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Bob Lloyd
Skeptic Friend
Spain
59 Posts |
 Posted - 10/03/2010 : 06:57:12
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Imagine, a CEO of one of the biggest corporations on the planet is involved in a cover-up of the abuse of children throughout the organisation. It is known that officers of the corporation are committing hideous crimes against children but there is an internal rule, rigorously enforced, that any complaints have to be dealt with internally without involving the police.
The way it works is that the person raising the complaint has to swear to secrecy on pain of permanent social isolation and the investigation will be based on the statements of those who know the accused well. They will give good character references and then the verdict and sentence will be announced. There won't be any requirement for the accused to testify not any evidence gathered, no forensic examinations, no cross-examinations, or anything like that.
Then when the verdict is reached, the accused will be rehabilitated. They might need to miss a few of the staff meetings, repeat the company policy multiple times, and may even need to go on a retreat to get back on message. But they won't be punished. They'll be transferred to another office or even get an overseas posting. They might even get promoted.
I think anyone would be horrified that anything like that could happen in a corporation and they would understandably hold the CEO accountable. In fact, most people would be demanding a public enquiry, criminal charges, and a root and branch investigation into the crimes.
And yet the catholic church has so far escaped the reach of criminal law. Geoffery Robertson QC has written a short book called The Case of the Pope in which he examines the church response to the child abuse cases, its systematic cover-up, its evasion of justice, its protection of the paedophile priests in its midst, and the various claims of immunity for the catholic hierarchy responsible for hiding these cases for so long.
He exposes the wording of Canon Law which insists on secrecy even for the victims of abuse for a period twenty years on pain of excommunication. Small children, abused and then threatened with excommunication if they breathe a word about it... and that's from the church supposedly investigating the abuse.
We only know what Canon Law says because it was leaked to US lawyers in 2003, otherwise it would still be secret, and in Latin. It was codified in 1917, communicated only to bishops, first in 1922, then revised in 1962, and when it was issued to them, they too were threatened with instant excommunication if they told anyone of the procedure for handling child abuse allegations. The threat was reinforced by Ratzinger in 2001 where he described it as a "pontifical secret". No Mr Ratzinger, child abuse is a crime and it's also a crime to keep it secret.
Despite claims by the church that it has reformed, there remains no requirement on bishops to hand over paedophile priests to the police, nor even to advise child support agencies of the abuse. There is still no case of a bishop handing over an abuser to the police in the absence of an already existing warrant. They just don't do it. They hide the crime.
Robertson explores how the Vatican evades its legal responsibility through its claim to be a state. Based on a murky deal between the Italian state and the church under Mussolini, called the Lateran Treaty (which incidentally wasn't any kind of treaty at all), the church claims statehood for the Vatican. On that basis it claims that it is above state and international law. That's a very naughty claim that basically says no-one can touch them.
The Vatican is a private palace, surrounded by museums and gardens with an owner, not a ruler. The Holy See by definition does not have a population. The Vatican is policed by the Italians, the guards are Swiss, there are no passports, there is no territory, all of the services (except the religious ones) are provided by Italian companies: power, water, telecoms, post, etc. Even the diplomats and the embassy have no power at all. The Vatican is not a state in international law.
But governments have paid lip service to the claim and even allowed the Vatican to sit on UN committee, spreading its reactionary clerical doctrine. Robertson rightly asks us to consider what would happen if Ahmedinajad negotiated a Lateran-style treaty with the leading clerics and demanded that the Holy City of Qom be recognised as a state by the UN? It could claim six seats on committees just like the Vatican. Of course, it's absurd but it has happened in the case of the catholic church.
But this has produced a dilemma for the church. If it is a state, then it is accountable for compliance with all the treaties it has been so presumptuous in signing, like the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It is in clear breach and should be held accountable. If it is not a state, then just like any other NGO, it is accountable to the state jurisdictions in which it operates, and crucially, the Pope is liable too.
Basically it is illegal to operate an international organisation in which child abuse is endemic and hidden, in which the perpetrators are protected and the victims are threatened if they report the crimes to the police. Their secret internal justice system would make Tony Soprano proud.
Whichever way the Vatican jumps it ought to be caught, but the preponderance of religious political leaders means that this is unlikely to happen.
We can only hope that more and more catholics are so disgusted at the patent lack of morality that they look for a secular basis for moral values. At least they will find an ethics open to discussion and challenge, to alternative views and the exploration of important issues. They won't find that in an archaic and fossilised institution devoted to the defense of clerical power.
Geoffrey Robertson's book is highly recommended especially for catholics starting to wonder about the important issues in life.
http://www.amazon.com/Case-Pope-Vatican-Accountability-Rights/dp/0241953847
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 10/03/2010 : 16:58:54 [Permalink]
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The Catholic Church has a lot to answer for, currently and historically. But, as you've noted, it is unlikely that they'll ever pay that piper.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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The Case of the Pope - Geoffrey Robertson QC
