Dear Friends,
Whilst the news agenda is dominated by stories emanating from political party conferences, today a story broke that shames us all. Over the last seventy years more than 200,000 children were sexually abused by upwards of 3,000 serving clergy in France. Quite possibly the most horrific account of systematic paedophilia yet to be detailed. The very scale of the abuse beggar’s belief. Worse still, the high-minded arrogance of the church authorities sought to cover the whole thing up, preferring to deal with it ‘in-house’ even to the extent of buying victims’ silence with an offer of all too inadequate compensation. Of course, such behaviour, sadly, is not confined to the Church but when it is the Church that is ‘outed’ in this way, it is no wonder that many of the general public are turned off Church altogether. And again, while it is only a minority of clergy who indulge in such distasteful behaviour, that in itself is no comfort to the victims. Hence I am ‘relieved’ that within our own denominations, Baptist & URC, – and lest anyone think this a problem confined to a particular denomination, I know of clergy from both the Baptist and the United Reformed traditions who are presently serving prison sentences for such behaviour – that great emphasis has been placed on safeguarding, with the employing of specialist advisers to provide expert training for those within individual congregations like ours to ensure that children and vulnerable adults are able to be ‘safe’ when on Church premises and/or taking part in Church activities. I doubt that we will ever be able to eliminate this ‘curse’ completely but we can and we must do all that we can to minimize it…It may be that the problem stems from the process of recruitment into the priesthood or the ministry. Especially during times of a shortage of candidates. It is very tempting to be ‘less than rigorous’ in the selection process…It may be due to the inadequacy of the process of ministerial formation with insufficient attention being paid to a person’s personal, psychological profile…It may be due to the demands made upon newly ordained clergy…It may be down to a warped theological understanding of what it means to be a clergyman…It may be that the Church as an institution has, almost subliminally, invested its clergymen with a sense of entitlement, of power, of control that will inevitably demand an outlet…It may be that the Church has suppressed the natural sexual urges of clergymen to such an extent that in those most at risk of behaving in excess, they are bound to give in to the temptation that presents itself in the day to day life of the Church…It may be that clergymen are too isolated, in every way….None of this will cut much ice with those who are the victims. But it should alert the Church authorities to what has happened, to what is happening…It is true that the majority of cases identified in France predate 1970, and that the level of ‘offending’ continues to decline. Nevertheless, that is no room for complacency. It is still happening. Many continue to suffer in silence. They deserve to be heard…If you pray, tonight, please say a prayer for the victims…’Lord, have mercy’…