Madam, - Sunday night's Panorama programme failed to prove that the Vatican document Crimen Sollitationis was solely responsible for the world wide cover-up of the sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy.
The programme was disingenuous, since Crimen Sollitationis was, I believe, a document of advice regarding preservation of the "seal of confession" and also dealt with clergy who solicited sex within the confessional. The fact that bishops and priests may have used the directive to justify cover-up was not the fault or the intention of the document.
A more useful discussion could have focused on clericalism with its aim of maintaining "the bonds of brotherhood" at all costs.
Panorama also stooped to tabloid tactics whereby survivors' stories were used purely for effect rather than to support the main thesis that Crimen Sollitationis allowed secrecy to continue.
There was a bias towards male survivors and an omission of female victims' stories.
We need to move from sensationalist journalism to acute and perceptive understanding of the processes that allowed clerical sexual abuse to continue. We also now need to press the Catholic Church to develop a positive policy of support and pastoral care for the victims of clergy - which as, Father Tom Doyle, rightly said is totally absent.
Here in the UK COPCA - the Catholic Office for the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults - has no budget for developing pastoral care services; this is not even an aim within its "aims and objectives". No Diocese has a budget for this work either.
While we clamour for honesty and explanations for clerical abuse from the Catholic Church, we are also concerned about the abandonment of victims in the present moment. - Yours, etc,
MARGARET KENNEDY, Chair/Founder, MACSAS (Minister & Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors), London E8.
Madam, - Sean O'Conaill (October 3rd) asks what exactly prevented bishops from reporting instances of clerical child abuse to the civil authorities. It may seem like a cruel question for victims and their parents, but what prevented them going directly to the police? When people reported such things to bishops rather than the police, what did they think would happen?
Bishops have no skills in criminal investigation. They have no authority to arrest or detain anyone for questioning. They have no forensic division. When people reported to bishops they hoped for a shortcut - that "something would be done" which would prevent their suffering any further. And so bishops resorted to psychiatrists, counselling, promises and in many cases simply a move of parishes. But let us not kid ourselves that this sorry mess is all down to bishops. Any parent who went to a bishop instead of the police must accept some responsibility for the situation we are in.
As for the Panorama programme itself, is this supposed to be investigative journalism? An old document that has been in the public domain for years, misrepresentations, and a rather pathetic attempt to implicate the Pope, presumably to facilitate someone's lawsuit?
Unfortunately, what we've come to expect from the BBC. - Yours, etc,
CHRISTOPHER McCAMLEY, Newtown, Drogheda, Co Louth.