Fyah pon Rome: The Vatican just doesn't get it

Michael Abrahams, Online Columnist

One of the best-known
Bible verses is Luke 18:16: "But Jesus called unto him, and said,
'Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of
such is the kingdom of God'."

But, for some reason, the Vatican,
the 'head office' of the largest and most powerful Christian
denomination, appears to have seriously misinterpreted that verse.

Child
sex abuse scandals far too frequently rear their ugly heads in the
Catholic Church. These incidents are by no means confined to that
organisation, as child molesters can be found in probably all
professions and vocations, but the hierarchy of this church has a nasty
habit of protecting perpetrators and enablers, placing the interests of
the church above those of the victims and their families.

Before
becoming Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger played a role in
systematically covering up child sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests. In
2001, while at the Vatican, he issued an edict to Catholic bishops all
over the world recommending that rather than reporting sexual abuse to
legal authorities, victims, perpetrators and witnesses be encouraged not
to talk about the alleged incidents, with victims also being threatened
with excommunication if they dared repeat the allegations.

In
California, Cardinal Roger Mahony was stripped of diocesan duties over
the handling of priest sex abuse cases after it was discovered that he
sent priests accused of abuse out of California to shield them from
law-enforcement scrutiny in the 1980s, effectively interfering with
police investigations. However, despite protests, he was invited by the
Vatican to the conclave in 2013 where Pope Francis was selected.

Now,
Pope John Paul II has just been made a saint, which I find to be
extremely disturbing. This is a man who gave sanctuary to Cardinal
Bernard Law, who resigned in 2002 as archbishop of Boston in the biggest
child sex abuse scandal in the United States, and possibly the world.
In 2001, Law admitted to receiving a letter in 1984 outlining
allegations of child molestation involving Father John Geoghan but did
nothing.

As a matter of fact, he moved priests such as Geoghan,
Paul Shanley and others from parish to parish despite repeated
allegations of abuse, sending them on virtual child molestation and
raping tours. Geoghan alone allegedly abused more than 130 children.

Later it was discovered that Father Shanley advocated the North American Man-Boy Love Association (I'm not making this up).

Law's
resignation as archbishop of Boston was rejected in April 2002 by Pope
John Paul II. However, in a letter signed by 58 priests, he was asked to
resign his post as archbishop on December 9, 2002, and he subsequently
did.

The pope's response to Cardinal Law's facilitation and
enabling of the abuse of innocent children was not defrocking or
censure, but rather to set him up in a spacious apartment and make him
Archpriest of the Patriarchal (now Papal) Liberian Basilica of St. Mary
Major in Rome. Law eventually became one of the nine prelates presiding
over funeral masses for Pope John Paul II in 2005.

As if all
this were not sordid enough, Pope John Paul II also turned a blind eye
to the dastardly activities of the notorious Mexican priest Marcial
Maciel Degollado, a child molester, womaniser, embezzler, plagiarist and
drug addict, who even abused his own children. A detailed letter was
sent to the Vatican in 1998 by eight of his accusers, but no punitive
measures were taken.

 
Even when the story was picked up by
the Mexican press, the Vatican refused to act, with the Pope choosing
instead to put forward the beatification of Maciel's mother and uncle.

Even
more shocking is the fact that Pope John Paul II's canonisation was the
quickest in history. Pope Benedict XVI actually waived the five-year
waiting period after his death so that his sainthood could be
fast-tracked. The canonisation is a slap in the face to victims of child
abuse in Boston under Cardinal Law's watch, and those preyed on by
Maciel, effectively rubbing salt in their wounds.

The abuse of
children leaves excruciatingly painful scars that may never heal. A
study in 2009 showed that persons with a history of childhood abuse may
carry chemical changes in their DNA that would affect their response to
stress, predisposing them to depression and suicide. The Vatican needs
to wake up.

Michael Abrahams is a gynaecologist and
obstetrician,  comedian and poet. Email feedback to
columns@gleanerjm.com and michabe_1999@hotmail.com, or tweet
@mikeyabrahams.