Masses Today

6.30: Michael & Catherine McCormack, (Anniv)
11.00 John Joe Conneely, (Anniv)
6.30 Patrick Dowling, (Anniv)



Events This Week






AS I WAS SAYING...

Child sex abuse is a scandal that will not go away. Clerical sex abuse has been particularly destructive. But how widespread is it? The newspaper headlines give the impression that this crime is almost exclusively confined to the Catholic clergy. But an examination of the available evidence paints a different picture. (Unfortunately, the most recent statistics I had access to were those prepared for a 1998 conference on Child Sex Abuse held in Athlone. Copies of the proceedings entitled Child Sexual Abuse: the Irish Experience So Far and the Way Forward, are readily available.) That year (1998) there were 9,017 priests and brothers in Ireland (North and South). Between 1980 and 1998, 27 priests and 11 brothers had been convicted of child sexual abuse. This representing a ratio of four per 1,000. Of the 38 total, 33 had received custodial sentences.

The evidence from other countries indicate that 50 per cent of child sex abuse incidents are perpetrated by a family member. One third of all child sex abusers are male adolescents under the age of 18! So much for the clerical stereotype!

So what is the true picture of the scale of child sex abuse in Ireland and elsewhere? A few facts may put the subject into some perspective. The Athlone Conference reports indicate that sex offending and sexual abuse are grossly under-reported - many victim surveys both here and abroad confirm this. A figure of around 10 per cent reportage seems to be accepted by professionals in the field. This is truly mind-boggling! A small percentage of reported sexual offences result in the prosecution, conviction and imprisonment. For example in 1994, out of 619 sexual offences reported to the Garda, 79 offenders were jailed.

So are child abusers the clerical monsters the media would have us believe they are? Nothing could be further from reality. As Marie Keenan said in Athlone: "Men who perpetrate abuse have not dropped in from outer space. They are Irishmen, our own, and are not all mad and don't have psychiatric disturbances." As we read from court reports, many of them are described as (in all probability, accurately) 'pillars of society'.

In November 1998, there were 279 men serving sentences for sexual offences (no breakdown available, unfortunately, to distinguish between adult and child abuse), representing one in eight of the sentenced male prison population. Convicted sex offenders are distributed throughout seven prisons and are segregated from other prisoners (for their own safety). The length of sentence ranges from eight months to life, with an average span of over six years.

Although an Irish Times editorial asserted some time ago that the recidivism rate for sex offenders was over 90 per cent, more recent evidence points to the conclusion that treatment does work. A study of 30,000 sex offenders in 1996 found a recidivism rate of 19 per cent for rapists and 13 per cent for child molesters. In fact, recidivism rates for sex offenders appear to be lower than those for the general criminal population. All the studies show that perpetrators of child sex abuse have lower rates of recidivism than rapists and are more amenable to treatment. Child abuse is of course a heinous crime. The fact that clergymen behaved criminally is a terribly betrayal. But the safety of children is not well served by the deliberate propagation of myths and stereotypes.

-Dick Lyng.



"Quote, Unquote........ "





St. Valentine's Day

Early church documents mention three Saint Valentines on February 14th. Many believe that the one especially honoured is Valentine, the holy priest of Rome who ministered to the martyrs in the persecution of Claudius and who was himself beheaded by the Emperor on February 14th, about the year 270.

That Saint Valentine is the patron of lovers is easily understood since on his feast, birds begin to mate. And lovers chose the day as their festival and began to call one another "valentine". Legend attributes to him the power of healing lovers' quarrels.





For Bishop Newman and Jim Kemmy

We had plans and charts and maps
and now we meet the 'great perhaps'.
And, in the silence that descends,
I think of all my now-lost friends.
Religion and strife were all -
life to us was just a hobby.
Now to whom can we appeal,
who can we fooster, who can we lobby?
And, in the silence that descends,
I think of all my now-lost friends.
Two of the most unlikely pals,
Socialist and bishop -
a set in Limerick's piercing eyes
'very risky';
discussing life and love and death
over a bottle of whiskey.
Now, in the silence that descends,
I think of all my friends.


-Michael Hartnett.





Heading For The Rocks

In the Spring of 1995, while I was a student at Maynooth, I wrote an article for a college magazine entitled, 'Peter, Row the Boat Ashore'. In the article I expressed a vision of the Church, a vision that did not dwell so much on the hierarchical structure of the Church, but a vision that called on all members of the Church to pick up the oars to row the boat that is our Church towards the fullness of life with God. What I was attempting to describe was collaboration. The boat was no longer a grand ship but a lifeboat with everyone on the same level, rowing together, with Peter leading the way. The progress of the lifeboat depended on the effort of each one.

I am now a priest for five years. While that vision is still with me, experience has taught me that the reality of working with people can difficult, awkward and painful. We hardly understand the meaning of collaborative ministry yet. Very often in the Irish Church, collaboration is reduced to 'helping out the priest'.

If collaboration and the need for it is based on the fact that there are fewer priests now than in the past, then it will inevitably fail. It is like helping your neighbour when he is working in the garden. You help him, but you do not feel any ownership of the garden - any belonging. There is no covenant between you and your neighbour. It is the same in the parish community. If collaboration means 'helping Father' then it does not have the proper foundation in Baptism. It is based on goodwill and generosity. This is not a secure foundation for ministry. Of course it can be a beginning, but it needs to go much deeper if it is to be lasting.

-Paul Farren, in The Furrow, February, 2003.




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