Scandal of Ealing Abbey & Press Portrayal of “The Church’s Criminality”
Guardian, 24 October, 2019…
A “sadistic and predatory” atmosphere and a culture of cover-up and denial in a Catholic school allowed sexual abusers to commit crimes against children for decades, an independent inquiry has found.
Senior figures at Ealing Abbey and St Benedict’s school in west London, part of the English Benedictine Congregation, were perpetrators of abuse over a 30-year period. Staff members failed to raise concerns because of a “mafia-like” atmosphere and the fear of losing their jobs.
Since 2003, four members of staff, including a former abbot, have been convicted of multiple offences relating to the sexual abuse of more than 20 children. The independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA) said: “The total scale of abuse can never be known, but it is likely to be much greater.”
…The inquiry heard evidence over five days in February. It sought a witness statement and documentation from the pope’s representative in the UK, the apostolic nuncio, which the Holy See refused to provide.
…“The Catholic church needs to be held accountable for its criminality…” Click here to read the entire, horrifying, newspaper report
Comment:
There is nobody on this blog who, on reading the above report, will even remotely seek to justify such disgraceful abuse. The behaviour of all involved is summed up simply as “evil”.
However, such shocking reports of this evil behaviour, which is the very opposite of everything Christ taught, should not, for a second, shake our faith in the four marks of Christ’s Church, which is that it is the one, holy, catholic and apostolic. The holiness of the Church comes primarily from Christ, not from the members, although when we speak of the Church as “holy” we are thinking, too, of the entire Church, from the beginning – the Church in Heaven (the Church Triumphant); the Church in Purgatory (The Church Suffering) and the Church on earth (The Church Militiant).
Those who look at such evil behaviour perpetrated by some members of the Church on earth at any given point in history and see it as evidence that the Church is not holy, are revealing ignorance of the composition of the Church, which is not confined to the visible body of the Church on earth.
This is not to minimise, in any way, the gravity of what is happening in the Church today, least of all the complicity of the Vatican in evil. We have just been discussing, on other threads, the Pope’s own complicity in the utter scandal of promoting the worship of pagan idols within the Vatican itself and various churches around Rome. The breaking of the First Commandment is about as serious as it gets for a Pope. And Our Lord has warned us that it is not only pagan idols which are to be tossed into rivers: “…he that shall scandalise one of these little ones that believe in Me, it were better for him that a millstone be hanged about his neck and that he should be drowned int he depth of the sea.” (Matthew 18:6)
“…he that shall scandalise one of these little ones that believe in Me,
it were better for him that a millstone be hanged about his neck and that he should be drowned int he depth of the sea.” (Matthew 18:6)
The questions for discussion here must, therefore, surely include
1) why on earth would the Vatican refuse to co-operate with the authorities investigating the Ealing scandal?
2) how many Catholics actually understand the composition of the Church themselves?
3) does it all come back to the failure of Catholic education across the board – schools at every level, seminaries, etc?
4) what sort of episcopal oversight is there of religious Orders within each diocese?
5) How confident can we be that absolutely everything is being done to rid the Church of this evil – abuser priests?
6) Or is this evil irrevocably linked to the loss of the supernatural within the Church since the so-called “reforms” (the rvolution) of Vatican II?
Comments (18)
I should highlight, at the start of this discussion, that I was alerted to this enquiry by our pro-life blogger, Wendy, who is not a Catholic but has, I’ve observed over the years, a much more Catholic spirit and mindset that many, of not most cradle Catholics these days, most of whom have allowed themselves to become immersed in the modernist – anti-Catholic – mindset.
Wendy is rightly shocked at this report about the Ealing Benedictines and school, so we can imagine the detrimental effect it is having on other non-Catholics who are very far from having a Catholic spirit and mindset. Reparation and prayer is called for at this time – we need to all remember that, as we explore the key issues.
There seems to be a problem with the link so I had to copy it out for you
I am shocked solid about these dreadful revelations how can anyone find a child sexually inviting /
So many lives totally scarred and ruined for life …i am wondering if Jolley has been defrocked ?I ma hoping to comment more fully on Ealing and I thank courageous Patricia for creating this blog …..and how sad it is for all the GOOD Holy Priests to hear of this let alone The Laity
Wendy,
I have deleted the failed links and the one where you copied out the entire article because that is just too much for readers to take in, unless paragraphed and right now I just don’t have the time.
I am now posting the link to this story, because obviously it is about an abusive priest, but this thread is not intended to be a general “let’s find as many reports as we can about abusive priests” – there’s not enough space out there! This is meant to deal with the questions I’ve put in the introduction, to see what we can do about that part of this horrendous crisis in the Church – which has its roots in the diabolical attacks on Christ’s Church right now, not on any Church rules, e.g. about celibacy. The wrong people are getting into the priesthood, that’s for sure, and there are other issues – it’s those issues we need to address not just “shock horror, look at this story!” I’m not accusing you of that, Wendy, but others may follow your zealous lead and that’s where we’d end up!
Anyway, here’s the link you tried to post – I think it’s working now. My magic touch 😀
https://metro.co.uk/2019/10/27/catholic-priest-caught-trying-to-meet-paedophile-to-abuse-his-son-2-10990718/
That is one utterly horrendous report as well, on top of the Ealing report, but, as I say, don’t get diverted from the key purpose of this thread which is always to highlight the crisis in the Church in its various aspects, and discuss resolutions.
To respond to Editor’s 6 questions:
1. Why? Because the Vatican is controlled by homosexuals and Satanists, for whom homosexuality is a “way of life” (see sign for St. Benedict School above), and who protect each other under threat of blackmail.
2. The odds are that the percentage of Novus Ordo Catholics who understand the composition of the Church is rather small. However, given the heady bubbling stew of said understanding amongst traditionalists of my acquaintance, I’m not sure that percentage is much higher in that group. However, I think a clarification of the word “composition” would be in order.
3. The failure of Catholic education across the board is a planned failure, since the hierarchy committed itself to participating in the failure of the Church at large at Vatican II. “Failure” in this case would mean making the Catholic Faith acceptable to the world – and to Freemasons in particular – thus uncrowning Our Lord and replacing him with….well, the replacements seem to get more and more perverse and depraved as time marches on. Put on some feathers and face paint and publicly worship false idols, and you’ll be the featured speaker at the next Vatican Synod.
4. “Episcopal oversight?” he laughed.You mean like the episcopal oversight of Fr. James Martin, SJ?
5. We can’t be confident of that at all – in fact, I think that until the Consecration is done, we can be confident of the opposite, that the hierarchy will continue playing the shell game with their inconvenient homosexual fellow- abusers.
6. Yes!
RCA Victor,
Spot on!
I’m particularly interested in your remark about the composition of the Church and how many “traditionalists” (so-called) understand it; regarding “clarifying” – I think I did speak about the composition, the way the Church is made up (Triumphant/Suffering/Militant) in the introduction. That’s all I mean by “composition” so when people slam “the Church” for being evil or guilty of criminality, they are thinking of the Church only as that part which is composed of (sinful) human beings on earth. Nothing more, and certainly not anything supernatural, such as the Church being the Bride of Christ. As the new saint, John Henry Cardinal Newman once said, although I paraphrase because I should be elsewhere, it is impossible to separate Christ from His Church – the Church and Christ are one. That’s all I mean by “composition”. The Church is Christ plus those in Heaven, Purgatory and on earth.
So, why was I particularly interested in your remark about so-called traditionalists not understanding that? Well, I need to clarify (!) first, that I meet precious few who understand the term “militant” let alone applying it to their Confirmation duty to be Soldiers of Christ. I’ve just had an email reporting (with approval) a conference given in London by a traditional priest – here’s the relevant extract where the writer had just said that the same themes recurred… He continues:
One [theme] was the futility of condemnation: Example “Bad Pope, bad Pope, bad Pope – Grrrrr!” This achieves nothing for us or for the Pope… what we should be doing is uttering the ejaculation: “Jesus and Mary, I love you, save the soul of this errant Pope.” End of Extract…
This idea, that it’s one or the other – condemnation (of error in defence of the Faith) or prayer [for the Pope or other offenders] seems impossible to correct. It keeps on raising it’s erroneous head, over and over. This priest, it seems, would leave the majority of the faithful ignorant and bewildered, led astray by this bad pope – what about the spiritual works of mercy? Is he saying that Archbishop Vigano should have kept quiet and simply prayed for Pope Francis?
We at Catholic Truth promote the Church’s teaching of speaking out, as Confirmed Soldiers of Christ in defence of our Faith when it is under attack, AND praying both in public and private for the Pope and others who are on the wrong path.
When I replied to the lovely gentleman who has sent me the report, I received a quick response to the effect that he was praying for my salvation. Well, that’s good news, but it helps to underline that even those from whom we would least expect such an error, have fallen into it. There’s still far too much of the “Father says it, so it must be true” mentality around.
Editor,
It’s interesting that while the priest you cite talks about the futility of condemnation, he then quotes a prayer which refers to “this errant Pope”! Which is not condemnation, but is certainly a variant of “bad Pope!”
Perhaps his parishioners are going further than hanging an accurate label on Francis, though. From what I have seen across the spectrum of “traditionalists,” “errant” is not the most commonly used adjective to describe Francis. The most common adjectives are heretic, apostate, anti-Pope, invalid Pope. Occasionally, anti-Christ!
At any rate, correcting and resisting the errors of an “errant Pope” is certainly not “condemnation,” which is not our place. As you say, it is our duty as members of the Church Militant.
RCA Victor,
I agree with your answers to the six questions, although I have reservations about #3. Do you really think the hierarchy deliberately set about ruining Catholic education and the Church itself, at Vatican II? I tend to think they were naïve, trusting the “experts” – I think they were called peritus/periti? – not realising that they were being used. I think Michael Davies RIP was saying as much in his writings about the way the bishops went away thinking they had agreed the schema at the Council and then the experts got to work writing in ambiguities.
I’m with you on all the rest, though, just not sure about #3.
Margaret Mary,
No, I don’t think the majority of them were intent on deliberately ruining the Church, though I do think the embedded enemies of the Church (Freemasons and Communists in the hierarchy and perhaps among the peritii) were certainly intent on that.
I would agree with your answer – the majority naively trusted the experts, and gave the vague language time bombs a pass, because it all sounded acceptable and they were all anxious to get home. Also because the “diabolical disorientation” had already begun, as of June 29, 1964 I believe, the date Malachi Martin tells us, in Windswept House, when the satanic enthronement ceremony took place in Charleston, South Carolina and by phone with a group of satanist clergy somewhere in the Vatican.
Too bad they didn’t pay more attention to Abp. Lefebvre and his group of 400 bishops….
RCA Victor,
You’ve touched on something that I often wonder about but can’t get any answer to – how many of the subversives that were recruited into the priesthood by the Communist Bella Dodd, are now in major positions within the Church or any position, really, doing their evil work. Does anyone know? Can any be identified? I found this link to information about her https://www.savethemales.ca/160303.html
I meant to say, she was an active Communist in the 1930’s and 40’s so I’m thinking some elderly clergy may have been her recruits. About a dozen names spring to mind, LOL!
Michaela,
There is a Bella Dodd archive in St. Louis which I would love to visit. It is said that Bishop Sheen told her (when she returned to the Church) not to reveal the names of the Communist Cardinals she was in contact with while in the Party. But I would be very curious….VERY curious….to see if these subversives were named anywhere in her archive files!
I think there were 4 or 5 at the Council who were the ringleaders of the “progressives”: Suenens especially, Lienart (who I think was the one who grabbed the microphone and illegally rejected the Commission member lists), Frings, Alfrink, maybe Konig, I’m not sure.
Correction on that date: it was June 29, 1963, not 1964.
As a former parishioner of Ealing Abbey during the time that the abuse was occurring, I was shocked beyond words when all this came to light some years ago. I even attended the ordination of one monk who ended up in prison.
Certainly at the time I think the monks were highly regarded and some of them were surely excellent religious and I feel sorry for those who hopefully were unaware of what was going on.
At the moment I am reading Archbishop Schneider’s book Christus Vincit. It is excellent and in it he recognises the importance of solid Catholic blogs and calls on the laity to respond to their duty, through Confirmation, of being soldiers of Christ.
As far as liturgy is concerned, well he supports the Mass of all ages, abhors communion in the hand and standing to receive etc. He would be at home on our blog. It is a courageous, hard hitting book. I am lending it to my parish priest at the end of the week and while I have resisted underlining passages that I think he should take note of (!) I am thinking of putting in a few questions for him to think about!
I would agree that much of the problem with abusive clergy must be down to poor selection of seminarians. Who chooses them? A homosexual bishop or rector? There you have it. They look after their own.
Archbishop Schneider says that the hour of the laity has arrived. Modernism is the main problem of course as well as a loss of the sense of the sacred and above all, a falling off of belief in and respect for Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.
We need more bishops and cardinals like him!
Ps I am praying for Therese who I remember meeting in Glasgow at a CT conference a while back
Elizabeth,
I remembered seeing Bishop Athanasius Schneider speak on EWTN about Communion in the hand so I went to look for it. I’m not sure if this is the same video, but it’s still very interesting and I thought it would interest you (and maybe your parish priest!)
Elizabeth,
What shocked me was the way some of the staff said they felt they couldn’t speak out for fear of losijng their jobs! I couldn’t believe my eyes. Knowing that children were being sexually abused and worrying about your job? It really is unbelievable.
I’m interested in the business of “the Church’s criminality” because IMHO, Catholics are as guilty as the press of thinking like this.
I don’t know what the answer is, because there are just so many scandals that it’s getting more and more difficult to explain. When I tried to say to a friend recently that it’s not “the Church” but individual members who are the problem, he just said that was a ridiculous defence, like saying the CEO of Marks & Spencer was not responsible for the wrong doing of his staff, when he obviously has to be accountable for them on his watch.
It really isn’t easy to argue that one!
MM,
The answer to that is that, of course the CEO of M & S IS responsible for his / her staff, just as the Pope is responsible for the misbehaviour of his clergy – which is why Canon Law stipulates penalties for bad clergy, whether dissenters or sexual deviants. And it is perfectly correct to criticise popes and bishops who fail to apply Canon Law. We’ve been doing so for years.
However, that’s different from – in the case of M & S – blaming “the shops”. The shops are inanimate objects and cannot be held responsible for the bad behaviour of the staff or the negligence of the CEO.
Not the best analogy in the world – well, maybe it IS the best analogy in the world 😀 But when dealing with the Church and the supernatural, we are working on a very different level; we need to think “like God”, so to speak. The “experts” – great saints and Doctors of the Church down the centuries – have taught us what is revealed to us in Sacred Scripture and from Tradition, i.e. what has always been believed by Christians from the beginning, about the relationship between Christ and His Church. And what we have been taught is that Christ and His Church are one.
Just as Our Lord could not be blamed for the first bad behaviours (Peter striking the soldier, cutting off his ear) and the first defection among the apostles (Judas) because they were exercising, if mis-using, their God-given free will, so Christ/His Church cannot be blamed now for the abuse of their free will by dissenters and sexual deviants in our time. He promised to be with His Church until the end of time, notwithstanding that the human element within the Church would often fail to show His truth and grace to the world, but would instead give such bad example as to be an obstacle to conversions. . What a judgement they will face.
Those who are thinking on a merely human level will naturally think of “the Church” as a human institution, and, failing to understand that the Church is – in essence – of divine constitution, will accuse her of “criminality” and goodness only knows what else. We can only continue to try to educate them and – of course – to pray for them.
That school and abbey should have been closed down. What a disgrace. I keep wondering just how many people are being lost to the Church because of these pervert priests. I’m sure the answer is “countless”.
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