Protection of minors: Card. Marx
- traceability, transparency make Church credible
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| Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Archbishop of Munich and Freising, Germany. |
Speaking on day 3 of the meeting in the Vatican on the
Protection of Minors in the Church, German Cardinal Reinhard Marx called for
traceability and transparency in dealing with cases of sexual abuse of minors
in the Church.
By Robin Gomes
Traceability and transparency in Church administration in
dealing with and preventing the sexual abuse of minors are a “decisive factor
in the trustworthiness and credibility of the Church.” “It is not transparency
which damages the Church, but rather the acts of abuse committed, the lack of
transparency, or the ensuing cover-up,” said German Cardinal Reinhard
Marx on Saturday in his presentation to the “Meeting
on the Protection of Minors in the Church,” taking place in the
Vatican.
190 participants, including patriarchs, cardinals, bishops,
religious superiors, heads of Vatican dicasteries and presidents of bishops’
conferences, are gathered in the Vatican Feb. 21-24, to plan strategies as a
Church in responding effectively to eradicate the scourge of clerical sexual
abuse of minors in the Church.
Each of the three days has a specific theme -
responsibility, accountability and transparency.
“Transparency as a Community of Believers,” was the
theme of the presentation of Cardinal Marx, the president of the German
Bishops’ Conference, on day 3 of the meeting.
The Archbishop of Munich and Freising described transparency
as actions, decisions, processes, procedures, etc. that are understandable and
traceable. According to him “traceability and transparency are
inextricably linked.”
Administration
Card. Marx pointed out that a fully-functional Church
administration is an important building block in combatting abuse of
minors.
The visible social structures of the Church, he said, serve
the Spirit of Christ, who vivifies it, in the building up of the body. Hence,
there is the need for a fully-functional administration,
which must be oriented towards the goal of the Church, and based on the
principle of justice. Administration standardises procedures and
processes, makes things objective by creating and enforcing
rules and laws, and helps prevent arbitrariness, thus
contributing actively to justice. Administration regulates,
and sanctions infringements against the common interest, rules and laws.
Abuse of power
However, Cardinal Marx warned that this power of
administration can also be misused and abused when it forgets its function of
serving the different people living together and cooperating to achieve higher
goals. Administration can also be preoccupied with itself and use rules and
regulations only to sustain the power of persons.
The cardinal pointed out that “the sexual abuse of children
and youths is in no small measure due to the abuse of power in the area of
administration.” “In this regard, administration has not
contributed to fulfilling the mission of the Church, but on the contrary, has
obscured, discredited and made it impossible.”
“Files that could have documented the terrible
deeds and named those responsible,” he said, “were destroyed, or
not even created.” “Instead of the perpetrators, the victims were
regulated and silence imposed on them.”
The cardinal said that “stipulated procedures and processes
for the prosecution of offences were deliberately not complied
with, but instead cancelled or overridden.” “The rights of
victims were effectively trampled underfoot, and left to the
whims of individuals.”
Card. Marx said, “These are all events that sharply
contradict what the Church should stand for.” “The way in which Church
administration was structured and carried out, did not contribute to unifying
the whole human race, and bringing mankind closer to God, but on the contrary,
violated these aims.”
In cases where the Church has failed, the 65-year old
cardinal said, the thoughts of some abuse victims can be summarized as follows:
“If the Church claims to act in the name of Jesus, yet I am treated so badly by
the Church or its administration, then I would also like to have nothing
to do with this Jesus.”
Transparency and traceability
In order for administration to act in accordance
with the Church’s mission, and with the nature of the Church as a "symbol
and instrument", Card. Marx said, there needs to be transparency and
traceability of administrative procedures.
Administrative procedures become transparent, if it is
understandable and traceable who has done what, when, why and what for, and
what has been decided, rejected or assigned. Thus, people who experience
transparent administration can uncover errors and mistakes in
the administrative actions, and defend themselves against such actions.
Objections to traceability and transparency could possibly
come from violations of pontifical secrecy or from false
accusations with the purpose to ruin the reputation of innocent priests, the
priesthood or the Church.
But as Card. Marx finds, there is no reason behind the
application of pontifical secrecy to the prosecution of criminal offences
concerning the abuse of minors.
A clearly-defined public procedure establishes
a degree of credibility, which enables restoring the reputation of a
wrongly-accused person, who would otherwise be subjected
to rumours, if the investigation is not appropriate, transparent or
conclusive.
“It is not transparency which damages the Church, but rather
the acts of abuse committed, the lack of transparency, or the ensuing
cover-up,” stressed Card. Marx who also serves a Coordinator of the Council for
the Economy in the Vatican.
Immediate measures
The urgency of the abuse of minors, the cardinal said, calls
for immediate initiation of important measures.
In this regard, he recommended that the goal and the limits
of pontifical secrecy and confidentiality should be clearly defined in order
that the Church be not exposed to the suspicion of covering up.
Quality transparent procedural norms and rules for
ecclesiastical processes must be established.
Facts must be set out transparently with the public
announcement of statistics on the number of cases, and details thereof, as far
as possible.
Judicial proceedings should be published, or else lingering
doubts about the proper conduct of court proceedings will only harm the
reputation and the functioning of the Church.
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