daniel chigunwe
THE cases are piling up with the resignation of the leader of the Church of England, which was triggered by the way he he tried to cover-up the horrific sexual abuse of scores of local boys by a predator who masqueraded as a religious man, has cast the spotlight firmly back on this dark chapter.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, the spiritual leader of the global Anglican family, resigned last week after it emerged he covered up the violent abuse of scores of boys and young men by John Smyth.
The review into the Anglican church’s handling of Smyth’s abuses led to Welby’s resignation – the first time that the leader of the Church of England has quit.
Smyth was a Canadian-born British barrister and serial child abuser who was actively involved in the Christian Ministry for children within the Anglican Church.
Smyth was charged in connection of the death of a 12-year-old Zimbabwean boy, who was part of his camp, but he escaped to South Africa.
He was chairman of the Iwerne Trust and spent time in this country and South Africa after having fled England as his sexual abuse of children started to fall under the spotlight.
Smyth moved to Zimbabwe with his wife, Anne, in 1984 – exactly 40 years ago – after Church of England figures discovered his abuse of boys and young men at summer camps for Christians, including beating them and forcing them to strip naked.
By 1986, Smyth was running Christian holiday camps for boys in Zimbabwe.
He would beat the boys with table tennis bats and force them to shower, swim and pray naked with him, according to the independent Keith Makin review.
Smyth abused as many as 130 boys and young men in the UK, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
At the weekend it emerged that the late Father Brian Porter was involved in sexually abusing students, targeting mainly the Form One pupils, at St Ignatius College.
It has since been established, through a number of investigations around the world, that this is a global issue in which tens of thousands of boys, if not millions, were sexually abused in systematic fashion by these priests.
Some have been convicted and are serving various jail terms while many, like Smyth and Father Porter, have died.
The local victims, just like their counterparts around the world, are looking for ways in which they can heal from the scars which were inflicted on them by these abusive religious men.
They are not alone.
It’s a song that is playing out around the world.
CHURCH OF ENGLAND’S £150M COMPENSATION PACKAGE
In March this year, the Church of England allocated £150 million as a package for the compensation of survivors and victims of the kind of abuse which was inflicted by the likes of Smyth.
The Church of England revealed that it will launch a scheme meant to help compensate survivors and victims of Church-related abuse in the wake of a report from Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.
The Church of England said the scheme, which will be open until 2029, will cover all victims of sexual, physical, psychological and spiritual abuse.
It said the victims, who were abused outside the United Kingdom, will be able to apply for compensation under the Scheme.
The victims simply have to show that they were abused by someone in authority in the Church of England and parents and children of abuse victims can bring claims on behalf of those who are late.
Last month, the Vatican Child Protection Commission said in its first annual report that the Catholic Church must allow victims of sexual abuse by its clergy the right to compensation.
The 50-page report is the first-ever global assessment of the church’s efforts to address the crisis of sexual abuse within its ranks.
For decades, the Catholic Church has been shaken by scandals across the world involving paedophile priests and the cover-up of their crimes, damaging its credibility and costing it hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements.
The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, set up by Pope Francis a decade ago, said the church was coming out of a “dark period” in which “church leaders tragically failed those we are called to shepherd”.
The commission stressed “the importance of compensation for victims/survivors, as a concrete commitment to their healing journey” and pledged to work “so that standardised and known procedures are developed in a more comprehensive way”.
The Vatican Commission has faced sharp criticism from abuse survivors who said it has not implemented effective reforms to protect children.
The report cautioned that progress around the world varied dramatically. In some regions, clerical abuse was not yet a “publicised issue within their societies”, it said, while calling safeguards “inadequate” in parts of Central and South America, Africa and Asia.
ARCHDIOCESE OF LA’S US$1,5BN PAY-OUT
In October last year, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed to pay US$880 million to victims of clergy sexual abuse dating back decades, in what a lawyer said was the largest single child sex abuse settlement with a Catholic archdiocese.
After the announcement of the agreement in principle, Archbishop José H. Gomez said in a statement, “I am sorry for every one of these incidents, from the bottom of my heart.”
“My hope is that this settlement will provide some measure of healing for what these men and women have suffered,” the archbishop added. “I believe that we have come to a resolution of these claims that will provide just compensation to the survivor-victims of these past abuses.”
Lawyers for 1,353 people who allege that they suffered horrific abuse at the hands of local Catholic priests reached the settlement after months of negotiations with the archdiocese, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The agreement ended a quarter-century of litigation against the most populous archdiocese in the United States.
“While there is no amount of money that can replace what was taken from these 1,353 brave individuals who have suffered in silence for decades, there is justice in accountability,” the lawyers said in a joint statement.
The archdiocese has previously paid US$740 million to victims in various settlements and had pledged to better protect its church members, so this settlement put the total pay-out at more than US$1.5 billion, the Times said. – H-Metro/Los Angeles Times/Al Jazeera/BBC/Times
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