the present, preferring scandal of missions to come to that of hundreds now", notes Arbuckle; quoting 1907 ‘modernist' George Tyrrel.

‘Pulling no punches', Arbuckle labels the culture of abuse and the system of cover-up as "systemic corruption."

"Sexual abuse cover-ups are systemic institutional evil because the culture of the church in this matter is corrupt", writes Arbuckle.

Arbuckle laments the contemporary tragedy of the disappearance of evil and contrasts it with the vision of the People of God, as outlined by Pope Francis; "to create a culture where each person has the right to breathe air free of every kind of abuse.

A culture free of cover-ups, which end up vitiating all our relationships".

Calling for major culture change in the Church, Arbuckle says the church must seek forgiveness, mercy, and repentance.

Published by Orbis Books, Abuse and Cover-Up: Refounding the Catholic Church in Trauma is praxis-oriented book focusing on the cultural reasons for this trauma and how the People of God can move forward.

Pivotal to the discussion, Arbuckle asks two fundamental questions:

Why is the culture of the Catholic Church, despite Vatican II's emphasis on collegiality and transparency, still prone to covering up abuses of power?

How can this culture change for the Church to move forward?

An anthropologist, Arbuckle maintains that because of its ruthless excavation and exposure of the preconceptions on which we base our lives, anthropology is among the most challenging disciplines of the entire academic curriculum.

"Applied cultural anthropology does not tell us what we want to know, rather it unsettles the foundations of what we thought we knew already."

Reviews of the book are positive.

"Among the many books on clergy sex abuse, this work of the anthropologist and theologian Gerald Arbuckle is, without doubt, the most helpful. . . . A book that must be meditated upon by the Vatican officers and all the bishops", writes the triple doctoral graduate Peter Phan, Ellacuria Chair of Catholic Social Thought at Georgetown University.

"Not just an analysis of the phenomenon of abuse and cover-up, but also the action plans and strategies needed for refounding the Church", writes Massimo Faggioli, Church historian, Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at Villanova University, Philadelphia.

Source

• sm.org.nz

Wilson had been found guilty in May of concealing the abuse of altar boys in the 1970s by paedophile priest James Fletcher. At the time, he was the most senior cleric in the world ever to be convicted of covering up sex abuse.

Last week, the New South Wales appeal court judge Roy Ellis ruled in Wilson's favour, saying there was reasonable doubt he had ever committed the crime.

The crime is punishable by up to two years' imprisonment.

Wilson had served almost four months of his year-long home detention sentence at his sister's house. He was to become eligible for parole after serving six months.

He has always maintained his innocence. After his conviction he initially refused calls for his resignation until he had exhausted his appeal options.

However, after former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called on the Vatican to act to force him to resign, Wilson sent Pope Francis his resignation as the archbishop of Adelaide in June.

Administrator Delegate of the Adelaide Archdiocese, Philip Marshall - who is Wilson's replacement - says the church has noted the judgment and welcomed the conclusion of a process that had been long and painful for all concerned.

"We now need to consider the ramifications of this outcome," Marshall said in a statement.

"The survivors of child sexual abuse and their families are in our thoughts and prayers, and the archdiocese remains committed to providing the safest possible environments for children and vulnerable people in our care."

Source

• CNN
• Crux Now
• La Croix
• Catholic Herald
• Image: Eureka Street

Magistrate Robert Stone adjourned the matter to 14 August while Wilson's home detention order is assessed for suitability.

It's very likely that he will appeal his conviction and sentence.

An appeal may well succeed, but that's not the end of the matter.

This has been a six-year saga relating to events which occurred more than 40 years ago. The law is complex; and emotions are running high.

When bishop of Wollongong and later Archbishop of Adelaide, Wilson did a lot to improve the Catholic Church's national response to crimes of child sexual abuse committed by church personnel.

But the present criminal conviction and sentence of imprisonment relates to his time as a young priest in the diocese of Maitland-Newcastle back in 1976.

It was only later when he was Archbishop of Adelaide that some of his earlier behaviour came back to haunt him.

Local residents in Maitland-Newcastle who were sexually abused as children by either Fr McAlinden or Fr Fletcher have been very outspoken against Wilson, regardless of his later behaviour as a bishop nationally committed to cleaning up the mess.

In 1990, the New South Wales parliament had amended the Crimes Act creating a new offence of concealing a serious indictable offence. Section 316(1) provides:

'If a person has committed a serious indictable offence and another person who knows or believes that the offence has been committed and that he or she has information which might be of material assistance in securing the apprehension of the offender or the prosecution or conviction of the offender for it fails without reasonable excuse to bring that information to the attention of a member of the police force or other appropriate authority, that other person is liable to imprisonment for 2 years.'

In 1999, the New South Wales Law Reform Commission reviewed this provision and found it wanting. The majority of commissioners recommended complete repeal of the provision.

They said: 'The Commission disapproves of substituting a legal duty which is enforced by a criminal sanction for a moral one unless there are overall substantial benefits to society in doing so. No such overall benefits have been demonstrated in relation to s 316(1)'.

A minority of commissioners thought there might be a case for some provision but even they said, 'It must be accepted that the present provision is seriously flawed; to be brutal about it, it is in several crucial respects virtually meaningless.

In our view, the essential problem is not that the section's underlying philosophy is mistaken but that it breaches the fundamental rule that the criminal law be unambiguous.'

Basically, the law was making it a criminal offence for anyone not to report to police anything they might know about the criminal behaviour of any other person 'without reasonable excuse'.

But no one knew what constituted a reasonable excuse, especially when the victim of the crime or their trusted confidantes chose not to go to the police.

For whatever reason, back in July 2012, Wilson refused to cooperate with the NSW police when they were investigating complaints against McAlinden.

Wilson as a young priest and budding canon lawyer had been the notary at a church trial of McAlinden.

Detective Graeme Parker, the head of Strike Force Lantle, told the Sydney Morning Herald: 'It's a shame because there are questions that really need to be asked of Archbishop Wilson. We made numerous attempts to get him to the table to be interviewed but he's exercised his right to silence.'

I daresay that if Wilson had cooperated with the police back then, that would have been the end of the matter.

From that time on, victims of abuse thought that Wilson had something to hide. Continue reading

• Frank Brennan SJ is the CEO of Catholic Social Services Australia.