Priesthood must own sins of the fathers

Eric Lobbecke

For the Catholic Church, breaking the seal of the confessional is a contentious part of the Victorian government’s Children Legislation Amendment Bill. What must have smarted too was giving victims the legal right to overturn, via the Supreme Court, their church deeds-of-release for unjust settlements.

There are many reasons the seal of the confession should be broken to protect children.

A damning example is Queensland priest Michael McArdle who, in an affidavit in 2003, about the time of his court case regarding his extensive child sexual assault charges against 16 children across 22 years, declared he had confessed more than 1500 times to sexually assaulting children to 30 priests. Each was a face-to-face encounter, meaning 30 priests knew he was one of them. All 30 priests told him to “go home and pray”. Not one told him to stop, or seek help, or hand himself into police.

Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne Peter Comensoli has referred to a certain priest being a “terrible example” and “supposedly he went to 30 odd priests” and he “supposedly confessed 1500 times”. He said the priest who made those claims was a “liar”. The archbishop could only be talking about McArdle unless there is a second priest who has made identical confessions. It was an attempt to brush away McArdle’s sworn statement which is so damning of the protection of pedophile priests who were left to pursue and assault more kids.

What proof might the archbishop have that McArdle lied in his affidavit?

McArdle is reported to have said at the time that in the church’s interest “and perhaps more importantly those of the children, now adults, that I assaulted … whilst I can offer no excuses for what I did I believe that it’s important, for the church especially, that lessons are learnt ”.

He doesn’t sound like a liar to me.

Another example of the confessional seal being used to aid and abet pedophiles is in evidence presented to the royal commission where now former priest Phil O’Donnell testified that an offender priest, believing O’Donnell was about to report him, fell to his knees to confess his crimes, cunningly evoking the seal of the confessional knowing it would sil­ence O’Donnell.

Mandatory reporting would have stopped all this — and the abuse of more children.

Given the Victorian and federal inquiries into such child abuse you might have thought the church would voluntarily have made such a recommendation so children were protected. But no, the government had to force it on them.

Comensoli is reportedly surprised not to have been consulted about the new law. Really? He expects the lawmakers to consult him over laws they are making to bring his church into line with civil expectations on child protection? Why would anyone consult a serially offending institution on such reform?

The Catholic priesthood has a dreadful history of child sexual assault and has had centuries to fix the problem.

Many in the church apparently did not know the rape of a child was wrong, yet it claims the moral high ground with knowledge of all types of sin. No, the church put its reputation and money before protecting the needs of children.

So lawmakers, guided by two long inquiries, have stepped in.

Comensoli has said that it grieves him to know young lives have been devastated by the church’s many failures.

He needs to get something right.

It wasn’t the Catholic Church’s billion parishioners who received complaints about priests raping and sexually assaulting their children; it wasn’t the parishioners who transferred offenders elsewhere secretly after the complaints, giving them the opportunity to reoffend until the next complaint, after which they were moved on again, sometimes for 50 years; it was not the parishioners who decided, despite every crime, to return and uphold such criminals.

It was the priesthood that did all these things, aiding and abetting sex offences against children. I was one of the billion parishioners who did not know, just one who prayed, paid and obeyed, and the church now knows where I stand and what I think about the priesthood’s behaviour — like any parent who would protect their child.

So when Comensoli refers to the “Catholic Church’s failures” on this criminal issue, he needs real­ly to more accurately state “Catholic priesthood’s failures”.

He needs to own what his brotherhood has done and allowed to happen to children — not spread the guilt on to innocent parishioners.

Priests, monks, brothers and nuns committed the crimes and caused the scandal — all on their own.

Chrissie Foster is author of Hell on the Way to Heaven (with Paul Kennedy). Two of her daughters were raped by the notorious pedophile Fr Kevin O’Donnell.