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RELIGION-LATIN AMERICA:
Scarred for Life
By Daniela Estrada*
SANTIAGO (IPS) - As Catholic Church
authorities in Latin America close ranks
around the Vatican, whose credibility
has been undermined by countless cases
of child sex abuse committed by priests,
other sectors are calling for major
structural reforms in the institution.
"The response (of the Church) has been
very slow, evasive, and has put
institutional interests before
protecting the victims," Chilean
theologian Álvaro Ramis, of the
non-governmental Diego de Medellín
Ecumenical Centre (CEDM), told IPS.
In his view, "attempts have been made to
deny any link between the canonical rule
of celibacy and the abuse of minors, but
these carry no credibility in public
opinion."
"For decades these abuses, and general
debate about Catholic sexual morality,
have been treated as taboo.
Consequently, cases of abuse have been
covered up with absolute silence, and
those accused have simply been
transferred," he said.
In a pastoral letter to Irish Catholics
Mar. 20, Pope Benedict XVI asked for
forgiveness for thousands of child sex
crimes committed by Irish priests
between 1930 and 1990, and announced an
investigation of seminaries and certain
dioceses.
But the pope's letter, which was global
in nature because of the extent of the
problem, did not propose specific
punishments for bishops accused of
covering up these crimes, nor did it
admit the Vatican's responsibility.
Moreover, the pope himself has been
accused by the media in Germany and the
United States of failing to penalise
paedophile clergy when he was Prefect of
the Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith, charges that mean he may even be
tried in a U.S. court.
Meanwhile, the Vatican is investigating
the powerful Legion of Christ, a
Catholic order founded in 1941 by the
late Mexican priest Marcial Maciel
(1920-2008), who was accused of sexually
abusing seminary students and two of his
own sons, as well as secretly fathering
at least six children and having
long-term relationships with two women.
So far Catholic Church authorities in
Brazil, Chile and Paraguay have defended
the pope's actions. Latin America is the
region with the largest number of
Catholics.
On Wednesday a letter to the pope from
Paraguayan bishops expressed their
"support, communion and solidarity in
the face of media attacks."
The same day, in a national Catholic
media broadcast, the president of the
Brazilian Conference of Bishops,
Archbishop Geraldo Lyrio Rocha,
expressed his support for Pope Benedict
and regretted that "the dissemination of
news about those crimes, which are
inexcusable, should have turned into a
campaign of defamation against the
Church and the pope."
According to Rocha, "the pope publicly
admitted the errors of members of the
Catholic Church, and having asked
forgiveness for their practices, he has
not deserved this treatment, which also
wounds many people."
Previously, the Archbishop of São Paulo,
Odilio Pedro Scherer, called in an
interview to "separate the wheat from
the chaff," as the sex crimes were
committed "by some people, not by
everyone." It is not fair to blame the
whole Church, he said.
In Argentina, where five priests and an
archbishop have been convicted of sex
crimes since 2003, and in Venezuela, the
response to the crisis has been silence.
"On sexual abuse, rather than look for
external causes, the Church should
urgently look at its own structures,"
the international Catholic reform
movement We Are Church (Somos Iglesia)
advised in a Mar. 24 communiqué.
This message has the support of the
Latin American members of the movement,
Enrique Orellana of Somos Iglesia-Chile
told IPS.
A clear statement is needed about the
responsibilities of the Church
leadership and the opportunity for a new
start, Ramis said.
In Mexico, Pope Benedict should dismiss
Archbishop Norberto Rivera, and the
Church in that country should ask
forgiveness and create a reparations
mechanism for victims, U.S. journalist
Jason Berry, who has investigated the
phenomenon in that country, told IPS.
"The ideal solution would be for the
Church to say 'here is this sum of
money, and we will create a mechanism to
make reparations to all victims of
abuse,'" said Berry, who co-authored the
2004 book "Vows of Silence", exposing
paedophile priests, with his colleague
Gerald Renner (1932-2007).
Up to now, Mexican Church authorities
have merely asked for prayers for the
forgiveness of the accused, and argued
that there is more paedophilia outside
the clergy than within it.
"The Church in Latin America cannot
isolate itself from this debate and from
the worldwide questioning of the
practices of the Church hierarchy,"
Ramis emphasised.
In his opinion, "it's important that lay
people insist that the Church should be
a place where all the rights that any
institution should guarantee to its
members are respected."
Examples of these are the rights to
information about decisions, to freedom
of expression, to be consulted, to hold
those in authority accountable, to
non-discrimination and to appeal
administrative resolutions.
Brazilian sociologist Luzia Ribeiro, a
consultant with the Institute of
Religious Studies (ISER), said
self-criticism is essential, in order to
acknowledge the crimes, ask forgiveness
and punish those guilty of paedophilia
with ecclesiastical as well as civil
penalties.
As in any crisis, there is opportunity
for change, for an "honest and
transparent attitude which refuses to
omit or cover up," said the expert on
religion. "I believe the first step has
been taken," she told IPS.
According to the Pontifical Yearbook
2010, published in February, there were
nearly 1.2 billion baptised Catholics in
2008. The Vatican has recognised that
Catholicism is no longer the largest
world religion, having been overtaken by
Islam.
*With additional reporting by Marcela
Valente (Argentina), Humberto Márquez
(Venezuela), Emilio Godoy (Mexico) and
Fabiana Frayssinet (Brazil). |
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