Michael Abrahams | The Roman Catholic Church’s cardinal sins

The Roman Catholic Church has been prominently featured in news cycles over the past few weeks, from the death of Pope Francis to the antics of US president Donald Trump regarding the papacy to the excitement over the selection of a new pope, American Robert Prevost, who’s new title is Pope Leo XIV.

However, two other stories regarding the Church also caught my attention. The first was the revelation that Roger Mahony, a US cardinal accused of covering up a child sex abuse scandal, was one of the cardinals selected to help seal Pope Francis’ casket and entomb his remains for burial. The second was an article published in Newsweek titled “Catholic bishops defy new US state law to report child abuse”.

Mahony, the retired Archbishop of Los Angeles, was selected by the Office for the Liturgical Celebrations to be among a group of nine cardinals and a small number of priests and bishops to take part in rites including the “Rite of Sealing of the Coffin” and the pope’s burial at the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. However, Mahony’s selection was not devoid of controversy. Mahony, who was also accused of mishandling the case of an abuser priest when he was Bishop of Stockton, was stripped of his administrative and public duties in 2013 after thousands of confidential church files from the Los Angeles Archdiocese showed that he worked behind the scenes to shield paedophile priests accused of abuse by sending them out of California to evade law enforcement officials in the 1980s and 1990s, effectively interfering with police investigations.

SHIELDED

One of the more notorious priests shielded by Mahony is Michael Stephen Baker who, authorities at the time said, ranked among the most prolific alleged abusers in the Church. The Los Angeles Archdiocese received reports from more than 20 people that Baker had molested them during his 26 years as a priest. In one case, it was alleged that Baker sexually assaulted a young boy in the rectory of a church. In another, two brothers alleged that Baker began abusing them at St. Hilary Catholic Church in Pico Rivera in 1984 when they were 5 and 7. The boys’ family moved to Mexico in 1986, but over the next 13 years Baker flew them to Los Angeles, Palm Springs and Arizona, where the abuse allegedly continued until 1999. Another of Baker’s accusers, Michael Duran, claimed the priest abused him for a two-year period beginning when he was 11 years old. According to Duran, “He raped me. He didn’t just touch me. He didn’t just put his hands down my pants. He raped me.”

In 1986, Baker confessed to Mahony that he had sexually molested two boys over a nearly seven-year period. Mahony then sent him to a treatment centre in New Mexico but later allowed him back into the ministry, where he molested again. In 2007, Baker was sentenced to 10 years and four months in prison after pleading guilty to molesting two teenage boys in the mid-1990s. That same year, it was announced that the Los Angeles Archdiocese would be paying a record-breaking $660 million to settle clergy abuse claims against 508 victims during Mahony’s tenure.

Advocates for Roman Catholic Church abuse victims expressed their disapproval of the decision to allow Mahony to take part in the papal funeral. Peter Isely, a founder of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said, “By having Cardinal Mahony ceremonially close Pope Francis’ casket, the Catholic Church has chosen to let a known enabler of abuse perform one last act of cover-up.”

This is not the first time Mahony has incited controversy in Vatican City. Weeks after he was disciplined, when Pope Benedict XVI stepped down, despite a petition and calls from victims’ rights groups to recuse himself from the election, Mahony travelled to Rome to take part in the selection of the next pontiff, who happened to be Pope Francis.

NEW LAW

Meanwhile, a new law signed by Washington state Governor Bob Ferguson and set to take effect July 27 mandates clergy to report suspected child abuse within 48 hours. However, Catholic bishops in the state have rejected the law, as it requires them to report child sexual abuse revealed during the sacrament of confession, and they regard the act as privileged communication.

The sexual abuse of children is not to be taken lightly. Apart from the obvious mental and physical trauma that it can cause while it is being perpetrated, the long-term effects are well documented. Research has revealed an association between childhood sexual abuse and dysfunctional psychological sequelae such as anger management issues, sexual dysfunction, dissociation (disconnection from thoughts, feelings, memories and sense of identity) and alexithymia (impairment of recognition and description of one’s own emotional states), in addition to mental disorders including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), borderline personality disorder (BPD), bipolar disorder, depression and anxiety. It is also linked to substance abuse and increases the risk of developing physical diseases and maladies such as autoimmune diseases and cancer and, in women, endometriosis, chronic pelvic pain and chronic or recurrent vaginal discharge. Unsurprisingly, survivors of childhood sexual trauma are at a significantly increased risk of attempting and dying by suicide.

There appears to be a culture of secrecy regarding the sexual abuse of children in the Roman Catholic Church. Abuse by clergy and cover-ups are not uncommon, and in the US alone, more than $5 billion has been spent on sexual abuse allegations. The shielding of paedophile priests and the refusal to report abuse revealed during confession allows the abusers, who tend to be repeat offenders, to continue to traumatise children with impunity. The Church’s uncompromising anti-abortion stance sees it doing all it can to protect embryos as small as a pinhead. However, once living breathing children exist outside the uterus, the organisation will permit them to be sexually assaulted, raped and sodomised, and instead protect the perpetrators of these heinous acts. The hypocrisy and warped priorities are disgustingly astounding.

Michael Abrahams is an obstetrician and gynaecologist, social commentator, and human-rights advocate. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and michabe_1999@hotmail.com, or follow him on X , formerly Twitter, @mikeyabrahams