C of E child abuse was ignored for decades

The Telegraph ^ | 21/10/2007 | Jonathan Wynne-Jones

[managusta]

Child abuse has gone unchecked in the Church of England for decades amid a cover up by bishops, secret papers have revealed.

Information that could have prevented abuse has been "lost or damaged", concerns about individuals have been ignored and allegations have not been recorded. It means that the Church has no idea how many paedophiles are in its midst.

Lawyers warned last night that the Church faces a crisis as catastrophic as the one that engulfed the Roman Catholic Church and cost it millions of pounds in damages.

Richard Scorer, a solicitor who has specialised in child abuse cases, said that the Church of England's mistakes amounted to "an appalling, shocking level of negligence" that is likely to leave it open to claims from victims who have been too afraid to speak out in the past. The Church is to launch an urgent investigation on an unprecedented scale.

It will look at the records of thousands of clergy – including those who have retired – church employees, lay workers and volunteers dating back decades in an attempt to expose those who have previously escaped prosecution and identify those who pose "current risks". advertisement

Dioceses will appoint independent reviewers with access to all of their personnel files. These are due to be examined over an 18-month period.

However, the internal Church documents – leaked to The Sunday Telegraph – show that even if churchwardens, who are lay officials, are found to have previous allegations against them, the Church has no power to suspend them.

Bishops have called for the review following two high-profile cases last spring. One of the documents, compiled by the Church's Central Safeguarding Liaison Group, concedes that "most serious concerns will have been known by the senior staff at the time".

The Church has been guilty of systemic failures on a large scale, according to the document. "Some records may have been lost or damaged," it says, adding that warnings from psychologists might also have been ignored.

The liaison group was asked to draw up a review policy by the House of Bishops, which discussed the plans at its meeting earlier this month.

Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was at the meeting, has backed the need for a comprehensive review following the two child abuse cases.

"Every parish has got to have a child protection policy and it needs to work properly," he said.

The liaison group is chaired by the Rt Rev Anthony Priddis, the Bishop of Hereford, and includes the Rev Pearl Luxon, the Church's child protection adviser, as well as other clergy with experience in legal, social and probation work.

The bishops agree that "there may well be gaps in the Church's collective memory" that have allowed sex offenders to go unpunished. A confidential letter to be sent out as part of the review, says: "What has emerged is that had proper risk assessments been carried out in the light of concerns that may first have come to light about particular individuals many years ago, subsequent instances of child abuse might possibly have been prevented…

"It is clear that some incidents were dealt with in a way that meant that the ongoing risk posed by the individual was not fully assessed and contained."

The review has been welcomed by one victim. He said he had confided in a bishop – now retired – that he had been abused by a serving vicar, but that no action had been taken against the vicar.

"The Church has persuaded people in the past that they don't have to take it further," he said. "There has been a long-standing tendency to just sweep things under the carpet and cover things up and just move priests on."

While the Catholic Church has been hit by dozens of sex abuse cases, the Church of England had been relatively unaffected until spring this year. But in May, the Rev David Smith, 52, of Clevedon, Somerset, was jailed for 5½ years for sexually abusing six boys over a 30-year period.

Concerns had been raised about him in 1983, and again in 2001. The complainants were assured that the matter had been "dealt with".

In April, Peter Halliday, 61, a choirmaster from Farnborough, Hampshire, was jailed for 30 months after admitting abusing boys in his church choir in the 1980s.

It emerged that leading clerics had been told of his behaviour 17 years earlier, but he had been allowed to leave the Church quietly.

A spokesman for the Church said: "We would hope that in the majority of cases things have been dealt with, but we are realistic enough to admit that mistakes have been made and there may still be some risk attached to those cases."

[ArrogantBustard]

Let me point out that this isn’t a Catholic or Anglican thing. This is about gays being attracted to positions of power and authority so they can leverage it for access to little boys.

Well, gawlly gee whiz!!!

Catholics have been saying that all along ... to the jeers of Protestants.

Now that it's your ox gettin' gored (so to speak) you're singin' the same tune.

Welcome aboard!

[NYer]

So, you’re now relieved that your gay priests are in good company? ....or just busting Anglican chops because you think that somehow rank-and-file Anglicans got some pleasure seeing Catholic gay priests get caught molesting boys - because it made them somehow better than you?

The three companies that insure the majority of Protestant churches in America say they typically receive upward of 260 reports each year of young people under 18 being sexually abused by clergy, church staff, volunteers or congregation members.

The figures released to The Associated Press offer a glimpse into what has long been an extremely difficult phenomenon to pin down — the frequency of sex abuse in Protestant congregations.
Protestant Church Insurers Handle 260 Sex Abuse Cases a Year

[Juana la Loca]

You are absolutely right. The AP has is reporting widespread sexual misconduct among teachers as well. This is not a Catholic problem, it is not an Anglican problem, it is a fallen humanity problem.

This is about predators seeking prey via the most efficient means possible: schools, churches, and youth programs like Little League, Boy Scouts, etc.

We need to pray for our Anglican brothers and sisters. We need to pray for the victims. We need to be ever-vigilant in protecting our kids from monsters like this.

Remember, the devil doesn’t come to you has a horned beast with a pitchfork in hand. He comes to you with a smile on his face to mask the evil within.

[RFEngineer]

“Now that it’s your ox gettin’ gored (so to speak) you’re singin’ the same tune.

Welcome aboard!”

What are you talking about?

[Jaded]

There are plenty of people here who blame Catholic doctrine for the problem. They claimed loudly and often that married priests/ministers don’t engage in that sort of depravity.

[RFEngineer]

“There are plenty of people here who blame Catholic doctrine for the problem. They claimed loudly and often that married priests/ministers don’t engage in that sort of depravity.”

Why not engage them directly? call them out. Nobody with half a brain seriously believes that Catholic doctrine causes gays to molest little boys.

Just because a couple of Catholics on this thread are bitter at ALL Protestants because a couple of idiots blamed molestation on the Catholic church doesn’t mean that they represent ALL Catholics either.

That’s not even the real story on this thread.....lest we forget.....

[Jaded]

Engage them? Where were you? That’s been done repeatedly. If you knew the story you’d know they weren’t “little boys”. It was about gay men and teenage boys. There was actually a new name coined for these sexual deviants, ephobophiliacs.

The REAL STORY is that Anglican clergy and their bishops are doing the SAME THING. It’s much easier to track than other Protestant denominations where there is no “convention structure”.

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

“OK, let me get this said and out of our system, so we can deal with the serious issue of child abuse by authority figures: “If only the priest and wardens were not celibate and could marry this would not be a problem””

None of this has anything to do with celebacy - it has to do with the human condition of the heart and soul. Being a priest at any level in any communion does not prevent or make one immune to base human conditions of sin. Only a deep, personal relationship with God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit changes hearts and counters our sinful nature.

God is Love. Jesus said there is one law - “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as you love yourself.” Remember that the word “Love” here is the Greek word “Agape” - unconditional love, that is beyond “Phileo”, that is beyond “Eros”. Humanly we know Phileo and Eros. God is Agape. Agape will do nothing to hurt our neighbor, or ourselves.

We can do none of that if we do not love ourselves. Then we can love our neighbor and our God with all our heart. Then we can begin to let our relationship with God take precidence and we no longer have the desires of an audulterer, a pedofile, a whoremonger.

Certainly the issues need to be addressed. Sin is sin. No church, no communion, is immune to any of this. We see it all around us. With the position the Angilican Church, especially in America, has taken on “gay” or “lesbian” (it used to be called “queer”) is it any surprise that pedophilia is an issue now too?

[ArrogantBustard]

Why not engage them directly? call them out.

ROFL!!!! Where have you been? We've been doing that, on this forum for a very long time. The ignorami continue to spew their ignorance.

Nobody with half a brain seriously believes that Catholic doctrine causes gays to molest little boys.

DUH!!! Again, we (Catholics) have been saying that for a very long time. Again, where have you been?

[RFEngineer]

“DUH!!! Again, we (Catholics) have been saying that for a very long time. Again, where have you been?”

If you’ve called them out, and you’ve engaged them with your best arguments but were unsuccessful, then....DUH....They don’t get it, nor are they likely to, being idiots.

But DUH.... don’t include me, I never said it. Nor is it a universal Protestant belief that Catholics encourage gays....so....

What is your problem? Are you just happy that your priests are in good company, or is there some point you’d like to convey that doesn’t involve the same idiotic broad-brush statements that you have been complaining about?

[RFEngineer]

“The REAL STORY is that Anglican clergy and their bishops are doing the SAME THING. It’s much easier to track than other Protestant denominations where there is no “convention structure”.”

You appear to be as kookie a Catholic as the idiot Protestants you complain about.

Does that make you feel better, or validated that gay Protestant clergy behave just like gay Catholic clergy?

Do you really think that ALL Protestants sat back and revelled in Catholic scandal?

We Protestants are far too busy with our paranoid delusions about the Pope and handling snakes to worry about Catholic scandals.

[Huber]

Thanks to NYer for the ping.

Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams.

FReepmail Huber or sionnsar if you want on or off this moderately high-volume ping list (sometimes 3-9 pings/day).
This list is pinged by Huber and sionnsar.

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Humor: The Anglican Blue

Speak the truth in love. Eph 4:15

[Can anyone comment on how this might play out differently in the UK in light of the differences in legal systems? --Huber]

[ArrogantBustard]

They don’t get it, nor are they likely to, being idiots.

I'm glad we can agree that they're idiots. And I'm glad to see some Protestants publicly recognising that "the problem" had to do with militant homosexuals, not paedophiles or the presumed deficienceis of Catholic practice.

I would have liked to see such public recognition a few years ago.

[PAR35]

I would say post two made an astute observation.

No, it didn't.

I'd be surprised if Jeff Chandler claimed that it did.

It is a commentary on some of the posts that appeared on the Catholic threads during their recent legal problems.

[Jeff Chandler]

I would say post two made an astute observation.

No, it didn't.

Hey, I'll take a compliment any way I can get it.

[PAR35]

Hey, I'll take a compliment any way I can get it.

OK, you were first in with the comment. So you have good reaction time.

How's that?

[tioga]

I am a Catholic. The local priest molested a large number of our boys. It happens. All points are worthy of consideration.

[HighlyOpinionated]

Has someone already listed this story from FoxNews (I'm sure someone has) Report: Sexual Misconduct Plaguing U.S. Schools?

Beyond the horror of individual crimes, the larger shame is that the institutions that govern education have only sporadically addressed a problem that's been apparent for years.

"From my own experience — this could get me in trouble — I think every single school district in the nation has at least one perpetrator. At least one," says Mary Jo McGrath, a California lawyer who has spent 30 years investigating abuse and misconduct in schools. "It doesn't matter if it's urban or rural or suburban."

Next time someone mentions homosexual "priests" I'll be sure to talk about child predators that the two Teachers' Unions and the entire school system protects. School child predation averages to three active predators every day school is in session in grades K through 12.

[ELS]

If only Anglican priests were allowed to marry, this wouldn’t have happened.

Hey, that is Arthur's line. ;-)

[RFEngineer]

“I would have liked to see such public recognition a few years ago.”

Don’t blame other Protestants, as you have found me out. I am “the problem” and it’s all my fault. Please accept my sincerest apologies.