The difficulty for a Catholic newspaper in covering the issue of abuse is many-faceted.
Any approach in reporting or even editorialising on an issue which can be perceived as defensive of the Church may well be misconstrued as being indifferent to, or more tolerant of the nature of the crime and to those who are victims – in effect, a double standard. A Catholic newspaper can easily be suspected of being no more than an official mouthpiece, seeking to shift the blame away from the Church.
There is also a resistance among Catholics to seeing anything at all on the matter, emotively feeling as many do that the subject is too sensitive and unpleasant to discuss. Any coverage can also be misinterpreted as an attack on the good name of the Church.
Priests undeniably experience real distress at the global avalanche of reports peaking at various times within the last decade and may feel their vocation has been singled out unfairly. They can feel that reporting on the matter is adding further burdens to an already difficult situation for them. They see themselves, not without cause, as the next potential targets of a media frenzy on the issue. Every priest in our society must be wincing at every further speculation, allegation or confirmed case.
There is therefore a strong tendency at many levels within the Church in Australia to simply avoid wanting to hear anything about the issue.
In this special report, The Record has attempted to present the truth without seeking to obscure the evil nature of an undeniable reality that has become apparent in the last decade. It has sought to place the issue in context without excusing any aspect of it. In the process, The Record has discovered new information generally unknown and unreported within societies such as Australia, and largely unreported by the media. This new information brings into question the capacity of media to adequately report serious issues with serious consequences for many people.
What is clear at the moment is that we can expect more coverage of the issue of abuse within the Church to come, nation by nation, as the media follows the issue. There is more, probably much more, to emerge in countries around the world including Australia.
What appears to be an interesting aspect of the issue, however, is that amid all the coverage, what is not being ‘heard’ by audiences around the world is that the Catholic Church has begun cleaning up its act in relation to handling cases and allegations of abuse and is well down the track in the process in comparison to almost every other institution in the world. This process was most notably pushed by the 2002 abuse crisis in the US where today there are strict policies and measures in place and where the number of allegations has dropped to almost nil. A similar process can be expected in Ireland and in other countries as well. In Australia, the charges and known cases of abuse have resulted in a national policy known as ‘Towards Healing’ which sees contact points, forums for investigations and assistance, as far as humanly possible, with healing and reconciliation made available by the Church. It is also true to note that without solid media reporting of the US cases, the Catholic Church would probably have moved more slowly on the issue than it has.
When the process which is being carried out by the Catholic Church around the globe is completed, however, numerous other institutions in society will be faced with a choice – whether to go down the same path by confronting the problem in all its aspects. It has become apparent that sexual abuse of children and minors is actually a global social problem of pandemic proportions (see separate articles in this edition). Paradoxically, while the attention of the world’s media is riveted on the Catholic Church, it now appears there are good grounds for saying that the safest place in the world for children is within the Church and the single safest group of men for children to be around anywhere are actually Catholic priests.
Another interesting question generated by the issue is that while the Church has admittedly taken time to come to terms with the phenomenon of betrayal by individuals within its midst and to develop its response, will the feeding frenzy of media coverage prevent the media from being able to come to terms with the fact that the the group most suspected of being potential abusers – priests and Religious – are actually among the safest people anywhere for children to be around?
In essence, what the figures are now revealing in the cold hard light of day is that the abuse crisis is also a civilisational and cultural crisis. In a society which has abandoned almost all norms in relation to family life, sexual morality and marriage and where the process of disinvestment of troublesome moral values has been largely transmitted by the media, will our societies be able to begin what the Church already is carrying out?
Unlike the question in relation to the Church there seems to be no obvious answer for our societies, and if there is no confidence that our society can do the same thing for its children as the Church is currently engaged in carrying out (if only because at the end of the day society no longer has any sustaining or profound moral code in relation to personal responsibility or behaviour to guide it), then our society has reached a very serious point indeed.
Among the more curious questions that can be asked of the current situation, however, is the following: while our society’s attention is fixed on the Catholic Church and on priests, why is Australia unable, or unwilling, to turn its attention to solving the whole problem?
It is heartening to see that after the sensationalism of The NY Times and AP’s reporting on the issue over the last month, a wider realisation is sinking in generally, and being expressed by astute observers as the coverage in this edition shows, that more and more people are realising that it is not so much the Church that has to answer questions as the media itself. Its once-trumpeted standards of truth have been shot to pieces. The cost? If Australia and wider societies around the world are unable to address the undeniable plague in our own midst then the victims will be, as always, children and our youth.