The relationship between church and society in Australia has always been ambiguous.
In the earliest years of European settlement following the establishment of Sydney in 1788, a fundamental divide existed between the free settlers and colonial officials on the one hand, who tended to be Anglican, and the large numbers of convicts, often Irish Catholics, who were predictably anti-authority and resentful.
Church and society
In time, religion came to be seen by many in the emerging nation’s post-convict period as synonymous with the establishment, in a society that prided itself on being anti-establishment. When the first universities were established in the second half of the 19th century, Theology was generally banished from the curriculum, leaving individual churches to train their own clergy. Nevertheless churches grew, with various mission agencies involved and outreach efforts pursued. The churches staked a claim to their place in society, but their broad acceptance was often tenuous. Any church scandal was likely to receive a ready hearing from many Australians.
Thus the stage was set for the recent crisis surrounding Church complicity in the sexual abuse of minors. This issue has preoccupied much of the Australian media during 2017.
Accusations of children being sexually abused by Roman Catholic clergy increased in volume during the 1980s. The media interest ensured that the matter would receive widespread attention.
In 2008 on a visit to Australia, Pope Benedict XVI issued an apology and met with victims. As activities by advocacy groups increased in intensity, the Australian Government under Prime Minister Julia Gillard responded in 2013 by establishing a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Australia’s leading Catholic figure, Archbishop George Pell, promised full cooperation with the Commission.
Information in public
Over time the Royal Commission released a considerable body of data. It established that in the period between 1950 and 2010, some 4,444 people had complained of child abuse by clergy, with 86% relating to pre-1990 incidents. The Catholic Church paid considerable sums in compensation to over 3,000 people.
Archbishop Pell did not escape criticism himself. He was accused of taking faulty decisions by transferring priests suspected of child sexual abuse out of their parishes, rather than reporting them to the police and expelling them from their Catholic orders. In 2014, Archbishop Pell was appointed to head up the Vatican’s finance ministry as a Cardinal in Rome. From there he appeared before the Royal Commission on three occasions, once in person and twice via videolink. He also met with victims of sexual abuse.
Cardinal Pell accused
Cardinal Pell’s role was put under much closer scrutiny when he himself was accused of sexual abuse of minors. In 2016 Australian detectives flew to the Vatican to interview him. In June 2017 he was formally charged with sexually abusing a number of children years previously. Details have yet to be released. He is the most senior Catholic figure to be embroiled in the Church’s sexual abuse debate that has exploded across the world in recent decades. He returned to Australia to face the charges in July 2017.
This story plays directly into Australia’s long history of a fraught relationship between the church and certain sectors of society. The charges against Cardinal Pell and the lead up to his trial (which has yet to take place) have been the subject of a media frenzy.
No fair-minded person could find fault with attempts to bring perpetrators of sexual abuse to justice. Indeed, the work of the Royal Commission has been crucial in Australia in pursuing this cause. However, the Commission itself reported that 7% of priests in the Roman Catholic Church were accused of sexual abuse, suggesting that the vast majority of Catholic clergy are innocent of such charges. Yet the media coverage of the trial of Archbishop Pell, featuring a number of programmes broadcast just weeks before his trial reporting on sexual abuse by Catholic clergy in other countries, could easily create the impression that Catholic clergy per se were prone to be sexual abusers. Nothing could be further from the truth. Such media speculation plays to a society which has a jaundiced view of the Church in particular and the Christian faith in general. Christians have a lot of work to do in Australia to claim for the church its rightful role as society’s ultimate conscience and much-needed spiritual guide.
