SEX CRIMES AND THE VATICAN
A Reaction Paper on the Catholic Church’s Shocking Cover-Up
"I [name] hereby swear that I have told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, and that I will talk to no-one about this interview except authorized priests."
"So help me God and these holy Gospels which I touch."
[Vows of Secrecy: the actual words]
Growing up in a Catholic School during my elementary years in Ateneo de Davao has taught me to be reverent of the leaders of the Church and emulate their teachings as they would guide me towards enlightenment and a good life. Living in a Catholic community has instructed me to be obedient to my parents and being prayerful while serving the Church and being a good person for others. I highly regard of our Parish Priest because he had the charisma of a good father and the integrity of a good follower of Christ. Every Sunday, we would listen to his sermons and he would remind us of our shortcomings, teaching us to become better people. I generally had the notion that they were compassionate and meek and I never really questioned their authority.
As a kid, I rarely heard news about priests doing misdeeds. For example, the news I heard about a local priest trying to molest a girl in some village in the rural parts of the Philippines isn’t really a common one, as far as I know. Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo painted a picture of colonial Philippines with friars, or more specifically, Padre Salvi, raping and killing innocent women and their offspring. But then again, the abuses of the church have never been extensively publicized and the Spanish empire has crumbled anyway, along with it its decadent friars. In general, the Church to my eyes was a good institution that led many into comforts of God and faith. I never took notice of them until now because I previously perceived these events as not commonly occurring.
An interesting BBC documentary not only uncovered the Church’s crimes against minors, but it also uncovered the active cover-ups the Vatican has done to protect, not the minors, but the perpetrators themselves. When I watched it, it was the first time that I had seen such a film and it disturbed me throughout the length of it. The quotes I cited above were the words of the vow taken by two teenagers in the presence of the man who is now leader of Ireland's Catholics. This is just one of the hundreds (or maybe thousands) of cases of child molestations done by priests. This has been the most alarming cover-up and evasion from true justice by the Catholic Church which in itself is a holy institution of millions of believers around the world. And this was something I was not entirely ready to know.
I was surprised with this discovery as I was not entirely prepared to accept this new reality. It was disturbing yet compelling to see this film, especially when it was about and institution that is supposedly infallible for its faith. It showed how the Catholic Church riddled with weaknesses and blunders.
I have read novels such as The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown revealing the conspiracies of the real life of Jesus through the paintings of Leonardo. It did not entirely shake my faith as a believer of the Catholic teachings. Yet these real events shook my being as it questioned the very foundations of the Church’s power.
The Pope stands as the highest leader of the worldwide Catholic Church, and with that is the imperative that he’ll be the epitome and the holy authority of all Catholic followers. Through this authority, he must adhere to the teachings of the Church and promulgate Catholicism. But unfortunately, even the pope himself was involved in this cover-up.
I believe that Pope Benedict XVI should be accountable for this. He was responsible for the crafting of a secret document that created protection to these priests. The 39-page document, titled in Latin Crimen Sollicitationis, was issued in March 1962 by the Holy Office. It established a procedure for canonical cases in which priests were accused of abusing the confessional to sexually proposition penitents. Four concluding paragraphs extend the procedure to the crimen pessimum, or "worst crime," meaning homosexual acts contrary to a priest's celibate commitment. The document was not designed to address sexual abuse of minors, but would include many such violations. Hailed as the recent Pope, he had the power to possibly reverse the obvious abuse they have been apparently exercising, but his refusal to cooperate with authorities has been appalling and it is an upfront contradiction to all the Church’s teachings.
Considering this has not been left unnoticed, nothing substantial has been attained in fighting this violation of human rights. An Arizona prosecutor who put eight cassocked pedophiles in prison, former Phoenix DA Rick Romley, stated: “The secrecy, the obstruction that I saw during my investigation was unparalleled in my entire career here as a prosecutor in Phoenix, Arizona. … I think that is really the story — the Church's failure to acknowledge such a problem, but not just a passiveness, it was in an openly obstructive way of not allowing civil authorities to stop the abuse within the Church. They fought us every step of the way.” The Church’s abuse of power extends to protecting the perpetrators rather than the victims. They implicitly prefer that they protect the name of the Church rather than the victims of these deviant religious leaders. I could not help but sympathize with the poor boys and girls left ridiculed by their people and unable to help themselves in this terrible situation. They’re trapped between the politics of a church and its hypocrisy. I believe that there is a clear distinction between the Church and the state, and that neither one is above the other.
The film ended with more questions than answers. This has led to speculations that until now hold a lot of unresolved issues. Can anything be done to fight this deplorable abuse of power of the Vatican and defend the helpless victims? The scale and frequency of these acts has caused insurgencies on local governments in different parts of the world, yet still the Church leaders still remain in power and turn a blind eye on this upfront. Until the leaders of the Catholic Church, primarily Pope Benedict XVI, recognize and act upon this, there would persistently be priests freely molesting innocent girls and boys in some Catholic part of the world and still be protected by the Vatican if ever persecuted.
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