The sex-abuse Royal Commission is in the news again
today. They’re chasing down Cardinal Pell’s hush money.
The money was difficult to claim, implied no admission
of responsibility by the church, and was used by some victims to kill
themselves with drugs or alcohol. It’s an important strand for the commission
to follow.
But it’s not the most important.
You’re unlikely to learn the most important facet of
church sex-abuse by following the Hearings. I’ve come to believe it’s related
to the Catholic doctrine of original sin.
Paedophile priests were protected. Their superiors
hushed up their crimes and moved them on to different communities. Was this
done to shield the church from scandal? Yes. To preserve the reputations of
cardinals, bishops and monsignors? Absolutely. To shift the problem on to some
other bishop’s patch? Almost certainly.
But there’s something uglier lurking underneath.
Something inseparable from the old-style Irish Catholicism that infected so
much of this country.
It’s the idea that the child is somehow to blame.
The idea that the offender is a good man tempted.
Remove him from the source of that temptation and all will be well – for
everyone who counts, that is. It was the child’s fault.
For a victim, that stays with you. It colours your
entire world view. It does more damage than the original assault.
You carry it into every relationship you will ever
have. The certainty that you don’t deserve to be there. That you’re never going
to be good enough. That you don’t deserve to be loved. That if only you can be
better, then maybe you won’t be hurt again. That if you are hurt, then you’ve
earned it.
Of course, you don’t understand all this as a child.
That’s the beauty part – you get to think about it for decades.
It’s where the real damage is done.
It’s the ugly scar that grows over the wound.
And, while the Royal Commission carries on, it’s worth
remembering.
