Moving forward by advocating for victims

The world of Catholicism was turned on its head when Cardinal George Pell was convicted of sexual abuse against minors this past week and was refused bail.

This is just the latest account in the string of abuse charges against Catholic Church officials. Pell’s case is particularly jarring being that he is the highest ranked figure within the Church to be charged for sex abuse crimes towards minors.

Although the topic of abuse is deeply saddening, I think that it is incredibly important to see these men brought to justice and their victims speak out about the heinous crimes committed against them.

And Catholicism has taken a huge blow from these scandals.

As a devout Catholic, I do not believe every priest is a pedophile, however this stereotype does force me to look at the bigger issue at hand; this abuse has gone on for too long.

Although the issue is deeply rooted, we can work to combat the problem. A few ways to do so can be through supporting the victims so they can share their stories, as well as better vetting of our priests to prevent abuse like this from happening again.

The fact that it has taken this long for Church officials to be held accountable for their actions is despicable.

According to The Washington Post and BBC, Pell could face a sentence of 50 years if found guilty on “one charge of sexually penetrating a child under 16, and four counts of committing an indecent act on a child under 16.”

Church officials’ trend of hesitation can even be seen when looking at other accusations similar to Pell’s. This is by no means the first wave of modern accusations against Church officials.

Reports of molestation perpetrated by priests can be documented all the way back to the 1950s. These documentations account for church officials across multiple countries, including Argentina, Austria, the U.S. and Australia.

Even more staggering than this history of abuse is the time it took for victims to speak out.

Pell committed these abusive acts in the 90s and is now being prosecuted for the charges of abusing two children under 16.

There is a common trend within stories about sexual abuse enacted by Catholic priests. It takes a long time for these victims to speak out against the church regarding what happened to them.

It was recently revealed that the Church frequently attempts to keep their victims quiet about abuse. Until recently with Pope Francis hosting a summit on how to tackle sex abuse within the Church and how to prevent it, there has seemingly been an unofficial “code of silence,” a kind of censorship surrounding discussion of sexual abuse within the Church.

According to Cardinal Reinhard Marx, a German Roman Catholic Cardinal, documentation of church officials abusing children was either “destroyed, or not even created.”

He has also said that the victims often were told to be quiet about what had happened to them, and that their fates were completely in the hands of their abusers.

While it is absolutely despicable for the Church to operate under this self-censorship, it is not shocking to me. It is understandable that the Church would act in secrecy in order to maintain a pristine and holy reputation.

However, that does not mean that Pell should be relieved of accountability for his actions. This goes for any other Church official found to have committed these disgusting acts against children.

This abuse needs to end and be brought to light.

Pope Francis hosting a summit is a hopeful sign towards progress. It is time to reform, and Pope Francis is breaking this unofficial “code of silence,” seemingly for the first time.   

Although the damage is done for many of the survivors that have been mistreated and abused by Church officials, hopefully one day the entire Catholic community can  become advocates for victims of sexual abuse.

The Summit Pope Francis held to help look for and prevent sexual abuse is the first step. We now have to incorporate our own programs that focus on advocacy for survivors of sexual abuse into local parishes.

If every church and everyone in the Catholic community could embrace advocacy, then we can work together toward ending this continued abuse.