[The Sexuality Blog] The Catholic Church in England must be held accountable for these child sex abuse cases

I can only imagine how it must feel, after being raped and sexually assaulted for years by the very persons who you were raised to see as most holy and most pure, to then have your experience rubbished by the very laws that should have protected you in the first place and punished your attacker when it didn’t protect you. This is the daily experience of the average Nigerian, and of several hundred victims of child abuse at the hands of Catholic priests in the United Kingdom.

Charities have revealed through public statements that the Catholic Church in England and British local authorities are using a legal loophole to avoid paying compensation to victims of child sex abuse.

According to lawyers representing victims, the government agency in charge of determining what cases deserve compensation from the Catholic church, Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme, has denied some children financial settlements citing that said the victims had somehow “consented” to the abuse perpetrated against them, even though they were all well below the age of consent. Children as old as 12 and 8 were given alcohol, separated from their peers and raped by altar boys, seminarians and priests. The Criminal Injuries Compensation has been arguing that these children ‘went’ willingly with the persons perpetrated the crimes, or didnt report the crimes immediately after they happened because the assault was ‘consensual’.

It boggles the mind that even children will not be believed by constituted authority and when they are believed, the severity of the crime committed against them will be downplayed by said authority because it is looking to save costs by not forcing the Catholic Church to pay restitution for the crimes committed against them. But even more worrying is the fact that the Catholic Church, with more than several hundred million adherents and mind boggling levels of power and influence continues to use this power not to fight for justice and equality and enable the rights of wome and protect the lives of children, but to protect perverts and criminals within their ranks.

This same response to scandal is rife in Nigeria, with the most recent glaring example is the scandal that surrounded Christian pastor Apostle Johnson Suleiman who was embroiled in a sex scandal with a woman from Canada, and who despite evidence to contrary insisted the woman was trying to ‘tarnish’ his good name. Our religious leaders need to be at the forefront of the battle for equality and redressing of the wrongs perpetrated against women and children.

According to the Independent, when the Archdiocese of Southwark was asked for a comment on the  matter this is what they said:

 the church does not comment on individual cases out of respect for the claimant’s privacy. He added that the Archdiocese “supports the right of anyone who has suffered harm to seek compensation.”

If only this vague statement actually brought closure to victims of the Catholic Church’s continuing incompetence and predator protection.

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