Sex abuse: confronting the failures of the past

(Vatican Radio) The Church has been a slow learner about the need to combat the abuse of power in the Church but it is now headed firmly in the right direction. That’s according to a leading Irish voice on the aftermath of the sexual abuse crisis – Dr Marie Keenan of University College, Dublin, who chairs the Family Therapy Association of Ireland. Author of a book on the broader factors behind the crisis, she was also a key speaker at the recent conference on confronting the abuse of power that took place this week at St Mary’s University College in Twickenham.
From extensive work with both victims and perpetrators, Keenan says there is no evidence that celibacy is a cause of sexual abuse but there is a lack of adequate preparation and support for celibate living. Most of all, she believes that the Church must confront the failures of the past to find new models of partnership for the future…..

Listen to Philippa Hitchen's interview with Dr Marie Keenan

“I am a bit concerned that it’s still seen as a problem of individuals, either devious individuals or bad, erring bishops, whereas I think it has yet to be fully accepted that this is a systemic problem, that we really need to try to and understand the genesis of the problem. I’ve often been concerned that with all the screening mechanisms – and we need that screening for the priesthood – but with emphasis on that, people in authority are thinking we could screen out the deviants, but what we need to think is that some of these men chose an abusive road, not because they were deviants, but because something happened in the course of their life, either in formation or in the course of their life and they weren’t helped adequately….

I’ve found no evidence from my research that celibacy is a cause of sexual abuse…so there may be good reasons to rethink about celibacy, but it’s not the child sexual abuse that’s the reason for it. The men who participated in my study said they were inadequately prepared for celibate living and the developmental challenges that come when you’re 20, 30, 40 or 50. …

The relationship between bishops and priests is a complex one – I know very many bishops in Ireland who tried to listen to clergy and respond to them well, but they didn’t see themselves as policemen, they saw themselves as a shepherd to the flock. Maybe they privileged more the priest than laity because of the model of church that was in operation – it appeared like there were two churches, the church of the clergy and the church of the laity – the laity subscribed to that as well and saw the ordained men on a pedestal – so I’d like to see the church really thinking about the whole ecclesiology of this…

Very slowly, I think some bishops in Ireland have really been trying to lead the charge on how to respond to this problem – some have raised issues that are worthy of consideration but I don’t think they’ve been picked up further up the system…”