Why does the Catholic Church protect priests who abuse children?

Answer 1

A:Since the Church claims that it does not have a problem with paedophile priests, we can only surmise why it allows this to happen and seems to protect the priests concerned. In case after case, priests would give their superiors an assurance that they were innocent of the charges, these assurances would be accepted and the priest would be transferred to a distant parish where he was unknown and could reoffend. The public was assured that there was no problem, and if there was a problem, it was limited to just one or two bad apples who had been punished most severely by the Church. The punishments open to the Church are surprisingly lenient, as documented in the Church's Code of Canon Law 1395:2: "A cleric who has offended in other ways against the sixth commandment of the Decalogue, if the crime was committed by force, or by threats, or in public, or with a minor under the age of sixteen years, is to be punished with just penalties, not excluding dismissal from the clerical state if the case so warrants."

In other words, the ecclesiastical punishment for a most heinous criminal offence is equivalent to a slap on the wrist with a wet lettuce leaf. With such ineffective punishment sanctioned, the Church's own Canon Law allow priests to abuse children with impunity unless the perpetrator is reported to the police and the Church coooperates fully with the police and civil authorities in their investigations. The Code does not oblige the Church hierarchy to notify the police or civil authorities that they believe a criminal offence has been committed by one of their own, and it seems the general practice not to do so. If the possibility of criminal prosecution is the only sanction that could give a paedophile priest reason to stay his hand, this failure of many in the Church hierarchy to cooperate with the police and other civil authorities almost provides a licence to offend. This is a case where silence is protection. In other cases, the alleged perpetrator can be transferred to a parish in Another Country, or even to the Vatican.

One of the most obvious reasons for providing a paedophile priest with protection is to avoid publicity and protect the name of the Catholic Church, although this is a short-sighted view. Another likely reason is misplaced loyalty to the offender.

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Catholic AnswerThis is a difficult and multi-faceted problem. The Catholic Church, officially (per the rules issued by the Holy Father, and the Holy See) does not tolerate priests who abuse children - at all. Even the very suspicion of child abuse is usually enough to have a priest suspended, and all accusations, and investigations up to that point must be turned over to the civil authorities immediately. This is the official position of the Church, and has been since Pope John Paul II, of happy memory, was guiding the Barge of Peter. All of these regulations and details referring thereto, have been further refined, and more vehemently enforced by the current Pontiff, Pope Benedict XVI.

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That being said, there remain two problems:

1) First of all, one must understand that the Catholic Church is a huge organization, if you look at it from a secular standpoint. It covers the entire world, and is made up of individual dioceses, each headed by a Bishop (each Bishop is a successor of the Apostles, in an unbroken chain for the past two thousand years). A Bishop, in his own diocese, has absolute authority. Other Bishops, for instance in the same province, even the Archbishop of his province, have NO authority whatsoever in his diocese. Every single priest in his diocese, has made a life-long solemn vow of obedience to his ordaining Bishop, and his successors. No other Bishop, including the Holy Father in Rome, may gainsay a Bishop, or direct him, his diocese, or his priests.

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2) The second problem is entirely outside the Church's control. At this point in time, it is fairly safe to say that there is a vanishingly small, if any, amount of abuse going on by priests (it goes without saying that there should be absolutely none, but we are talking about reality and human beings). However, there is an absolutely insatiable group of lawyers who have found out that they can make money by dragging up cases against priests who are long dead - even if NO abuse ever happened. Dead priests have a very hard time defending themselves.

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All that being said, the safest answer to your question is that the Catholic Church does not protect priests who abuse children. Since it has come to light that many Bishops, in the past, had gone to great lengths to protect the Church's (or their own!) reputation by moving priests, the Holy See has gone to great lengths to assure that this will not happen again. Can they guarantee all of this? Of course not. The "Church", as such, is doing a job far beyond anything even asked of other institutions. If a new case of abuse happens tomorrow, it is an absolute tragedy, a sin, and a blot on the Church. Are there still Bishops out there who might still be moving priests? There may be, it would seem unlikely in the atmosphere in the Church today. But out of the thousands and thousands of priests world-wide, and the thousands of Bishops world-wide, who are, in the final analysis, still human beings, there is bound to be some abuse still to be uncovered. Is that a reason to malign the Church the the multitude of men trying to follow God's will in their lives, from Pope Benedict XVI on down? Heavens no, it is a reason to pray for God's mercy and the help that they need to make sure this kind of thing never happens again.

Answer 2

Another answer from our community:

The church did not allow this; in the US, when it did find out that one of its priests were abusing children, the priest was removed from ministry and given psychological help. Years ago, it was felt the priest would be "cured" and put back into ministry if the counselors gave an Ok along with special review board. Victims were often compensated to help them in their struggles. Neither victims, patrents, nor the church would make this public in those days,as it was not talked about.

In recent years we know that counseling is inefective in these cases, and now a priest if accused and verified is never put back to ministry. The Catholic Church is now one of the leading organizations in the country to protect children and prevent child abuse.

Additional information:

A recent survey of insurers that handle policies for many Protestant denominations has shown that sexual abuse by Protestant and Jewish clergy or church employees is far greater in those religions than in the Catholic Church. The overall percentage of Catholic priests known to sexually abuse children is about the same, or slightly less, than the percentage of abusers in the general population.

Answer 3

Since the Church claims that it does not have a problem with paedophile priests, we can only surmise why it allowed this to happen and still allows it to happen. The forms of protection seem largely unchanged. In case after case, priests would give their superiors an assurance that they were innocent of the charges, these assurances would be accepted and the priest would be transferred to a distant parish where he was unknown and could reoffend. The public was assured that there was no problem, and if there was a problem, it was limited to just one or two bad apples who had been punished most severely by the Church. The punishments open to the Church are surprisingly lenient, as documented in the Church's Code of Canon Law 1395:2: "A cleric who has offended in other ways against the sixth commandment of the Decalogue, if the crime was committed by force, or by threats, or in public, or with a minor under the age of sixteen years, is to be punished with just penalties, not excluding dismissal from the clerical state if the case so warrants."

In other words, the ecclesiastical punishment for a most serious criminal offence is equivalent to a slap on the wrist with a wet lettuce leaf. With such ineffective punishment sanctioned, the Church's own Canon Law allow priests to abuse children with impunity. The Code does not even oblige the Church hierarchy to notify the police or civil authorities that they believe a criminal offence has been committed by one of their own. If the possibility of criminal prosecution is the only sanction that could give a paedophile priest reason to stay his hand, this failure of many in the Church hierarchy to cooperate with the police and other civil authorities almost provides a licence to offend.

One of the most obvious reasons for providing a paedophile priest with protection is to avoid publicity and protect the name of the Catholic Church, although this is a short-sighted view. Another likely reason is misplaced loyalty to the offender. These do seem important reasons now for the Church's hierarchy to turn a blind eye to criminal activity in its ranks, and were probably just as influential in years gone by.