Religious leaders defended pedophile priests, study finds

Some church leaders are resisting child safety regulations and defending pedophile priests, a startling new study shows.

An Australian Catholic University study shows that some religious leaders resent laws protecting children against abuse. Picture: iStock

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Some church leaders are resisting child safety regulations and defending pedophile priests, a startling new study shows.

The Australian Catholic University research, published in the journal Child Abuse and Neglect, gives a rare insight into the way religious groups are dealing with child protection policies in the wake of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

It reveals a “tick the box’’ approach to safeguarding children, based on interviews with 20 senior clerics and administrative leaders from the Catholic, Anglican, Uniting Church, Baptist, Churches of Christ, Lutheran, Salvation Army and other non-denominational Christian ministries.

One religious leader disclosed to researchers that some people within the church still defended priests jailed for pedophilia.

“You know a priest can be in jail and there will be people in their former parish saying, ‘I know he didn’t do this’,’’ they said.

“That is what you call invincible ignorance … there are people just not believing that (it’s) possible, or not believing that it’s true.’’

Another respondent revealed some churches regard child protection laws as “quite intrusive’’.

“Legislative requirement around child safety can be seen subtly as the state infringing on the church,’’ they said in the anonymised study.

A female respondent said that male church leaders felt that administration of child safety regulations was “women’s work’’, as their job was about “pastoral care and preaching and leadership’’.

Another told researchers of a “box-ticking’’ approach to keeping children safe. “(There’s) a kind of unspoken assumption that if we get enough rules in place abuse won’t happen,’’ they said. “That’s naive. And I assume the bishops know that, but they don’t admit it.’’

Lead author Gabrielle Hunt – a psychologist and research associate at the ACU’s faculty of health sciences – said the interviews revealed “cultural resistance’’ to protecting children from abuse in religious organisations, eight years after the royal commission recommended stronger safeguards.

“There are a lot of religious organisations that do take it really seriously and are working really hard, but that is not consistent,’’ she said.

“There are organisations that don’t take it seriously and don’t see that they pose a risk.’’

Psychologist Gabrielle Hunt, a research associate at the Australian Catholic University Institute of Child Protection Studies. Photo supplied

Ms Hunt said one female religious leader described herself as a “salesperson’’ trying to convince the men in charge that it was necessary to impose working with children checks, staff training and rules about who could interact with children.

“Some became angry and aggressive,’’ Ms Hunt said.

“The women would convince them that safeguards would protect them, rather than saying they’re to protect the children.’’

Ms Hunt said the church leaders she interviewed were “very motivated, knowledgeable and trying to do their best, but the barriers they came across are really quite concerning’’.

“There were denials of abuse in the church, and people saying it’s not an issue,’’ she said.

“So then if a child comes forward, they’re less likely to be believed, and if children aren’t believed then it’s not a safe organisation.’’

Ms Hunt said the study revealed “pushback’’ from some priests and ministers about the need for child safety rules.

“There was the idea that safeguarding is external regulation that is intrusive and burdensome for the church, rather than a key part of their mission,’’ she said.

“They see their job as pastors and teaching the Bible, and that administration is not their job.

“Even when they are told that they need registers of volunteers, training and working with children checks, they say, ‘That’s not my job’.’’