Scottish Catholic Observer

IAN DUNN

A senior priest has told the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry that the reforms of the Second Vatican Council ­contributed to rare but ‘horrible ­mistakes’ that the Church made in dealing with clergy accused of ­abusing children.

Mgr Peter Smith, a priest of Glasgow Archdiocese and former Vatican attache at the United Nations, told the inquiry last week that during the 1970s the Church accepted the standards of the day that ‘it was better to repair the person, to fix them or to redeem them, and that was a huge mistake.’

“The circumstances of the Second ­Vatican Council made a significant ­difference to the whole way that the Church proceeded,” he said. “Prior to that we proceeded fairly legalistically and fairly authoritarian, whereas the Second Vatican Council asked us to proceed ­pastorally and caring for people. And that pastoral care was exercised very strongly towards the priests who had been accused and I think perhaps less strongly towards those who had been on the receiving end of such a vicious thing to do.”

He later added that though the reforms ‘breathed fresh air through the system, people didn’t pay attention to some of the things that might have been more important,’ and that when the authorities did become involved in abuse cases, sometimes there had been an agreement to send the priest for therapy rather than press charges.

“The Fiscal on occasion did feel that it was appropriate to treat the person rather than necessarily take him to court and ­punish him,” he said.

Mgr Smith said that the nature of the problem was not well understood by the Church, due to the rarity of cases and the fact that ‘if an offence happened in one diocese, no other diocese would even know about it.’

“Indeed the thing was so embarrassing and so horrible and so beyond our thought of what the Church should be that no bishop would ever mention it to another bishop,” he said. “Even at the time we were ashamed that these things were ­happening.”

The inquiry is looking into the abuse of children in care dating back decades and is expected to report in October 2019. The Scottish church was responsible for less than 0.5 per cent of children in care during that time, though that figure does not include schools run by religious orders

More than 60 institutions including leading boarding schools and residential homes run by religious groups are being investigated by the inquiry.

Mgr Smith said the Church had how put in place robust safeguarding measures which ensured all allegations where reported to the police.

Br Brendan Geary, a Marist Brother who has worked in this area, said Mgr Smith’s comments had to be understood in terms of the Second Vatican Council inspiring greater openness to the social sciences.

“Prior to that there had been a suspicion of things like psychology,” he said. “And that change was very positive in terms of things like alcohol abuse, which was seen as a moral lapse before. But because abuse of children was still poorly understood, things like the ‘12 steps’ which worked for priests with alcohol problems were not suitable for dealing with sexual abuse.

“I know people who did masters degrees in education and child sexual abuse never mentioned—it just wasn’t on the radar. And the Church was perhaps particularly not will equipped to deal with it, which is a source of great regret.”

[email protected]