Not much of a surprise, but the Vatican's latest statement on child abuse in Ireland falls so far short of the mark, you just have to gaze in wonder at it. Blaming "weakening of the faith" as a "significant contributory factor" in the abuse, and calling for "deeper theological reflection on the whole issue", the two stated purposes of the meeting and press release were to get people to believe in Jesus more, and to restore the church's credibility.
There are several ways to approach the document. An astounded "WTF" is certainly in order, but doesn't even come close to expressing many peoples' opinion. A rank condemnation of the ignorance and ineffectuality of the statement would also be in order. But these are both knee-jerk reactions and neither helps to understand what's really going on here.
The fundamental problem with the document is that it appears to reinforce everything which is wrong with the Catholic Church's reaction to the child abuse scandal, namely a violent misunderstanding of the problem as it affects the victims of the abuse, and a desperate attempt to assert that the Church still has any sort of moral authority.
Whatever about the politics of self-preservation - a position which all bureaucracies will take by their very nature - this abnegation of blame by the Vatican is quite complete and is there for a a very specific reason for it: litigation.
The legal problem that the Catholic Church faces is potentially catastrophic. In Ireland, the government bent over itself to bail the church out by limiting the claims against the church to €127m (IR£100m), most of which was based on property valuations of several years ago - properties which are substantially less valuable today. But more interestingly, the religious orders who were the subject of these claims have reacted by divesting their interests to neutral trusts. This will ensure that no further claims against them have much likelihood of succeeding.
To date, most of the other claims of abuse by members of the Catholic Church have been in the US, where the organisation has received a right whipping. Several dioceses have gone into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection proceedings - again after admitting the same old catchphrases about just a few bad apples (a phrase I find to be particularly contemptible). Cardinal Law of Boston has been permanently recalled to the Vatican: some suggest that this an attempt to ensure that he escapes criminal prosecution; others claim that he was guaranteed immunity by the US authorities. Who knows?
But there is an elephant in the room, and that is the fate of other countries with strong local Catholic Church influence. I'm willing to put money that Ireland and the US are just the start, and that there was similar rampant sexual abuse carried out by members of religious orders in other countries. Rumours are already bubbling in Germany; and given the turbulant socio-political history of other countries both within Europe and beyond, it seems inconceivable that religious orders in Spain, Italy and South/Central America behaved much better than they did in Ireland and the US.
No, this is just the beginning. The Catholic Church realises it and this statement is a continuation of their policy of damage-limitation; sooner or later the sexual abuse scandals will threaten the continued existence of the Church due to civil litigation at a local level, and any statement from the Vatican which expresses anything other than luke-warm regret will be pounced upon by abuse victims and used as evidence in courts of law around the world.
Meanwhile, those worst affected by the scandal - the abuse survivors themselves - can forget about getting an apology from the Vatican. It will never happen.
