I have to confess that I am an avid cyclist. For me, there are few things in life that match the freedom of riding quietly through beautiful country-side, climbing high above the plains to a majestic view and being entranced by the rhythm of your own breathing. The bike is an important part of the spiritual aspect of my life. It brings liberation, contemplation, accomplishment and cleansing suffering. Others, however, chose more formalised forms of spirituality – going to church or saying grace or throwing acid on their children. There are, it seems, so many ways to express your spiritual dimension these days. So who can possibly say which expressions are right or wrong?
Well, actually, we do have a system for assessing right and wrong, for defining what is acceptable and what is not, for reflecting our (so-called) shared values and norms. It’s called, The Law. While it might be imperfect, it might even be an ass, it is the only system we have and the only system to which we all account. Unless, of course, you belong to the Catholic Church.
There are many, many disturbing things emerging from the current child rape scandal engulfing the Church. On most of these issues, however, there is not much most of us can add to the debate, other than our vitriol, deep sympathy for the victims and a short, but still heart-felt, fuck you to George Pell. However, there is one issue that each of us should be concerned, maybe even vocal, about: it is this sense that the Catholic Church exists above the law.
The “sanctity” of the confessional box is an obvious example of this. In all other areas of our community, if an individual were to confess a crime to you, it would be your obligation to report that to the authorities in the interests of the society in which you live. The premise is harm minimisation – we are obligated to act to help reduce the harm that individual can do to our community. However, put on a funny robe, say you believe in fairies at the bottom of the garden and different rules apply. The obligation to society, the Catholics would have us believe, is secondary to an obligation to a process that was invented by the Church in the middle-ages as a fundraising and social control mechanism. The sanctity of the confessional box, in this instance, is not just an affront to the victims of any confessed crime, it is an affront – a fuck you – to our society. That there is reputedly evidence that information obtained through confessionals has been used not to bring perpetrators within the Church to justice, but to whisk them away beyond the reach of the law, if true, suggests an organisation of unbridled evil.
The Catholic Church may not be, to use George Pell’s flippant words, “the only cab on the rank” in terms of child rape, but they are the only one that is more concerned about the vile passengers inside the cab than those they share the road with.
It is, however, a mistake to think that this Catholic sense of priorities is just linked to old rituals and ancient rites. In light of previous abuse scandals the Church triumphantly introduced The Melbourne Response. A formal process of complaint investigation, counselling and compensation for sexual abuse (ironically, a response that would seem unnecessary for an organisation that says it does not have “a systemic problem of sexual abuse”).
At the heart of The Melbourne Response is the complaint review process. This process is conducted by an Independent Commissioner (well, as independent as you can be when you’re paid by the group you’re investigating). The official publication on The Melbourne Response from the Archdiocese of Melbourne says this about the Independent Commissioner:
An Independent Commissioner receives complaints and enquires into allegations of sexual abuse ... The Independent Commissioner then makes a determination on the basis of the evidence. When the Commissioner is satisfied that the abuse occurred, the Commissioner notifies the Archbishop about the offender and refers the victim to Carelink [a counselling service]
Again, we see writ large the moral arrogance of the Church. To promote a process of criminal investigation where the first step is to report the alleged crime to an internal agency, rather than the police, plants the seeds of corruption. To have that internal agency then stand as the authority on what has or has not occurred provides the shelter and nurturing those seeds need to grow.
Whether or not The Melbourne Response is implemented without fear or favour is irrelevant. It is not the Catholic Church’s role or privilege to police itself. To assume such privilege speaks volumes about the moral compass of the Church. To allow such privilege to persist requires us to say nothing. Perhaps it’s time we all tell that cab to get off the road ... [fades to static]
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