Posted on 10/21/2007 1:21:12 AM PDT by 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."
If only Anglican priests were allowed to marry, this wouldn’t have happened.
The reality is that most child sexual abuse, except for the most heinous, was ignored prior to the late 70s and early eighties.
Or dismissed as funny. Monty Python had such a skit. The toothy vicar, preaching in the school chapel about how someone composed a prayer in the shower room and he overheard.
"O, God, Thou art big!....etc."
There were many other jokes about it also, which proves nothing except that the culture was aware something was going on all along.
The CoE is a lost cause.
Beat me to it.
When the news broke about the priests a few years ago, my mother mentioned that the neighborhood kids knew in the 40's that some of the local ministers were interested in boys (not just Catholic priests). Clearly there was a level of awareness in society.
Let’s stick the fork in; England is just about done.
“If only Anglican priests were allowed to marry, this wouldn’t have happened”
Interesting reaction. 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?
You’re a sick pup.
see post #9....you, too
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.
Can we not agree that the problem is gays proliferating in religious institutions unchecked, and not who’s brand of religion is better?
Can we not have compassion for the boys that were molested before expressing the “Ha ha, you too!” sentiments?
I would say post two made an astute observation. One worth thinking about.
“I would say post two made an astute observation. One worth thinking about.”
I don’t. I think it is reflective of a “gotcha” mentality, that completely ignores the problem and the victims.
Other than that, I agree with you.
Interesting reaction. So, you’re now relieved that your gay priests are in good company?
I think some sarcasm was missed? Anglican priests can marry. All of mine were. Locally, over the years many types of asosrted minsters have been busted.
It seems to be more a matter of access to children than to frustration.
What it is is that society/culture beat the drum that the pedophilia/child abuse in the Catholic Church was because priests weren't allowed to be married and that caused them to abuse boys.
The reality is that child abuse/pedophilia is a sickness in one's soul - married or not.
Oh, I know victims of sexual abuse at the hands of a priest and I know the priest who did it. It is serious. I say this as a Catholic who has survived the last few years of scandal. IF we don’t look at all aspects of the problem and address the things we can we are foolish.
For my sons, who were alter boys, I wondered why the priests would want them hanging around the rectory after school until evening mass and when they pestered me and told me the other boys were doing it I said “NO WAY!” In hindsight it was a vatic decision on my part. My boys were spared.
Exactly what the posters you admonished were implying.
The bad news is that they were allowed to do it for generations, the good news is that it is coming to an end because people are aware of it and ready to fight back. I think the Boy Scouts were the first to realize the infiltration and do something about it and they were demonized by the left.
“Exactly what the posters you admonished were implying.”
If so, they ignored the problem and the victims in favor of “gotcha” parochialism. Sick.
They, more than most, having been through the wringer in a very public manner, should understand the problem and the effect on victims, and the pummeling that their faith took, all because of gays. That their first reaction was as it was is sick in my view, and perpetuates the problem.
“I think the Boy Scouts were the first to realize the infiltration and do something about it and they were demonized by the left.”
You’e absolutely correct about this. It continues to this day. The Scouts were able to do something because they acted before gays got into oversight roles - which in the case of Catholics, and I suspect Anglicans, and any other religion was what allowed it to become institutionalized.
also, knee-jerk “defend the bureaucracy” that reinforces the lack of accountability are inevitably the cause.
Whether it’s giving blood, becoming a scout leader, or a priest - gays hate being singled out as aberrant and demonize the necessary measures needed to protect against them. Society was wrong in accepting them as just another “alternative”, as we now are finding out with church scandals and similar abominations.
You obviously weren’t on the threads at the time. A whole lot of people ignored that it goes on in other organizations preferring to believe it was only the Catholic Church which had the problem.
Your problem is that you missed most of the conversation. Anyone who was there knew what the statement meant. It didn’t ignore anything.
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