St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, Australia. Abusing priests and extremist Mullahs do exist, but it does not imply that a Loving and Kind God does not exist! Try Islam for personal spiritual life, not organized religion.
Source: The Guardian
- The average age of alleged victims was 10.5 for girls and just over 11.5 for boys
- In one order 40% of religious brothers are believed to have abused children
Seven per cent of Australia’s Catholic priests were accused of abusing children in the six decades since 1950, according to new data from the royal commission.
On Monday the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse released damning statistics on the scale of the crisis within the Catholic Church. The numbers confirm the extent of sexual predation already suggested by four years of royal commission hearings involving the church, which are now entering their final weeks.
Up to 15% of priests in some dioceses were alleged perpetrators between 1950 and 2015, with abusers most prevalent in the dioceses of Sale and Sandhurst in Victoria, Port Pirie in South Australia, and Lismore and Wollongong in New South Wales. The numbers were even worse in some national Catholic orders. By far the worst was the order of the St John of God Brothers, where a staggering 40% of religious brothers are believed to have abused children.
Twenty-two per cent of Christian Brothers and 20% of Marist Brothers, both orders that run schools, were alleged perpetrators. More than one in five priests in the Benedictine community of New Norcia were alleged perpetrators, while 17.2% of clergy were accused of crimes against children in the Salesians of Don Bosco order.
In total, between 1980 and 2015, 4,444 people alleged incidents of child sexual abuse relating to 93 Catholic Church authorities. The abuse allegedly took place in more than 1,000 institutions. The average age of victims was 10.5 for girls and 11.6 for boys. The overwhelming majority of survivors were male. Almost 1,900 perpetrators were identified and another 500 remained unidentified. Thirty-two per cent were religious brothers, 30% were priests, 29% were lay people and 5% were religious sisters.
The royal commission said 37% of all private sessions it held with survivors from all institutions related to abuse in the Catholic Church.
The disturbing figures were revealed by senior counsel assisting, Gail Furness, SC. She also revealed that the Holy See had refused to hand over documents involving Australian priests accused of abuse.
“The royal commission hoped to gain an understanding of the action taken in each case,” Furness said. “The Holy See responded, on 1 July 2014, that it was ‘neither possible nor appropriate to provide the information requested’,” she said.
Furness said the responses of Catholic diocese and orders across the country were “depressingly similar”.
“Children were ignored or worse, punished. Allegations were not investigated. Priests and religious [brothers] were moved. The parishes or communities to which they were moved knew nothing of their past,” she said. “Documents were not kept or they were destroyed. Secrecy prevailed as did cover-ups.”
Suggested Reading
Two Hundred Verses about Compassionate Living in the Quran
A Message of Compassion and Love from the Holy Bible
We Will be Judged by Our Compassion and Deeds and Not Our Dogma
Forty Hadiths or Sayings of the Prophet Muhammad about Compassionate Living
Did Jesus Predict Muhammad? A Biblical Portal Between Christianity and Islam
Categories: Australia, Catholic Church, Catholicism, Catholics, Europe and Australia, Sexual Abuse, The Muslim Times
All churches and mosques and temples should have interfaith clergy from Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, Hinduism and Buddhism. Let the clergy compete for customers rather than abuse them.
There are similar or sometimes different problems in other organized religions. Ultimately, humanity has to come to the realization that religion is only for personal life and we can learn from every other person and every form of clergy and for public life and organization we have civic life, human rights, NGOs and politics.
Any clergy who is trying to isolate their flock in one form or the other from other positive influences including other clergies should be investigated.
An interfaith effort will give us the best understanding of faith and replace intolerance and abuse.
Every religious organization needs to be transparent and see some light of the day. This will prevent extremism among the Muslims and sexual abuse among the Christians to say the least.