Sexual abuse and the Catholic Church

Here's a link to a rather long piece I worked on last week concerning where the Catholic Church in Canada is concerning its handling of clergy sexual abuse. Here's an excerpt:

Investigative journalist Michael Harris has seen a "tremendous policy change" in the Catholic Church since he broke the story of sexual and physical abuse at the Mount Cashel orphanage in the late 1980s.

"There has been a true response to the real problem instead of musical parishes, private deals and chequebook dispensations," said the author of Unholy Orders: Tragedy at Mount Cashel. "I have a good feeling that the next generation of Catholic priests will not be in this position."

Despite the improvements, the child pornography charges Bishop Raymond Lahey and revelations of a sexual abuse settlement concerning the late Father Des McGrath, "keep reversing the sense of progress," said Harris.

He said the revelations about McGrath were "almost worse than that of the Christian Brothers," because he was "such a beloved figure" in Newfoundland.

The priest was found dead in his garage last summer, a day after he was to appear in court to answer sexual abuse charges. In December, it was revealed the St. George's Diocese had paid a more than $200,000 settlement to a victim, though McGrath had denied guilt. McGrath had been a founder of the Fish Food and Allied Workers Union.

Harris described Lahey, too, as "a hero to the Church, who seemed to understand you shouldn't put kids through endless legal hurdles." Lahey had announced a $13-million abuse settlement in his Antigonish Diocese only weeks before he was arrested and charged with possession and importation of child pornography last September.

His case is wending its way through the courts in Ottawa, where he was arrested.

Sister Nuala Kenny said the "hurt goes on" because the Church has never successfully addressed the systemic issues she and others identified in the 1990 Winter Commission Report.