Archive for April, 2010

Cayman’s children and the Catholic Church

For God’s sake, what is it going to take? How many more horrible stories must we see in the international news before someone in the Cayman Islands takes a good look into the safety of our children who are involved with the Catholic Church here? Wasn’t the report about the priest who molested approximately 200 deaf boys at a boarding school in Wisconsin the final straw?

Or what about last week’s revelation that Cardinal Ratzinger, who later became pope, appears to have sided with that monstrous priest over the child victims?

Given the ever-growing scandal of rampant sexual abuse of children and teens by Catholic priests, it is absurd for us to pretend that it could never happen in the Cayman Islands. It may already have happened. Who would have told the public if it had? Who would have warned parents if a priest had come here under a cloud of accusations and past crimes? Certainly not the Church.

Defenders of the faith are likely to cringe in horror at such comments. After they finish cringing, however, they may want to consider who oversees Cayman’s St. Ignatius Parish. The Archdiocese of Detroit has pastoral responsibility for Cayman and this is their record: Sixty-three of their clerics sexually abused 116 victims over the past 54 years. This is what is on record. No one knows what the real toll might be. Bad as that is, however, consider these findings from an in-house national review board: In the US, from 1950 to 2002, more than 4,000 priests and deacons have sexually abused nearly 11,000 American children. A more recent report, dealing with the period from 2004 through 2009, identified 3,091 “abusive clergy” and 4,568 victims. These are astonishing numbers alone. However, they are even more striking since they are attached to an organization that claims to occupy humanity’s moral high ground.

Perhaps the only thing more disgusting than so many priests sexually abusing so many children and teenage minors is the way Catholic leadership reacted to the crisis. The institution that once ran inquisitions and burned women at the stake seems very forgiving of sin when the sin involves their priests molesting children. Rather than pick up the phone and call the police like any normal and decent human being would do upon learning that a child has been raped, Church leaders often chose to hush it up and simply transfer offenders to new hunting grounds where they could continue preying on children. Therefore, it is not rude or unreasonable to openly wonder if any predator priests were sent to the Cayman Islands over the last 60 years. (For most of that period Cayman was under the leadership of the Kingston Diocese. The Arch Diocese of Detroit took charge of the Cayman Islands in 2000.)

In addition to the past, there is the present and the future to consider as well. Someone here should be asking hard questions, doing background checks, and—if all is well—reassuring the public that there is nothing to worry about. In the absence of that, based on what we see in the international media every day, shouldn’t St. Ignatius Church have a warning sign posted on its property at the very least?

Here’s a discomforting thought for Cayman’s Catholics to ponder when they put their hard-earned money in the collection plate this Sunday. So far, the US Catholic Church has paid out some $3 billion to victims who were sexually abused by clergy.No doubt, as more cases come emerge around the world, many more settlements will have to be paid. One wonders why good people are content to help pay for the evil deeds of others.

To be clear, nothing in this commentary should be misinterpreted as an accusation against any individual priest in Cayman, past or present. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty, of course, and the majority of priests are decent people who would never harm a child. Child molesters can be found in any profession. However, when an employee is caught having sex with children or minors, most companies and institutions have the good sense to fire them immediately and report it to the police. Or, at the absolute minimum, make certain that this employee is not allowed to be around children anymore. Most CEOs definitely would not react by simply transferring the offender to another region, as the Catholic Church did in numerous cases. The key message here is that the Catholic Church itself, the entire global entity, has shown that it cannot be trusted with children.

Catholics may be interested to know that some non-Catholics are genuinely confused by the Church loyalties of so many mothers and fathers. Why would any parent continue to involve their child in an organization with a record like this? Just imagine if some Cayman organization or company had a similar international scandal, one involving years of abuse by a significant number of its mid-level managers, blatant cover-ups by top executives, and big payoffsto victims. They probably would have been shutdown long ago. One would think that our government would be very interested in their activities here. It would also be reasonable to assume that no right-thinking Caymanian parent would allow their children to go within a mile of their property, right? So why is it different with the Catholic Church? Why don’t “better safe than sorry” and “I’ll do anything to protect my child” apply in this context?

Imagine if one of our local fast-food franchises was connected to a pattern of abuse and cover-up that extended up to the highest levels of management. What if the scandal involved several countries and, from 2004 through 2009, 3,091 of their employees were known to have sexually abused 4,568 child victims? Would you continue to give this company your money and eat their food? Would you let your child work there?

Before local Catholics circle the wagons and misinterpret this commentary as a mean-spirited attack against them, one hopes they will consider what really matters here. This is about children. This is not a grumpy tirade by a bitter ex-Catholic with an axe to grind. These are not the ramblings of some nut who thinks the Pope is the Anti-Christ. This commentary is only pointing out that there is clear reason to be concerned about the safety of our children, nothing more. Hopefully, sensible Catholics who love their children will recognise this and agree.

No one in Cayman can deny that the warning has been sounded loud and clear. So many US cases have been reported in print, on radio and on TV that it feels routine. Now the scandal has grown to include Ireland, Germany, Spain, Austria, Netherlands, and other countries. This is not a US problem, as the Vatican once claimed. Clearly it is a Catholic problem that national borders do not contain. There is nothing so special about the Cayman Islands to suggest that it could not have happened here or that it could never happen here.

If it ever comes to light that even one Caymanian child has been sexually abused by Catholic clergy in recent years, or at any time in the future, the guilt will extend far beyond church grounds. As a society we would have no excuses to hide behind. None of us would have the luxury of feeling surprised or shocked. This problem has been on the radar since at least the 1980s and should be common knowledge by now. The story is out and it’s everywhere: the predator priests, cardinal cover-ups, and the Vatican unwilling toact decisively in the interest of children. If it happens in Cayman, we certainly can’t say that it snuck up on us.

A recent letter sent to Catholic leaders from past victims of clergy abuse in the Pacific island of Guam pleaded for accountability and safeguards against future abuse. It contained the following line: “We fear for the children of Guam.”

One wonders about the children of the Cayman Islands. Does anyone here care enough to fear for them?
 

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