SEX ABUSE BY ROMAN CATHOLIC CLERGY
Viewer response to the BBC program
"Sex crimes and the Vatican"

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The program "Sex crimes and the Vatican" was broadcast by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
on 2006-OCT-01. 1 They have
placed the complete transcript of the program online. 2
Some of the viewers' responses
were fascinating. We have converted English spelling to American because over
90% of our visitors are from the U.S. The licenses referred to are fees paid by
owners of TV sets in the UK:
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Chris Sands, Harwich, Essex
"This is really sloppy journalism. This document has been in the public
domain since 2001. It was secret, it hasn't been for 5 years. The Catholic
Church is doing a lot and doing it publicly to deal with the pedophile
priests. We all know the BBC has an anti-Catholic agenda and goes out of
it's way to denigrate the Catholic Church and Pope Benedict, but I would
have thought that License payers money could have been better spent
elsewhere." |
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David Armitage, Switzerland
Either Catholic Bishops the world over spontaneously hit on identical
policies of shuffling pedophiles around and enforcing strict silence and
cover up or they were implementing official policy. |
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Art Lathrop, Oakland, California
You got it exactly right. This scandal is not about pedophile priests, but
about the conspiracy of silence and cover-up among the hierarchy that led to
thousands of additional children being hurt. This cover-up continues to this
day. What a shame that the Church is more concerned about protecting its
precious reputation than protecting its children. |
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Andrew Mooney, Malvern
The most disturbing aspect of this program was the failure of senior
officials of The Vatican to respond to requests to be interviewed and
present their 'defense'. The document 'Crimen Sollicitationis' hasn't been
summoned out of thin air by the BBC! The testimony of survivors of abuse was
moving, as was that of high-ranking Catholic officials who resigned or left
the Church in disgust at having to implement this protocol. Once again, the
BBC and Panorama have shown themselves to be fearless in challenging rich
and powerful interest groups. Regardless of whether the rich and powerful
are individuals, state agencies or religious groupings - there is no right
to automatic deference....and the role of the BBC is to ask painful and
difficult questions. |
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Richard Price, UK
I was amazed at the one-sidedness of the program. Nothing at all was said
about the attempt of the Catholic Church for several years now to improve
its act on sex abuse. And the attempt to inculpate the present pope was
contrived in the extreme: no evidence was presented of his activity in this
area, and the 'key' document presented was both issued long before his time
and turned out to be about soliciting in the confessional, a very particular
crime that is rare even in cases of sexual abuse. The BBC used to have a
reputation for balanced reporting; how sad that it is ready to sacrifice
this in quest of sensationalism. |
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Philip Drake, Glasgow
I knew nothing about Crimen Sollicitationis before seeing your program. I
have now read the document on this site. I have rarely seen a document so
deceitfully and maliciously misinterpreted as in your program and in your
comment on this site. This is quite a clearly a document relating to
ecclesiastical court proceedings regarding priests soliciting penitents in
confession. Most of the document clearly assumes most of these penitents to
be adult. The soliciting is interpreted so widely as to include incidents
that might not even be criminal in secular legal terms. The document does in
fact mention minors (and also, surprisingly, animals) but this is certainly
not a document designed to cover up child sex abuse as you have charged.
Shame on you for such deception and for the abandonment of responsible
journalism. I should state that I abhor any sinful / criminal molestation of
children and consider that such cases should immediately be reported to the
police. It is a scandal that such incidents have been handled so badly by
church authorities in many countries over so many years. I am also aware
that secular authorities up to government level have in the past handled
such incidents in a similarly secret and scandalous manner. The gravest
penalties should be incurred by either church or secular authorities for
such abuse of authority. But this does not mean that you as a public
broadcasting agency should resort to such irresponsible, incompetent and
malicious reporting. |
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Bernard Greaves, Carlisle
I am disgusted by the unprofessional, one-sided presentation in the Panorama
program Sex Crimes and the Vatican. Every one of the contributors took the
same anti-Vatican stance. Not a single voice was allowed to be heard to put
a different standpoint. I am sure that the documents quoted deserve more
careful scrutiny than the presentation gave them. The few severely edited
quotations give entirely the wrong impression of these very serious
documents. Once again the BBC makes clear its virulent anti-Catholic stance.
|
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Frank Cloney, Ferndown, England
I congratulate you on a true and forthright Panorama program last evening.
The only item left unsaid was to give the numbers of the unfortunate abused
who have since committed suicide. Until the Catholic Church faces this
Cancer full head on and deals with it in a forthright way all Catholic
Clergy will be tainted. Please carry on the good work and stand steadfast
against those who wish to brush these atrocities under the carpet of
secrecy. |
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K.T. Iggulden, Manchester, Lancashire
Whatever happened to the famous evenhandedness of the BBC? Colm O'Gorman is
entitled to his anger /grievance in view of his horrible experience as a
14yr-old but did nobody at the BBC spot how unbalanced this program was? If
the bulk of this program had been published 3-4 yrs ago, it might have been
relevant but everything has moved on since then. Have the BBC not heard of
the Nolan Report? Every diocese that I know of has strict Child Protection
programs and a named Child Protection officer in every parish. But the main
problem with this Panorama is the treatment of the Vatican document 'Crimen
S.' dealing with the sacrilege of soliciting for sex in the context of the
confessional. The church has the right to regulate the sacraments but this
is a domestic issue and the civil law is not involved unless a crime is
committed. It is quite a separate issue from child sex abuse which does
indeed concern the civil authorities. Panorama managed to confuse the two
issues - giving us glimpses of an obscure Latin document with phrases lifted
out of context for translation -all with the sole purpose it would seem of
implying that the Pope was involved in a big cover-up! Why was nobody
allowed to speak for the Vatican or the bishops ?- except for one or two
disaffected clergy who seem to be equally out of touch with developments in
Child Protection in the Catholic Church. I find this attempt to smear the
whole church very offensive - no mention is made of the priests who have
been cleared of false allegations but whose lives have been ruined. Of
course we are shocked at the crimes of people- whether priests or others -
whom Jesus said deserved to be drowned with a millstone round their necks!-
but please be fair to the rest of us! |
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Roger du Bois, Holt, Norfolk
It is no surprise that there has been a quick response from the Catholic
Church following the Panorama program. Perhaps Archbishop Nichols would also
like to respond to the allegation of Priests being moved to the Vatican to
escape prosecution for offences committed in their home countries and the
return of unopened correspondence from judges? |
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Laura Macleod, Oxford
I am not surprised that there is an outcry this morning from the Catholic
Church regarding last night's program on child abuse within the church and
the cover up. Well done to Panorama for doing this program and being brave
enough to open the box of worms within the ugly underworld of the Vatican.
How dare any priest be protected by this power who has abused children and
taken advantage of his position in society. Another reason why organized
religion is so flawed. A brave and good stand by Panorama. It needed to be
said. |
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Stephen, Kilwinning Ayrshire
The program on the Vatican and pedophile priests confused many issues. In
1962 when Crimen Solic.. was released for bishops, very few agencies
worldwide had child protection policies of any kind. The Vatican was at that
time concerned to keep issues discussed in the confessional sacred, and to
punish those priests who abused the seal of confession for their evil
purposes. In more recent years the Church's social work, especially in the
care of children, has suffered because of both the scandal of child abuse
and the ferocious spotlight of sections of the media hostile to Catholicism.
This program gave no opportunity to the Church in England to explain how it
has implemented the Nolan report and how far it now goes to prevent any form
of sex abuse by anyone employed by the Church. The result was a deeply
offensive and unbalanced program which will do very little to help the
victims of abuse. |

References used:
The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.
"Sex crimes and the Vatican" Panorama, BBC One,
2006-SEP-29, at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
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Transcript of the program is at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
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"Discuss Panorama," BBC, at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/ This is expected to be a temporary listing.

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Copyright © 2006 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Originally written: 2006-OCT-08
Latest update: 2006-OCT-08
Author: B.A. Robinson


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