Priest calls for end to `scapegoating' of clergy in debate on sexual abuse

A Catholic priest has called for an end to the "scapegoating" of the clergy and members of religious orders in the debate over child sexual abuse. Father John Carroll, editor of the Ferns diocesan bulletin The Forum, said society was in denial about the true causes of sexual abuse.

Writing in the current issue, he said the church should be grateful to the media for the revelations of the past 10 years. He was not seeking to minimise the pain of those who had suffered at the hands of church personnel or the liability of those responsible.

However, two false theses had abounded: that there was something inherent in Catholicism and celibacy that caused or encouraged people to abuse; and that a member of the clergy or religious order was more inclined to sexually abuse than members of other "caring professions".

"Research indicates that the majority of children abused are abused by family members, and sometimes very young members," he said. "Is the `scapegoating' of the Catholic clergy and the church - until recently a very sacred cow in Irish society - an indication that we are in denial of the truth that the great majority of abuse cases takes place within the family, the last sacred cow remaining in Ireland?"

The fact the perpetrators of abuse were being released into society without treatment or post-prison care was a powerful indication that society itself was still in denial, he said.

Father Carroll, a curate based in Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, said to locate responsibility for abuse at the wrong door was as unfair as it was unhelpful. The propensity for abuse found its origins in the disordered state of the human person and not in his or her religious identity or affiliation.