ALLEGED VICTIMS of sexual abuse have reacted coolly to the news of a Vatican investigation into a London abbey, and have called for inquiries into other Catholic institutions where children are claimed to have been mistreated.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome has ordered an “apostolic visitation” to uncover the scale of abuse at Ealing abbey, in the west of the British capital, where monks and lay teachers have been accused of mistreating children at a neighbouring school, St Benedict’s, over decades.
It is the first inquiry of its kind into sexual abuse in Britain. Fr David Pearce, a priest at Ealing abbey, was jailed in 2009.
Groups supporting alleged victims have questioned the effectiveness and integrity of an internal inquiry, especially given that its findings will remain secret.
The abuse is alleged to have dated from the 1960s to 2009.
Pete Saunders, of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, said it was a public relations exercise and akin to “putting Dracula in charge of a blood bank”. Anne Lawrence of Ministry and Clerical Sexual Abuse Survivors said although the Ealing inquiry showed the Catholic hierarchy was beginning to understand the concept of institutional responsibility, there were other schools and other places that warranted investigation. There were, she alleged, “more than 20 schools where there was systematic abuse and we would like to see inquiries into all of them”.
Relations between church and survivor groups are already under strain. Earlier this month the Guardian revealed victim support groups had pulled out of discussions led by the National Catholic Safeguarding Commission and the Catholic Safeguarding Advisory Service. They described them as shambolic and unlikely to achieve anything by May 2012, when the Pope’s deadline for a report expires. The talks were intended to come up with a care package for survivors of clerical sexual abuse.
Graham Wilmer, who heads the Lantern Project and says he was abused by a priest as a teenager, said: “We were prepared to talk to [the institution] that had harmed us, even though it was uncomfortable ... [But] we can’t trust them. What effectively has happened is nothing.” The Catholic church in England and Wales has defended its child protection procedures, describing them as robust, and has apologised for past behaviour.
– ( Guardianservice)