Text of Statement by Fr. Frederico Lombardi Regarding Clerical Sexual Abuse of Minors
"For some months now the very serious question of the sexual abuse of minors in institutions
run by ecclesiastical bodies and by people with positions of responsibility within
the Church, priests in particular, has been investing the Church and society in Ireland.
The Holy Father recently demonstrated his own concern, particularly through two meetings:
firstly with high-ranking members of the episcopate, then with all the ordinaries.
He is also preparing the publication of a letter on the subject for the Irish Church. "But
over recent weeks the debate on the sexual abuse of minors has also involved the Church
in certain central European countries (Germany, Austria and Holland). And it is on
this development that we wish to make some simple remarks. "The main ecclesiastical
institutions concerned - the German Jesuit Province (the first to be involved, through
the case of the Canisius-Kolleg in Berlin), the German Episcopal Conference, the Austrian
Episcopal Conference and the Netherlands Episcopal Conference - have faced the emergence
of problem with timely and decisive action. They have demonstrated their desire for
transparency and, in a certain sense, accelerated the emergence of the problem by
inviting victims to speak out, even when the cases involved date from many years ago.
By doing so they have approached the matter 'on the right foot', because the correct
starting point is recognition of what happened and concern for the victims and the
consequences of the acts committed against them. Moreover, they have re-examined the
extant 'Directives' and have planned new operative guidelines which also aim to identify
a prevention strategy, so that everything possible may be done to ensure that similar
cases are not repeated in the future. "These events mobilise the Church to find
appropriate responses and should be placed in a more wide-ranging context that concerns
the protection of children and young people from sexual abuse in society as a whole.
Certainly, the errors committed in ecclesiastical institutions and by Church figures
are particularly reprehensible because of the Church's educational and moral responsibility,
but all objective and well-informed people know that the question is much broader,
and concentrating accusations against the Church alone gives a false perspective.
By way of example, recent data supplied by the competent authorities in Austria shows
that, over the same period of time, the number of proven cases in Church institutions
was 17, while there were 510 other cases in other areas. It would be as well to concern
ourselves also with them. "In Germany initiatives are now rightly being suggested,
promoted by the Ministry for the Family, to call a 'round table' of the various educational
and social organisations in order to consider the question from an appropriate and
comprehensive viewpoint. The Church is naturally ready to participate and become involved
and, perhaps, her own painful experience may also be a useful contribution for others.
Chancellor Angela Merkel had justly recognised the seriousness and constructive approach
shown by the German Church. "In order to complete these remarks, it is as well
to recall once again that the Church exists as part of civil society and shoulders
her own responsibilities in society, but she also has her own specific code, the 'canonical
code', which reflects her spiritual and sacramental nature and in which, therefore,
judicial and penal procedures are different (for example, they contain no provision
for pecuniary sanctions or for the deprivation of freedom, but for impediment in the
exercise of the ministry and privation of rights in the ecclesiastical field, etc.).
In the ambit of canon law, the crime of the sexual abuse of minors has always been
considered as one of the most serious of all, and canonical norms have constantly
reaffirmed this, in particular the 2001 Letter 'De delictis gravioribus', sometimes
improperly cited as the cause of a 'culture of silence'. Those who know and understand
its contents, are aware that it was a decisive signal to remind the episcopate of
the seriousness of the problem, as well as a real incentive to draw up operational
guidelines to face it. "In conclusion, although the seriousness of the difficulties
the Church is going through cannot be denied, we must not fail to do everything possible
in order to ensure that, in the end, they bring positive results, of better protection
for infancy and youth in the Church and in society, and the purification of the Church
herself".