The Church Scandal, a Question of Numbers

Despite the gravity of the accusation the Holy See seems still to take considerably care about the general opinion that the catholic population has towards the institution Church. Despite the letters of the Pope addressed to the believers, the Vatican is still more focused on demonstrating with numbers the dimension of the scandal as excuse for the barbaric gestures of some God's ambassadors.

So far the point is not the percentage of priests involved in such crime, it is the fact that an institution with fame in children education tried first to cover and later to justify something wrong and worth the hell. Of course is question of numbers in a world were religions are in competition to gain more believers. It still surprises me the lack of worshipper fidelity card. But beyond the joke, it's still pressing in my mind the idea that the scandal is on public newspapers since years and just now a Vatican concern starts.

It's useless to catalog the thousands of abuses. It's true that just between 1.5% and 5% of the priests is guilty, but the number of victims per pedophile is much higher than in the other spheres of the society. It can not even be forgotten that in most of the cases the accused priest hasn't been removed from the office, but simply shifted to another location letting him vent his illness on other children. The scandal is worldwide the same. Sad part of the story is the global dimension: Austria, Ireland, USA, Italy, and so forth.

The effect of this strong media campaign will presumably be the same as for a lot of other scandals, a majority of people will keep believing in the institution Church, stun among all the different voices speaking at the same time just for confusion. Of course a side effect will be the juridic one because, also within the states where the intrusion of the christian in the politics is pretty strong, people will ask for official and strict answers to such cases not allowing any more the silence of the Holy See and its non cooperative behavior.

There are also other implications that at the moment are in the focus. All the campaigns started by Vatican to defend what's considered following the catholic morale are in question. The scandal is big and hard to manage even by such a complex and widespread institution. The credit gained through the years by the Vatican is discredited because of the responsibility of the highest offices in covering these facts. The main questions to answer are: how can we trust anymore moral teachings from an institution not being able to take care of the misconduct that its officials held? What will be of the anti abortion, anti wedding among people of the same sex, anti euthanasia, anti stem cells campaigns? Nothing in practice will apparently change. The hard core of the Church will keep following the guidelines of the Holy See and press the national political institutions to win these battles. On the other side a change in a minority part of the believers may happen, stop focusing on the personality toward the faith itself as spiritual discipline. Stop doing pilgrimage to acclaim personality instead of focusing on the values of the religion.

The case of father Lawrence Murphy is just the point of the iceberg and it counts an allegation for abuses to 200 children. In Ireland in November 2009 a commission to inquire into child abuse reported that: "the Dublin Archdiocese's preoccupations in dealing with cases of child sexual abuse, at least until the mid 1990s, were the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of reputation of the Church, and the preservation of its assets. All other considerations, including the welfare of children and justice for victims, were subordinated to these priorities. The Archdiocese did not implement its own canon law rules and did its best to avoid any application of the law of the State". Just to evaluate the dimension of the problem in the country there are at least 248 cases reported between 2000 and 2009, and many more are emerging. The situation does not vary from country to country in terms of number and in terms of behavior.

The scandal is big, the answer still weak and focused on defending the honor of the Holy See. A clear signal is expected and a constructive cooperation sought.