A child's innocence
Sep. 11th, 2010 11:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
franceslievensEven BBC news writes about the report on Child abuse in the Catholic Church in Belgium. Peter Adriaenssens has tried to sketch an image of what went on behind closed doors, in back chambers between the fifties and the early eighties of last century. Extrapolating from the 230 files he could investigate, it became obvious that every congregation, every Catholic school, every dorm, had its paedophile clergyman or -woman. People have always known things were going on, but no-one could have been ready for abuse being this widespread on such a scale, but hidden behind respectability and trustworthiness.
Almost all abuse happens within the personal sphere of the child. Gaining trust, being a person a child can turn to, manipulating the circumstances. Still there was a certain randomness about the victims. Clergymen tried, failed, and tried again with another victim. What they all had in common, was the silence, the disbelief from parents and caretakers. Catholic priests were all important figures. They were beyond any doubt, because of the nature of their profession. Like the real Christ, a clergyman is stripped from his humanity: he has no lowly desires of the flesh, he stands above that.
But of course he doesn't. The Adriaenssens report becomes a historical study of the power of the Catholic Church in the 20th century. The community is blind, because they are unwilling to change the way they view their important citizens. And above all, they stay silent. What is left unsaid, doesn't exist. This behaviour penetrated the whole of society, and today victims are still paying the price.
Almost all abuse happens within the personal sphere of the child. Gaining trust, being a person a child can turn to, manipulating the circumstances. Still there was a certain randomness about the victims. Clergymen tried, failed, and tried again with another victim. What they all had in common, was the silence, the disbelief from parents and caretakers. Catholic priests were all important figures. They were beyond any doubt, because of the nature of their profession. Like the real Christ, a clergyman is stripped from his humanity: he has no lowly desires of the flesh, he stands above that.
But of course he doesn't. The Adriaenssens report becomes a historical study of the power of the Catholic Church in the 20th century. The community is blind, because they are unwilling to change the way they view their important citizens. And above all, they stay silent. What is left unsaid, doesn't exist. This behaviour penetrated the whole of society, and today victims are still paying the price.
